Charlie Rich was simultaneously one of the most critically acclaimed and most erratic country singers of post-World War II era. Rich had all the elements of being one of the great country stars of the '60s and '70s, but his popularity never matched his critical notices. What made him a critical favorite also kept him from mass success.... [+] Read More

Charlie Rich was simultaneously one of the most critically acclaimed and most erratic country singers of post-World War II era. Rich had all the elements of being one of the great country stars of the '60s and '70s, but his popularity never matched his critical notices. What made him a critical favorite also kept him from mass success. Throughout his career, Rich willfully bended genres, fusing country, jazz, blues, gospel, rockabilly, and soul. Though he had 45 country hits in a career that spanned nearly four decades, he became best-known for his lush, Billy Sherrill-produced countrypolitan records of the early '70s. Instead of embracing the stardom those records brought him, Rich shunned it, retreating into semiretirement by the '80s.

Rich began his professional musical career while he was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in the early '50s. While he was stationed in Oklahoma, he formed a group called the Velvetones, which played jazz and blues and featured his fiancée, Margaret Ann, on lead vocals. Rich left the military in 1956, and he began performing clubs around the Memphis area, playing both jazz and R&B; he also began writing his own material. Rich managed to land a job as a session musician for Judd Records, which was owned by Judd Phillips, the brother of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips. Around this time, saxophonist and Sun recording artist Bill Justis heard Rich play at the Sharecropper Club and asked the pianist to write arrangements for him. Sam saw Rich perform with Justis at a club gig and asked him to record some demos at Sun Studios. Phillips rejected the resulting demos, claiming they were too jazzy. After absorbing some Jerry Lee Lewis records Justis gave him, Rich returned to Sun quickly and became a regular session musician for the label in 1958, playing and/or singing on records by Lewis, Johnny Cash, Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Carl Mann, and Ray Smith. He was also writing songs, including "Break Up" for Lewis, "The Ways of a Woman in Love" for Cash, and "I'm Comin' Home" for Mann, which was later cut by Elvis Presley.

In August of 1958, Rich released his first single, "Whirlwind," for the Sun subsidiary Phillips International. Throughout 1959, he recorded a number of songs at Sun, though only a handful were actually released. Rich didn't have a hit until 1960, when his third Phillips International single, "Lonely Weekends," became a Top 30 pop hit. However, none of its seven follow-up singles were a success, though several of the songs would become staples in his set, including "Who Will the Next Fool Be?," "Sittin' and Thinkin'," and "Midnight Blues." In the early '60s, Rich's career remained stalled. He left Sun Records in 1964, signing with Groove, a newly established subsidiary of RCA. His first single, "Big Boss Man," was an underground, word-of-mouth hit, but its Chet Atkins-produced follow-ups all stiffed. On Groove, he jazzily interpreted standards, but he also performed a handful of originals, including "Tomorrow Night" and "I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore." Groove went out of business by the beginning of 1965, leaving Rich without a record contract.

Under the direction of Shelby Singleton, Smash Records signed Rich early in 1965. Singleton and Rich's producer, Jerry Kennedy, encouraged the pianist to emphasize his country and rock & roll leanings. The first single for Smash was "Mohair Sam," an R&B-inflected novelty number written by Dallas Frazier. "Mohair Sam" became a Top 30 pop hit, but none of its follow-ups were successful. Again, Rich changed labels, moving over to Hi Records, where he recorded straight country, but none of his singles for the label made any impression on the country charts.

Despite his lack of consistent commercial success, Epic Records signed Rich in 1967, mainly on the recommendation of producer Billy Sherrill. Sherrill helped Rich refashion himself as a Nashville-based, smooth, middle-of-the-road balladeer. At first, the singles were only moderately successful -- "Set Me Free" and "Raggedy Ann" charted in the mid-40s in 1968 -- but persistence paid off in the summer of 1972, when "I Take It on Home" rocketed to number six. "I Take It on Home" set the stage for Rich's big breakthrough into the mainstream, 1973's Behind Closed Doors album. The title track from the record became a number one hit early in 1973, crossing over into the Top 20 on the pop charts. Following the success of "Behind Closed Doors," RCA re-released "Tomorrow Night," which reached the Top 30, but it was "The Most Beautiful Girl," the proper follow-up to his first number one single, that established him as a star. "The Most Beautiful Girl" spent three weeks at the top of the country charts and two weeks at the top of the pop charts. Behind Closed Doors won three awards from the Country Music Association that year: Best Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, and Single of the Year for the title track. The album was also certified gold, Rich won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, and he also took home four ACM awards.

After "The Most Beautiful Girl," number one hits came quickly -- "There Won't Be Anymore" (re-released from his RCA sessions), "A Very Special Love Song," "I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore" (also from RCA), "I Love My Friend," and "She Called Me Baby" (RCA) all topped the country charts, and several of the songs also crossed over into the pop charts. Mercury began re-releasing his Smash recordings, and two of them -- "A Field of Yellow Daisies" and "Something Just Came Over Me" -- became minor hits. All of this success led the CMA to name him Entertainer of the Year in 1974.

Rich didn't quite dominate the charts in 1975 as he did the previous year, but he did have three Top Five hits: "My Elusive Dreams," "Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High)," and "All Over Me," plus the Top Ten "Since I Fell For You." Even though he was at the peak of his popularity, Rich had begun to drink heavily, causing considerable problems off-stage. His destructive behavior culminated at the CMA ceremony for 1975, when he presented the award for that year's Entertainer of the Year. Instead of reading the name of the winner, he set fire to the certificate that named the new winner, who happened to be John Denver. Fans and industry insiders were outraged, and Rich had trouble having hits throughout 1976 -- none of his singles cracked the Top 20.

The slump in his career couldn't be completely attributed to Rich's behavior. His records had begun to sound increasingly similar, as he and Sherrill were working over the same territory they began exploring in 1968. There were exceptions -- such as 1976's acclaimed gospel record, Silver Linings -- but it took Rich until 1977 to break back into the Top Ten with the number one "Rollin' With the Flow." Early in 1978, he signed with United Artists and throughout that year had hits on both Epic and UA. Rich worked at United Artists with Larry Butler, a producer who had a similar style to Sherrill. Epic continued to have hits, as "Beautiful Woman" reached the Top Ten in the summer and a duet with Janie Fricke, "On My Knees," became his last number one hit that fall. "I'll Wake You Up When I Get Home," taken from the Clint Eastwood movie Every Which Way but Loose, was a number three hit early in 1979; it would be his last Top Ten single.

Rich struggled to have a big hit throughout 1979, but none of his singles were anything more than a minor success. In 1980, he switched labels to Elektra, resulting in the number 12 single "A Man Just Don't Know What a Woman Goes Through" in the fall of that year. One more Top 40 hit followed -- "Are We Dreamin' the Same Dream" early in 1981 -- but Rich decided to remove himself from the spotlight. For over a decade, Rich was silent, living in semiretirement and only playing the occasional concert. He returned in 1992 with Pictures and Paintings, a jazzy record produced by journalist Peter Guralnick and released on Sire.

Pictures and Paintings received positive reviews and restored Rich's reputation, but it would be his last record. Rich died from a blood clot in his lung in the summer of 1995, when he was travelling to Florida with his wife, Margaret Ann. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Born Edward Garvin Futch, it's no wonder that his name was changed by a record executive to Eddy Raven on his very first single, released on tiny Cosmos Records in the late '60s. Numerous influences have made his music almost indescribable: the Cajun sounds of his native Louisiana, the blues influence from working with Johnny Winter, the rock &... [+] Read More

Born Edward Garvin Futch, it's no wonder that his name was changed by a record executive to Eddy Raven on his very first single, released on tiny Cosmos Records in the late '60s. Numerous influences have made his music almost indescribable: the Cajun sounds of his native Louisiana, the blues influence from working with Johnny Winter, the rock & roll of his idol, Elvis Presley, and the pure country of the Grand Ole Opry. Befriended by Jimmy C. Newman, Raven made the first of many trips to Nashville in 1970, though he didn't move permanently for a couple of years. Signed to a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose, he wrote songs for Don Gibson and Roy Acuff, among others, and started making records himself in 1974. Despite the acclaim of his peers, Raven didn't actually earn a hit record as a recording artist until 1981, with the release of his Desperate Dreams album. After he lost his recording contract in a 1983 consolidation involving Elektra and Warner, Raven took the next year to realign his business. The Oak Ridge Boys earned a hit at that time with his song "Thank God for Kids," and Raven came out of his forced vacation strong, signing with RCA and gaining his first number one single with "I Got Mexico." For the next half-dozen years, Raven remained a consistent staple of country radio: frequently adventurous, always listenable.

Raven began playing music when he was a child in Lafayette, LA, joining a garage rock band when he was 13 years old. Three years later, his family moved to Georgia, where Raven landed a job working in a radio station. He also managed to cut his own song, "Once a Fool," for the local independent label Cosmo. The record was released under the name "Eddy Raven," and Edward Futch used that moniker as his stage name from that day forward. In 1963, the family moved back to Lafayette, and Raven began working in a record shop called La Louisianne. The store's owner had a label of the same name, and Raven cut several records for the label, including his 1969 debut album, That Cajun Country Sound.

Jimmy C. Newman happened to hear That Cajun Country Sound and was impressed enough to land Raven a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose. Following the record's release, Raven began singing for Jimmie Davis' band. By 1971, other artists had begun recording Raven's songs, with Don Gibson taking "Country Green" into the Top Five; Gibson also recorded "Touch the Morning," while Jeannie C. Riley covered "Good Morning, Country Rain" and Roy Acuff sang "Back in the Country." Soon, Raven had gained a reputation as a songwriter and a performer within Nashville, and once Don Gant of Acuff-Rose became an A&R man for ABC Records, Eddy had a record deal of his own in 1974. For the next two years, he had a series of minor hits for the label, highlighted by the number 27 "Good News, Bad News" in 1975. He left the label in 1978, staying with Monument for one year before signing with Dimension the following year. None of his singles for either label were big hits, and he left Dimension in 1981.

Later in 1981, he signed with Elektra, where he had his first big hit with the number 13 "I Should've Called." Over the next two years, Raven had three Top 20 singles for Elektra, setting the stage for his breakthrough into the Top Ten in 1984. After spending 1983 resolving legal and managerial problems, Raven signed with RCA Records, releasing "I Got Mexico" in the spring. The single was a big hit, becoming not only his first Top Ten single, but his first number one hit. For the remainder of the decade, he had a string of Top Ten hits for the label, including the number one singles "Shine, Shine, Shine" (1987), "I'm Gonna Get You" (1988), and "Joe Knows How to Live" (1988). He left RCA for Universal in 1989, and he had two number one singles for the label -- "In a Letter to You" and "Bayou Boys." Once Universal collapsed in 1989, he moved to their parent company, Captiol, but his records for the label were largely ignored because radio was beginning to program newer artists instead of veterans like Raven. During the '90s, Raven lacked a record label, but he continued to tour and perform successfully. ~ Tom Roland, All Music Guide [-] Hide

As a member of the groundbreaking Flatlanders, singer/songwriter Butch Hancock helped kick-start the progressive country movement of the '70s. As a solo artist, Hancock recorded a series of country-folk albums for his own independent Rainlight label, which showcased his literate wordplay, quirky humor, and dry, Dylan-esque vocal delivery. Going... [+] Read More

As a member of the groundbreaking Flatlanders, singer/songwriter Butch Hancock helped kick-start the progressive country movement of the '70s. As a solo artist, Hancock recorded a series of country-folk albums for his own independent Rainlight label, which showcased his literate wordplay, quirky humor, and dry, Dylan-esque vocal delivery. Going the independent route certainly cost Hancock some name recognition and wider exposure, but he did earn a devoted cult following, especially in his native Texas.

Hancock was born in the west Texas town of Lubbock in 1945 and grew up on a farm, writing his first songs while driving his father's tractor. In high school, he started playing music with friends Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Joe Ely, fellow long-haired intellectuals who shared a distaste for commercial country. Hancock entered architectural school after graduation, but eventually left to return to his family's farm in Lubbock. He reconnected with Gilmore and Ely, and in 1970 the three formed a band called the Flatlanders. In 1972, they traveled to Nashville for a recording session with Plantation Records, a low-budget offshoot of the past-its-prime Sun label. When their first single flopped, their lone album, Jimmie Dale & the Flatlanders, was barely released in extremely limited quantities in 1973, and the group members gradually went their separate ways. However, when Ely became an acclaimed solo artist in the late '70s, he drew heavily from Gilmore and Hancock's songwriting catalogs, bringing Hancock classics like "West Texas Waltz," "If I Were a Bluebird" (both covered by Emmylou Harris), "She Never Spoke Spanish to Me" (covered by the Texas Tornados), and "Boxcars" to a wider audience.

Ely's recordings helped spark interest in Hancock, but Hancock returned to music on his own terms, moving to the progressive country hotbed of Austin and starting up his own Rainlight label. In 1978, he issued his first album, West Texas Waltzes and Dust-Blown Tractor Tunes, a spare, simple collection that spotlighted his impressive lyrical abilities. The double album The Wind's Dominion followed a year later, and experimented with a broader musical palette and fuller arrangements. Released in 1980, Diamond Hill featured a full backing band, and 1981's Firewater was an informal live set; both continued to build his cult reputation on the Texas roots music scene. Hancock subsequently took a break from recording for several years, pursuing his interests in photography and video, and returned in 1985 with Yella Rose With Marce Lacoutre; Split & Slide followed in 1986.

During another break from recording, Jimmie Dale Gilmore decided to return to his solo career, and thanks to the Flatlanders' burgeoning legend, his versions of several Hancock compositions once again renewed interest in the songwriter. In 1989, the bluegrass-oriented Sugar Hill label issued Own & Own, a compilation of highlights from Hancock's early albums. Meanwhile, Hancock and Gilmore toured Australia together, which resulted in the live duo album Two Roads; Hancock also issued Cause of the Cactus on his own label in 1991. Another compilation for Sugar Hill came in 1993, this one called Own the Way Over Here, and the following year, Hancock contributed songs to Chippy, a musical theater piece about a Texas prostitute co-written by Ely. In 1995 his first-ever non-compilation studio project for an outside label was released, the acclaimed Sugar Hill set Eats Away the Night, which was hailed as one of his most fully realized recordings. In the years that followed, Hancock re-released many of his old albums on CD, and also issued the new Rainlight set You Coulda Walked Around the World in 1999. He toured with the reunited Flatlanders in 2000, after which he moved from Austin to the small desert town of Terlingua; there he worked as a white-water rafting guide and returned to architecture, designing, and building his own home. In 2002, the Flatlanders issued the well-received reunion album Now Again. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

A reliable country hitmaker for much of the '70s, Johnny Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, TX, in 1952, growing up 90 miles from the Mexican border. His older brother Andres, a big country music fan, bought him a guitar when he was seven, and he was playing and singing by his teens. Rodriguez was captain of his high school football team at 16, but... [+] Read More

A reliable country hitmaker for much of the '70s, Johnny Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, TX, in 1952, growing up 90 miles from the Mexican border. His older brother Andres, a big country music fan, bought him a guitar when he was seven, and he was playing and singing by his teens. Rodriguez was captain of his high school football team at 16, but when his father died of cancer, he spiraled out of control, racking up four arrests in two years. While Rodriguez was serving a jail term, Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson heard him sing and introduced him to music promoter Happy Shahan, who booked Rodriguez to work as a singing stagecoach driver at the Alamo Village Amusement Park during 1970-1971. There he was discovered by Tom T. Hall and Bobby Bare, who brought him to Nashville to join Hall's Storytellers. Not long after, Rodriguez signed with Mercury, releasing his debut single, "Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)," in early 1973. It climbed into the Top Ten and turned out to be the first of 14 consecutive Rodriguez singles to do so. His next two, "Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico" and "You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)," both hit number one.

1974 brought the Top Five hits "Dance With Me (Just One More Time)" and "We're Over," plus the number one "That's the Way Love Goes." The following year was even better, as all three of his singles -- "I Just Can't Get Her Out of My Mind," "Just Get Up and Close the Door," and "Love Put a Song in My Heart" -- hit number one. More Top Five hits followed over 1976-1977 in "I Couldn't Be Me Without You," "I Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye," and "Desperado," but he and Mercury parted ways in 1979, upon which point he signed with Epic. "Down the Rio Grande" went Top Ten that year, but Rodriguez subsequently endured a serious commercial slump. He returned to the Top Ten in 1983 with a pair of hits, "Foolin'" and "How Could I Love Her So Much," which proved to be the last of his career; his final chart single came with 1988's Top 20 hit "I Didn't (Every Chance I Had)" on Capitol. He did record a couple of honky tonk-style records during the '90s, specifically Run for the Border (Intersound, 1993) and You Can Say That Again (Hightone, 1996). ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

While much of what passes for contemporary country music in the '90s and 2000s sounds like reheated Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd, what's really annoying is what a youth-driven market it has become, leaving many great country performers of the '60s and '70s out in the cold. This is especially irritating when considering the career of Gary Stewart,... [+] Read More

While much of what passes for contemporary country music in the '90s and 2000s sounds like reheated Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd, what's really annoying is what a youth-driven market it has become, leaving many great country performers of the '60s and '70s out in the cold. This is especially irritating when considering the career of Gary Stewart, one of the greatest of the hardcore-honky tonk school who, at his peak in the mid- to late '70s, could write and sing circles around just about any contemporary country star you could mention. A native of Florida, Stewart escaped a lifetime of working in an airplane factory in the late '60s by pitching some songs he'd written to soon-to-be RCA country label honcho Jerry Bradley. At the time, Stewart (who was composing with his friend Bill Eldridge) didn't aspire to more than being an in-demand Nashville songwriter, but after a couple of years writing with some success, and through Bradley's continued intercession, he was given the opportunity to record on his own. With his huge, vibrato-laden tenor voice (which sounds a bit like Jerry Lee Lewis'), Stewart, with the inestimable help of songwriter Wayne Carson, released 1975's Out of Hand, one of the finest honky tonk records of all time. Paced by the hit "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)," Gary Stewart was quickly becoming a country music star.

Although he composed songs for traditional Grand Ole Opry stars (Cal Smith, Hank Snow), Stewart himself never emulated the traditional values espoused by the Nashville establishment; as one of his song titles stated, he was more of a "flat natural-born good-timin' man." He hung out (and caroused plenty) with Southern rock musicians, using them on his albums at a time when this was still considered radical. He was a renegade, unwilling to play the Nashville game, and his increasing success provided him with the autonomy he needed to do his own thing. However, this generally meant conspicuous excess, especially when it came to substance abuse. Still, from 1975 through 1980, Stewart's recorded work is mostly excellent, with a conspicuous high point coming in 1977 with the release of Your Place or Mine. A hard-driving slice of aggressive honky tonk, it was a rollickingly good piece of work, not the equal to Out Of Hand, but as important an assertion of Stewart's independence from the machinations of country music's star-making machinery. There were problems, however: Stewart was too country for rock audiences and too rock for country audiences, and that limited any stab at broader appeal.

In 1980, he released Cactus and a Rose, with considerable help from Southern rock vets Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Mike Lawler, and Bonnie Bramlett. It was a fine record, but attracted only Stewart's core audience, and at this point in his career, that simply wasn't enough. Suddenly it seemed as if his desire and creativity vanished. He hooked up with Dean Dillon and made a couple of terrible two-good-ol'-boy records that made the redneck rowdiness of Hank Williams, Jr. sound philosophical by comparison. Not long afterwards, Stewart returned to Florida and stopped recording. After his alcoholism and drug use pretty much canceled out a large part of the '80s, Stewart returned, clean and sober, with a strong comeback record, Brand New, in 1988. It wasn't the Gary Stewart of old, but it was a respectable record, and it was enough to propel a comeback that continued with I'm a Texan. Stewart released the first live album of his career in 2003 with Live at Billy Bob's Texas, an album that proved that despite his low profile he was still a formidable honky tonker. Stewart took his own life in December of 2003 following the death of his wife of 43 years in November. He was 59. His heyday was in the '70s, but Gary Stewart deserved to be celebrated for his considerable talent, tenacity, and influence. ~ John Dougan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Billy Joe Shaver's first recording in six years is a stunner. Partnering with his guitar-slinging son, Eddy, Tramp on Your Street is a rollicking yet intimate ride through the world Billy Joe-style. There are smoking country rockers that are brazen, raw, and in-your-face, such as the sizzling remake of "Been to Georgia on a Fast Train" (which is... [+] Read More

Billy Joe Shaver's first recording in six years is a stunner. Partnering with his guitar-slinging son, Eddy, Tramp on Your Street is a rollicking yet intimate ride through the world Billy Joe-style. There are smoking country rockers that are brazen, raw, and in-your-face, such as the sizzling remake of "Been to Georgia on a Fast Train" (which is now the definitive version), "The Hottest Thing in Town," "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal," and the blues-rock of "I Want Some More/TennTex Tear Down." There is the restless Bob Wills swing of "Good Old U.S.A." and the shuffling Texas stroll of "If I Give My Soul." And of course, in the title track, "When Fallen Angels Fly," and the Louvin Brothers-inspired "I'm Gonna Live Forever," there are the searing, completely naked lyrics of repentance, deliverance, and doubt that have been a part of Shaver's music form the beginning. Without them, the center would be missing. The big question for most is: Can Billy Joe rock at his age? The answer is that with Eddy beside him turning it up, he can not only rock, he can roll too. This is a partnership based on respect, tough love, and iconoclastic musical ideals. It's deep in the roots of the sill and even deeper in the Shavers' blood. Tramp on Your Street is a monumental return to recording for Billy Joe Shaver and a triumph of Eddy's musical direction and six-string skill. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide [-] Hide

One of the strongest volumes in the 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection series, The Best of Nanci Griffith does collect many of her career highlights, including "Trouble in the Fields," "Love at the Five and Dime," "From a Distance," and "It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go." Other highlights include "Once in a Very Blue Moon," "Lone... [+] Read More

One of the strongest volumes in the 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection series, The Best of Nanci Griffith does collect many of her career highlights, including "Trouble in the Fields," "Love at the Five and Dime," "From a Distance," and "It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go." Other highlights include "Once in a Very Blue Moon," "Lone Star State of Mind," and "Outbond Plane." Essentially a trimmed-down version of The MCA Years: A Retrospective, this collection is a wonderfully concise introduction to Griffith's radiant, earnest singing and songwriting. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide [-] Hide

On his Columbia debut, Billy Joe Shaver took some insurance along to his first recording date. Along with being able to have Eddie Kilroy produce him, Shaver asked the producer to include a burgeoning young guitarist on the album who had never recorded before, Shaver's young son, Eddy. When he heard him playing his slash-and-burn style of... [+] Read More

On his Columbia debut, Billy Joe Shaver took some insurance along to his first recording date. Along with being able to have Eddie Kilroy produce him, Shaver asked the producer to include a burgeoning young guitarist on the album who had never recorded before, Shaver's young son, Eddy. When he heard him playing his slash-and-burn style of country and blues, Kilroy agreed and a musical partnership was forged that would last 20 years, until Shaver the younger died of a drug overdose. Also in the guitar fold were stalwarts Dale Sellers and Bobby Thompson. Dave Kirby played bass, Marshall Chapman sang backup on the set, and a host of others filled in the country, gospel, and rock mix that Shaver had been cooking up in his songs. The material ranged from the wild and wooly outlaw country rock of "Fit to Kill and Going out in Style," to the downtrodden "Mexico," to the delightfully rollicking "Ragged Old Truck." There is also a re-recording of "When the Word Was Thunderbird" that works better in this setting than it did on Gypsy Boy. In Kilroy's hands, Shaver's songs, seemingly overly simple, took on the true mystery of their complexity. In virtually every song was the war between the spiritual and the physical. The title track is Shaver's true anthem and has been covered by any left-of-center country singer worth her or his salt since that time. But it is on the closer, "The Road," with its opening words, "The road it never changes but the people always do/Tonight the time has come to tell you so/The path along the riverside is sprinkled now with you/Stretching out to where God only knows," that the high, lonesome harmonica kicks in and the words come falling from the singer's mouth in a font of loneliness and near despair. But it never quite gets there -- there's a determination to see it all through that rescues the song and underlines what a redemptive work of art I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal is. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Assembled shortly after Keith Whitley's death, Greatest Hits contains nine of his biggest hits -- including the Top Ten singles "Ten Feet Away," "Don't Close Your Eyes," "When You Say Nothing at All," "I'm No Strangter to the Rain," "I Wonder Do You Think of Me," "It Ain't Nothing," and "I'm Over You" -- plus two unreleased songs: a duet with... [+] Read More

Assembled shortly after Keith Whitley's death, Greatest Hits contains nine of his biggest hits -- including the Top Ten singles "Ten Feet Away," "Don't Close Your Eyes," "When You Say Nothing at All," "I'm No Strangter to the Rain," "I Wonder Do You Think of Me," "It Ain't Nothing," and "I'm Over You" -- plus two unreleased songs: a duet with wife Lorrie Morgan on "'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose" and a demo of "Tell Lorrie I Love Her." It's an excellent compilation, but it is a bit unbalanced, drawing almost entirely from Don't Close Your Eyes and I Wonder Do You Think of Me. Granted, those are his two best albums, but it would have been nice to have collected the highlights from his uneven first two solo records as well as the obvious hits. Nevertheless, Greatest Hits is the perfect record for fans that just want the hits. ~ Thom Owens, All Music Guide [-] Hide

While Alejandro Escovedo had shown plenty of versatility over the first 15 years of his career in music -- playing with early punk ravers the Nuns, prescient alt-country upstarts Rank and File, and roots rock firebrands the True Believers, among many others -- it wasn't until the Believers took shape that he began to display his formidable gifts... [+] Read More

While Alejandro Escovedo had shown plenty of versatility over the first 15 years of his career in music -- playing with early punk ravers the Nuns, prescient alt-country upstarts Rank and File, and roots rock firebrands the True Believers, among many others -- it wasn't until the Believers took shape that he began to display his formidable gifts as a songwriter, and with his first solo album, Gravity, Escovedo belatedly made it clear that he possessed one of the strongest and most distinctive lyrical voices of his generation. Opening with "Paradise," a haunting first-person narrative of a man about to be hanged, Gravity is a strikingly accomplished set of songs that deal with love ("Broken Bottle," "Five Hearts Breaking"), death ("She Doesn't Live Here Anymore"), and loss ("The Last to Know," the title song) in deeply personal terms, and Escovedo tells his stories with a talent for finely woven detail that would be the envy of a first-rate novelist. And the diversity of Escovedo's years of musical experience shows in the album's arrangements, which range from quiet, contemplative pieces structured around cello and piano ("Broken Bottle," "She Doesn't Live Here Anymore") to full-on, amped-up barrelhouse rock & roll ("Oxford," "One More Time"); Turner Stephen Bruton's clean, unobtrusive production gets all the details on tape with admirable clarity. Not every songwriter has the luxury of spending a decade and a half on the sidelines honing his craft before making a solo bow, but even with that advantage, there are few people who have the talent and vision to create an album as strong and moving as Gravity; to call it an "auspicious debut" is to risk understatement. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide [-] Hide