I hate to admit it, but one of my guilty pleasures is REAL country music. I don’t mean Garth, Alan or any of those posers with cowboy hats that wouldn’t know a fetlock from apple butter. I’m talking Hank Snow, Hoyt Axton, David Allen Coe and guys like Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb. Someone with a real story to tell because they lived it. That’s why I love jazz-someone’s saying something.
This collection says in just barely over a half hour what most guys can’t say in their whole catalogue. It doesn’t include ALL of Webb’s material, but classics like “Galveston,”” Wichita Lineman”and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” sure are, and they’re performed with an intimacy that rips right through your Pendleton. Between a few of the songs, Webb describes why and how he came up with the songs; his dissertation of “MacArthur Park” is intriguing. I forgot that it always wasn’t an overblown piece by some pompous Brit. Here it makes a lot more sense. If you want real Americana, pull right in and fill ‘er up.
Concord Music