(EPIC/SONY LEGACY Release date: Tuesday, June 14. The reviewed item is currently not in the Amazon library)
By Temple A. Stark, Casa Grande, Ariz. RSS Feed
Of all the music in all the world, why does country have to exist in bars?
In thinking about the history of country music, I see a shadowed face, rippling flames and a hand's fret-flitting fingers gently picking a six-string guitar. This scene and sound accompanies a weathered yet still gentle voice telling stories of life and love and lore. It's a voice at its softest, merging with the wind.
At the end of the evening the man tips his hat to all, grips the guitar by the neck and walks out of the circle of light to turn in for the night.
There's a lot of that on what is an amazing two-disc collection, George Jones' My Very Special Guests.. It's a sequel to the original 1979 10-track release that's better than the original, which paired music stars (The original album's cover of chairs with names on them has been updated). Better because there's more. The "more" is 27 duets recorded through the 1980s and 1990s — but not with the idea of a package deal in mind. They just happened in the natural flow of that historical river of music we all splash around in.
The country music entertainment leads off with the original LP (long player) songs and the talents of James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, former wife Tammy Wynette, Elvis Costello, and Pop and Mavis Staples. Among others.
These are what pulled me in to the album to start with. I had started trying to guess who was paired with George Jones on each country tune but I was doomed to terrible failure. I just don't know enough. I might be able to reel off 15 country musicians before stumbling and then exhaust my knowledge in eking out five more.
Instead of wasting my time with that, I closed my eyes.
You can do that with these discs; sit back and listen without doing anything else but listen. It probably helps that these songs (except "Will The Circle Be Unbroken") are new to me and so they come unfettered by the clash of memories.
Now, admittedly, when I first listened, I needed to be soothed and eased into oblivion on a lazy Saturday morning - though I didn't realize it at the time. So I was in the right frame of mind for an old soul with a timeless talent. What we get here is the writing craft coming through in tales of life lost, love lost and a way of lore lost to most of today's balladeers in almost any style.
Article comments