While this entry is happily published the on the usual weekday following on from The Rolling Stones it is actually the best part of a week since I reviewed the previous album. Upon the conception of this blog I actually decided to do a large bulk of these reviews before I actually started publishing for the sheer reason that there are times where I would be unavailable to review the album, in this instance I was in The Netherlands visiting my boyfriend. The reason that I am mentioning this is that this review may not have the same flow as usual for this reason. For those who are interested as to how far ahead I am, the last review that has actually been published as I am writing this was Joan Baez’s album back at the dawn of the sixties.There are certain times with this list that you can just tell that the majority of those deciding what has made it onto the list are American. This isn’t necessarily a criticism as the US is the largest exported of music, with the UK being second and Sweden being the third (yes that fact surprised me too). This isn’t to say that other voices can not be heard in the production of this list with Jacques Brel’s A L’Olympia 1964 being an example of this. However I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail is definitely one whose influence that could be deemed as solely-American. The reason for this, as I mentioned in a previous review, is the lack of country music success outside of the Americas. Since this is still a booming genre selling tens of millions of records a year the presence of such albums on this list is definitely understandable.
With the only apt reference of comparison, regarding to albums that I have thus far reviewed, being a mixture of Ray Price’s Night Life and Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads… I do find it hard to hard to find the need to say more about this album. This album takes the emotive ability of Ray Price and combines it with the musical styles of both the artists I mentioned before. As such this is a good album and is actually the first time that I have heard an echo of two artists that I know very well. The first of this is Emmylou Harris where such songs as Cryin’ Time resonated much like her work does, the other of this is a brief resemblance to the Robert Plant & Alison Krauss album Raising Sand. While the mentioning of such an album may be seen as a cop out, as the presence of Robert Plant actually made it more socially acceptable to listen to a country album in Britain, there are certainly echoes here. I am sure then when I tackle the works of Dolly Parton and Bonnie Raitt that more similarities will be rendered apparent.
One feature that is definitely worthy of note are the songs If You Fall Out Of Love With Me and The Band Keeps Playin’ On. In my opinion it is these slower songs that border on the edge of maudlin and almost saccharin that test how good an artist is. While lesser ones would make this sound whiney and depressing you have Buck Owens here who is able to walk the tightrope and make these songs very emotionally provocative without jumping into the deep-end. This isn’t to say that I can not appreciate the faster and more fun songs, as when it comes to country it is these that are my favourites and this album has it’s own fair share of them. The top ones here are Trouble and Me and Wham Bam both of which are toe-tapping and just make you want to smile.
Yes it is true that I do not have the greatest knowledge of country music but with albums like this being peppered around it makes me glad to think that I am getting some form of education in this area.
8.0/10
Fab Four:
Trouble And Me
Wham Bam
If You Fall Out Of Love With Me
The Band Keeps Playin’ On
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