Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II

Reprise Records: 2007

I do wonder, if this may be my last Neil Young review. Like, I'll get Archives Vol. 3 whenever that comes out (surely before the heat death of the universe), but far as mainline albums go, I've gotten just about all I've ever cared to get (and then some). What's even left? His wayward '80s material? More Crazy Horse jams from the '90s? That ultra middle-of-the-road music from the turn of the century? The almost insufferably preachy albums with Promise Of The Real? Maybe at some point, I'll take a nibble - Mirror Ball's gotta' be in some used shops - but I'm in no need either. If Chrome Dreams II truly is the last time I write about a mainline album from ol' Shakey, it's a suitable bowing.

For those just tuning into this electronic music blog's inexplicable, excessive coverage of Neil Young, Chrome Dreams was a '70s album that may have gone down as an all-time classic of rock and folk music. In typical Neil fashion though, it was scuttled for something more slapdash, persistent musings of 'what if?' lingering over his catalogue ever since. When the Young team started putting together the first Archives collection, I'm sure some quips came about maybe releasing that album as once intended.

Then Neil would chuckle to himself, saying, “How about I release a sequel instead, with songs I still haven't released from back in the day?” His team would look at him, concern crossing their face, fearing what mischievous ideas Neil was cooking: “Um, how far 'back in the day', exactly?” Mr. Young's eyes sparkled. “Remember that stuff I did with the Blue Notes...?”

And so, not only did Neil unearth the live-only Ordinary People from his big-band blues period, but recorded an eighteen-minute long session of it! The song ended up being his longest track committed to disc to that point (Arc doesn't count), and wouldn't be exceeded until the uber-jams of Psychedelic Pill. I think it's cool – hearing his wild guitar distortion with a triumphant brass section is quite invigorating – but I know I'm kinda' in a minority in actually liking the Blue Notes stuff. Yes, even among Rusties.

That's the only song like that on Chrome Dreams II though, and oddly placed at track three, leaving one exhausted for the rest of the album. The ramp-up was nice, a couple country folkies including Beautiful Bluebird. A couple more country folkies follow Ordinary People, then we're into some Crazy Horse styled rawk, even if it's only Ralph Molina on hand. Dirty Old Man sounds like a dumber, drunker version of Piece Of Crap, and at over fourteen minutes in length, No Hidden Path drags some – maybe needed the proper-Horse for that one.

Some more gentle tunes round out the rest, and you have yet another Vintage Neil Young mish-mash of clashing styles album, not seen since Freedom. If only Chrome Dreams II had its own Rockin' In The Free World, it'd be a classic.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Boys Night Out

Cleopatra: 2014

I promise, hand on heart, arm on chest, ulnar on spleen, this is the last of my Oak Ridge Boys coverage. What started out as a work-related inside joke ballooned into something that, somehow, netted me fifteen of this group's releases. It's been a wild ride, one you'd never have convinced me of happening even half a decade ago, much less when I started this blog. We've had some fun along the way (well, I have), but it's time to put this part of EMC's saga to rest.

It's only fitting that we end the journey with one of their strangest releases ever, Boys Night Out. Yes, stranger than transitioning from gospel to country, weirder than having a huge hit about a late-night horror movie host (or horse, as one co-worker quipped, because “giddy-up!”), curiouser than trading in the beard for a mullet, bizarre-er than covering Seven Nation Army. For 70 years since The Oak Ridge Boys (then Quartet) first came into existence, Boys Night Out did something they'd never done before: release a live album.

Yes, as crazy as it sounds, these lads of birch never recorded one of their concerts for purchase. You'd think such an idea was a shoo-in, their live shows long part of their everlasting appeal. Four chaps, each with identifiable personalities, quirks, and voices, free to interact with an audience while the session musicians do their thing in support. Easy money to cash-in on the support of all those fans, but apparently they (specifically Duane Allen, the longest termed member of the group in its lasting incarnation) never got enough support to do the project proper justice. Fair enough, the live album an incredibly hit-or-miss proposition, truly exceptional examples requiring dedicated craftsman in capturing the energy performances unique to the experience of 'being there'. Given the label troubles the Oakies suffered for such a long spell, it's no surprise it'd take all the way until the mid-'10s for something to come out on... Cleopatra?

Wait, THAT Cleopatra Records? The label that got its start releasing imported industrial and goth records? The one that first introduced me to hard German trance way back when, including such charming titles like I'd Rather Get Fucked By A Vibrator? THAT Cleopatra? I know they eventually became a 'whatever they can release' print, but my mind completely folds in on itself trying to make a connection from Trance Europe 2.0 to Boys Night Out. Do the Oakies know their live album is on a print that also hosts a band called Christian Death?

Incomprehensible label association aside, this CD does capture the energy of The Oak Ridge Boys in their element well enough. All the hits of yesteryear are present, their harmonies are recorded full of power, the back-up band performs fine, and the crowd noise is mostly kept to the applause portions between songs. Or they are all quite polite while them Boys sang their jangles. Also, it's a handy 'best of' package for all those youngin's who were wooed in by their cover of Seven Nation Army!

The Oak Ridge Boys - The Boys Are Back

Spring Hill: 2009

Of course the boys are back. The boys will always be back. The Oak Ridge Boys are everlasting. This come-back was, what, their ninth? Tenth? Easy to lose track when they've technically existed since the building of the atom bomb.

This particular comeback has a quirky little tale behind it though. After their '90s were spent floundering about various labels unable to recapture their early '80s commercial success, the Oakies eventually settled in with Spring Hill. Primarily a gospel leaning print, it reconnected the chaps with their church hymn roots, and they spent the better portion of the '00s releasing fresh recordings of them harmonizing about God and Jesus and whatnot. Well, save the 2003 record Colors, a pure patriotic outing with such jangles like American Beauty, This Is America and G.I. Joe And Lillie. Hey, if you were even a little bit country at the time, you were wavin' the stars and stripes for all to see, lest y'all get Dixie Chick'd.

A little later in the '00s, the boys from the ridge of oaks were invited over to Shooter Jennings' studio for a collaboration (he of Waylon Jennings offspring fame), plus a performance out and about town. To everyone shock, 'the kidz' in the crowd were getting down to Elvira, their classic chart topper from days past. Maybe, just possibly, might there be some embers to breathe upon The Oak Ridge Boys' saga, one that could appeal to the youth of today? Like, if it worked for Johnny Cash before he passed, surely it could work for Duane Allen, William Golden, Joe Bonsall, and Richard Sterban.

If they hoped to repeat Cash's contemporary success, however, they needed their own Hurt, a song hip to the alternative crowds. Somehow, The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army was suggested, and thus we have one of the strangest covers to ever grace The Oak Ridge Boys' discography. Did they even know what this song's about? For sure it was popular at sporting events, an anthemic charm to its defiant stomp of a riff, but please don't tell me they thought this was about raising armies to fight against a nation's enemies?

Anyhow, the trick didn't work, The Boys Are Back doing modest success on the country charts (and quite well on the Christian charts) but still not a scratch from their heyday. Guess those weened on Whisky Falls and Ween weren't too keen on sentimental family standards like Mama's Table, or Richard doo-wopping over John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom.

Still, as bizarre as all this sounds, I'm personally thrown for a loop in seeing Neil Young's Beautiful Bluebird covered here. Existing since Rustie's Old Ways period, that song had only been officially released a couple years prior to The Oakies making this album. What prompted them to cover this charming little folky? A respectful nod to Neil's country ties? The fact Young and Waylon went way back? A subtle stand in solidarity after Neil almost got himself Dixie Chick'd following Living With War?

The Oak Ridge Boys - Back Home Again: Gospel Favorites

Gaither Music Group: 2012

There's been ripples in the timestream, by g'ar, of the word 'gospel' suddenly trending upon the prominent waves of tachyon particles even in my far future corner of the Fourth Dimension. Even from my vantage point in the year 2073, we feel it, as though something detonated in the past, causing an ever-lasting effect upon our culture, wherein 'gospel' was no longer regarded as a niche enjoyment by those of us within the comforting embrace of the Atomic Brotherhood. For some oddity, however, those residing within the domain of the Muricans haven't noticed it, or are actively ignoring it in all forms of denialism. Word goes should you inquiry them about this time-flux event, they enter a near catatonic state, uttering “Not my Ye'. Not my Ye'. Not my Ye'” Strange indeed.

Ani-hooteny, seems as fine-dandy an opportunity to bull my wax about The Oak Ridge Boys again, specifically their gospel output. Everything else'in that I've touched upon with those recordings came from their ancient catalogue, before the lads switched their sound to some fun stompin' country shindiggin's. Even after they turned international stars with half the roster changed, CD labels would recycle them original songs with original members for quick cash-ins. Th'ar be Joe Bonsall and his moustache on the cover, but sure-in that's Little Willie Wynn singing the soprano inside. After a time though, and their commercial clout receding like everyone's hairline after 2053, the Boys left the days of secular country jingles behind, singing some proper ol' good Christian music again. After another time, they'd flit between the two, even meshing 'em altogether-like.

That's about where we find the Boys with Back Home Again: Gospel Favorites. These aren't the staid-old ditties of olden-times, but up 'an jumpin' fun-time country jiggy-downs with Christian themes. For sure-in we all know the tale of Exodus, but have you heard it as a three-minute, spring-steppin hoe-humdinger as performed here in Led Out Of Bondage? I reckon not, if you've never heard Christian country before.

Mighty strangely though, I can't help but long for the older, pure gospel sorties The Oak Ridge Boys performed over these then-modern produced songs. There, the vocal harmonies were dominant, with the barest of organ, piano, or guitar in support. You could feel the humbling power of reverberating church halls in their voices, especially when given the best remastering process technology could afford (earnestly, the quality of Hymns & Songs, Volume II remains unmatched).

These recordings are almost too slick for their own good, with supporting musicians all up in your ears. Not to take away from the skills of Ben Isaacs (upright bass), Gordon Mote (piano), John Jarvis (piano), Steve Brewster (drums), Aubrey Haynie (fiddle & mandolin), Bryan Sutton (acoustic guitar), Kenny Greenberg (electric guitar), Kevin Williams (acoustic guitar), Jimmy Capps (acoustic guitar), and Ban-Joey (banjo), but the infamous Nashville Machine does have a tendency to strip the soul out of music. Mighty highly ironic, given the context of the music that's being performed.

The Oak Ridge Boys - American Harmony

Heartland Music: 1986

Ah, hmm, seems I've lost contact with my future-self correspondence regarding these Oak Ridge Boys reviews. I'm not sure how that's possible. Like, wasn't I dealing with multi-verse versions of myself, thus his/my future remains in existence no matter what happens in my present? Or maybe I can only access certain timelines depending on how close to my own existence it lies, whether my current path will lead to such an outcome at all anymore. The 2073 Sykonee that we've come to know can no longer exist from where I'm currently sat if my future no longer leads to such a possibility. Absolutely it's ridiculous I could or would travel to a future Earth where I don't exist at all, potentially snuffing my being out of any reality, but then isn't all this time-travel stuff one big paradox anyway? Perhaps I should rephase the tachyon emitter array into a sixth-level quantum filament, then set the neutrino juicer to puree for a little extra flava-flav (yeah, bwoy!).

Well, maybe it's time that I step in and talk about Oak Ridge Boys from my own perspective, even offer some insight into how I've come to have so many of their albums and compilations. Actually, no, let's not do that; 'tis a silly story. Let's do this a bit more honestly, a bit more properly.

American Harmony is a double-LP gathering of the Oakies' biggest hits following the decade of their transition into pure country music. Yes, they were that darn popular throughout the early Reagan years, especially within certain American Heartland demographics. For this was their rebel music, a gospel group abandoning the stodgy confines of churches and pulpits for the glitz and glamour of honky-tonks and Vegas lights. Holy cow, you should see some of the outfits these guys wore in the late '70s! You'd think they were leads in a white-bread funk group.

Their success lay in singing songs that reached a broader audience that most Americans could relate to. Young teenage lust over Elvira. Heading out on the open road as in Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight. Reminiscing over loves lost and found (just about every song, really). Bemoaning the fact all their cool cutting-edge gadgets were foreign, but at least their women were still American Made. Yeah, they couldn't help themselves with a little ol' flag-wavin' after seeing how the Soviets were living following a tour through Russia (!!), but whatever, nationalist paranoia was all the rage in the early '80s.

Speaking of the '80s, I find it hilarious that even a gospel-turned-country quartet of singers couldn't escape the '80s-ification of their music production. Some of these tracks sound so digitalized and tinny, they fit right at home an electronic music critic blog. Little Things in particular, already coming off like an '80s Beach Boys jingle (aka: not good), features one of the synthiest keyboard solos I've ever heard out of this everlasting group. Surely nothing in their catalogue can top this slice of ludicrous music.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Gospel Hits

Sony BMG Music: 2005

Greetings, Past Peoples. It's been a while, at least from your perspective, that I, Sykonee Of The Year 2073, have graced this region of your 'inter net'. It's been a while for me as well, hopping the various timelines, seeing what events may come and how things may have turned different if things had just gone a little stranger. For instances, did you know there's a time-line where the German Nazis won World War 2 with a little item called the Heisenberg Device? You do? And they made a TV series out of that? Oh, well, that's arctic and all, but you all figured it just fictional, whereas I've seen the reality of it. Or the alternate reality. Sure t'was not mine, and t'is not yours, though whether my reality becomes your reality remains a mystery, don't it. I've noticed a few minor instances of differences of what I knew and where you are, but very little to suggest The Great Divide isn't still on course. No, fret not, the Atomic Brotherhood will carry you through it, saving us from all that unsavoury retrograde Murican business. They look out for their own kind, they do.

Of course and correctly, I'm back here to bring tidings of that indomitable musical force that at least provides our disparate cultures with some common ground of clay, the everlastingness that is The Oak Ridge Boys. We in the Cascadian realm admire them for their contributions to atomic resourcefulness, while those others adore their Jesus, Godly, and Murican themes, reinforcing their beliefs to an almost fanatical degree. It's strange how two cultures can find such different, opposing embracings of enjoyment from the same musical source. You folks in your times could learn a thing about that. Might even prevent what's to come, if you think what I live in isn't to your likening. Haha, just coming with the jokes there; my future is ordained.

So here we are again, with Another Oak Ridge Boys Gospel collection. It's astonishing just how many of these are on the market, isn't it? All with different degrees of quality, content, and presentation. I've been handed a couple impressive ones, a few redundant ones, but this one, this one is a big ol' lie.

Unlike so many other of their gospel collections, this one had some major-proper support from one of the big record companies of old, Sony BMG (eventual subsidiary of Disney-ZTE). The Oakies weren't signed with Sony BMG (eventual subsidiary of Disney-ZTE), but they had gotten a little surged patriotic love in rallying Muricans together in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. What better opportunity, then, than dusting off some rights-held recordings for the quick bucker compilation market?

Thus, even though the cover adorns The Oak Bridge Boys as they were in 2005, everything within is music recorded in the early Nauty Seventies, including when Lil' William Wynn was tenor. Deceived us, Sony BMG (eventual subsidary of Disney-ZTE) has! Should have just shown another church.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Voices

Platinum: 1999

Greetings, people of the year 2018. I am 2073 Sykonee, but not the 2073 Sykonee you may have gotten to know in the year 2017. Nay, that Sykonee comes from a different timeline, one that seems impossible to believe, but then from where I sat, so does yours. Sykonee Prime tells me he grew tired of reading that perspective, and scoured the timelines for one where the Oak Ridge Boys never existed, which is where I come from. Things certainly are different compared those other timelines – why, I'd even qualify it as “better”, what with a lack of nuclear arms race happening. Yes, we eventually harnessed nuclear power for our own ends, but after WW2 ended (which did take longer in my timeline, true). Seems without the original Oak Ridge Quartet doing gospel shows for the engineers working on The Manhattan Project, they just weren't inspired enough to keep their work productive. The war ended before they completed their work, and pos-

Oh, right, I'm supposed to review an album of music from Oak Ridge Boys, not detail my alternative history. Sorry, it's fascinating how much impact this group has had over the course of your events – it's as though they're everlasting.

Since I have no knowledge about Oak Ridge Boys, Sykonee Prime offered me some quick notes on the group's status when they released this album Voices. Seems after several years of singing gospel, they switched to country with a lot of commercial success. Then something called “The Eighties” happened (wow, that decade was that infamous for you?), and one of their key members, William Lee Golden, left, replacing 'The Beard' with 'The Mullet'. The group's commercial aspirations petered out for a while, then Golden returned, 'The Beard' once more preserving the Oak Ridge Boys legacy.

Voices was their proper return-album, though had too much competition from newer country stars like Shania Twain, Alan Jackson, Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, and Chris Gaines to make much impact (I don't know who any of these people are, but I'm assured they're Very Important). Voices was thus regarded as an album that satisfied fans of the Oak Ridge Boys, but nothing newer country fans cared about, officially relegating the group to 'legacy status'.

Now, we definitely have country music of this sort in my timeline, though I doubt any of y'all have heard the likes of Topper Gantley or Nancy White or Slim Wittikens. Can't say I've heard any country group with vocal harmonies quite like this though. Wow, especially that bass singer! Is he the bearded guy? Really, the clean-shaven one? The song topics are mostly about “regular jane and joe” things like working for the weekend, finding strength with the loves of your life, starting up families, discovering hidden pasts of broken families. It all sounds nice enough, though rather quaint from my end – nowadays, the only family thing I have to worry about is whether my Martian great-grandkids will arrive in time for Earthen Equinox.

Various - Sounds Of The Seventies: 1977

Time Life Music: 1990

Anyone remember those mail order music collections? They'd advertise on TV with a huge, scrolling playlist, and you'd hear some familiar tunes that they just don't play on the radio anymore, plus your original record or tape of the album has kinda' deteriorated over the years, but you never bothered to buy that new-fangled CD replacement because you just weren't sure of the format yet? Yeah, those ads. At least, I assume that was the pitch with them, letting Boomers regain all their favourite music for a low-low price of $6.99 per CD (or tape), with a new one being shipped every month, like music Christmas every thirty days. I'm not saying Time Life Music's series of The Sounds Of The Sixties/Seventies/Eighties was an example of this – I honestly don't recall any ads of the sort back then – but it sure comes off that way. Lack of barcode on these discs suggests so.

And no, I haven't come into possession an entire collection of these, but a former owner was offloading some, so being the CD hoarding-whore that I am, nabbed a couple because why not. Logically, Sounds Of The Seventies started off with a rundown of music per year. It then went on to a Take Two round of yearly options, giving twenty volumes of '70s music. The initial run lasted up to thirty-seven releases, and the excuses to keep feeding you music from this decade ran lame towards the end, believe you me. According to Lord Discogs, they stretched things even further past the original thirty-seven, because why end a steady revenue stream, eh? Since most of these tunes were coming from the Warner Music Group, they could keep milking it into the new millennium. They didn't, thankfully, but they could have!

So let's dig into the year 1977. Of the twenty songs in this track list, there's no Kraftwerk, no Vangelis, no Tangerine Dream, and no Can. Well, so much for keeping my interest. Fail.

Haha, just kidding. Of course weird, experimental synth music from Europe has no place in a compilation such as this. We're only after the tunes Americans were digging in the year 1977, which includes rock, funk, country, and soul. Maybe a dash of disco too.

There aren't many surprises then, most of the songs the light-weight, easy-going stuff that's impossible to offend on the radio. Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, Steve Miller Band's Fly Like An Eagle, Foreigner's Cold As Ice and Feels Like The First Time, Linda Ronstadt's It's So Easy and Blue Bayou, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band's Blinded By The Light (“revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night”). The filler stuff features artists like Glen Campbell, 10cc, James Taylor, Al Stewart... a lot of songs I've probably heard before, but don't get my blood pumpin', y'know?

Frankly, 1977 is rather milquetoast, save the glorious opening beat of Bee Gee's Stayin' Alive towards the end. Astounding how that rhythm can carry such a punch forty years on.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Old Time Gospel Favorites

Curb Records: 1996

What, another one of these? This can't be good for the time-stream, me constantly plucked out of the year 2073 to review Oak Ridge Boys music in the year 2017. As I understands it, time flows like a river, ever moving with steady, forward momentum, events playing out more or less as the river's course intends. Disrupting that flow by time-travelling doesn't, by and largely, have much effect in The Big Picture. Me coming back here to write occasional blogger entries is no more eventful than tossing a pebble into an eddy. Even if my future-words had any significant impact upon your time, it's no more problematic than heaving a boulder into the stream. Enough to deviate the flow in a localized area, but the river carries on just the same. You'd have to initiate a truly calamitous situation to change the main course, like a flood or earthquake.

Still, toss enough pebbles in a short amount of time in a very specific spot, and little things can start seeming askew from the norm. The major events that lead to my time are still on track, but some of your sports stats are off. The Winnipeg Jets an NHL leader? The NBA's Eastern Conference having a better record than the West? For as long as I remember, that's not supposed happened! Ah well, so long as the Presidential Dog-Fucking Scandal still goes down...

Now, back to The Oak Ridge Boys, with their illionth gospel compilation. I mentioned the last one I reviewed was my first instance of repeat songs. Old Time Gospel Favorites is the second, and crushes Old Country Church in that statistic, including opening with the same song! Also here is When I Lay My Burdens Down, Farther Along, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, and Lead Me To Calvary. That's half a tracklist I've already gone over, and the remaining songs aren't much different from their other country-leaning gospel ditties from the Nauty-Sixties. My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me does have a charming swing to it.

I'll grant some fairness to Curb Records, in that this came out in 1996, so beat those other labels to the market with their recycled songs. That's beside the point though, because my past self assured me I wouldn't be dealing with redundant repeats. Why'd I even get this?

It's the cover art, isn't it. Striking autumn colours, pastoral setting of a time long since lost. It draws you in, doesn't it, into a more innocent time, an existence where the worries of the world have no impart on the going-ons of the day-to-day concerns. Rise at dawn, tend to the farm, send the missus to the grocer for the dinner, ease back on the porch with a sated tummy full of stuffins. Congregate at the Sunday church to catch up with the neighbours, content in the knowledge there wasn't much of a care beyond those rolling hills of leafy trees. Truly, the bliss of ignorance.

ACE TRACKS: November 2017

So there's this YouTube reviewer I stumbled upon sometime in the summer, who I feel deserves what little extra attention my minuscule rub might provide, but I must admit I've been leery about doing so. I can't give him a glowing recommendation because I'm not entirely a fan of his format. That's not really a dig at him in particular though, as he utilizes a music reviewing format that many YouTubers do, including that Fantano dude who's apparently the biggest music YouTube reviewer around. Well, self-described “busiest” anyway.

Straight up, I don't like “individual looks at camera and talks about an album” vids. I get that it's easiest to film and edit, but I'm often bored and disengaged by it, even if the content within is interesting. I've watched, like, only two of Mark Grondin's reviews, but still frequently check out the transcripts at his Spectrum Pulse blog. I think it's because I'm spoiled by music reviewers from the Channel Awesome contingent (Todd In The Shadows, Rap Critic, Luke Spencer's Rocked), who splice in supporting images and video footage of the material they're covering. Or the round-table discussions of Dead End Hip-Hop, where ideas and opinions are bounced around among knowledgeable heads – probably the format I'd go with, if I ever got into video reviews. Point is, if you're utilizing video to do reviews, then utilize it. Otherwise, what I'm getting is little more than what can be achieved in the written form, and at least there I can enjoy it with my preferred internal monologue.

That all said, the reason I've kept tabs on this one particular dude is because he's doing something I haven't seen anyone else do: he's reviewing electronic music new and old, popular and obscure. Gee, that sounds familiar, don't it? Maybe not to such a ludicrous extreme as I've been doing, but I've got more than a decade on him, plus don't have to worry about things like filming and editing (much). I also don't necessarily agree with all his opinions, maybe only 40% of the time - that could just be a generational thing though. Still, the fact he's even attempting to cover such a wide range of electronic music is impressive enough. This past season he's tackled DJ Shadow, LCD Soundsystem, Sounds From The Ground, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Four Tet, ODESZA, Rezz, Paul van Dyk, Shpongle, Dynatron, Galantis, Bicep, Disclosure, Avicii, plus a retrospective of The Chemical Brothers' entire discography. Who else has indulged in such diversity? Not Resident Advisor, that's for sure!

Again though, I feel he still needs to modify his format into something better for me to give it a high recommendation. I think I've kept tabs on him just to see if he gets there, and I have seen gradual improvement. If you're not too hype on the channel though, I wouldn't be surprised. Oh, the name of it? The Wonky Angle. Yes, he's an Orbital fan, which gives him a very specific leg up on me in that regard: ~775% more Orbital coverage!

Gosh, that was a large tangent. Here's this past November's ACE TRACKS playlist:




MISSING ALBUMS:
Liquid Zen - Liquid Zen
Namlook • Montanà - Labyrinth 4
Namlook • Montanà - Labyrinth 5
Various - Home
Various - Beach House 04.02
Aythar - The God Particle

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 5%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Still anything Oak Ridge Boys related (no, really, is this leading to anything?)

I know I'm making progress in this massive alphabetical backlog of mine – 23 reviews in November dictate as such – but man, it sure feels like a drag. I started the month in the “G”s, and have only just finished off the “M”s. I look at the little CD rack that houses my “To Review” pile, and it's somehow still full! Like, it was full when I began this backlog at the start of October, and it just keeps refilling, no matter how far along I get. How does this happen!? And don't get me started on the new backlog forming behind the current one – had to overflow into my PS1 games rack to accommodate it.

Overall, this playlist is fairly standard where this blog's concerned. The usual ambient, ambient techno, dark ambient, house, techno, and trance, with sprinklings of genre outliers for fun. Will probably be similar next month too.

The Oak Ridge Boys - A Higher Power

Nashville: 1965/1970

Hey-yo, Past Peoples, it's you know who, from a future far from now, where things are weird and wild compared to your primitive eyes. Why, even I, in the year 2073, have a hard time realizing how much things have changed. Apple pie costing seven bones and a femur. Self-driving vehicles tailgating self-driving vehicles in fits of road rage. Cherry blossoms fluttering across my holo-eyes in the long winter days. Sure ain't nothing like that in your times... my vintage times... the days of yore... so much a bore...

Anywhen, A Higher Power sums up the ever-lasting foreverness that is The Oak Ridge Boys quite nicely, methinks. The title, I mean, though those vocal harmonies stretch across the ages just as well. Now obviously when these songs were recorded back in the Nauty-Sixties, that 'higher power' the boys were referring to was in parlance to the Christian God, but the Atomic Brotherhood decoded their words, understanding it's just as much referring to the mighty energies stored in atoms. It cannot be under or overstated how much influence those early shows at secret nuclear research facilities had on the original gospel quartet, men of God being exposed to therein untold secrets of God's power, stored in the very make-up of our beings. Science and religion, joining forces to create a vocal group who's legacy lasted longer than your Beat Boys or Beachles. And I was a fan of those groups too, way back in my youth!

Why else do you think this particular album was renamed A Higher Power? It's original 1965 title was The Sensational Oak Ridge Boys From Nashville Tennessee. How boring, how uninformative - except for the facts that these 'boys' are from Nashville Tennessee, and that they're sensational. Parent label Starday Records reissued it with this new title, maybe as a means to market old material, but the Atomic Brotherhood knows better.

Mangles, this is reaching about as far back into The Oak Ridge Boys' history with any globally familiar members, William Gordon the spry turkey-chicken of the group (Duane Allen wouldn't join for another year). These recordings always feel more homely and, well, churchy, with Willie Wynn's tenor almost reaching choir-boy levels of pitch (I remember first thinking it was a 'church lady' singing – oh, silly naive young me). On the other hand, there's a fair bit of tasty slide-guitar action on here. Whether sombre standards like There's A Light Guiding Me, Land Of Beulah, and Angel Band, or chipper offerings like Shine Down On Me, I Am A Pilgrim, and There's A Higher Power, the ol' glissando twang is in full effect. I wonder who was playing it in these sessions. Like, The Oak Ridge Boys were more than just vocalists, they had those famous Nashville musicians handy too.

And wait, are those doo-wop tunes with I Am A Pilgrim and Just A Clear Walk With Thee? Well, Elvis was a thing, I do recall. He had himself gospel backers even while stealing rockabilly.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Greatest Hits

MCA Records: 1980

Hey-ho, Past-Peoples, 2073 Sykonee in your brain again, with a less pretentious greetings - Sykonee Prime tells me it's off-putting for some, making me sound like a smug Future Man. Not sure how that works, as I'm still the same guy from the here and now, just with extra decades worth of outlook and experience. And the things I've seen, you wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder Of Orion. C-Beams glittering in the dark at Tannhauser Gate. No, wait, those aren't my memories, they belong to someone else. Can't recall who at the moment, but I'm sure it'll come back to me.

No, many of my recent memories consist of golf. Yeah, yeah, make your 'old man' jokes, but there's a very logical reason for it: golf is one of the few 'sports' still allowed by the Atomic Brotherhood. The courses doubly serve as nature sanctuaries, see, so a lot of effort has been put into creating them. The wilds between civilization just aren't worth hiking through, what with rabid animals, feral forests, and crazed Muricans lurking about. Things didn't help when most of this continent's National Parks were sold off to foreign investors to pay off crippling debts (not that it saved the nations from splintering anyway). Within our sanctuary cities, however, we can maintain and control these 'parks', and get a good bit of exercise in the process whacking little balls over fields of beige and green. And those little flags will always give us hope striving towards a better future.

Okay, enough sports talk. I'm here to review Oak Ridge Boys albums, though in this case, it's another compilation, this time an honest-to-God Greatest Hits option. In this particular release's case, however, it's a rather amusing offering. For one, despite being a gospel group for decades at this point, it was a right rarity their music was rounded up for compilation duty (that'd significantly change in the ensuing years). Once The Oak Ridge Boys started making country music for a wider audience outside their core gospel demographic, their singles started charting too, often hitting the Top 5 mark in the process. They were four albums deep in this new direction when the Nauty-Eighties hit, so a Greatest Hits package seemed ideal to catch folks up. No one could have predicted their actual biggest hits would quickly follow though, this Greatest Hits collection now hilariously incomplete if you're in need of a quick introduction to the group.

For those who grew with The Oak Ridge Boys through their pure gospel era, the switch to songs about Trying To Love Two Women and Leaving Louisiana In Broad Daylight had to be a jarring transition. There's still nods to loving relationships (You're The One, Dream On), but also the tumultuous times too (Cryin' Again, Y'all Come Back Saloon). And nary a word of Jesus anywhere, though plenty of string sections, in that vintage Nauty-Seventies country stylo. Reminds me of Kenny Rodgers concerts off the shoulder of Orion.

ACE TRACKS: October 2017

Well hey, that was a productive month of reviews, wasn't it? Sure helps to set yourself a specific deadline to meet a goal, filling yourself with determination to see it to fruition no matter the cost. Only... no matter my fortitude in my hopes of reaching the end of the 'Z's by the end of the year, I don't think I'll make it after all. I mean, just look at this past month alone, twenty-six reviews, and just squeaking by the 'F's in that time. Dear Lord, 'A' had nine alone. Now imagine what a heavier letter like 'S' or 'T' are holding in this alphabetical queue!

One thing that struck me as curious is how front-loaded some labels ended up with this. Believe me when I say I've bought from a wide range of prints this past summer, some familiar, but others delving into for the first time. Under normal circumstances, you'd think material would be spread out more evenly, but I've essentially shot my load with Carpe Sonum Records and Dronarivm albums; meanwhile, nary a Cryo Chamber CD in this lot, to say nothing of a couple newer entries. Ah well, at least good ol' Waveform Records will pace out nicely in this run. For now, here's the ACE TRACKS for October 2017.




MISSING ALBUMS:
Jafu - Add To Cart
Grey Area - And Then The Clouds
The Oak Ridge Boys - At Their Best
Si Matthews - Aurora
Ajna & Dronny Darko - Black Monolith
Cyril Secq & Orla Wren - Branches
Autumn Of Communion - Broken Apart By Echoes
Aythar - Dream Of Stars
The Oak Ridge Boys - Favorite Songs

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0% (no, Oak Ridge Boys country doesn't count; Chemical Brothers are more rock than them)
Most “WTF?” Track: Anything Oak Ridge Boys. (this is all leading to something, isn't it?)

Yikes, is that ever a lot of missing albums. I think nearly a third of the tunes on this playlist aren't actually on Spotify (yet), but if you happen to have them in your Local Files, they should play just fine. Man, what are the odds of someone having Autumn Of Communion, Jafu, and Oak Ridge Boys in their directory though? 2 in 7.6 billion? I'm certain I've a doppelganger somewhere out in this wide wide, mad mad world. Maybe we'll cross paths on Kerguelen Island.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Favorite Songs

Sony Music Select: 1992

Greetings, Past-Peoples. It is I, once again, 2073 Sykonee, of the far flung son of a past-man. Not a preacher man, though he did often orate to masses large and small about getting down to Swingtown. He was quite Smooth about it too, but alas, his time came and went, the flocks no longer there to hear his sage Messages In Bottles. Eh? Nah, this didn't happen in my-past/your-future – it's already happened, and cannot be prevented. Folks may enjoy a bar band when visiting their local waterhole, but not many proprietors pay for them, especially 'established musicians', who are well past the point of just looking for a chance to play to a live audience for drinks and gas money.

And yes, we still have bands that go on tours by my time, though very few of them bother with actual instruments anymore. Heckles, I recall it being as such even back thenners, almost all the major new big stars singers and rappers and mumblers and criers. These days, we still get singers and rappers, but also crooners, boxers, and acapellers. With most new music generated automatically to our specific whims via streamloads, the only skill that impresses anyone is what they can do with their voice. You're damn skippy, drippy-hippies, that the Mongolian throat singers took over the Cascadian airwaves like a new horde of dorpeness. Vocalizations is where it's all at in the new-modern.

Which helps explain the enduring popularity of The Oak Ridge Boys for so long. For certain they aren't as dynamic as Afro Veldt-Funk, and it's undeniable they're a product of their time and place, back when the American States weren't so fragmented... until they were again. Hey, the group's existed long enough to see it all, y'all, every rise and fall of all the Empires and Global Dominions.

Naturally, a group as long lasting as this has amassed an extensive discography, one ripe for plundering songs into compilation form. And hoo-Nelly, do The Oak Ridge Boys have themselves a lot of compilations, such that it'd take me to the the end of my time within your time to even scratch that surface. Sykonee Prime assures all that he's gathered for me to review contain unique songs among each release, but I don't trust myself there. No way I could have done that extensive of research into this, especially on a budget.

Favorite Songs sure seems like a raggity-tagged assortment of Oak Ridge Boys tunes though. Ten songs long, it features material mostly from their Nauty-Seventies country period, but only two were actual singles (Loves Me Like A Rock and Rhythm Guitar), neither of which were charting hits. Are these favourite songs from the Boys themselves, then? They sure sound like they're having fun singing them, peppy and swinging as that era's country so often goes. Why, some of it even reminds me of an old fav' of mine, Neil Youngman, though with heavier emphasis on the Jesus stuff.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Celebrate Christmas

Gaither Music Group: 2016

Greetings, Past-Peoples, 2073 Sykonee once again here. Ah, Christmas, I remember it well. The lights, the snow, the merriment, the togetherness. All that, now gone, gone, gone. Lost in a horrible post-apocalyptic Hellscape.

Haha, no, I'm kidding. Of course Christmas still exists in my time. The yearly celebration has endured in some form for hundreds of years, whether as paganistic rituals in honour of the winter solstice, religious rituals in honour of Jesus Christ's birth, or capitalist rituals in honour of defeating Communism. You don't wipe out that much Northern tradition just like that, no matter how much some over-reaching powers may try.

The Atomic Brotherhood understands this, and accepts that we'll find ways to celebrate Christmas in our own, unique ways. Sure, the longer winters have made the pagan history of the holiday redundant, we don't have much need of Christ worship here (that's more a Murican thing anyway), and the wanton need to consume things and stuff in service of a financial war doesn't apply to our way of life. Much of what we need is supplied by the Atomic Brotherhood, and since we don't need a whole lot, Christmas is all about togetherness, bringing everyone underneath a merry dwelling to celebrate that which we most cherish among each other, all under the glowing light of a nuclear powered pine tree. Yes, we still have pine trees. They're sturdy plants, y'know.

Which makes these Christmas albums from The Oak Ridge Boys a weird item to cover for yours truly. Heck, you probably think its weird that we'd all enjoy the country-gospel group at all, but their charming harmonies appeal to more of us than you'd believe. Not to mention relating to their ever-lasting durability as a group. Some theorize The Oak Ridge Boys have lasted so long thanks to the same radioactive alteration that gave us our extended lives. I can believe it.

But regarding their Christmas material – and there's a lot of it - we're ambivalent about it. We understand this stuff likely had more importance to their original fans back in your times, but we listen to it with historical perspective, as a reflection of a culture now lost. All these celebratory odes to the birth of Christ (Away In A Manger, Joy To The World, Come To The Manger, O Come, All Ye Faithful, Rest In You Tonight) had their place, I'm sure. However, when you play them in front of the Red Belters, a strange, maniacal frenzy seems to overtake them. Puts Cascadians at unease, you see, so it's only selective broadcasts, thank you.

So it's to the secular songs that we turn to more often. I'll Be Home For Christmas, Blue Christmas, Santa Claus Is Real, There's Nothing Between Us (But Love Anymore)... even Jingle Bells, I guess. Yeah, that ridiculous song's survived this long, somehow. The Oak Ridge Boys do all these classics justice in their indomitable, harmonious way. Still no Boney M, though.

The Oak Ridge Boys - At Their Best

United Artist Records/EMI-Manhattan Records: 1968

Greetings, Past-Peoples, it is I again, 2073 Sykonee, brought back to your time by Sykonee Prime to review music by The Oak Ridge Boys. I know, I know, this doesn't make a lick of sense. I must be nearly a hundred years old - aged and decrepit, like a rusty tin of sardines. Not really, no. Hearty genetic stock notwithstanding, a benefit of the radiation fallout was unexpectedly extending lifespans in several lucky souls. I may be in my Nineties, but I don't look or feel a day over Sixty-Seven.

'Tis true, the Atomic Brotherhood provides mighty fine benefits for those within their influence, not least of which exposing us to music I'd overlooked in my youth. Yes, it's nice that Nuclear Ramjet and Atomic Babies finally got their due, but I never knew about obscure acts like Oppenheimer Analysis, or tech-house labels like Heisenberg. Our musical consumption may be limited to that which honours the Atomic Age, but it's a wide range nonetheless.

Few dominate our tastes like The Oak Ridge Boys though, because few have as massive a discography. The original incarnation of the group, as The Oak Ridge Quartet, started out in the Nauty-Foreties, their first singles pressed by Capitol Records in 1946. Over time, the line-up changed, as did the name of the group from 'Quartet' to 'Boys' early in the Nauty-Sixties (t'was hip to be 'Boys'). Though they sangs the gospel, it was to the tastes of Red Belt America, eventually going country-full once their latter-era line-up was concreted. When they recorded this particular album though, the group was in transition, Willie Wynn and Herman Harper the vets, Duane Allen and William Gordon the fresh chickens of the coup. And boy was Mr. Gordon ever fresh as this point, prim and proper with nary a whisker of beard found on his chin. Hard to imagine him in any other form.

In the grand ol' Opry scheme of things, At Their Best isn't the most remarkable of releases under the Oak Ridge Boys banner – they have tons and tons of gospel recordings highlighting their harmony talents. What makes this one unique from the others is that it came out on United Artists Records, more known for releasing soundtracks of the time (Jim Bond movies, It's A Mad, Mad, Maddy, Mad-Mad World, The Greatest Story Done Told). It was a one-off deal for The Boys, more comfortable releasing records with strict gospel outlet Heart Warming. I guess someone must have liked their full-range vocals to give them a little larger exposure.

Not much to remark upon the music on my end. It's gospel, mangles! Lots of songs about loving Jesus, loving the Lord, loving your home with Jesus and the Lord within. All charming and quaint where I come from, but The Boys of Oak Ridge sound quite pleasant singing these hymns with organs, pianos, soft drums, and electric guitar in support. I'll believe it that it's them at their best, for the time.

The Oak Ridge Boys - American Dreams

MCA Records: 1989

Greetings, Past-Peoples, I am 2073 Sykonee. Yes, the same writer/reviewer/critic/knob that usually takes up space on this antiquated blooger, but from “The F-U-U-UTUR-R-RE”, as some so quaintly put it. Sykonee Prime made use of his time-dimension machine to take a jaunt forward for once, and despite some really wacky paradoxes even Doc Rick Brown, The Schwifty-Bitch would have trouble explaining, approached I to learn of what developments had gone down in electronic music. I was willing to tell himself this, but he was quickly fascinated by the ponderous amount of social-net music from The Oak Ridge Boys instead. Why them, I asked myself, to which I told me, “They're one of the few officially sanctioned acts by the Atomic Brotherhood.” Young-Blood Me was of course confused – what did I expect from skipping over so much history?

Without getting too over-written, The Oak Ridge Boys are allowed due to their association with the nuclear research base near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, starting out in the Nauty-Forties as a country and gospel group that performed there. For seeing is believing that only music with relevance to our atomic overlords and saviours is deemed worthy of our advanced cochleas.

Sykonee Prime found that fascinating and asked me to return from my time to review some music from The Oak Ridge Boys. “Whatever I can find,” I did say, “for a specifically cheaply amount of course.” Oh, such a naive idea – I had no clue just how extensive a discography The Oak Ridge Boys – in all their iterations – does have. But sure, I can play with myself.

And so it is with my logical but impractical alphabetical approach to reviewing music, up first is American Dreams. This was the last LP The Oak Ridge Boys released in the Nauty-Eighties, a decade that was as commercially successful as they'd ever be (back when such things mattered). Not all was right with the group though, as their iconic 'mountain man' tenor singer William Golden was off on a solo career, replaced by bass player Steve Sanders instead. He has a definite tenor singing voice, but just look at him in that group photo. Doesn't he stand out at odds with that mullet? What was wrong with people of the Nauty-Eighties?

By this point, the boys from near Oak Ridge were settled into a comfortable country sound, the odd gospel harmony thrown in. There's peppy tunes like Cajun Girl and Don't Give Up, humorous sap like If I Was To Start Crying (spoiler: they do at the end), covers of Rod Stewart songs (In My Own Crazy Way), ditties penned by Joey Scarbury (famous for the theme song of the documentary The Greatest American Hero), creeper fantasies in Bed Of Roses, and the mandated Americana odes like An American Family, Turning For Home, and The American Dream. I forget, did every American home have a painting of Jesus In The Garden hanging on the wall? Me memory ain't what it used to be, you know.

The KLF - The White Room

Arista: 1991

The White Room is a great album from a great band. Just kidding, The KLF were rather mediocre for most of their career. Their first release as The JAMMs sounded like a shit Scottish Beastie Boys. Really, they only had two things going for them: sticking it to the highfalutin record business, and knowing how to game the system to sell some fun pop tunes. Okay, they also may have been responsible for inventing a bunch of genres too, but anyone can do that. They simply made theirs super-popular with raving punters, inspiring legions of imitators and jock-riders.

Ha ha, kidding again; just busting some KLF Loving Fanboyz balls. Of course The White Room is a Very Important Album from a Very Important Band. It's the culmination of endless struggle from Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, a crowning achievement in pop chart success, proving their novelty hit Doctorin' The Tardis as The Timelords wasn't some fluke. Hell, they literally wrote the book on how to achieve such success, and then done did it again, proving The System is so very easily subverted if you make enough tea in the end. Tea is important, after all, in supplying you caffeinated confidence that your work is not for ought. I assume they drank generic black tea or Earl Grey or maybe even English Breakfast in the late evening. Personally, Green Tea does the trick for me, but that's due to my proximity with various Far East eateries: Japanese sushi bars, Chinese restaurants, Korean BBQ houses, and all the pho a fool can force down his pho-hole in an afternoon.

But The White Room as we got isn't what The KLF had in mind, initially intended to soundtrack an epic road trip movie. When early recordings and test footage proved unfavourable, however, those plans were scrapped, and the various sessions dumped onto the B-side of a regular record release. The A-side then cobbled together their recent singles (What Time Is Love?, 3am Eternal, Last Train To Trancentral) with a couple additional cuts from the initial White Room sessions, added a bunch of crowd noises, and created a mock mini-concert as the result (and thus 'Stadium House' was birthed).

Only Teenage Sykonee didn't get that either, American copies of The White Room further gutting the album due to copyright claims on said crowd samples. Apparently some of it came from a U2 album (!!), and that's a big no-no in the sampling department. On the other hand, my version of The White Room has the kick-ass Live From The Lost Continent version of Last Train To Trancentral, a tune in my youthful naivety eagerly showed to my father in hopes of proving to him that 'techno iz kewl!' “Sounds like disco,” he remarked with a smirk.

Oooh, that just wouldn't stand! 'Techno' is cowabunga-awesome, and disco is square-lame. I thus travelled in search of the mythical White Room on The Lost Continent to prove so. Let me tell you the tale of my exploits.

Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

Columbia: 1966/2004

The only Bob Dylan album you’re supposed to have, even if you’re not a Bob Dylan fan. That said, do not let this be your introduction to the guy’s work. Mind, I honestly don’t know how one’s supposed to properly take in Mr. Zimmerman’s work. Every Dylan disciple will claim all his ‘60s material is essential, while the ‘70s is good, except when it’s actually very bad, but he was being intentionally bad so it’s actually good. Not that ‘80s stuff though, that was just bad-bad. Dammit though, we only have time to listen to a couple albums in our super busy lives. What’s the absolute best-best album we’re supposed to have? Blonde On Blonde apparently, but that comes with a huge caveat as far as I’m concerned.

I’m by no means a Dylan expert – the fact I’m reviewing this album is by happenstance of a former owner’s contribution to my CD hoarding. I know the history though, the legacy, the influence he’s had on some of my favorite artists. I’ve heard the iconic songs and the loving tributes. But diving into all his music? Sorry, Neil Young’s filled my need for folkie-rocker protester musician. So take these thoughts with grainy sodium, because Blonde On Blonde strikes me as the sort of album one can only fully appreciate as someone thoroughly versed in Dylan’s discography, idiosyncrasies and all.

Many call this his opus, but I’m not hearing much more here that can’t be found on his other ‘electric’ records of the era. There’s definitely a lot more of it though, which is great if you can’t get enough of that clever lyricism and metaphorical storytelling his reputation’s made on. And boy, choosing those famous, unheralded Nashville session musicians when his New York recordings weren’t up to snuff was a brilliant move, the backing tracks fun and exuberant throughout. I just wish I could hear them better in the final mix.

Right, folks come to a Bob Dylan album to hear Bob Dylan doing Bob Dylan th’angs, but damn if his cadence doesn’t grate after a while. Yes, I know this iis just the waaay he sings some-times, which is fine in small doses. For the double-LP length of Blonde On Blonde though, I completely tune out in the back half, especially so for the eleven-minute closer Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands. There are some lovely words being sung, just not in the way they’re being sung, plus he recycles so many melodies from the first half, it’s like the album’s spinning wheels. And why on Earth is that harmonica so damn high and shrill, drowning out the awesome session musicians? It isn’t even all that good a’ blowin’.

By the end of it, Blonde On Blonde comes off like an endurance test for what you can get out of Dylan. If you’re totally down with ol’ Bob, every moment is mana. Methinks one need a little bracer of his other material before coming into this one though.

Willie Nelson - Collections

Columbia/Sony Music Entertainment: 1994/2004

This, above all else, is about as country as I'll ever get. Yeah, there's that Johnny Cash CD, but he always flirted with rock and blues too (why, he even, Walked The- *slap*). There's Neil Young too, but his country dalliances are incidental to his larger body of work, hardly representative of the music as a whole. Willie Nelson though, there's no escaping his roots, the guy about as country as country could cu-

I suppose if there's any particular style of the Western scene I can get behind, it's the “Outlaw Country” side of things. Along with Johnny and Willie, this also included Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson – a supergroup dubbing them The Highwaymen – offering a rebellious slant to the staunch traditionalism of Nashville. Other ‘outlaw’ sorts included Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser, and Hank Williams, Jr., and it gave country a much needed kick in the cajoles after so many years of the same ol’ twang. They cultivated an image of being out on the open road, away from the homestead, exploring the great untamed lands of America while longing for their one true love wherever she may be. Also, a lot of reckless substance consumption. That's probably why I decided I should get Willie Nelson's Collections, his lax stance on marijuana use an easy sell for a Sykonee who was still a little chronic in his life. Okay, and he has a sweet, soothing croon to go with his music, a kindly old uncle vibe that you look forward to seeing out on a ranch somewhere in Arizona.

Collections mostly covers Willie’s career from the mid-‘70s through the ‘80s, about when he adopted the grizzled, bearded hippie look we associate with him now. What, you thought he was like that right from the get-go? Hell no, mang, just take a gander at his album covers from the ‘60s. Guy looked about as preppy a country singer could back in those days, which I can’t help but wonder whether it was forced upon him by RCA. It might have explained that early ‘retirement’ as the ‘70s took hold. In any case, after a brief stint with Atlantic Records, he joined up with Columbia, completing this transformation to the outlaw crooner of yore and a’fore.

The music on Collections is vintage Willie. Um, I suppose. I don’t know jack about his songs. A couple I do recognize off here, like On The Road Again and Georgia On My Mind, probably heard in movies or other ‘best of’ showcases for Mr. Nelson’s material. A decent assortment of country is on here, from ballads (Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, Always On My Mind) to honky-tonk (Nothing I Can Do About It Now, City Of New Orleans), and songs with orchestrated production (My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, Living In The Promiseland). To my untrained ears though, these all just sound like country standards with Willie’s distinctive voice singing. Considering many of these are covers, maybe that’s all there is to it.