Australian reissue label, Raven Records have been kind to Jerry Jeff Walker, and previous to this compilation four releases available. This time Raven trawl through his work on five major labels, 15 albums (1968-1982) for the 39 tracks, and I can tell you there are some treasures. Jerry Jeff Walker is at his best, lots of swagger, loose free wheeling, Texas propelled honky tonk barroom country fare. New York-born Walker (Ronald Clyde Crosby) started his career in music as a folk troubadour, busking in the likes of New Orleans, Florida, Canada, Greenwich Village, California and Texas, prior to adopting country music as his forte, and the Lone Star State as his home.
As you would expect it is wall-to-wall with treasures, and though he has made an album or two since, good ones they were too on his Tried & True label this is where the energy, and spontaneity is. Walker was right at the hub of the Texas Outlaw movement, breaking down barriers, drawing a new younger audience to country music through his live life in the moment.
Opening with his biggest song “Mr. Bojangles” to work on through to the likes of covers of Rodney Crowell’s “I Ain’t Livin’ Like This”, Guy Clark’s “Comfort And Crazy” and Butch Hancock’s barroom ode “Suckin’ On A Bottle Of Gin” by way of another of Butch's songs, arguably one of he best of its time “Standin’ At the Big Hotel” to go with Walker’s own, beautiful, and utterly timeless “Morning Song For Sally” the collection is littered with genuine all-time classics. As in his crucial version of unique tunesmith and vocalist Tom Waits’ “(Looking For) The Heart Of A Saturday Night”, and with a gritty, laconic feel on one, and wry humour the other Clark’s “That Old Time Feeling” and “L.A Freeway” respectively, unerringly hit mark.
It doesn’t stop there, as Jerry Jeff’s own “Hill Country Rain” and free as Texas’ famed wild blue norther “Charlie Dunn” is joined by Ray Wylie Hubbard’s anthem “Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mother” and another of the same ilk “Gettin’ By”. On becoming melancholy, reflective ode “Couldn’t Do Nothin’ Right” shuffles right along with them. There’s more too as in his version of Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings”, and with his band, The Lost Gonzo Band he gets all funky as he parties on “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance”, and couldn’t let this review going without endorsing Jerry Jeff’s chilling “Someday I’ll Get Out Of These Bars” and with a Jimmy Buffett-esque feel “It’s A Good Night For Singin’ it catches JJ and the boys in party mood (for more just go and but the release). Something they were apt at doing, and became petty good at it too. For the record, the LGB included such fine singer-songwriters Gary P. Nunn, Bob Livingston and John Inmon.
Maurice Hope