Tex Ritter "Songs of the Golden West" (1961)

Songs of the Golden West

release date: 1961

format: vinyl (SREG 1001) (1966 reissue)

[album rate: 2 / 5] [2,18]

producer: Lee Gillette

label: Regal - nationality: USA

Studio album by Tex Ritter originally titled Hillbilly Heaven and released in 1961 by Capitol Records. Already in '61, the album was issued with the title Songs of the Golden West in New Zealand, also with the same cover as this UK reissue. This version was again reissued in '69 in Australia and in the UK, now with a new cover, and another issue with the title Deck of Cards was also reissued in the UK. All of these different issues, however, has the same tracklisting as the original album from 1961.

The album was part of my parents' record collection, and I only got this after my dad's passing in 2016. I don't recall this from my childhood, and I think my dad purchased this at some point during the 1990s at a time when he had begun listening to country music and especially the music by Willie Nelson and Jim Reeves.

"The Best of Country and West" (1967)

The Best of Country and West, compilation

release date: 1967

format: vinyl

[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

producer: ?

label: RCA Victor - nationality: Germany

Compilation album of classic country songs in a German pressing. The album comes with various different covers, and it was originally released in Germany only. Later it has been issued for the Dutch, the Italian, Swiss, and Norwegian markets.

This particular issue was part of my parents' record collection, and I recall playing this at age 6-10 years old on a portable turntable. At an early age, it was actually one of my favourite albums. It's not that country music as such was something my parents listened much to - perhaps I really enjoyed this because I also happened to really like watching western movies. I still recall a few of my then favourite tracks: #A1. Charley Pride "Detroit City", #A3. Hank Snow "The Golden Rocket", #A6. George Hamilton IV "Steel Rail Blues", #A7. Skeeter Davis "The End of the World", #B2. Norma Jean "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind", and #B4. Floyd Cramer "Hey Good Lookin' ".

~ ~ ~

This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.

Neil Young "A Letter Home" (2014)

A Letter Home
release date: Apr. 19, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Jack White and Neil Young
label: Third Man / Reprise Records - nationality: Canada

Track highlights: 1. "A Letter Home Intro" - 2. "Changes" (live) - 3. "Girl From the North Country" - 4. "Needle of Death" - 5. "Early Morning Rain" (live) - 7. "Reason to Believe" - 9. "If You Could Read My Mind" - 12. "I Wonder If I Care as Much"

34th studio album by Neil Young released on Jack White's label Third Man Records and recorded using a 1947 recording booth-device named Voice-O-Graph, which in the day (would be found all over the country up until the 1970s) was introduced to the ordinary man as a possibility to record his / her own record of a message or song directly onto vinyl. This particular device has been re-established at White's Nashville headquarter of Third Man Records, and the whole album has been recorded using the technique of the Voice-O-Graph.
I think, one has to dig into the idea behind this album to fully be able to appreciate it. Against his normal writing process, Young has covered familiar and classic songs by various artists of various styles and decades including artists like The Everly Brothers, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch and Bruce Springsteen. Most of the tracks are played solely by Young playing guitar, harmonica and piano. Jack White contribute on guitar, piano and with backing vocals on two tracks. Because of the recording process, all tracks have been recorded in one take and without any post-processing, i.e. without dubbing, mixing, mastering, and any normal post-production methods, which has its obvious limitations but also a unique form and strength. The songs are country, traditional folk and singer / songwriter material and the most apparent common denominator is naturally the sound of the recordings, and Young's fragile vocal. The scratchy and narrow tone could be experienced as annoying but the result is more an album with a strong historical message and something genuine. Young's force with just a guitar and harmonica at hand is something that will forever live on and follow his legacy, and that is here only once again underlined. The best songs here are perhaps the strongest "natural" sources of inspiration found on this for Neil Young - as he explains in his phone-call intro to "Reason to Believe", he explains his mother that he and Jack [Jack White] have discovered some of the original songs, he used to sing.
A Letter Home is a homage to ancient days, lost values, and a reminder of what it takes to make music: great songs, and it's not a necessity to have 56 tracks available in a million-dollar studio with all the right producers and mixers to make an album worthwhile. Even nowadays. It's an album that would serve well as introduction to all contemporary pop and rap artists. Listen and learn - and: skip most of your recording tracks and cut down to the essence!
The idea and the songs together make this a nice and warm album and then the narrowness in the production sound also showcase natural limitations - its perhaps like treasuring a vintage wine from a specific fine year - it's there to look at and to talk about but as for drinking with pleasure... Of course this is for listening but for hours and day after day, I guess you have to be more than just a bit nostalgic. The whole album is not Young at his most vivid and utmost inspiring but nonetheless it has great moments and it's one of his better studio releases since Silver & Gold (2000) and consequently it's an album worth more than just a quick glance. In Young's late career this serves as a recommended listen.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young International Harvesters "A Treasure" (2011)

A Treasure [Archival] (live)
release date: Jun. 10, 2011
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]
producer: Neil Young & Ben Keith
label: Reprise Records - nationality: Canada

Track highlights: 11. "Nothing Is Perfect" - 12. "Grey Riders"

A live album by Neil Young released as Neil Young International Harvesters features live recordings from his 1984-1985 U.S. tour with the International Harvesters, and it's volume nine in Young's "Archives Performance Series" and the sixth to be released. The material is a blend of old familiar songs, newer ones and previously unreleased material all played in the style of country rock.
One could suspect Young from having landed in a track where he's 'obligated' to release a new album every year now time is ticking away. Sure, it's not going faster, but Neil may have come across the thought that he he doesn't have his life in front of him anymore. So when he doesn't feel like releasing brand new material, he can always turn to his "Archives".
I think, it's great that he wants to share all that filed material of his, but it does make it strange to sit down and be forced to think some 30 years back and think: "how good was it then?" vs. "how good is it today?" And regardless the answer be able to acknowledge these recordings from a contemporary point of view considering time, quality and legitimacy.
In the early and mid 1980s Young seemed lost. He bounced from one style to another trying to be modern or contemporary enough to keep up and still be popular or worthwhile. And he failed time after time releasing the albums Hawks & Doves, Re-ac-tor, Trans, Everybody's Rockin', Old Ways and Landing on Water - all unsuccessfully. Is this his way of returning to his dark(est) ages by pointing out that he stood firm and still played great songs? We can't really tell. But listening to the songs here I find it difficult to greet these country rock songs as "A Treasure" to pay tribute to. We've really heard this dozen times or more (or more), and no matter when, I don't really like Young's country rock. Period. Yes, when he played After the Gold Rush and Harvest it made sense, but not in the mid 80s or today. It doesn't contain memorable stuff and it's not good.
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Chris Isaak "Heart Shaped World" (1989)

Heart Shaped World
release date: Jun. 13, 1989
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Erik Jacobsen
label: Reprise Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Heart Shaped World" - 5. "Wicked Game" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "Blue Spanish Sky" (4 / 5) - 8. "Forever Young" - 9. "Nothing's Changed"

3rd studio album by Chris Isaak is a strong album with his own blend of rock & roll, rockabilly, americana and with clear country elements. The album was the first I discovered by Isaak, and I still consider it one of his absolute best.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Sputnik Music 4 / 5 stars ]

Ry Cooder "Boomer's Story" (1972)

Boomer's Story
release date: Nov. 1972
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Jim Dickinson, Lenny Waronker
label: Reprise Records - nationality: USA

3rd studio album by Ry Cooder who keeps to his roots rock combining with americana. It's really impressive how this young-less-than-25-yo man sounds like a mature cowboy doing the blues of his life. This is just as impressive as his 2nd album, Into the Purple Valley (also 1972).
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Ry Cooder "Into the Purple Valley" (1972)

Into the Purple Valley
release date: Feb. 1972
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Jim Dickinson, Van Dyke Parks, Lenny Waronker
label: Reprise Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 3. "Money Honey" - 4. "F.D.R. in Trinidad" - 5. "Teardrops Will Fall" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "On A Monday" - 8. "Hey Porter" - 11. "Vigilante Man"

2nd studio album by Ry Cooder is an even bolder return to the heart of sources to contemporary rock. He interprets Agnes Cunningham, Leadbelly, Johnny Cash, and Woody Guthrie, and a number of other artists who made music in the earliest decades of the century. I have never been a great fan of the blues, traditional rhythm & blues nor country, but one has to hand it to Cooder: he does a fabulous job in making this music live again, and the album has an authenticity and genuine quality that simply came in smaller dozes on his debut. At the point of recording the album Cooder is 22 years old but mostly just sounds like a mature man with a long and lively life behind him.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young "Unplugged" (1993) (live)

Unplugged (live)
release date: Jun. 15, 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Tracklist: 1. "The Old Laughing Lady" (3,5 / 5) - 2. "Mr. Soul" - 3. "World on a String" (3,5 / 5) - 4. "Pocahontas" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Stringman" - 6. "Like a Hurricane" (4 / 5) - 7. "The Needle and the Damage Done" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Helpless" - 9. "Harvest Moon" (4 / 5) - 10. "Transformer Man" (2 / 5) - 11. "Unknown Legend" (4 / 5) - 12. "Look Out for My Love" - 13. "Long May You Run" (3,5 / 5) - 14. "From Hank to Hendrix" (3,5 / 5)

Neil live on MTV. Of course he did an 'unplugged' album in the '90s like all major artists in those days. The album is again like a documentation of his live abilities. This time it's almost unassisted, just Neil and his instruments, whether he accompanies himself on guitar, harmonica, banjo, organ, or on piano. It's a fine collection of songs but some of the tracks are found in better versions on other live releases, i.e. his gigantic song "Like a Hurricane" is not the best version recorded but it's fine to hear him in a totally different and very condensed version.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions "Almost Blue" (1981)

Almost Blue
release date: Oct. 23, 1981
format: cd (1994 remaster Extended Play)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Billy Sherrill
label: Demon Records - nationality: England, UK

6th studio album by Elvis Costello and his fourth consecutive album with The Attractions is an album of country covers recorded in Nashville, USA with producer Billy Sherill.
The '94 Extended Play version almost doubles the number of songs with its 23 tracks (the original album contains 12 songs) of which seven are live recordings (five from a concert in Aberdeen '81, one from The Palomino Club, Hollywood '79, and one live track from Royal Albert Hall, London '82.
The album was a hard one to swallow by critics and fans, I guess. Costello selected a bunch of songs that were not sheer hit-singles but still were classic country songs, and he may have felt he could do anything he wanted, so he turned to a style and genre, he had not yet excelled in. Also, the genre was perfect when considering his troubled private life with a wife and kid at home, and his ongoing relationships with new lovers on top of drug addiction issues.
Costello had been a success from the start and it's no wonder he thought he could do anything. But in restrospect, I don't think of this as one of his better albums.

Btw. the front cover is with reference to the 1963 album Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell.
[ allmusic.com, Blender, Mojo, Uncut 4 / 5, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine 3 / 5 stars ]

Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" (1998)

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
release date: Jun. 30, 1998
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,77]
producer: The Twangtrust et al.
label: Mercury Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Right in Time" - 2. "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" - 3. "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten" (4 / 5) - 4. "Drunken Angel" - 5. "Concrete and Barbed Wire" - 8. "I Lost It"

5th studio album by American country rocker Lucinda Williams follows six full years after her most recent studio album Sweet Old World, which in '92 was regarded as a breakthrough album and which eventually took her from smaller independent label of Chameleon Records to Mercury and also to widespread critical acclaim. The album is produced by 'The Twangtrust' aka Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy, co-produced by Lucinda Williams, and with Roy Bittan credited additional recording and production. The album has of 2015 not yet been issued on vinyl.
Now, although country isn't really my style, I find this more than quite good. And then it's not really classic country, nor is it a Johnny-Cash-kind-of-country but more of an updated and electrified version centered around country music with added blues, folk rock, singer / songwriter, roots rock, and with hints of americana, which ultimately makes it a more than just interesting cocktail. The themes are typical to the root genre but the lyrics appear mature, contemporary, and personal. And then, Lucinda has a really original singing style building on rusty tones with blue notes.
Admittedly, this was my first encounter with the music by Williams but it opened up the door to her discography, and it feels like a small revelation to someone who hasn't had the most positive view on country. Needless say, the genre is so wide and open for variations that you cannot exclude it on an excuse of prejudice, and since I'm already familiar with other artists who have excelled on the outskirts of the genre, this album has made me more curious to the whole genre as such.
Car Wheels on Gravel Road was met by universal acclaim, and it was nominated a number of prizes as well as been enlisted in various best of lists including "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone, and it's enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 5 / 5, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young "Harvest Moon" (1992)

Harvest Moon
release date: Oct. 27, 1992
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,55]

Tracklist: 1. "Unknown Legend" (4 / 5) - 2. "From Hank to Hendrix" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "You and Me" (3,5 / 5) - 4. "Harvest Moon" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "War of Man" (3 / 5) - 6. "One of These Days" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Such a Woman" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Old King" (3 / 5) - 9. "Dreamin' Man" (4 / 5) - 10. "Natural Beauty" (3 / 5)

20th studio album release by Neil Young (excluding live albums, soundtracks, and compilations, and therefore maybe actually his 30th album release), and it's a long look back and a return to the past. It's like a sequel to Harvest both as the title suggests and in style, but also in personnel, as most of the musicians on his 1972 album (exclusive Crosby, Stills & Nash) appear on this. The title track is a born Neil Young classic and the album gained much recognition for it's natural continuation of the fine acoustic albums Harvest, and Comes a Time.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young "Old Ways" (1985)

Old Ways
release date: Aug. 12, 1985
format: cd (2000 reissue)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,27]
producer: Neil Young, David Briggs, Ben Keith and Elliot Mazer
label: Geffen Records, USA - nationality: Canada

Track highlight(s): 5. "Misfits"

14th studio album by Neil Young and two years since the most recent Young album, which is almost a rare thing. The lawsuit conflict of 1984 with Geffen was a troublesome issue, and now, with that behind him Young releases an album the record label couldn't claim not characteristic for a Neil Young release. Both Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson feature on several tracks, and this is mostly sheer country but... and there is a 'but' 'cause this is not as one might have hoped for with the presence of classic Neil Young singer / songwriter folk rock. This is simply country only - meaning no rock. At least he has written almost all songs again, but really, I think Jennings and Nelson are better in the traditional Hank Williams genre when it comes to genuine country, and I don't think that's where Neil Young performs the best. So, enough violins, fiddles, lap steel guitars, banjos and vocal harmonies. This is just another minor work by Neil Young, and a continued low profile in the 1980s. I don't really enjoy this album and basically find it below mediocre.
This album is not recommended.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Live Rust" (1979) (live)

Live Rust (live)
release date: Nov. 1979
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Released as Neil Young & Crazy Horse this is another live album, and originally a double vinyl issue. Compared to Rust Never Sleeps this is the music of his great career, both as soloist and with Crazy Horse, and in that respect it is a 'must-have'. The album starts out with a track he wrote in the late 1960s before going solo, followed by a song for Buffalo Springfield, "I Am a Child", also a track from the '60s, and in that way the album continues on a journey up until his most recent songs. In one way it resembles Rust Never Sleeps, and that's how the album is split up in an acoustic start and an electrified ending, only here it's only the first 5 songs, side A on vinyl, that are (slow) acoustic and the rest, which is 11 tracks that make up side B, C, and D on the double lp version, are electrified folk rock compositions.

Neil Young "Comes a Time" (1978)

Comes a Time
release date: Sep. 29, 1978
format: cd (1993 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,63]
producer: Neil Young; Tim Mulligan; Ben Keith; David Briggs
label: Reprise Records, Germany - nationality: Canada

Track highlights: 1. "Goin' Back" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Look Out for My Love" - 4. "Lotta Love" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Peace of Mind" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "Human Highway" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Already One" (4,5 / 5)

9th studio album by Neil Young is a solo release, and often when he's on his own, he turns to his roots of country and folk, and that's not my preferable cup 'o tea. The singer / songwriter folk songs are the best but there's simply too much Hank Williams in some of the weaker tracks - e.g. "Human Highway" and "Field of Opportunity" for my liking. Having said that, it's also a return to the "golden days" of his first solo albums and the album could easily be a natural follower to Harvest (1972), and it do contain some truly great songs. Crazy Horse feature on tracks #3 and #4 (produced by David Briggs) and there's plenty of artists helping out on this, although, it sounds rather quiet.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young "American Stars 'n Bars" (1977)

American Stars 'n Bars
release date: Jun. 20, 1977
format: cd (2003 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: David Briggs & Neil Young with Tim Mulligan
label: Reprise Records - nationality: Canada

Track highlights: 1. "The Old Country Waltz" - 5. "Bite the Bullet" - 7. "Will to Love" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Like a Hurricane" (5 / 5)

8th studio album by Neil Young is actually a really strange collection of songs, and a bit of a 'weird' release. It contains tracks with Crazy Horse and The Bullets recorded over a period of almost 30 months, which explains the variety of songs, but what makes it strange, is its style. Some songs are pure country and country folk with fiddle and banjo, whereas others are electrified folk rock / blues rock and strong songs, but stylistically far from other tracks. The recordings stretch back to sessions around the Zuma album. Whether or not it's the case, some tracks could be left-overs that didn't make it on that album, or were excluded from Tonight's the Night, and other tracks seem more associated with Young re-connecting with his old friend Stephen Stills - again, explaining the country references. Apparently, five of the tracks on the album were intended for an unreleased album Chrome Dreams, and two tracks for another unreleased album, Homegrown, which included several tracks that were released with Tonight's the Night.
The most memorable track is the giant "Like a Hurricane" - a true modern classic, which is the album's biggest asset. Some of the songs date back to 1974 and feature Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on vocals, some songs are band material and others only feature Neil on harmonica and acoustic guitar. It's really too much of a blend but on the other hand it does contain really fine single tracks. Basically, it's more like a compilation album. My initial feelings about it had me think of it as a minor and negligible work, but it has grown on me after some time. Perhaps, just because the tracks are quite good on their own.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars, Rolling Stone review ]

First Aid Kit "The Lion's Roar" (2012)

The Lion's Roar [debut]
release date: Jan. 12, 2012
format: digital (10 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,55]
producer: Mike Mogis
label: Wichita Recordings - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "The Lion's Roar" - 2. "Emmylou" (4 / 5) (live at Polar Music Prize 2015) - 4. "Blue" - 6. "To a Poet" - 7. "I Found a Way" - 10. "King of the World"

2nd studio album by Swedish sister-duo First Aid Kit consisting of Johanna & (younger sister) Klara Söderberg.
This was the first album I listened to with the duo - initially, I only found it little original with its obvious copy of American-styled music of another era but along the way it's a fine celebration of style that hasn't been treated in the most positive manner in the past decades. The debut album The Big Black & the Blue (Jan. 2010) reveals more of purer and simplistic folk with attempts in bridging classic American folk tradition with vocal a capella harmonies. In this regard, The Lion's Roar is the duo's first obvious country AND folk album with a bolder classic line-up, still centered around the duo's vocal harmonies but with better worked-through arrangements, and it's really no wonder this signalled a major international breakthrough.
Recommended.
[ The Guardian 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,6 / 10, 👉Rolling Stone, 👍PopMatters 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Neil Young "Harvest" (1972)

Harvest
release date: Feb. 25, 1972
format: cd (1989 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,02]
producer: Neil Young & Elliot Mazer; Henry Lewy; Jack Nitzsche
label: Reprise Records, Germany - nationality: Canada

Tracklist: 1. "Out on the Weekend" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Harvest" (4 / 5) - 3. "A Man Needs a Maid" (3,5 / 5) - 4. "Heart of Gold" (5 / 5) - 5. "Are You Ready for the Country?" - 6. "Old Man" (4 / 5) - 7. "There's a World" - 8. "Alabama" - 9. "The Needle and the Damage Done" (4 / 5) - 10. "Words (Between the Lines of Age)" (3,5 / 5)

4th studio album by Neil Young is another essential release by Young in his early solo career. The style is more laid-back with its country rock / folk rock, and the studio personnel on the album were The Stray Gators (Ben Keith, Jack Nitzsche, Kenny Buttrey, Spooner Oldham, Tim Drummond) with backing vocals by David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Linda Ronstadt, and two tracks feature The London Symphony Orchestra. The album was made without the Crazy Horse members, which underlines the fact that it's more folk than rock.
The track "The Needle and the Damage Done" is Young's experience with drug addiction in the aftermath of several friends' and artists' deaths as results of heroin abuse. It's also a remark to Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse, who had a serious drug abuse, and Young also wrote the song as a warning. Whitten died later in November that year.
The album is naturally enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". I don't find it as great as his two previous albums, but having said this, Harvest is still near essential.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Johnny Cash & June Carter "If I Were a Carpenter" (1969) (single)

If I Were a Carpenter, 7'' single

release date: Dec. 1969

format: vinyl (1970 reissue)

[single rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]

producer: Bob Johnston

label: CBS - nationality: USA

Tracklis: A) "If I Were a Carpenter" (4 / 5) (live) - - B) " 'Cause I Love You"

Single by Johnny Cash & June Carter taken from the album Hello, I'm Johnny Cash (Dec. 1969).

The single was part of my parents' record collection, and I got this with a bunch of other singles and lps at some point in the mid to late 1970s.

~ ~ ~

This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.