The LP apex of hillbilly music
5
By Bbopsw
Simply one of the greatest albums ever recorded, and easily the single finest country offering. 5 stars is an insult. Billy Joe Shavers stunningly evocative lyrical flourishes, drowning in working class pathos, converge with Waylon's easy as the summer breeze - Evan Williams soaked vocals (over a gritty yet adroit band, highlighted by the pedal-steel work of Mooney the great) to pass gorgeously beyond the trappings of the Nashville 3x5 card. This album is the great game changer that saved the genre from interloping, egomaniacal producers. If I have one complaint (dare I?) it's the producer (or whomever) who does a wonderful job capturing the essence of this mans talents yet faids the instrumentals out at the end of 3 songs, just as they are really making sparks fly (there is a fiddle vs pedal stell battle that is criminally truncated). I cannot imagine a human (a creature endowed with a soul) who could dislike this masterpiece, where all the elements seemed to meet and cooperate in time.
