Artist: George Jones
Column from web archive December 11, 2008
Deck the halls with boxes and reissues
The woeful economy, declining record sales and lessening of shelf space have all contributed to the decline of the box set, those expensive, overpadded exercises in nostalgia and redundancy that were once the ultimate in musical gift-giving. This year’s crop of box sets, anthologies, reissues and nostalgia set pieces offers up some keepers, as well [...]
Column from web archive October 3, 2008
Long Live the King…of Broken Hearts
A belated Happy Birthday is in order here for George Jones, who turned 77 on September 12. May you celebrate many, many more, George. Jones, of course, has been widely recognized, and for quite some time now, as country music’s greatest singer ever. So it’s odd that, while country singers still all but continuously bow [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
George Jones – She Thinks I Still Care: The Complete United Artists Recordings, 1962-1964
George Jones’ brief stint at United Artists is sometimes cited as a kind of personal golden age for the singer, and it’s easy to see why. He recorded some of his signature hits for the label — “The Race Is On”, “She Thinks I Still Care” — and it was at United Artists, too, that [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #70 July-August 2007
George Jones – The Grand Tour
By 1974, George Jones had already had quite the volatile career — riding high on a long string of top-10 hits, being reduced to living in his car outside of Jasper, Texas, and hitting every conceivable point between. The ’70s opened with mostly misses for Jones, including releases with his new and equally famous wife [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #67 Jan-Feb 2007
George Jones And Merle Haggard – Kickin Out The Footlights…Again
Their first collaboration came in 1982 with the Yesterday’s Wine album, and much has happened since. Today both George Jones and Merle Haggard are in the Country Music Hall of Fame. They’ve confronted major health issues, substance problems, and 1990s Nashville. Back then, new blood from Music Row paid them ample lip service; they continued [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #64 July-Aug 2006
George Jones – Hits I Missed…And One I Didn’t
In the tradition of his 1962 album Sings The Hits Of His Country Cousins, this disc finds George Jones tackling a dozen favorites made famous by others. He didn’t really “miss” all these hits — “Here In The Real World” and “On The Other Hand” weren’t pitched to him first in the first place — [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #62 Mar-Apr 2006
George Jones & Gene Pitney – The Complete ’60s Duets
Of all George Jones’ more-than-one-shot duet partners, pop star Gene Pitney seems the least likely. Don’t let those Bacharach/David-penned western ballads (“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, “24 Hours To Tulsa”) fool ya; the Connecticut-raised doo-wop fan knew next to nothing about country. But in 1965 they both were on Musicor; Boss Pappy Daily put [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #58 July-Aug 2005
George Jones – My Very Special Guests
In 1979, George Jones was better known among non-country fans than at any time in his, at that point, quarter-century career. But not for his singing. Unlike chart contemporaries Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard and Ray Price, he’d never scored a crossover hit to speak of. No, Jones’ notoriety was as a fixture of [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #51 May-June 2004
George Jones – Live Recordings From the Louisiana Hayride
In a recording career that hit the half-century mark this year, it’s hard to think of George Jones as the “jumpin’ type fella” Louisiana Hayride emcee Horace Logan described while introducing him on June 23, 1956. The “Thumper Jones” rockabilly discs notwithstanding, Jones rarely made his mark as a jumper. Indeed, he’d spend less than [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #46 July-Aug 2003
George Jones – The Gospel Collection
Those who’ve come to George Jones late in the game may not be aware of his long tradition of gospel recordings. They’ve certainly been eclipsed by his dissolute years, when Epic Records producer Billy Sherrill chronicled Jones’ booze and coke-fueled fall into an abyss. But gospel was part of Jones’ musical lexicon from the start. [...]
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