CD Odyssey Disc 1616: Okkervil River

This week I bought Wil Sheff’s solo album and, as though on cue, the dice gods rolled me up one of his albums with the band Okkervil River. Here it is!

Disc 1616 is…Down the River of Golden Dreams

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2003

What’s up with the Cover?  If this is what takes place on the River of Golden Dreams I’d hate to see what happens on the river of Silver Nightmares.

Today’s event on the river features an octopus so aggressively devouring some dude that his face is pressing through its skin like some kind of rubber mask from hell.

Or maybe this is not a predatory attack but just what this half-man/half-octopus creature looks like as it wanders the waves looking for people to horrify with its visage.

Consider me horrified.

How I Came To Know It: I have been an Okkervil River fan for years, but had always thought their discography started with 2005’s “Black Sheep Boy”. Not so! There were two albums prior, and “Down the River of Golden Dreams” was the second. I discovered this when I saw a used copy of it for sale at my local record store. I bought it and hoped for the best and…here we are.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine full length Okkervil River albums, which is all of them, not including the previously mentioned Will Sheff solo album. I also have two EPs. Of the nine LPs, this one fits neatly into a 5,6,7, run with “The Silver Gymnasium” (6) and “Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See” (7). It is a photo finish but I’m giving the tie to “Down the River…” because of one song, which we’ll visit in detail below.

Rating: 3 stars

You either love or hate Wil Sheff’s mournful warble. If you like it, then there is a good chance you’ll do what I did and dig back through Okkervil River’s catalogue and unearthed every single early gem – including his sophomore album, “Down the River of Golden Dreams”.

This is proto-Okkervil River. The pure stuff, pre-Black Sheep Boy when they became the darling of the obscure indie folk-rock set (well, one of the darlings). I do not profess to know them then, and so I explored this record from the perspective of someone who started at the sea and went exploring upriver from there.

From this perspective, this record feels relatively stripped down and stark, even though it is anything but. On the contrary, much of “Down the River…” is atmospheric and full of sound. Even on moody tracks like “For the Enemy” when the song is mostly Sheff, an organ and a bit of drum, there is a fullness to this sound that envelopes you. Later the song adds a bit of soft guitar but even then everything has space in between, and yet…not. There’s room, yes, but each instrument reverberates and washes over the others without creating interference.

As with other Okkervil River records, the band tells tales from the varied perspectives of characters. Sometimes it feels autobiographical, but more often than not it is Sheff descending deep into another person so completely you lose him. With the ghostly quality to his voice, it is easy to imagine it keens across a graveyard, telling other people’s stories long gone into time or distance.

One such tale, “The War Criminal Rises and Speaks” is one of Okkervil River’s most compelling and troubling songs. The story is of a person who committed heinous war crimes while trying to survive some terrible never-defined conflict zone. It starts quiet and slow, and you can imagine the titular character’s chair scraping the floor as he rises to tell his tale. At no point does he defend his crimes, but he does challenge the listener to understand and see him as a person:

“Now he's rising and not denying.
His hands are shaking, but he's not crying.
And he's saying "How did I climb
out of a life so boring into that moment?
Please stop ignoring the heart inside,
oh you readers at home!
While you gasp at my bloody crimes,
please take the time
to make your heart my home”

It is a big ask, coming so soon after a visceral telling of his terrible deeds, and as Sheff sings it his vocals rise in both tone and emotional intensity.

On their previous record, Okkervil River takes on the persona of a child murderer in “Westfall”. In that song, the killer is unrepentant and resigned to their own evil, but here the narrator calls for mercy, and leaves the listener with a heap of conflict, as you process the complexities of justice and mercy, rage and empathy. It is a hell of a journey.

The album ends with “Seas Too Far To Reach” which has a country honky-tonk feel. After all the angst of the ten songs that precede it, appears to be a perfect palate cleanser, but listen closely and you’ll pick up dying parent themes, depression and a desperate need for love and connection. In that way, it is the perfect summation of the record, which sways gently on the surface, but invites all sorts of complexity if you have the fortitude to dive in.

Best tracks: It Ends With a Fall, For the Enemy, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks, Dead Faces, Seas Too Far To Reach

CD Odyssey Disc 1615: Van Halen

After a lovely night of listening to music with friends I awoke late this morning, but not too late to squeeze in this review before the NFL playoffs resume.

Not all albums that are ‘new to me’ are newly released, and such is the case with this next record, which I had little time for back in 1982, but more now that my musical tastes have grown more diverse. How much more? Read on and find out.

Disc 1615 is…Diver Down

Artist: Van Halen

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover?  When used in marine navigation, this literally means “there is a diver down – please go slowly and cautiously so you don’t behead them with your prop”.

How I Came To Know It: I knew this album dating back to house parties in high school, but never liked it much. However, there was now enough time and distance for me to give it another chance. In this case, that chance came when my friend Ross gave me this copy as a gift. Thanks, Ross!

How It Stacks Up: I have two Van Halen albums – this one and their eponymous debut. I put “Diver Down” in at #2.

Rating: 2 stars

Listening to Diver Down made me wonder if maybe I should take the easy way out and buy a Van Halen “Greatest Hits” package and forego this fool’s errand to love their studio records. Van Halen is a good band at times, but no matter how killer a few tracks are, a full record reveals a band that thinks themselves much better than they are. It is a high opinion rarely supported by facts.

“Diver Down” starts with one of the album’s best tunes. “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?” has everything that makes a signature Van Halen tune great. There is a crunch guitar riff that digs in deep, and makes you want to shake your tousled eighties hair about. There is David Lee Roth’s lascivious showman singing (starting with the almost requisite “woo!” and descending into his sexy ringmaster delivery).

The song’s topic is also the core of Van Halen, a lot of “let’s party”, the question in the song’s title being answered with a definitive, “whatever house that is playing this ‘devil may care’ rock and roll!”  At least this was true in high school, and years later it still has that effect, even when I was just listening while stuck in traffic.

“Where Have All the Good Times Gone?” is a Kinks’ cover, as is the other awesome song on the record, Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman”. This version out-rock’s the Orbison original, as it drips with sexual innuendo, and converts Orbison’s “sitting on the boardwalk watching all the girls go by” vibe into more of a “barely tolerable construction site” scene.

After this, there isn’t a lot for me to hang my hat on with this record. The original compositions are well-played and sung with gusto by master showman Roth, but the tunes themselves are mostly forgettable.

There are three instrumentals on the record, “Cathedral”, “Intruder” and “Little Guitars (intro)” and all are insufferably infused with the band’s overblown opinion of themselves, none more so than Eddie Van Halen. “Cathedral” where he tries to make a guitar sound like an organ. He succeeds but left me wondering why he fucking bothered. If I wanted a guitar to be dripping in effects until it didn’t sound like a guitar, I’d listen to U2, where at least it is done within the larger structure of a good tune.

“Intruder” is aimless noodle and feedback. Its only redeeming feature is it slides seamlessly into the brilliant “(Oh) Pretty Woman” but make no mistake, where the Orbison tune takes over is where the tune gets good, and not before.

And finally there is “Little Guitars (intro)” which is Eddie Van Halen’s version of “Lick My Love Pump” which is supposed to be some kind of high artistry with a flamenco flair, but is trapped within Eddie’s inescapable need to demonstrate how fast and technical he can play. Bored now.

On the plus side, the album’s best original composition, “Little Guitars,” immediately follows it, and reminds you why this band has been so enduring. There is some dope guitar on “Little Guitars” with Eddie channeling his inner Pete Townsend to good effect.

There are some great moments but I was too often annoyed to ever put this on as a comprehensive listening experience. Because of this I’m going to have to part with it and pass it back where I got it, or failing that, to a more deserving home than mine.

Best tracks: Where Have All the Good Times Gone?, (Oh) Pretty Woman, Little Guitars

CD Odyssey Disc 1614: Melissa McClelland

Greetings, Gentle Reader, and apologies for my prolonged absence. It has been one hell of a busy week. However today, encouraged by my lovely wife Sheila, I left work at a reasonable enough hour to write a music review before my mental pumpkin bursts.

If the end of this review is an unfinished sentence that trails away in ellipses you’ll know my pumpkin burst after all. Should that happen, please take comfort knowing that my last conscious act was to ensure the punctuation was evocative.

Disc 1614 is…Victoria Day

Artist: Melissa McClelland

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover?  Melissa’s Giant Head, in profile. I see her hair is a bit be-“fowled” however. Get it? Get it?

Man, I crack myself up.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember. It might have been through Luke Doucet, to their shared project (“Whitehorse”) or maybe some other order. I was so uncertain about the origin I checked the last entry (almost three years ago) and discovered…I couldn’t remember then either.

Whatever the case, I am certain this was my first Melissa McClelland solo album so that’s um…something.

Hey, life is full of uncertainties, but it is also full of music, which is really why we’re here, so let’s just move on.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Melissa McClelland albums and “Victoria Day” comes in right in the middle at #2. Since this is my last album by her, here’s a full accounting:

1. Thumbelina’s One Night Stand: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1360)
2. Victoria Day: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Stranded in Suburbia: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 1348)

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

What happens when a woman with the heart of a folk singer decides to don the mantle of a fifties crooner? Good things. “Victoria Day” is Melissa McClelland’s last solo album before taking up fulltime with hubby Luke Doucet as one half of the band “Whitehorse”. She goes out on top, with a record that is more stylistically limited than 2006’s “Thumbelina’s One Night Stand” but nearly its equal.

In retrospect, “limited” is an unfair comparison. It would be more accurate to say that “Victoria Day” is stylistically focused. The record still has elements of folk, pop, jazz and all the other odds and ends that make up McClelland’s approach to music, but she’s distilled it down into a modern-day love letter to old forties and fifties vocal performances.

What you end up with is a collection of songs that feel at home on a fifties USO show, or maybe a performance at a smoky lounge frequented by Frank Sinatra. There is a full and rich quality to McClelland’s vocals, that helps you understand the joy of singing in its purest form.

We get started with “A Girl Can Dream” and the one song co-written with Doucet. The title alone gives you a feeling of a bygone era, and McClelland perfectly embodies a timeless flirtatious quality, while still portraying a self-possessed woman of substance. It is both modern, and also a window into a more fully realized reality than we sometimes give the mid-twentieth century credit for.

“A Girl Can Dream” has a Sinatra-like swing that is common to many songs on the record. There is a lot more going on than just that in these songs, and they are grounded in the burgeoning indie music scene that has since created music that makes folk, country and pop functionally indistinguishable from one another.

Other standouts include “Glenrio” and “Victoria Day (May Flowers)”. The latter of these tracks has a playful horn section that refuses to limit itself to a flourish, instead creating a semi-rowdy but agreeable hubbub around the edges of the tune. Think the scattered guests still out on the lawn after the sun goes down at a summer house party.

While this is majority of what you can expect on the record, there is one strong exception. “Brake” is folksy, understated and devastating in its raw emotion. While it isn’t a fit for the record’s overall vibe, it is still the best song on it.

Part of this is the simple but sublime acoustic guitar work. The Youtube video version of this song is not the same and is filled with a lot of production and excess instrumentation, but the studio track showcases a light and insistent acoustic strum and McClelland’s amazing vocals and little else.

The lyrics of “Brake” also favourably reminded me of 17^th century Metaphysical Poetry, with its clever double use of “brake” and “break” and how in the context of the song they both apply to the narrator’s quiet, but restless heart. John Donne would approve.

Because of my aforementioned schedule, “Victoria Day” got a lot of repeat plays over the last week and while I think the record has a mix of great songs and those that are just OK, I never got tired of listening. McClelland has since gone on to make a lot of awesome records as Whitehorse, but this record is a final reminder she was just as good solo.

Best tracks: A Girl Can Dream, Glenrio, Victoria Day (May Flowers), Brake

CD Odyssey Disc 1613: Lyle Lovett

Yesterday I posted my top 10 albums of 2022. Scroll down to the previous entry if you want to see those, but you should know, this next review is not one of them

Disc 1613 is…12^th of June

Artist: Lyle Lovett

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  Lyle Lovett loves album covers with an out of focus black and white vibe. Here, we have a single leaf in focus, which we are left to assume is meaningful. My first thought is that the 12^th of June is kind of early for the leaves to start falling.

How I Came To Know It: I have Lovett’s entire discography and I’ve been a fan for years, so even though I didn’t know he’d released a new album until I saw it on the shelf of my local record store, I bought it anyway on faith.

How It Stacks Up: I have 12 Lyle Lovett albums, which is all of them. The 12^th of June (his 12^th record – get it?) comes in dead last.

Rating: 2 stars

One of the great things about old friends is that over time you learn to set aside all those arguments about things you disagree about and just enjoy each other’s company. No need to rehash old grievances without purpose. Unfortunately, my old musical pal, Lyle Lovett did not get the memo, since “12^th of June” goes to considerable lengths to annoy me.

At this stage of our relationship (note that here I am referring to my long-time listening of Lovett’s music as a “relationship”. This is metaphorical only, Lyle – no restraining order necessary).

Anyway, at this stage of our relationship Lyle must know my general dislike of free form jazz. I don’t mind Lyle jazzifying his previous albums up a bit in a sort of big band way. Hell, I like Glenn Miller as much as the next guy. I can even forgive the occasional unexpected chord progression. But on “12^th of June” Lyle goes right in with the argumentative zeal of an old friend with one too many hi-balls in his system.

The opening track of this record is “Cookin’ at the Continental” and jazz is on the menu for every course here. I wasn’t even given the gift of Lyle’s immediately recognizable crooner-style vocals. Just all instruments running all over the tune with willful abandon, like a toddler teetering through the kitchen in muddy gumboots.

While this is the worst offender on “12^th of June” it is far from alone. There is all kinds of noodlefest and artisanal solos designed to prioritize clever seekers ahead of pleasure seekers.

It isn’t all bad on the jazz front. The second track, “Pants is Overrated” is full of big band fun and reminded me (favourably) of Lyle when he’s backed up by his Large Band. There is also some killer trumpet action flourishing away, and I am a sucker for a trumpet flourish. The notion that “pants is overrated” is a fun one, and well proved through the verses which include this narrow window escape:

“I'd have never made it out that window
If I'd even put just one leg in though
But as it was the circumstance
I gladly lost my favourite pants”

But then right in the middle, just when I’m ready to get back to a friendly visit, Lyle decides to throw in a verse to the tune of “I’m a Little Teacup”. Why, Lyle? Why?

On “Straighten Up and Fly Right” Lovett tries on at least two (maybe more) jazz instrumentals. However, this time the song’s glorious Sinatra-like swing led me to forgive this third transgression as slightly unsettling, but worth it.

One of my favourite moments on the record wasn’t even a song I liked, but rather a misheard lyric. Sheila and I thought “Pig Meat Man” was “Big Meat Man”. It gave a whole different vibe to the tune but even with the welcome and accidental innuendo, the song was just…meh.

For all this good-natured mockery (after all, Lyle and I are “friends” as described earlier) there were still some great moments on “12^th of June”, none more so than the title track. On this song Lyle goes back to his country roots, showcasing his ability to write an evocative, emotionally complex tune as well as anyone. He also demonstrates that even at the tender age of 65 he has one hell of a voice.

This record grew on me on repeat listens, which is a good sign, but it started at point so low it never fully recovered. I still love Lyle’s previous discography, but since this particular record will only put that love to the test, I’m going to do the responsible thing and part with it.

Best tracks: Straighten Up and Fly Right, 12^th of June

The Best Albums of 2022

I often load my best of albums list into the introduction to a regular review, but I’m going to break with tradition this year and give it an entry all its own. This year will also have the excitement of links to songs so you can have an immediate sampling of just what I’m so damned excited about.

If you like it, please check out the artist’s entire record, and if you like that, please buy it. That’s how artists get paid. Or stream it a whole bunch of times. That also works.

I listened to an untold number of records released in 2022 and found 80 of them worth buying. Of those I have successfully bought 66 (still searching for the rest) and gotten rid of 4 (errors). Still on the hunt for 14 more, some of which made the list regardless.

After considerable soul searching, here is the best of the best. I reserve the right to change my mind as I dig into each of these (and others) deeper, but for now, this is it. For those records I’ve already reviewed, I’ve embedded a link:

10 Ghost – Impera (reviewed at Disc 1592)

• Hard rock/metal from Sweden, Ghost has long enjoyed pretending they really love Satan, but don’t be concerned. It is just pretend.Here’s a track about their favourite subject called “Call Me Little Sunshine”. 

9 Julia Jacklin – Pre Pleasure

• Jacklin just keeps getting better. 2019’s Crushing was good, but I think this is even better. For the sake of balance with the previous record, let’s go with “Lydia Wears a Cross”.  

8 The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field

• More great music from the Beths. Here’s the title track as a sampler: 

7 Danger Mouse and Black Thoughts – Cheat Codes

• I find Danger Mouse hit and miss but combining him with hip hop mastery of Black Thoughts and the many guest stars on this record is inspiring. Here’s one called "Strangers" with some Run the Jewels guest starring.

6 Craig Finn – A Legacy of Rentals

• If you like the band The Hold Steady you’ll already know its lead singer Craig Finn. If you like that, I think you’ll like this just as much. I liked it even more, but you have to be OK with listening to the lyrics, because Finn tells a hell of a story, but you gotta pay attention. Here’s "The Amarillo Kid". 

5 Dropkick Murphys – This Machine Still Kills Fascists

• Woody Guthrie lyrics have been set to music by Wilco and Billy Bragg previously, and the latest collaboration is with the Dropkick Murphys. I think it may be the best yet. Here’s “The Last One”. 

4 Kevin Morby – This is a Photograph

• Just an all-around great record that is half chill, half-anxiety, all awesome. All the tracks are good, but I’m picking this one because I like the tone of the banjo and it features Erin Rae, who I also discovered this year. Her 2022 album is Lighten Up and it is good, even though it didn’t make this list. Here’s “Bittersweet”.

3 Mattiel – Georgia Gothic

• Mattiel’s 2019 album Satis Factory is one of my favourite records of all time. Georgia Gothic is good enough for #3 in 2022. Here’s “On the Run”.

2 Ezra Furman – All of Us Flames

• Brilliant, anthemic, and emotionally overwhelming, Furman is a wave you want to both catch and have crash over you. Here’s “Forever in Sunset".

1 Grace Cummings – Storm Queen (reviewed at Disc 1573)

• Listening to Grace Cummings is like being transfixed by the keening of a ghost as she warbles her fell and beautiful secrets to you from the underworld. Here’s “Up in Flames”:  I also strongly recommend “Heaven” if for no other reason than the arresting quality of Cummings eyes as she stares right at you in the video.

Honourable Mention – all great, but I could only pick 10. Here are 5 more in no particular order in the event you want even more great music to choose from 2022:

• Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway – Crooked Tree; CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead; Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter; Wet Leg – Self-Titled; Angel Olsen – Big Time

CD Odyssey Disc 1612: Josie Cotton

I am still doggedly working on my “Best of 2022” Top 10 (I am down to a shortlist of 19). However, while I buy a lot of new music every year, I also buy a fair bit of “new to me” music. Those albums are not counted as they were released in prior years, but I don’t love discovering them any less. This next review is an example of that, having “discovered” this artist 40 years late.

Disc 1612 is…Convertible Music

Artist: Josie Cotton

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover?  This cover is the nexus of classy lady and classic car. With apologies to Billy Ocean, get out of my dreams and er…I’ll get into your car. My car is faster than this one, but this one has the advantage of Josie Cotton in a minidress, so I will happily forego the horsepower.

How I Came To Know It: I was looking for the Valley Girl soundtrack as a gift for Sheila (for that story, see Disc 1558). It was hard to get and so I started looking for the artists from the soundtrack, thinking maybe I’d recreate it myself as a grand romantic gesture of some sort. Like Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything, for people who don’t own a ghetto blaster, or “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” in the Mambo Kings, but for people who can’t write their own music.

Anyway, I digress. The important thing is that I stumbled on Josie Cotton’s Bandcamp site, downloaded two digital albums, and bought a third on CD hard copy. That last one is “Convertible Music.”

How It Stacks Up: I have three Josie Cotton albums and competition is close, but I’ll put “Convertible Music” in at #1.

“Convertible Music” sits at the intersection of fifties rockabilly and New Wave, top down, revving its engine and daring you to have some summer fun. The vehicle is a bit dated and of its time, but just like the car on the cover, that is part of its charm.

On later records, Cotton shows a propensity for trying on different musical styles, and even her sophomore record, “From the Hip” has more influences and nuance. On “Convertible Music” you get an artist clearly in love with sixties pop, refreshed with modern eighties energy. The best example of this is the opener. “He Could Be The One” was also featured on the Valley Girl Soundtrack. It is infectious and hearkens to a simpler time, when people danced in their socks and boys and girls shot demure looks from the bleachers at one another.

While the influences are clear, so is Cotton’s enthusiasm. Her vocals won’t make your spine tingle or raise any neck hair, but she has a natural knack for phrasing and can sit down in the front of the beat’s pocket in a way that energizes the songs.

It is worth mentioning that this record has some Grade A handclap action. Everyone knows a song is always improved with some well-placed handclaps, and on “Convertible Music” we get handclaps at the height of their power in multiple songs. I am a sucker for the single clap, then the triple clap-clap-clap approach, but any handclaps will do.

I prefer Cotton as she experiments on later albums, but there is something special about “Convertible Music” that draws you in. The innocence of a bygone era, with lyrics that hint that that era was never innocent after all. She reminded me favourably of the Shangri-Las, but less biker and leather and more hot rod and poodle skirt. In the end the sunny vibe of this record fully won me over.

The album has a distant sound that was frustrating. This could be bad eighties production, or just the inevitable loss of fidelity taking tunes recorded for analog and putting them on digital. Also, don’t expect any grand philosophical explorations, as the emotional content of the songs subsist on simple topics like, “I’m in love”, “I’m jealous” and “Let’s party!” However, there is a time and a place for this kind of music as well, particularly when it is done with honest intentions and a hint of edge.

Overall, I had fun listening to this record, and it ultimately led me into even more Josie Cotton records. I’m not quite swooning with fanboy praise, but I’m happy I got in the car.

Best tracks: He Could Be The One, Rockin’ Love, Johnny Are you Queer, Another Girl, Bye Bye Baby

CD Odyssey Disc 1611: Johnny Horton

Happy New Year! 2022 was quite an eventful year and I think I could use fewer events in 2023. A nice quiet year. Yeah, I’m sure that’s what will happen.

Disc 1611 is…The Best of Johnny Horton

Artist: Johnny Horton

Year of Release: 2017 but featuring songs from 1955 to 1960

What’s up with the Cover?  Mr. Horton himself, looking very dapper in his ‘outfit for cowboys who don’t actually have to work on the range’ attire. This lack of authenticity is also what sets some of the tunes back – but more on that later.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with Johnny Horton and I’ve loved him all my life.

I already had a solid Greatest Hits package for Horton, but this release has a ton of songs I’d never heard before, so I decided to give it a shot. You can’t have too much Johnny Horton in your collection. Or can you…?

How It Stacks Up: as a compilation album, this doesn’t “stack up” under CD Odyssey rules.

Ratings: No ratings for best of albums. This is because they’re not records in the strictest sense, but more of a selection of music.

Do you like Johnny Horton? Maybe you own Johnny Horton’s Greatest Hits (reviewed back at Disc 725, FYI). Well, before you take the leap from the 13 songs on that record to the 50 on this one, you better like Johnny Horton a lot.

I do like Johnny Horton a lot, but this compilation put that opinion to the test in places. As with more aggressively curated collections, Horton’s music falls into one of three broad categories: working man tunes, romantic rambles and historic set-pieces. Here you just get more of it.

Country Life

These are tunes where Horton celebrates the slow meandering country life. These are the “countriest” of his tunes and are often punctuated with fiddle and steel guitar solos. I will give the 1950s credit on those – back then Soulless Record Execs landed some Grade A studio talent. Despite the early recording techniques on this stuff, it is hard to not love the musicianship.

The tunes themselves are OK, but that jumpy pop-country delivery of Horton’s can take a heartfelt expression of pastoral love on a song like “In My Home in Shelby County” and make them feel kind of…fake.

Worse is “Go and Wash Your Dirty Feet” which is a song about how young kids in the country used to run about barefoot. It is supposed to be whimsical and fun, but I just couldn’t get the thought of those dirty feet tromping through the house at the end of the day. Yech. Better is “Sleepy-Eyed John” which I like to imagine features the same rapscallion, now fully grown and finding himself not only without shoes, but without britches as well.

Romantic Rambles

These are mixed bag, with some of Horton’s best songs ever in this genre, but also some of his creepiest.

On the “best” side is “Whispering Pines” a beautiful warbler of a tune, featuring a lovelorn fellow serenading the trees in the hopes they’ll send his baby back to him. On the strength of lyrics alone, this tune is unadulterated schmaltz, but with Horton’s high tenor evoking the gods of love, you will be well and truly smitten. The guitar bits in the song are also sublime.

On the creepy side, we have “All Grown Up”. Opening with a chorus of very childlike singers chanting, “hey daddy, I’m all grown up.” It gets worse from there with…

“Standing at your door just like I done before
You've changed so strange, you're all grown up
You wear those heels and hose dressed up in your mama's clothes
You're hip, I'm flipped, you’re all grown up”

Yeesh.

Historic Set-Pieces

This is what Johnny Horton is most famous for, with enduring ballads “The Battle of New Orleans” and “Sink the Bismark” still kicking around most record collections of any significant vintage. I grew up loving this stuff as a kid, and it has sunk pretty deep into my consciousness over those formative years. These tunes still hold up well, although songs like “Sink the Bismark” are over too soon. That 2:30 song length of the 1950s gets in the way of what could’ve been even more memorable verses.

On this massive collection, Johnny reminded me of Swedish metal band, “Sabaton” in his propensity to tell exactly the details of each battle or historic event, never mind the metaphor. We learn young Abe Lincoln was good at wrestling and that John Paul Jones killed one of his crew, but don’t expect much exposition beyond that, because the “Cole’s Notes” approach to song length leaves precious little time to tell a story.

Overall, I enjoyed getting a whole host of new (to me) Johnny Horton tunes, even though some of them land flat. Horton is great when he’s crooning away, or digging into some historic Civil War battle, but despite great musicianship, there are too many moments where the emotional authenticity is missing, often because the song is in too much of a damned hurry to wrap up.

In those moments Horton leaves behind his folksy country and western charm and becomes a studio vocalist, in tune and with a lovely tone, but uninspired. His voice is a joy to hear, but I liked it best when I felt a bit of gravitas and pain in the delivery.

Best tracks: North to Alaska, When It’s Springtime in Alaska (It’s Forty Below), Lost Highway, Joe’s Been A-Getting’ There, Young Abe Lincoln, The Battle of New Orleans, Sink the Bismark, Comanche (the Brave Horse), Whispering Pines