Keys To The Country/Barefootin'

構成数 : 2枚
合計収録時間 : 01:08:15
2 Lps on 1 CD. Liner Note Author: Malcolm Dome. For a group that never made the charts, Barefoot Jerry certainly got a lot of time in the studio, issuing half a dozen albums in the 1970s for three labels. This reissue combines their two final LPs, 1976's Keys to the Country and 1977's Barefootin', onto one CD. While the instrumentation is as assured and versatile as you'd expect from a group helmed by a top Nashville session guitarist (Wayne Moss), it's unexceptional mid-'70s period country-rock. You don't find much to heavily criticize, but neither is there anything that would incite you to recommend it with zest, even to country-rock specialists. Keys to the Country is the better and more consistent of the pair, approaching Nashville-ized Eagles territory at times (particularly "Appalachian Fever"), and offering a modestly pretty ballad with Moss' "You Can't Say It All." There's also a bit of bluegrass (a cover of Bill Monroe's "Uncle Pen") and gospel, though the R&B-tinged numbers are less successful. The R&B influence becomes heavier on the inferior Barefootin', which likewise offers proficient playing, adequate singing, and amiably upbeat, forgettable songs. At least some lyrical eccentricity came to the fore on "Hiroshima Hole," a blunt plea against nuclear energy; "Tokin' Ticket," a commentary on the variable penalties different states assign to marijuana possession (seriously!); and the bluegrass-like hoedown "Headin' for the Hills," opening with the witty couplet "everybody's headin' for the hills, had enough of welfare states and escalating bills." Wayne Moss wrote or co-wrote all of those songs, indicating that he was rather a more socially conscious writer than most musicians working in the country-rock field. However, Barefoot Jerry were better players than writers, a limitation driven home by the concluding bluegrass-rock instrumental, "Highland Grass." This reissue, incidentally, offers nothing in the way of historical liner notes, though the booklet does at least print the lyrics. ~ Richie Unterberger
エディション : Remaster