Please Help Me I'm Falling

Hank Locklin's second album is made up of material cut between December of 1956 and January of 1960, when he was rapidly headed for the top of his game and fully embraced the Nashville sound, giving up the steel guitar and fiddle accompaniment in favor of the smoother sound of the piano, with some drums as well. In contrast to his first LP, Foreign Love, which was a concept album built around a specific body of songs, Please Help Me I'm Falling offers a cross section of Locklin's styles and sounds drawn from numerous sessions. The album was actually hooked around several hits: the RCA Victor version of "Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On," highlighted by Millie Kirkman's soaring accompaniment, which had charted in the country Top Five in 1957; the amusing 1959 single "Foreign Car"; and the smooth, elegant title track. Interspersed among these singles are the nine other songs in a multitude of styles, including the achingly beautiful and catchy ballad "Seven Days (The Humming Song)," the lean country lament "(I'm So Tired Of) Goin' Home All by Myself," the slow, moody "Blues in Advance," the more lushly produced "Livin' Alone," with its mixed male and female chorus, and the jaunty "Why Don't You Haul off and Love Me" and "It's a Little More Like Heaven," with their crisp, stripped-down guitar-dominated textures. Even the non-hits are excellent recordings, and at least four of them could compete for places on a genuine best-of Hank Locklin. ~ Bruce Eder|