The Mercury Years 1970-1972, Part 1
By Bobby Bare
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1 Review
There are always some times in an artists life when everything works out right and the creativity just keeps on flowing with an unequaled output of great recordings. Stuff like Jerry Lee Lewis Country recordings for (Mercury subsidiary) Smash records made in the late 60s, Charlie Rich also had some great recordings for Smash with "Mohair Sam" while Roger Miller also was on a high there under the wing of producer Jerry Kennedy, I also found out that Mickey Newbury recorded his Looks Like Rain for Mercury with Kennedy as producer. Now I'm not saying that the producer is more important than the artist, but it says something when someone can take something out of an artist to really show off skills and do the greatest recordings of his career and this is also what Kennedy did for Bare in the early 70s with these recordings. Now Bobby Bare is my favorite Country music singer and I would find it hard to settle for one era of three decades of splendid recording output, but if I had to pick, I'd pick these Mercury recordings...
Bobby Bare might be called the "first" or "proto"-outlaw and I won't argue, but I'm not a fan of that tag and outlaw means more or less recording the shit that you want to without any industry worries and Bobby and Jerry seem to do just that. Actually recorded in Nashville with some of its finest players (Kennedy also plays guitar on these cuts along with the studio A-team of Chip Young [also guitar] Bob Moore [bass], Buddy Harman [drums], Hargus "Pig" Robbins [piano] and Charlie McCoy [harmonica/organ] - funny enough there's hardly any fiddle or steel guitar and no fancy choruses or strings either - when there is a steel guitar in a handful tracks, it is played by greats Lloyd Green or Pete Drake), the focus is on singing great songs with a rootsy and earthy, warm sound in contrast to his high-class glossy crooner recordings for RCA (in no way inferior, but it seems Bobby needed a break from the stringy Chet Atkins produced Nashville sound).
You might consider it closer to Folk than Nashville Country, but that only if you undermine the wide stretches of the Country music landscape. Actually you can here the kind of post-Bob Dylan vibe that went through Music City in the late 60s and early 70s with a new wave of young songwriters and progressive ideas (Mickey Newbury likened this aura in Nashville to 'Paris in the 20s) and Bobby, a Country free-thinker if there ever was one, took the hint by recordings some songs of these new songwriters. Most notably on this first volume are songs from Kris Kristofferson ("Come Sundown" and "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" were hits and Bobby also recorded his versions of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" in a more upbeat version and "For the Good Times"), Tom T. Hall (this volume kicks off with the timeless "That's How I Got to Memphis", you'd almost think Bobby changed labels just to record this his way, meanwhile Hall also recorded for Mercury under Kennedy, but Bare would outdo the songwriter on his own songs) and Billy Joe Shaver (the Texan "outlaw" who nobody knew at this time, but it seems Bobby took him under his wing). There's also some other stuff like his recording of Conway Twitty's standard "Hello Darlin'" or John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane".
Now these are just wonderful recordings that any lover of great songwriting and genuine singing will appreciate. So much knowledge lies in these recordings just on the first disc, it almost saved my life at several occasions. It is a shame that this stuff is out of print, but you still might find it as I did and not that expensive either. The volumes were actually sold separately which I don't quite understand when Bear Family usually is known for box sets...
Bobby Bare might be called the "first" or "proto"-outlaw and I won't argue, but I'm not a fan of that tag and outlaw means more or less recording the shit that you want to without any industry worries and Bobby and Jerry seem to do just that. Actually recorded in Nashville with some of its finest players (Kennedy also plays guitar on these cuts along with the studio A-team of Chip Young [also guitar] Bob Moore [bass], Buddy Harman [drums], Hargus "Pig" Robbins [piano] and Charlie McCoy [harmonica/organ] - funny enough there's hardly any fiddle or steel guitar and no fancy choruses or strings either - when there is a steel guitar in a handful tracks, it is played by greats Lloyd Green or Pete Drake), the focus is on singing great songs with a rootsy and earthy, warm sound in contrast to his high-class glossy crooner recordings for RCA (in no way inferior, but it seems Bobby needed a break from the stringy Chet Atkins produced Nashville sound).
You might consider it closer to Folk than Nashville Country, but that only if you undermine the wide stretches of the Country music landscape. Actually you can here the kind of post-Bob Dylan vibe that went through Music City in the late 60s and early 70s with a new wave of young songwriters and progressive ideas (Mickey Newbury likened this aura in Nashville to 'Paris in the 20s) and Bobby, a Country free-thinker if there ever was one, took the hint by recordings some songs of these new songwriters. Most notably on this first volume are songs from Kris Kristofferson ("Come Sundown" and "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" were hits and Bobby also recorded his versions of "Help Me Make It Through the Night" in a more upbeat version and "For the Good Times"), Tom T. Hall (this volume kicks off with the timeless "That's How I Got to Memphis", you'd almost think Bobby changed labels just to record this his way, meanwhile Hall also recorded for Mercury under Kennedy, but Bare would outdo the songwriter on his own songs) and Billy Joe Shaver (the Texan "outlaw" who nobody knew at this time, but it seems Bobby took him under his wing). There's also some other stuff like his recording of Conway Twitty's standard "Hello Darlin'" or John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane".
Now these are just wonderful recordings that any lover of great songwriting and genuine singing will appreciate. So much knowledge lies in these recordings just on the first disc, it almost saved my life at several occasions. It is a shame that this stuff is out of print, but you still might find it as I did and not that expensive either. The volumes were actually sold separately which I don't quite understand when Bear Family usually is known for box sets...
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3 Sep 2017
8 Aug 2013
16 Dec 2011
10 Sep 2011
27 Aug 2011
23 Jan 2011
16 Jan 2010
10 Jun 2009
6 Jun 2009
28 Feb 2009
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31 May 2008
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