Step Right Up: 1970-1979 A Critical Anthology [PA]

Performer: George Jones
Artist: James Taylor; Emmylou Harris
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Liner Note Author: John Dowler. This two-disc collection delves into George Jones's 1970s output, shining a spotlight on a period in the country icon's career that may not get as much attention as it should. Hard-line country classicists tend to favor Jones's '60s honky-tonk material, but the maturity and sophistication of his '70s work can't be denied. Some of Jones's most powerful emotional statements came in this period; such tunes as "A Good Year For the Roses" and "The Grand Tour" are the height of pathos, with Jones delivering performances of a Shakespearian caliber. Balancing things out, there are songs that didn't gain as much attention as those, making this an even-handed summary of this important decade in the Ol' Possum's long career. Typically, overviews of George Jones' Epic recordings run all the way into the '80s, sometimes going a little bit too far but always including his career-capping single "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Raven's 2009 compilation Step Right Up: 1970-1979 A Critical Anthology isn't a typical collection. As its title makes plain, this covers the '70s only, so it doesn't have the grace note of ending with "He Stopped Loving Her Today" but it does have something other compilations lack: a heavier dose of his long lost Musicor recordings. The first seven songs or so are all solo hits he had for Musicor, with only "A Good Year for the Roses" being a song that regularly pops up on comps, so this has a value for hardcore collectors looking for tracks that have never shown up on CD, but the primary strength of Step Right Up is its narrow focus. By concentrating on the '70s, it adds some songs that don't show up on most collections of George's Epic years -- "Wine (You've Used Me Long Enough)," "A Drunk Can't Be a Man," "Stand on My Own Two Knees," "I Love You So Much It Hurts," "Ain't Your Memory Got No Pride at All" -- so it digs a little deeper into what is one of Jones' great stretches of creativity. Since it does have a lot of big hits that typically show up on Epic collections like Anniversary -- "We Can Make It," "A Picture of Me (Without You)," "The Grand Tour," "Once You've Had the Best," "The Door" -- this isn't quite a "more of the best" supplement, but it does in effect function as that, providing a pleasing and different view of one of Possum's prime periods. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

George Jones is the greatest of country singers but he has also been a victim of the infamous hard-living honky-tonk lifestyle. Though he's gone through several phases, from rockabilly to honky-tonk to countrypolitan, his melismatic, Lefty Frizell-influenced style has remained at the core of his unique sound. His stormy marriage to Tammy Wynette (1969-75) included duet albums of love songs and bitter recriminations. By the late '70s, his drinking and cocaine addiction had made him so unreliable that he was known as "No Show Jones." In 1979 he received medical treatment and staged a significant comeback with I AM WHAT I AM, which included his greatest single, "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

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