The Rogue

Performer: Tompall Glaser
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: This CD contains 12 previously unreleased tracks from the mid-70s and 10 tracks from the mid-80s. A companion to Bear Family's other 1992 Tompall Glaser set, The Outlaw -- a CD that offered his two 1977 ABC LPs, Tompall Glaser and His Outlaw Band and The Wonder of It All -- The Rogue has nothing but unreleased Tompall music: a scrapped third album for ABC called Unwanted Outlaw and a collection of "World War II-era favorites" recorded roughly a decade later. Bear Family atypically offers no session information on either album -- perhaps Glaser was not forthcoming, perhaps no records were kept -- which is a little frustrating, but it doesn't change the broad strokes of this collection: namely, that the relatively recent collection of WWII standards -- which stands as his last released recordings as of this writing -- is a stronger, sparer record than his 1986 LP Nights on the Borderline and Unwanted Outlaw isn't quite as slick as The Wonder of It All, although it comes close. The WWII album opens The Rogue -- again, Bear Family leads with the last album first, for no apparent purpose -- and while it's a little sleepy and perhaps a bit too clean, it's relaxed and nature in a way that Glaser hasn't sounded since his prime MGM recordings. The same can't quite be said for Unwanted Outlaw, which might not be as resplendent of the '70s as The Wonder of It All (although "The Man You Think to See" feels as if it is a forgotten theme song to a TV movie) -- the songs aren't nearly as strong as those on The Wonder, which had great songs covered in polyester. Here, there are some bad production flourishes -- worst on the melodramatic "Burn, Georgia Burn" -- but for the most part this is simpler in sound and substance than The Wonder, which makes it less compelling, although it does have a few moments. These moments happen to all be grouped at the beginning of the record -- Harlan Howard's "Like an Old Country Song," Tompall's "Sad Country Songs," "What a Town" -- so this is lopsided, accentuating that this is the least of all of Glaser's '70s LPs. All the same, it's nice to have it finally released as part of this set, and the same goes for the WWII album, especially considering how quiet Tompall Glaser turned out to be in the '80s and beyond. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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