Dispatches: 1990-99

Performer: George Jones
Producer: Emory Gordy, Jr.; Gilly Sherill; Keith Stegall; Kyle Lehning; Norro Wilson; Buddy Cannon
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Liner Note Author: John Dowler. George Jones recorded steadily throughout the '90s, sometimes racking up some minor hits, sometimes having one of his records -- such as 1999's The Cold Hard Truth -- being hailed as a return to form. Most of the time, he made tasteful, unremarkable records that had a couple of highlights but rarely distinguished themselves from his other latter-day records, so it was hard even for dedicated fans to separated 1991's And Along Came Jones from 1992's Walls Can Fall. Raven's 2005 compilation Dispatches: 1990-99 does those fans a favor by culling the highlights from those records, ignoring singles for gems buried deep on those albums. Since this was assembled with a subjective eye, it shouldn't be a surprise that the compilers favor ballads and ignore novelties and while that might be both a smart and accurate move, about a third of the way through, the compilation begins to suffer from the flaw common to Jones' '90s albums: they're a little samey. True, these are by and large the best songs he recorded during the decade -- and it's certainly the best way for fans of his classic work to sample his latter-day work -- but after a while, it's hard not to wish that "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair" or something like it was thrown in just for a change of pace, since 22 slick ballads from the '90s is an awful lot to take in one sitting. ~ 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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