Search - Jeannie C. Riley, Henson Cargill, Roger Miller :: Classic Country: 1965-69

Good Songs, Aimless Collection

Thomas A. Holmes | Johnson City, TN USA | 09/17/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This volume of the Time-Life CLASSIC COUNTRY collection lacks a thematic cohesiveness that one may expect. It offers two sentimental songs, Eddy Arnold's "Make the World Go Away" and Elvis Presley's "Crying in the Chapel" that seem past their time--these songs would have blended well in earlier volumes, had Time-Life not followed chronology so strictly. George Jones' stately "Walk through This World with Me," Loretta Lynn's "Don't Come Home a'Drinkin' with Lovin' on Your Mind," and Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" represent traditionalists, while Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee," Cash's "Jackson," and Waylon Jennings' "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" suggest the driving country to come during the "outlaw" movement of the next decade. Social relevance (Henson Cargill's "Skip a Rope," Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley PTA," and Kenny Rogers' "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town") round out the collection, along with Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman," in order to represent the diversity of country music in the late sixties. The sound is pristine, and the disc makes a worthy addition to a country music collection."