Stellar selection of early-60s California hard country
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 08/31/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Varese continues to fruitfully mine the masters of Challenge and Jackpot records, augmenting their previous Wynn Stewart collection with this volume of work by Stewart and Jan Howard. Although the track list duplicates several cuts from the earlier collection, the addition of three more Stewart-Howard duets and Howard's solo sides really fleshes out their work from this seminal period of California country music.
Stewart and Howard were introduced through Stewart's friend, and Howard's husband, songwriter Harlan Howard. Jan Howard's work singing demos for her husband and his songwriting pals (Buck Owens, Hank Cochran, and others) quickly blossomed into a career that included several fine duets with Stewart, as well as numerous charting solo singles. The four duets balance Stewart's dramatic delivery with Howard's more level-headed accompaniment, creating the sort of dynamic a real-life husband and wife might share. The call-and-response of "Wrong Company" plays Stewart's sad-sack sorrow against Howard's scolding reminder, and the harmonious singing of "We'll Never Love Again" and "How the Other Half Lives" provide cruel contrasts to the lyrics of broken love.
Like their duets, both artists' solo sides hung tight to the fiddle and steel sound that Nashville was smoothing over in the early '60s. Stewart waxed some of the finest hard-country singles of the era, including icons like "Wishful Thinking," "Playboy," "Big, Big Love" and "Heartaches for a Dime." Howard could sing to a twangy honky-tonk backing too, with singles like "The One You Slip Around With" and "Too Many Teardrops Too Late" being prime examples. More often though, Howard sang ballads, including steel-lined weepers like "Ages and Ages Ago" and piano-backed heartbreak like "A World I Can't Live In" and "Make an Honest Woman Out of Me." Both Stewart and Howard picked up the beat to near rock 'n' roll once in awhile, with the former's "Uncle Tom Got Caught" featuring a fine Bo Diddley beat, and the latter's "Bring it on Back to Me" set to a superb blues-rockin' sound.
Deeper helpings of Stewart and Howard are available separately, but one could barely ask for a better introduction to their charms, and the power of California country music's rebuttal to the Nashville Sound. (Collector's note, tracks 6, 10, 14, and 15 are in true stereo.)"
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1