This album was released last year and came to be the last record by Charlie Louvin of the famous Louvin Brothers, as Charlie Louvin died this year.
This album is beyond doubt the most important album of this decade. This, not just because he, like he always used to, mentions the "G word" (and no, I ain't thinking of "gangsta") on numerous occasions, but also because he swims against the current and makes a record about war from the soldier's perspective.
It wouldn't be possible to make a record more relevant or timely.
There has been made many a record about war by warmongers, as well as peaceniks, but Charlie Louvin was old enough to have served in the second world war, as well as in the Korean war. he knows what he's singing about
This record is a declaration of love for everything even us non-Americans hold dear in the USA, while he simultaneously sings in one song that no soldier wants to go to war, but that there are some things worth dying for and I, for one, agree with Louvin on that. As does the Gospel, our Lord clearly states that no one has greater love than someone who dies for his friends.
Musically, this record bears, in my opinion, traits of bluegrass, but over all, it sounds very much like the good old country music we love. Although Hank Williams sr might have had issues with some of the lyrics, he would certainly have loved the music. There are also some gospel music influences in it.
I have previously only listened to the material of the Louvin Brothers from back in the 50's, so it was something of a shocker to hear Charlie's voice like this, 50 years later. You can still recognise it and love it, despite the treatment it has been given by age, the cancer he died from, as well as the cigarette he smokes on the cover. You just wish Ira hadn't died all those years ago, so that he could have been included on this record, because the harmonies they could sing were out of this world and you really come to think of Ira when you hear Charlie.
Charlie Louvin might not be the best lyricist country or gospel music ever produced, so he has picked a few numbers by other musicians, as well as a few from his past in the Louvin Brothers. But he does make them all justice.
The most important album of the decade gets 100% in level of satisfaction!
