Wednesday 5 October 2011

Jerry Jeff Walker, "¡Viva Terlingua!"

Jerry Jeff is an artist more people need to be aware of, cos he's brilliant at what he does. I can say that after hearing one record only by him, this record, that is, which is also a live record. And I for one am not that keen on live records. This is, however, together with Johnny Cash's Live at San Quentin, an exception.

Not all the tunes on this album are original tunes and the two best of the lot are Desperadoes waiting for a train, written by Guy Clark and Up against the wall redneck mother, written Ray Wylie Hubbard.

I've never heard Guy Clark's version of Desperadoes..., but I've seen numerous versions of it by Jerry Jeff on youtube and it has quickly become one of my all time fave tunes. It's about the friendship of an older man with a younger one and it makes me think of my grandfather. Although my grandfather is very much still alive.

But there are good tunes by Jerry Jeff on this little darling as well, among them the fine party song, Sangria wine, as well as Gettin' by, which I think K.M. Myrland, the Norwegian singer, has made a Norwegian version of.

There are really no bad songs on this one. They all do the trick. The only criticism I may have of the songs is that some of them go on a wee bit too long. But then again, I was raised in the punk/oi! scene and am used to songs that last 2 minutes at maximum.

I'd recommend this record to all fans of 70's country music. If you haven't discovered Jerry Jeff's music yet, then now is the time to! You won't be let down by giving his music a try!

Buy this record!

A good, although not perfect, record like this gets 85,1% in level of satisfaction!

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