Faron Young is a new acquaintance of mine. I had never heard of him before a fellow Swedish country music fan of mine recommended me to check out his music, so, trusting as I am of my pals, I immediately picked his Best of up the last time I visited Folk Å Rock (still the best record store in southern Sweden when it comes to country music).
Part of me is very grateful to my pal for recommended me this artist, but part of me like what ever. It's good stuff, sure, but it's not supergood.
To me, it sounds like Faron Young is the result of a mix between Jim Reeves (whom I've been meaning to review for some time now) and the Bakersfield sound. Young's got that smooth voice the gentleman also had and the guitar sound, at least so at times, what Buck Owens had. I think Young has a better voice than Reeves, though.
Young's voice and his sound is not the only thing I like about him, though. His lyrics might not win the Nobel Prize for litterature, but they're clever and I for one like typical country music lyrics and Young knows how not to dissapoint. He's got it all, heartaches, love, honky-tonks, drinks, depression, what you'd expect from Dwight Yoakam, only Young did it 10-20 years before Dwight.
Best tune on this album is the beautiful ballad Four in the morning.
Fans of generic outlaw country will not like this album and though Young is somewhat classic "cheesy" country music, I suspect the fans of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers will find his lyrics a bit too outlaw to suit their tastes.
I would still recommend all country fans to listen to Faron Young. He's an important part of country music history and sort of builds a bridge between Jim Reeves and Dwight Yoakam.
As I said, a good record, though not supergood.
Faron Young's Best of gets 63,7% in rate of satisfaction.
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