Fifteen Fantasty Favorites

1.  Green River -Creedence Clear Water Revial

This is the third album released by CCR. It was released in 1969. It is listed on Rolling Stones list of 500 greatest albums as number 95. It contained two of the band’s most known songs, Bad Moon Rising and Green River. It also contained a song about a city close to where I grew up, Lodi.

I love this album because I love Bad Moon Rising and Green River. I learned to play the drums to this album. I would put it on the record player, turn it up and I was Doug Clifford.

2. The Essential Bobby Bare – Bobby Bare

This album was released in February 11, 1997. It is a compilation record of 20 of Bare’s greatest songs. I love his voice and how he forms words to tell a story that you can feel. Many of the songs on this album are classics.

3. One – George Jones & Tammy Wynette

This record was released in June of 1995. It was the first time in 15 years that former husband and wife Jones & Wynette recorded together. It is their best work together and it turned out to be their last time to sing together. Tammy died just three years later. There has only been one duet that has ever been better, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. This duet album sends shivers down my back. There is almost nothing like George Jones and Tammy Wynette together. They cheated on each other, he shot up their house, and they couldn’t make life together but they could sing together.

4. The Essential Porter Wagoner – Porter Wagoner

This record was released in 1997 and it includes his songs from 1954 to 1976.

“True to its title, this is an excellent, comprehensive introduction to the work of this Important country music figure. The disc opens with a humble take on "A Satisfied Mind" that shows Wagoner's roots in bluegrass and gospel. In short order, though, we're treated to the rollicking, honky-tonk side of Wagoner, as he revels in the joys of drink as heartache antidote on "Eat, Drink and be Merry (for Tomorrow You'll Cry)" and I'll Go Down Swinging."

Throughout much of his early career, Wagoner was heavily influenced by Hank Williams, but by the mid-to-late 1960s, he came fully into his own as a musical storyteller. The grim murder ballad "The Cold Hard Facts of Life," one of his finest moments, still sounds just as stirring and unsettling decades later, and the complex narrative of "Carroll County Incident" is in a class with Tom T. Hall. Even in the '70s, Wagoner was mixing down home sentiments with baleful moodiness, as on the disc-closer "I Haven't Learned a Thing," which brings things full circle.”

5. Buck Owens 21 # 1 Hits – Buck Owens & the Buckaroos

Who wouldn’t want this record? This record was released in 2006 shortly after Buck’s death. It is Buck. He came up with the Bakersfield sound that Merle Haggard, Dwight Yokam, and others have ridden to success. These 21 # 1 hits define this giant of country music.

6. Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison

This was an album that Johnny Cash released on Columbia Records in May 1968. He had wanted to do this project for a long time. In 1967 changes at the label gave him a chance to do this. He wanted to put his drug problem behind him, re-invent himself and turn around his career. The Tennessee Three, Carl Perkins, and June Carter performed two shows and they recorded this album. It is a country classic.

7. LeAnn Rimes – LeAnn Rimes

This is a covers album, with one new song (&"Big Deal") tacked onto the end, which makes it a return to her roots -- which, in turn, means that it's sort of a salute to her main influence, Patsy Cline. LeAnn does her best when she is left alone and sings songs that she “owns” even though they are songs of her hero. Her range on this album is unbelievable. When it was said that this girl has a set of “pipes” it should have been said of her.

Note: On Saturday night trying to finish this up I lost all the paragraphs to the remaining albums. With my preaching duties on Sunday I did not have the time to go back and rewrite them.

8.  Eagles - The Very Best of the Eagles

9.  Hits I Missed...And One I didn't - George Jones

10.  The Three Hanks - Hank Williams, Sr. Hank Williams, Jr. Hank Williams III

11.  Greatest Hits - Ricky Van Shelton

12.  Old Dogs - Jerry Reed, Mel Tillis, Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings

13.  Walls Can Fall - George Jones

14.  Merle Haggard - Down Every Road



 
 
 
 
 
 
 

15. Twenty Greatest Hits - Conway Twitty