Kings and Queens of Country
Kings and Queens of Country
Customer Review: Classic country music
Most of these songs are classics from the sixties and seventies (though there are a few older and a few of more recent vintage) that have been released many times before on various compilations. Long-standing country fans surely have most of these songs already and have no reason to buy this unless they like the particular mix of songs presented here. This collection’s main appeal is to those just starting a record collection or just discovering country music. At any given time, there are always plenty of such people around so this album, like others of its type down the years, will sell in reasonable quantities.
Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, the three ladies who made female singers acceptable in country music, occupy seven of the tracks here including two featuring all three. Other women represented include Tanya Tucker (Delta Dawn), Roseanne Cash (Seven year ache), Billie Jo Spears (Blanket on the ground), The Judds (Love can build a bridge), Juice Newton (Angel of the morning), LeAnn Rimes (How do I live), Patsy Cline (Walking after midnight) Bobbie Gentry (Ode to Billie Joe) and Jeannie C Riley (Harper Valley PTA). The obvious omissions are Lynn Anderson and Crystal Gayle, but they have appeared on plenty of similar compilations before and will appear on plenty more in the future.
Male singers are well represented too, with classic tracks by such as Johnny Cash (A boy named Sue, Ring of fire), Willie Nelson (Always on my mind, Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys - the latter with Waylon Jennings), George Jones (The grand tour), Jim Reeves (Distant drums), Glen Campbell (Wichita lineman), Kenny Rogers (Coward of the county), Faron Young (Four in the morning) and Charlie Rich (Behind closed doors) to name a few. It’s good to see Duelling banjos (the theme from Deliverance), Take this job and shove it (Johnny Paycheck), Big bad John (Jimmy Dean) and From a jack to a king (Ne Miller) included - there songs don’t come round quite as often as some of the others on compilations like this.
For the most part, this compilation is fairly predictable, but if you enjoy country music and haven’t got too many of the tracks already, you’ll enjoy this.
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