The Essential George Jones

George Jones is the archetypal country singer. Born in a log cabin in east Texas and raised on gospel music in church and Carter Family records at home, he left school at sixteen, married and divorced young, spent a couple of years in the Marines, cut some sides for a small record company, performed with Elvis Presley, boozed, brawled and rode atop the country charts for thirty years.

The Essential George Jones tells his story in music, collecting forty songs recorded between 1954 and 1999, tracing the career of one of the true greats of the genre. Listening to the early sides, we see that Jones started out as a Hank Williams disciple, with the first four tracks sounding more like ol' Hank than young Possum. But as the set progresses, Jones' own distinctive style emerges. Old Rock-n-Rollers will remember "White Lightning" a silly rockabilly novelty hit in 1959, and "The Race is On" from the Beatle summer of 1964, but it's his string of number one country ballads that...Read more

This two disc set of 40 songs on the Epic / Legacy Label is an excellent introduction to the career of George Jones. Of course, when you've charted over 160 singles over the course of 50 years, any 40 song set can only scratch at the totality of his career. While I can think of additional songs that I'd like to add to this collection, I can't think of any that are on the set that I'd be willing to delete.

Since this set comes to us from Epic,it naturally focuses most heavily on George's 20 years or so with the label. It does, however, delve into the early catalog of Starday and Mercury recordings, including three songs ("No Money In This Deal", "I'm Ragged But I'm Right" and "Why Baby Why") that date back to the earliest sessions in 1955.

Disc One includes such classics from the Mercury and United Artists years as "White Lightning", "Tender Years","A Girl I Used To Know", "You're Still On My Mind", The Race Is On", "She Thinks I Still Care" and "Window Up...Read more

The mergers and acquisitions that have marked the last decade of the record industry may be concentrating more power in the hands of the few, but it's also making it a lot easier to market multi-label anthologies of long-running artists such as Jones. This 2-CD, 40-track collection surveys nearly all facets of Jones' career, from his early success at Starday, through his breakout sides on Mercury, a stint on United Artists and his long run on Epic. Missing are his late '60s sides for Musicor, which had been licensed for earlier multilabel sets, but were unavailable (or too expensive) this time out. The out-of-print Musicor-focussd "George Jones: 24 Greatest Hits" (on the Tee Vee label) thus makes a nice complement to this set.

Jones' earliest sides find him still in the thrall of honky-tonk legends Hank Williams and Lefty Frizell. His work for Starday and Mercury were hardcore country, honed in the roadhouses of his native East Texas. But by the start of the '60s, at the...Read more