1. Old Dogs
2. I Don't Do It No More
3. She'd Rather Be Homeless
4. Cut the Mustard
5. Young Man's Job
6. Me and Jimmie Rodgers
7. Elvis Has Left the Building
8. Rough on the Living
9. Still Gonna Die
10. I Never Expected
11. Time
Amazon.com
The Old Dogs are Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Mel Tillis, and Jerry Reed, four old-school country & western legends now rejected by a youth-obsessed Nashville. Refusing a rocking chair, these good old boys have fought back and made music for the mature, twang-lovin' audience they know is still huge. To wit, the 11 steel-guitar-driven cuts here, all from wacky songwriting legend Shel Silverstein, are aimed at the senior set. The 10 punch-line novelties ("I ain't too old to cut the mustard, I'm just too tired to spread it around") are joined by the bittersweet, and even wise, closing ballad "Time." The overdubbed crowd noise grows more than annoying and there isn't a note here that suggests you can teach old dogs new tricks. But this disc argues loud and clear that, by God, the old tricks are still plenty good enough. --David Cantwell
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Old Dogs
- Audio CD: 0 pages (1998-12-01)
- Publisher: Warner Bros / Wea
- Label: Warner Bros / Wea
- Studio: Warner Bros / Wea
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 41 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #9684
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: pure country 2008-10-13
Comment: excellent. wish they could have made more recordings before reed and jennings passsed away.great for a real country fan.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Old Dogs 2007-12-29
Comment: My husband, who is suffering from cancer, received this from my son this Christmas. If you've never suffered through some serious life situations, you may think this CD is light weight. To someone who has, it has all the edge, heartache, irony, humor and sadness that make up a life lived long and hard. Thanks for the laugh and the tear.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Real Versatility, Great Fun With Words. 2007-05-09
Comment: While not quite The Highwaymen,these Old Dogs (all stars in their own right)do an outstanding job of the 11 gems by Shel Silverstein. Top arrangements, clever vocals, backing second to none. What more could you ask for?
I want to know why it has been hidden since 1998! All that enjoyment I've missed.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: one of my favorite cds 2006-10-24
Comment: Unfortunately you can only buy a single cd mix of the Old Dogs songs. The orginal TV offer had two cds which I have but is no longer available. This CD is a must have for all of those Bobby Bare, Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings and Mel Tillis fans. The songs are very enjoyable and will make you laugh. You will want to share it with others.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The "old" joke gets old 2005-03-17
Comment: Why is it that when you combine great solo musicians into an all-star lineup the whole is usually less than the sum of its parts? I came to this CD with high hopes featuring as it does four veteran country singers with great reputations.
I'm not a big Mel Tillis fan but I can honestly say that each of the other three were involved with at least one tune I consider among my favourite songs ever (not just favourite country songs, favourite overall: Waylon Jennings "Luckenbach, Texas". Jerry Reed's "When You're Hot, You're Hot", Bobby Bare's "Detroit City"). I also knew that Shel Silverstein was involved and thought that would be a good thing as he can be a clever writer.
Like one other reviewer here, I'm gonna lay blame at Silverstein's feet. The singers don't sound poor here, but they don't have much in the way of memorable lyrics to sing. The overdubbed phony crowd noise becomes annoying and the repetitive nature of the subject matter (it's hard to be old) works against desiring frequent listens. One or two novelty numbers like "Cut the Mustard" and "Young Man's Job" would be plenty.
Highlights:
"Rough on the Living" casts a jaundiced eye at the country music industry that talked up Johnny Cash after his death but couldn't find space on the airwaves for his new material when he was still with us (even though some of it stood alongside his finest work),"I Don't Do it No More" with Waylon on lead vocal is one of the better 'gettin' older' numbers here ("lovin' them ladies two at a time, I don't do it no more, I CAN'T do it no more..."),"She'd Rather be Homeless" is a pretty witty take on one of country's "four D's" (divorce in this case...the woman chooses poverty over the yuppie life with Bobby Bare..), and "Time" is a wonderfully bittersweet look back at a life well-lived ('So it takes a bit longer to walk up a hill/What of it?/My life now is much more fulfilled/But they're tearin' down buildings that I watched them build')
Low points:
Why they chose to use a cliched double entendre like "Old Dogs" as the leadoff track is beyond me. ('Old dogs don't waste his licks but he can still bury a bone'). It's easily one of the worst songs here and made me not want to keep listening to the disc. "Still Gonna Die"'s joke on health nuts wears thin. "Me and Jimmie Rodgers" would be a great piece of Americana if it ever found a hook but it just feels unfinished.
Bottom Line: While I agree that too much of the country music coming out of Nashville these days is faceless and unremarkable, handing substandard material to great singers isn't a good way to make the case for putting the old-timers back on the air. A more convincing case could have been made. Let's hope the Dogs get another chance to leave the doghouse and they get more than table scraps to work with.
2 1/2 stars
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Old Dogs
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