The Best Country Albums of 1973, Part 2

David Cantwell with 66 Honorable Mentions

This is the second in a three-part series. Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 3.

I don’t want to make a definitive claim, but I do now suspect that if 1973 isn’t the deepest country album year, ever, then it at least has to be in the running. In addition to the 21 albums I picked as my best in Part 1, I’d say there are dozens and dozens of other albums that are good, many of them damn good— worth your time not only to play a time or two but maybe even to live with.

I realize the idea that there might be several dozen good-to-great country albums in any year may seem counterintuitive. The conventional wisdom is that country albums, especially those coming before the Outlaw era really took off, tend to be just “hits plus filler” and, therefore, not worth your time beyond the singles. There’s some truth to this, of course. In all that follows, for example, note how frequently an album is titled Name of First Single / Name of Second Single. But I also think the common take misapprehends how country acts and albums work. As I told my friend Chris O’Leary in an interview last year, “The hits-plus-filler complaint… mistakes a way of assembling an album for an evaluation of it. All that so-called filler, often amounting to covers of old standards or recordings of recent hits by other acts, may be fun in all sorts of ways that are valuable, may contribute to themes developed across the sides, may connect to larger conversations within the format, [and] may provide strong statements of a singer’s distinctiveness. Which is to say, for country listeners, it may not function as filler at all.” All else being equal, downgrading a country album for being “hits plus filler” is sometimes like complaining that a horror movie is scary or that TV sitcoms are episodic. It’s not a problem; it’s a part of why I’m here.

And there are plenty of exceptions to that country album rule of thumb, in any case. So… Here are 66 (!) runners up for The Best Country Albums of 1973 that I think are deserving of Honorable Mention.

*****

Allman Brothers Brothers and Sisters – Dickey Betts twangs things up after Duane’s death. Pop and AOR radio staple “Ramblin’ Man” could not be more country, and, as the genre has played out since, “Wasted Words” (not the Ray Price hit), “Southbound,” and “Pony Boy” are close enough for horseshoes and hangovers.

Greg Allman Laid Back – Cut around the same time and with most of the same musicians as the above, Allman lays out part of a template that Hank Jr., David Allan Coe and plenty of other country outlaws are about to run with. Also, do you think maybe Chris Stapelton has ever spent an evening playing “Midnight Rider” on repeat? “These Days,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

Asleep at the Wheel Comin’ Right at Ya – Ray Benson and co.’s debut was persuasive evidence that the western swing revival launched by Merle Haggard’s 1970 Bob Wills’ tribute was going to have legs. Check Chris O’Connell’s lead vocals on “Before You Stopped Loving Me” and “Space Bugy,” Benson’s on “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” and Floyd Domino’s piano solos throughout.

Bobby Bare Lullabys, Legends and Lies – Fourteen mostly funny Shel Silverstein songs, but for my money once you’ve heard a joke song, you’ve probably heard it enough—unless, that is, the performance sells it beyond the punchlines. So, the screaming “Marie Laveau” and the world-weary loser in “The Winner” remain hits that will start me grinning while Bare and Silverstein’s slice of life (and limits) songs hold up even better. “In the Hills of Shilo,” “Rosalie’s Good Eats Café.”

Barefoot Jerry Barefoot Jerry – Founding members Wayne Moss, Buddy Spicher, and Kenny Buttrey had previously been in Area Code 615, not to mention countless recordings sessions. Jerry turns “Little Maggie into country prog. An instrumental called “Fish ‘n Tits” sounds like neither but, like most everything here, is funky, folkie fun. As they insist in “Message,” this “ain’t music for your mind... It’s just music for the body and the soul.”

The Blue Ridge Rangers The Blue Ridge Rangers – One way to hear John Fogerty’s post-Creedence project is as a deconstruction of country sources. So he sings Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers, of course, and does Nashville Sound classics from George Jones and Hank Locklin. But he also twangs up an African-American spiritual and a midcentury R&B ballad. Add it all up, and you have his closing cover of Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again.”

Tony Booth When a Man Loves a Woman – If a description “Like-Ray-Price-in-shuffle-mode-and-relocated-to-Bakersfield” sounds like it’d be up your alley, you need to treat yourself to this one from Tony Booth. Produced by Buck Owens, who cowrote most of the songs, including the minor hit title track. “Colors I’m Gonna Paint the Town,” “Courage to Go Home.”

Jimmy Buffett A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean – Rarely has a singer-songwriter figured out the thing he does and then mined it so relentlessly as did beach rat Buffett. There’s an island-vibes number here and food songs about peanut butter and Juicy Fruit, plus funny, I guess, sing-a-longs like “Why Don’t We Get Drunk [and Screw]” that wave, but only from a great distance, at some pretty fucked-up scenarios. “The Great Filling Station Holdup” was his first charting country song and, until he famously lost his saltshaker, his biggest. Throughout, pedal steel man Doyle Grisham is a lighthouse.

Johnny Bush Here Comes the World and Texas Dance Hall Girl and Whiskey River / There Stands the Glass – The twin fiddling, two-stepping sounds on these three sets are all of a piece, which is to say all high-quality, bleary-eyed honky-tonk. Bush’s gulping, quivering tenor—he sounds in pain and like he’s singing into a box fan—is one of Texas’ greatest gifts to country music. Bush had the hit with the original recording of his song “Whiskey River” years before Willie scored big with a live cut. I’d recommend throwing this trio into a single playlist and playing it on shuffle. Hard shuffle. “There Stands the Glass,” “Here Comes the World Again,” “Green Snakes on the Ceiling,” “Drowning My Troubles Until They’ve Learned to Swim,” “(Wine, Friend of Mine) Stand by Me,” “Cold Grey Light of Dawn,” and so on and so on.

Johnny Cash Any Old Wind that Blows – The album isn’t much remembered these days, but the title track was a #3 hit, the blue-collar revenge tale “Oney” was a #2, and June Carter-duet “The Loving Gift” cracked the Top 30.  Plus, a rockabilly race through “If I Had a Hammer” and a humble brag called “Country Trash.”

Skeeter Davis The Hillbilly Singer – The Davis-penned opener, “Hillbilly Song,” announces the theme, then Skeeter gives her spin on songs associated with George Jones, Kitty Wells, Bob Wills etc., all of it with that your-fun-hippie-aunt vibe that was her specialty. No hits here, but her fragile “Crazy Arms” is an all timer.

The Eagles Desperado – The whole desperadoes = musicians framing takes itself awfully seriously and, therefore, gets pretty silly, but not any more so than that whole outlaws = musicians deal coming soon. The country-rock ballads “Tequila Sunrise” and “Desperado” are undeniable. Turn it up: Bernie Leadon’s banjo-driven “Twenty-One.”

Lester Flatt Country Boy – The title song’s sentiment, “You don’t never change if you are a real country boy,” remains a country rallying cry, for better or worse, but perhaps never set to a more fetching tune. Throughout, Lester’s never-hurried vocals hit so easefully that it can slide right by that he’s one of the best singers you’ll ever hear. Good recitator too, like the one where he’s missing chats with his dear dead dad or the other one about Grandpa Flatt spending time with “My Little Girls’ Little Girl.” “Feudin’ Banjos,” “No Place to Lay Your Head,” “Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’.”

Lester Flatt and Mac Wiseman Over the Hills to the Poorhouse – Rock fan: “Geez, can’t these old farts ever sing any new songs?” Country fan: “Oh! This looks good!” “Tis Sweet to Be Remembered,” “I’ll Go Steppin’ Too,” “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again,” “There’s More Pretty Girls than One.”

Merle Haggard Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present – The “Something New” side is all Haggard originals: “If We Make It through December,” of course, and also “Daddy Won’t Be Home Again for Christmas” (he’s on tour but sent a check) and “Santa Claus and Popcorn.” The “Something Old” second side is devoted to holiday standards done up in glittery, festive strings, courtesy Bill Walker.

Tom T. Hall For the People in the Last Hard Town – Time was I was one of those little shits who’d make fun of crossover smash “I Love.” Younger than that now, I should admit it’s lately been known to tear me up. Come to think of it, “Back When We Were Young” and “Pay No Attention to Alice” tear me up too. I guess they all do.

Wanda Jackson Country Keepsakes – Unexpectedly spare arrangements of “Reuben James,” “A Wound Time Can’t Erase,” and—from the point of view of a young woman whose mama tried—“Tennessee Women’s Prison.” Jackson’s final album for Capitol, her label since 1956.  

Waylon Jennings Honky Tonk Heroes – Waylon’s second album with creative control, and he devotes it to the songs of funky kindred spirit Billy Joe Shaver. “Black Rose,” “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “Old Five and Dimers,” “Low Down Freedom”—I’m wagering Waylon’s are the definitive takes: The Outlaw sound he’s going to run with for a while is fully realized, and his vocals fill Shaver’s heartbreaks and other losses with joy, as if every hurt is another reminder that he’s glad to be alive and feeling hurt. Embracing all of it even as it’s slipping away, he gives the Troy Seals and Donnie Fritts song “We Had It All” (#28) the last lonesome word.

George Jones Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You) – Jones may well be country’s greatest-ever singer, but he didn’t make many great albums. On the other hand, and maybe this is better, he made a ton of good ones—and he may have made half-a-great country album more often than just about anyone. The “great” “half” of his third solo collaboration with producer Billy Sherill includes its hilarious novelty and blues-impulse title track, the devoted “What My Woman Can’t Do,” both of which were Top Ten singles; the thumping “You’re Looking at a Happy Man” and the panicky “Never Having You”; plus deep-cuts “Made for the Blues” and “Wine (You’ve Used Me Long Enough).”

Tom Jones The Body and Soul of Tom Jones – He’d shown country affinities since at least “Green, Green Grass of Home,” and in a few years would top the country charts outright. Here, he makes over “Running Bear” like it’s a Jerry Reed joint and makes Merle Haggard and George Jones standards his own. The closing “Ballad of Billy Joe,” from the Charlie Rich songbook, sounds like a Marty Robbins cowboy number, minus any western romance.

Kris Kristofferson Jesus Was a Capricorn – Kris Kristofferson is one of America’s greatest songwriters, and a horrible singer. I find his voice, and his lack of chops for controlling it, particularly painful when the pace exceeds midtempo as it does here on “Jesse Younger” and “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”—and this problem is compounded by the brash and sardonic points of view he tends to be working for the faster ones. (Just because he dedicates the title track to John Prine doesn’t mean he shares a skill set.) Of course, the exceptions to this rule of thumb are all of the times when his vocal limits become an essential intimate feature rather than a bug. His humble voice is the perfect vehicle for hit gospel number “Why Me” and ditto for his humiliated crawl through “Enough for You.” It also helps that he has angel-voiced Rita Coolidge and angel-voiced Larry Gatlin on hand to dominate the harmony blends.

Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge Full Moon – Kristofferson’s “Bottle to the Bottom” swipes the melody to “Poison Love,” but it’s a good melody! Full Moon includes the original “Lovin’ Arms,” a Tom Jans’ song soon to be covered by Elvis, Dobie Gray, Petula Clark and, in 1998, the Chicks. Kris and Rita’s version breached the lower levels of both the Country and Pop 100s.

Brenda Lee New Sunrise – The country music and rock and roll Hall of Famer as pop interpreter, working with producer Chips Moman while covering Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Haggard and Kristofferson. Mark James’ “Sunday Sunrise” and “Shel Silverstein’s “Wrong Ideas” were both Top Ten hits for Lee. Her version of Seals and Fritts’ “We Had It All” should’ve been.  

Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) — Merle Haggard fan Ronnie Van Zandt channels Chuck Berry on “Gimme Three Steps” and prototypes the new Hank Jr. with “A Simple Man.” How many Outlaws heard “Free Bird” and thought “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Barbara Mandrell The Midnight Oil – Billy Sherrill’s countrysoulapolitan production is working overtime here to sell these songs from a singer not nearly so distinctively gifted as Sherrill-mates Tucker and Wynette. But Mandrell may have turned out to predict more accurately the approaches future women country singers would be taking. This album’s brutal cheating-song title track went Top 10, and the album included four other charting singles: “Give a Little, Take a Little” (#24), Joe Tex’s “Show Me” (#11), “Tonight My Baby’s Coming Home” (#10), and “Hold on (to the Love I Got)” (#27).

The Marshall Tucker Band The Marshall Tucker Band – I sometimes think Toy Caldwell’s “Can’t You See” was more of a highly-trafficked on-ramp for country’s adoption of southern-rock sounds than the Allmans and Skynyrd catalogs combined. The rest of MTB’s debut is nowhere near that indelible but it’s close. “Losing You,” “Hillbilly Band,” etc. Also, more than once: country flute!

Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys Singing All Day and Dinner on the Ground – Whenever I listen to Jimmy Martin, the man whose harmonies goosed the high in Bill Monroe’s high and lonesome and who’s swinging, springy hard bluegrass is my beau ideal, I always have the same thought: Why do I listen to anything else? This gospel set is a dream, with Doyle Lawson on mandolin and tenor harmony on most of the best cuts (“Lift Your Eyes to Jesus,” “Help Thy Brother,” “My Lord Keeps a Record”) but it also reaches back to 1960s lineups with Paul Williams (“A Beautiful Life,” “Stormy Waters”) and once even with J.D. Crowe on the banjo too (“God Is Always the Same”). Put Jimmy Martin in the Hall of Fame already!

Jay McShann The Man from Muskogee – Cut one afternoon in a Toronto studio, McShann’s group, featuring Claude “Fiddler” Williams, comes off like Merle Haggard’s Strangers were going to sound on stage in their jazzy early ‘80s. With apologies to Roy Benson and Commander Cody, I’m calling this 1973’s best western swing album.

Roger Miller Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven’t Written Lately – The best thing about Miller’s first album in three years is the title. Still plenty of fun, though, and with plenty of horns too—real ones mostly, except when, on the instrumental “Whistle Stop,” Miller Mills-Brothers up a fake trumpet. “Mama [nee “My Uncle”] Used to Love Me but She Died,” “What Would My Mama Say,” “The Day I Jumped from Uncle Harvey’s Plane,” and don’t you dare skip “Animal of Man.”

Ronnie Milsap Where My Heart Is – His bigger, defining hits would start in the new year, but 1973’s “I Hate You” and “The Girl Who Waits on Tables” were his first charting country sides, climbing to #10 and #11. His pulse-pounding piano on “Branded Man” is what makes it my second favorite version of that Haggard song.

Willie Nelson Shotgun Willie – Despite its rep’, and its importance in moving him toward Outlaw-era masterpieces like Phases and Stages and Red Headed Stranger, I’d place Shotgun… nearer to middle-of-the-pack Nelson (a little uneven, he’d cut a much better “Whiskey River” later, etc.) than among his best, which I note not as any kind of putdown but rather to highlight how many damn great albums the man’s actually made. “Sad Songs and Waltzes,” “Devil in a Sleepin’ Bag” (“Rita Coolidge! Rita Coolidge! Cleft for me!”), “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer).” Contra its own lyric sheet, the title track proves that, yes, you can make a record if you’ve got nothing to say.

New Riders of the Purple Sage The Adventures of Panama Red – The country-rockin’ New Riders are my kind of Dead spin-off; Peter Rowan’s “Panama Red” is my kind of stoner sing-along; and I hope that Robert Hunter’s “Kick in the Head” is the only one of those I ever enjoy.

Olivia Newton-John Let Me Be There – Come for ONJ’s still irresistible southern-gospel-infused title track, a Top Ten country, pop, easy-listening crossover. But then stick around for her spring-water reading of murder ballad “Banks of the Ohio” as well as her versions of Kristofferson gems “Me and Bobbie McGee” and “Help Me Make It through the Night,” plus takes on Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads,” Dylan’s “If Not for You,” and Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” Her fresh-faced cover of Merilee Rush’s “Angel of the Morning” sounds like the template for the pop potential she and collaborator John Farrar heard in these new kind of country songs.  

Roy Orbison Milestones – Orbison threw this one together quickly, the liner notes say, to get out of his MGM contract, but boy did he take it seriously, nonetheless. The Big “O” sings the hell out of “Drift Away,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Words,” “I Wanna Live” and so on. If you don’t know Milestones, and as it didn’t even crack Billboard’s Top 200 even his fans mostly don’t, then please allow me to introduce you to your new favorite Roy Orbison album.

The Osborne Brothers Midnight Flyer – The bluegrass legends add pedal steel, harmonica, drums, piano and even electric guitar to their regular mandolin/banjo/high harmony attack. It didn’t help them at radio, but somewhere back there Ricky Skaggs was taking notes. “How Long Does It Take (to Be a Stranger),” “Back to the Country Roads.”

Dolly Parton My Tennessee Mountain Home – Drummer Jerry Carrigan and bassist Bobby Dyson can make even the worst treacle sound funky and fun, which is good because a big chunk of this one is like rural-fetish, Dolly Parton fan service. You wish the Dolly of “Daddy’s Working Boots” and mama’s “Old Black Kettle” had attended more closely to Dolly masterpiece “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)”: “No amount of money could buy from me the mem'ries I have of then. No amount of money could pay me to go back and live through it again.”

Dolly Parton Bubbling Over – Where Dolly begins her pop turn in earnest. The shiny up-tempo first side has left hills and home behind for big city sparkle and sin: On “Travelling Man,” she pines for an older lover way more than she hates her mom for stealing him. And the stripped and slowed-down love ballads on side two shimmer with pop-radio potential. With “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” already in the can, the good old days are now.

Elvis Presley Raised on Rock – Hearing Elvis sing Tony Joe White’s “For Old Times Sake” (#42), or Wayne Walker’s “Are You Sincere,” or “I Miss You,” unashamedly inhabiting such naked songs, commanding them with a diminished instrument, kills me. “Raised on Rock,” “Find Out What Time It Is,” “If You Don’t Come Back.”  

Kenny Price Sea of Heartbreak and Other Don Gibson Hits – A Don Gibson tribute by the warm-voiced and always entertaining “Round Mound of Sound.” What’s not to like? “Blue, Blue Day,” “(I’d Be) a Legend in My Time.”

Ray Price She’s Got to Be a Saint – The chart-topping title track might have more accurately been titled “He’s Got to Be a Dick.” But, Lord help me, there are very few country crooners who can make me swoon quite like Ray Price when he goes full-on easy-listening and/or countrypolitan. “My Baby’s Gone,” “Help Me.”

Charley Pride Amazing Love – There are very few country crooners who can make me swoon quite like Charley Pride when he goes full-on country-soul and/or countrypolitan. Another #1, “Amazing Love,” plus “Comin’ Down with Love,” “Old Photographs,” “Mr. Joe Henry’s Happy Hand Clapping Open Air Rhythm Band.”

John Prine Sweet Revenge – On his third album, Prine begins to lean a little into the more personal and heartfelt, which of course had always been there, and a little away from the wry distanced social commentary, which he’d do less of here on in. A good move! “Please Don’t Bury Me” is a comic last will and testament. The con in “Christmas in Prison” is incarcerated but his heart isn’t. “Grandpa Was a Carpenter,” “Blue Umbrella,” the closing cover of Merle Travis’ “Nine Pound Hammer.” The album’s secret weapon: guitarist Grady Martin.

Jeanne Pruett Satin Sheets – Nothing here can touch the money-ain’t-everything “Satin Sheets,” a country #1, a Top 30 pop hit, and one of the biggest and best sides of the countrypolitan era. But Pruett’s versions of “Break My Mind” and “Baby’s Gone” are awfully good. “Hold on Woman.”

Red, White & Blue (Grass) Red, White & Blue (Grass) (AKA Guaranteed) – Fun and even surprising debut from folk-goes-pop bluegrass outfit. With lead vocals split between husband-and-wife duo Grant and Ginger Boatwright, banjo from Dale Whitcomb, and all manner of other stringed instruments courtesy of Norman Blake. Their version of the John Stewart song, “July, You’re a Woman,” featuring the Atlanta symphony for extra string power, was a minor pop hit.

Jerry Reed Lord Mr. Ford – Reed sings nearly half the album in his I-have-no-southern-accent-at-all voice that he pulls out for very serious material. It’s a drag. But the record takes off when he returns to his good-old-boy vocal attack on the chart-topping car-culture title-track rant, on his country funk takes on “Folsom Prison Blues” and “That Lucky Old Sun,” and on a super early Rodney Crowell copyright, “You Can’t Keep Me Here in Tennessee.” Instrumentals “Pickie, Pickie, Pickie” and “Two Timing” are a blast.

Johnny Rodriguez Introducing Johnny Rodriguez – I’ll second the late critic John Morthland, from his The Best of Country Music: Rodriguez’ debut, full of co-writes with former boss Tom T. Hall, “sounds like one of the last hurrahs of the Nashville Sound—concise, compact, full of strong tunes, with a Jerry Kennedy production that goes light on all the extras.” “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing through” (#9), “You Always Come Back to Hurting Me” (#1), “Jealous Darlin’,” “Easy Come, Easy Go.” Just an essential country album. (If you complain I should’ve gone with Introducing… over All I Ever Meant… for the 21 Best Albums section of this project, I guess I’d have to admit I flipped a coin.)

Linda Ronstadt Don’t Cry Now – An irony of Ronstadt’s career is that her early country-rock has turned out to be far less influential within country music than the straight rock sides she was about to make. This one kind of straddles the divide and is low-key lovely. Supported by country rock all-stars J.D. Souther, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Chris Ethridge, and Herb Pederson, though not so you’d notice. Ronstadt took her second version of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” to #20 country. Her version of Randy Newman’s “Sail Away” does not work, but her “Desperado” does. “I Can Almost See It,” “Love Has No Pride.”

Doug Sahm Doug Sahm and Band – Sahm was a great roots synthesist, maybe the great roots synthesist, so his Charley Pride cover sounds like CCR playing a Cajun festival, his Willie Nelson cover sounds like it’s road tripping from south Texas to Memphis via Omaha, and his Delmore Brothers cover sounds like members of the Band nursing several exquisite hangovers.  It’s all slapdash but gloriously so, and Dylan is caterwauling ‘round here somewhere.

The Earl Scruggs Revue The Earl Scruggs Review – National treasure Earl Scruggs playing second, uh, fiddle to his sons Greg and Randy and friends, who get to sing leads, take most of the solos, and guide the song choices, while he plays banjo like it’s another color instrument. A big-hearted and fantastic of-its-moment album, like the Dirt Band’s straight-hippie project in reverse. “It Takes a lot to Laugh,” “Down in the Flood,” “If I’d Come and Gone,” and… Ah hell, just play the whole thing.

Billy Joe Shaver Old Five and Dimers Like Me – Collects Shaver’s brilliant early batch of songs, quite a few of which had already been cut by others, or soon would be, in multiple and far superior versions—and it’s not his fault kids these days don’t even know what a Five and Dimer is. No matter. Billy Joe has a one-of-a-kind voice, a class-conscious point of view, can sing rings around producer pal Kristofferson, and is backed by a great band of pickers, picking mostly unplugged and with unmatched empathy. “Bottom Dollar,” “Low Down Freedom,” and “Good Christian Soldier.” All hail “I’ve Been to Georgia on a Fast Train.”

Connie Smith A Lady Named Smith and God Is Abundant – After a decade at RCA, Smith moved to Columbia and quickly released these, both a return to form though big hits were behind her. “Never Love Again,” “Jesus,” and maybe the best “Pass Me By” in a year teaming with them. The gospel set features eleven more reasons for Smith to be considered country’s greatest gospel vocalist.

Joe Stampley Soul Song – Another of the former rockers who became country stars in this era and helped to codify both old R&B and rock-and-roll as country going forward. The fantastic “Soul Song,” his first #1, is on point. Also, “Bring It on Home to Your Woman” (#7), “Too Far Gone” (#12), and “I’m Still Loving You” (#3).

Mel Tillis Sawmill – Solid but unremarkable effort from one of country’ greatest songwriters—and a pretty decent singer, too. “Sawmill” was a #2 hit. “Cheap Imitation.”

Ike & Tina Turner Nutbush City Limits – Try this in a small town, with the volume turned up to ten. The Tina-penned title track is all about the limits (poverty, white supremacy) of a Tennessee youth she fled. Per Francesca Royster, from her Black Country Music: “‘Nutbush City Limits’ is a perfect marriage of rural and urban, country girl and city slicker, Tina and Ike. With [her] blues shout wedded to a whomping 4/4 country beat, perfect for line dancing...” Also: “Drift Away,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” “You Are My Sunshine.” Next stop: 1974’s Tina Turns the Country On!

Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn Louisianna Woman, Mississippi Man –Lynn and Twitty shared a producer, Owen Bradley, but had different sounds. On their duets, they tended to lean in Conway’s more country-soul direction, using Twitty’s studio lineup and with Loretta singing twangy high harmony a la Twitty sideman Joe E. Lewis. This means Loretta cuts loose more with Conway than she normally does alone: The raging and randy title track was their third country chart topper; their version of “Bye, Bye Love” is straight up rock and roll. On “If You Touch Me, You’ve Got to Love Me,” Bradley combines their approaches to create what amounts to two songs—Conway’s country-funk, Loretta’s brooding honky tonk—in one all-time track.

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton We Found It – Porter’s “We Found It” is a delirious anthem to rekindled love, powered to funky lift off by bassist Bobby Dyson. His “Satan’s River” is country-funk gospel. And this duet album’s inevitable fussin’-and-feudin’ number, which they wrote together, is “I’ve Been Married (Just As Long As You Have)” is a couple’s bickering turned to make-up flirting that, based on trips back home, is approaching cinema verité.

Porter Wagoner I’ll Keep on Loving You – Half solid little-known Porter songs (“Lightening the Load,” “Keep on Loving You,” “Treat Her Kind”), half solid little-known Dolly numbers (“Stella, Dear Stella,” “Truth or a Lie,” “Jasper County Law”), all of it arranged gently and sung desperately. Just a lovely little album.

Charlie Walker Break Out the Bottle – Bring on the Music – “Gonna Drink Milwaukee Dry,” “Misery Loves Company,” “Soft Lips and Hard Liquor,” “A Swimming Pool Full of Beer.” Nobody makes drinking away a broken heart sound like more fun than good old Texas honky-tonker Charlie Walker. He even finds the aw-shucks humor in “Drinking Champaigne,” which other folks tend to sing like they’re trying to class up the joint. Play loud: Charlie’s horny and grateful “Thanks Girl I Needed That.”

Kitty Wells Yours Truly –Nothing going on here but one of country’s greatest singers, singing good-to-great songs and working a moderately updated sound with longtime collaborator Owen Bradley. Just a delight. “Easily Persuaded,” “Pass Me By (If You’re Only Passing Through),” “I Love You More and More Everyday.”

Dottie West Country Sunshine – West had a husky, mournful tone she could hit that kind of splits the difference between Sammi Smith and Tammy Wynette. So, yeah, she’s got a good voice. When she gets a good batch of songs, with unfussy arrangements, as she does here, hold on to your heart. The #2 “Country Sunshine” was her biggest record to this point. “My Mind’s Gone to Memphis,” “Desperado,” “Help Me,” “It’s Been a Long Time Since Atlanta.”

Don Williams Volume 1 – Includes Williams’ first two Top 15 singles, “The Shelter of Your Eyes” and “Come Early Morning,” and the great original recording of Bob McDill’s “Amanda,” which didn’t even score that well. Low-key results, I guess, for a low-key album, from that matter-of-fact title to Williams’ relaxed singing style—always warm and inviting but with gravitas—on to Allen Reynolds’s spare, quiet, ahead-of-its-time arranging and production, which anticipates for me certain Judds or O’Kanes recordings. “No Use Running,” “Don’t you Believe.”

Hank Williams, Jr. After You / Pride’s Not Hard to Swallow – A #3 country hit written by Jerry Chesnut, the countrypolitan “Pride’s Not Hard to Swallow” (“if you chew it long enough”) is a personal favorite, and like most of his early 1970s albums, this one is intensely sung, often a little lyrically quirky, and distinctively arranged. Worth tracking down, just for starters: “I Love You a Thousand Ways,” “One Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” and “I Can’t Cry Back In.” Worth skipping: Jr.’s statutory-rape prison-song morality tale, “Knoxville Courthouse Blues.”

ZZ Top Tres Hombres – One route Jimmy Reed’s Chicago blues licks took on their way to Nashville was through “La Grange,” Texas. “Waitin’ for the Bus,” “Jesus Left Chicago.”

*****

Coming Next: Part 3 tries, unsuccessfully, to account for everything else country in 1973, with “Worth a Spin Anway…” recommendations and a long list of albums “For Further Study.”

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