Chip Taylor - This Side of the Big River

In the mid-70's, Taylor charted one country hit for Warner Nashville, "Me As I Am," and not much else; the label was ready to drop him once his two-album contract expired. But at least one promotion man was willing to continue giving him air, and the result was a third album, This Side of the River. Recorded in the unlikely location of White Plains, New York, with steel player Pete Drake and Buddy Spicher on fiddle, with the Jordanaires backing him, and tossing in a few live tracks from a radio appearance, the album itself is more a collection of songs than a whole - yet it holds together remarkably well and plays very much like a brand-new disc. In particular, it was almost a surprise finding out when this was recorded, as listening to "Same Ol' Story" had me thinking this was a brand-new album. (It is actually about the Vietnam war, not the current Middle Eastern problems. Go fig, huh?) Taylor composes his songs from real life, including songs about friends - "You're Alright Charlie" and "John Tucker's on the Wagon Again - and songs about the recent separation from his wife - "Sleepy Eyes," "Circle of Tears" and the heartbreaking "Holding Me Together" - and infuses them with all the emotion and gritty reality that makes for the best kind of country music. The real stuff, hardcore, simple, and monumentally dignified in that humility. One cover track, Johnny Cash's "Big River," stands in sharp but complimentary contrast to the originals, demonstrating exactly where Taylor got much of his inspiration.

Chip Taylor dropped out of recording after this album was produced and spent a lot of his time as a professional gambler before coming back to music in the nineties, recording both as a solo artist and with duet partner Carrie Rodriguez on his own Train Wreck Records. He's one of those northern country singers, those rare but amazing artists who may hail from New York, but write, sing, and play as though they'd been born down in a holler. Chip was initially discovered by Chet Atkins, and he's written country songs such as Bobby Bare's hit "Just A Little Bit Later On Down The Line" and Anne Murray's "Son Of A Rotten Gambler," in addition to his rock and pop hits. He's also taken a hand at producing with partner Al Gorgoni - they have the credit for discovering James Taylor, as well as producing one of my favorite Neil Diamond records, Brooklyn Roads. His success as a gambler made him one of the foremost Thoroughbred horse race handicappers on the East Coast, and he finished third in the World Black Jack championship, becoming quite well-known in Black Jack circles as a card counter (which eventually got him banned from the casinos in Atlantic City). All of this eventually brought him back full circle, to music, where he remains today. He's recorded duets with Guy Clark and Lucinda Williams, as well as continuing to write hits for artists such as Bonnie Raitt, and has released eight albums since 1996.

This re-issue comes at a good time, and hopefully will open a door for country fans to discover yet another "great unknown" from one of country's oddest eras. I say that because of course, the 70's produced some great country albums - and almost every one of them was considered a rock album at the time (from Michael Martin Murphy to Michael Nesmith to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers... I could go on). Country music history has a lot of strange bumps in the road, with a lot of great music having fallen by the wayside. This is a great little slice, and more than worthy of both a re-issue, and a brand-new listen.