MERCURY - I-40 Country

[Dave McKee]

I-40 Country (1974)

He Can´t Fill My Shoes / Tell Tale Signs / A Picture From Life´s Other Side / I Hate Goodbyes / I´ve Forgot More About You (Than He´ll Ever Know) / Tomorrow´s Taking Baby Away / Cold, Cold Morning Light / The Alcohol Of Fame / Where Would I Be / Bluer Words / Room Full Of Roses

Oh dear. Most of the best material from these sessions was clearly already released on the Sometimes A Memory Ain't Enough album, with the remainder released on this dirge. With a more sympathetic producer there's some OK songs with He Can't Fill My Shoes & Cold, Cold Morning Light being highlights, but as it stands this is without a doubt the worse proper album of Jerry's entire career. 2 out 5

Outtakes: The Gods Were Angry With Me

Apart from two songs taped in February 1974, both the Sometimes A Memory Ain't Enough & I-40 Country albums were recorded over three days in July 1973. The one outtake (released in the mid '80's) is nothing special though at least it's not as over-produced as most of the other issued songs.

This is from an excellent blog by Peter Checksfield. See the whole blog at http://themargatemusicman.blogspot.com/ ... years.html

[Henry]

Andrew wrote:(or, as in the case of "I-40 Country", pretty near plain awful!).

Diffrent strokes from diffrent folks.
I have always liked many of the songs from this album for example:

He Can´t Fill My Shoes
A Picture From Life´s Other Side
I´ve Forgot More About You (Than He´ll Ever Know)
Cold Morning Light
The Alcohol Of Fame
Where Would I Be
Bluer Words
Room Full Of Roses

[Andrew McRae]

x

[Perk]

At least he rocks it up at the end of "I Hate Goodbyes" with some hitting the keys and a good pianolead slam

[rockin532000]

Andrew wrote:(or, as in the case of "I-40 Country", pretty near plain awful!).

I can acutely remember just how my heart sank when I first listened to the album back in 1974...

While I did not have the advantage of buying the album in 1974 (I was only 9 years old at that time), I bought most of Jerry's 60's and 70's albums in the years 1982 to 1984 from the auction market in the U.S. and they were usually shipped as a package of 3 to 5 albums. But I still remember the same feeling when I heard this one for the first time. Of course, in this particular package I had "The killer rocks on" and "Odd Man In" included.

Best Wishes
Joerg

[Henry]

Bgo releases this in november.
http://www.bgo-records.com/albums/bgocd ... odd-man-in

[Henry]

I wonder if Andrew have written the liner notes/booklets(or whatever it,s called) on this one too?
Well i actually think so (and also hope)when he just deleted his"pretty near plain awful!"statement

[PeterC]

I wonder if Andrew have written the liner notes/booklets(or whatever it,s called) on this one too?
Well i actually think so (and also hope)when he just deleted his"pretty near plain awful!"statement

Hahaha!

To be fair it must be quite a challenge to write positive liner notes about two of his weakest albums... 'I-40 Country' does have some very good vocal performances but mostly weak songs and horrible OTT production, while 'Odd Man In' has some great songs, better production but is probably his weakest Mercury album vocally (lots of "leakage" too, where an original vocal can be heard behind the overdubs).

His final two Mercury albums 'Country Memories' and 'Keeps Rockin'' would make a good "two-fer". Neither are perfect, but (along with 'Country Class') they were largely a return to form - and a return to big (country) hits.

[PeterC]

I can confirm that Andrew did indeed write the liner notes (and he's still very critical of 'I-40 Country'!). The next BGO "two-fer" will be 'Country Class' + 'Country Memories', probably my personal favourite post-1972 Mercury albums.

[tchr]

I can confirm that Andrew did indeed write the liner notes (and he's still very critical of 'I-40 Country'!). The next BGO "two-fer" will be 'Country Class' + 'Country Memories', probably my personal favourite post-1972 Mercury albums.

Did Andrew write the liner notes on all of these BGO "two-fers"?

[jarireinikka]

no,the first 2 or 3 were written by someone else

[PeterC]

ALBUM COVER RATING: 1/5

I'm going through Jerry's albums on here and giving marks out of five for the album covers (regardless of the actual content)...

As follow-up to the cheap and nasty cover for 'Southern Roots' they actually managed to come up with something even worse! His weakest Mercury album with a cover to match it.

[Perk]

Ha ha, i figured you would give this one the lowest grade. It´s bad for sure.

[PeterC]

Ha ha, i figured you would give this one the lowest grade. It´s bad for sure.

Bad production, mostly weak songs, horrible cover... without doubt the nadir of his career at Mercury!

Was hoping my comments on the album sleeves would liven up this forum a little. Where is everyone???