Johnny Paycheck Albums (33)
'11 Months and 29 Days/Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets'
Release Date 2/21/2006
Tracks 25
Label Raven
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Raven's 2006 two-fer of Johnny Paycheck's 1976 11 Months and 29 Days and 1977's Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets is the first time either of these records has reached CD, and such long waits for reissues is common for Paycheck -- and just like Koch's reissues of his early Little Darlin' work, the wait was worth it in this case. These two albums were pivotal for Paycheck, as the first helped create the rowdy, rebel persona that made him a star in the late '70s, while the second actually made him the star. Not that 11 Months and 29 Days is too far removed from the music that he was making just a few years prior to its 1976 release; he was already signed to Epic and already working with Billy Sherrill, who helped polish Paycheck enough for the big 1971 hit "She's All I Got," which almost became a pop crossover tune. The genius of Sherrill is that he was so commercially savvy that he could figure out how to get mavericks like Paycheck onto the charts without diluting their power, and that's especially true with 11 Months and 29 Days, which was considerably rougher than She's All I Got -- there's no attempt at sweetening with strings here, a move on that 1971 effort and on Sherrill's productions for George Jones -- yet clearly the work of a Nashville pro in its nuanced productions, where the slight shifts in tone and additional musicians are subtle yet carry enormous impact. Witness how 11 Months begins with Paycheck's greasy jailhouse blues of the title track and the relaxed barroom shuffle of "The Woman Who Put Me Here" before slowly shifting toward the honky tonk weepers of "The Feminine Touch" and "I Sleep with Her Memory Every Night" and snapping into a rip-roaring cover of Paul Simon's "Gone at Last" that amplifies all the gospel influences of the original. It's varied but focused thanks to Sherrill's easy touch, and it emphasizes Paycheck's range -- the suppleness of his ballads, the grit and danger of his honky tonk ravers, and how he can break free of either. It's a terrific album with only one flaw: it wasn't a hit. But even if it didn't tear up the charts, it established the sound and persona that became Paycheck's signature in the late '70s, and it provided the template for his next album, Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets, which did indeed become a big hit, in large part due to its title track, a relaxed and nearly seductive tune that once again illustrated how Sherrill could polish singers as ornery as Paycheck without defanging them. All of Satin Sheets is a smoother affair than 11 Months and 29 Days, but it doesn't feel compromised: it just feels that the focus has shifted slightly, emphasizing the elements of Paycheck's music that would win a wider audience. And this isn't limited to the ballads -- this includes the rougher, wilder material, as on the myth-making rebel anthem "I'm the Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)," the Williams-worshipping "Hank (You Tried to Tell Me)," the revival of the classic honky tonk song "You're Still on My Mind," or the riotous "I've Got Them Lookin' in the Mirror Wonderin' Where My Woman Went Blues," which is every bit as funny as the title suggests. These are songs that are broad enough to win a large audience, but never at the expense of Paycheck's integrity. Despite the slight polish here, he remains one of the hardest country singers in history, and this is one of his best records, retaining its potency years after its release. To these two records Raven has added five bonus tracks from Paycheck's excellent 1981 tribute to Merle Haggard, Mr. Hag Told My Story, songs that reinterpret forgotten Hag classics -- only "Turnin' Off a Memory" and "Carolyn" could qualify as big hits -- to Paycheck's persona to great effect. They're tremendous bonuses, but Koch reissued the album years ago, so they're not the big news here: the big news is the reissue of these two albums, which have long been out of print, but are excellent in every respect and make this one of the best country reissues of 2006. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'A Little Darlin' Christmas'
Release Date 10/5/2004
Tracks 16
Label Koch
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
While Bobby Helms had a handful of hits on the country charts during the 1950s and '60s (most notably "Fraulein" and "My Special Angel"), by a wide margin the man's best remembered song is "Jingle Bell Rock," which was released in late 1957 and has been a perennial holiday staple ever since. A Little Darlin' Christmas features Helms' biggest hit along with 11 other Yuletide-themed tunes; these tracks have bounced around on several labels over the years, and sound like the work of a journeyman country singer knocking out a Christmas album with a full measure of professionalism but without a lot of enthusiasm. Still, if you're looking for "Jingle Bell Rock" and would like some like-minded songs to go along with it, this should fill the bill, and his version of Johnny Paycheck's "The Old Year Is Gone" conjures up a fair bit of honky tonk soul. Added as a bonus on this release are four Christmas songs from Paycheck himself, from sessions for a Christmas album that was never completed. Apparently recorded during his early days for Little Darlin' Records, these tracks include Johnny's own recording of "The Old Year Is Gone" (which is significantly more effective) and suggest he could have made a satisfying hard country holiday LP if he'd had the chance to finish the project. This set makes an odd match, with Paycheck's tougher and more passionate style facing off against Helms, whose material is much more pop oriented, but then again maybe that's all part of the magic of the holiday season bringing people together. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'Tribute to George Jones'
Release Date 6/18/2002
Tracks 10
Label K-Tel
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The great unspoken truth behind this cheap, budget-line Tribute to George Jones is that the Possum's style owed a great deal to Johnny Paycheck. It's been argued (very convincingly, by the way) that George borrowed many of his signature phrases from Johnny, but there was no ill will there, since the two palled around for years, even recording a charmingly wretched, coked-out duet album at the end of the '70s. This release doesn't illustrate the care even of that release. It was sneaked into the market in 2002 without any fanfare, and it's impossible to tell when the album was recorded since there are no notes whatsoever. Given the clean, clean production and the edges on Paycheck's voice, it's likely that these are recent recordings. So, it's probably not of interest to anybody who isn't among the hardcore (unless you happen to pick this up at a truckstop on a road trip), but they will be pleasantly surprised by how nice this album is. Sure, Paycheck's voice is a little rough, stained with whiskey and tobacco, but it's still sweet and hits all the notes, and each of these ten songs (all predictable choices, outside of "Take Me" and "She's Mine") is given an unadorned hardcore country arrangement that isn't even sullied by the occasional synthesizer. No, it's not going to be the first Johnny Paycheck album you'd choose to play, nor is it as good as Mr. Hag Told My Story in a Song, but once it starts spinning, it sucks you in and proves itself to be an engaging, convincing listen. And that's a wondrous, welcome surprise. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Moving over to Epic in 1971, Johnny Paycheck soon aligned with the label's top producer, Billy Sherrill. Given Paycheck's reputation for rowdy honky tonk and Sherrill's proclivity for opulent productions, the pairing did seem a little odd, but at that point, Johnny hadn't had a Top Ten single in five years and needed a jolt to send him back to the charts. So, he tempered his wild ways and made a Billy Sherrill record in She's All I Got, complete with the strings and heavy emphasis on romantic material. Paycheck had not been strongly associated with love songs prior to She's All I Got -- and once his wild-eyed outlaw days began, he was hardly seen as an ambassador of love -- but his slower sides for Little Darlin' proved that he had a strong honky tonk ballad style, similar to his protégé/peer George Jones, and Sherrill exploited that side of him throughout this lovely record. What makes the album work is that the singer and producer found a common ground by muting both the gritty hardcore country of Paycheck and Sherrill's lush, layered arrangements. Strings have been left behind, but there are plenty of choirs and weeping steel guitars, and even when the production is a little thick for a Paycheck song, or the tempos a little too sprightly, it works because the material is first-rate, because Sherrill's production is deft and sensitive, and, of course, because Johnny Paycheck is a superb singer, easily adapting his style to this setting. With its romantic bent, it may be somewhat of an anomaly within his catalog, yet it no doubt stands as one of his consistently greatest albums (all the while setting the template for the great Sherrill-produced George Jones albums of the '70s). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
That this country legend is a survivor of the '90s cannot be denied, in that he was still living and breathing when that decade wrapped. But how to reinvent himself, if the image of a cantankerous, drunk, and/or stoned semi-lunatic is too hard to maintain? The mainstream country industry standard circa 1996 seems to have been an influence here, and that doesn't give Paycheck a lot to work with. The bargain is not to his favor because he provides the goods in the form of a terrifically expressive voice on the verge of bringing true sparks of value to the purely bargain basement songwriting material, were not that task so daunting that every challenger would surely be defeated. Listeners familiar with vintage Paycheck might reject this material outright, but his talent is so strong that it would be wrong not to admit to shining moments here and there. Changing the image isn't that important, in the long run, if the man has the musical goods. He needs to find collaborators that are a bit more up to his level, if such a thing would be possible again. Whoever it is that helps out on this CD didn't think it was worth the while to even identify themselves, so it isn't even possible to determine if the horrible-sounding drums are synth-drums or a live human being that has mastered the art of sounding like a machine. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
