Gene Watson Discography
'Reflections & Should I Come
Home'
Hux Records HUX 101 (2009)
'Reflections & Should I Come Home' was released on
Hux Records on Tuesday 27 January 2009.
'Reflections & Should I Come Home' discography information is presented on
this site for educational purposes only & no infringement of copyright is
intended.
About 'Reflections & Should I Come Home'...
Overview
'In 2002 Hux
Records issued a two album release (popularly known as 'twofers') of
country singer Gene Watson's Capitol releases from the 1970s, 'Love
in the Hot Afternoon', coupled with 'Paper
Rosie'. This proved so successful that the exercise was repeated
in 2005 with 'Because You Believed in Me'
and 'Beautiful Country'.
These releases had a twofold effect; they made classic country albums
finally available on CD for the first time and also introduced a new
audience to one of the most exceptional country singers of the genre.
Gene Watson was once cited by George Jones
- almost certainly the greatest
country artist that the world has known - as his favourite country ballad
singer, while Grand Ole Opry veteran and country superstar, the late
Porter
Wagoner, once described Watson as 'a singer's singer'. It is clear,
when listening to Gene Watson, what Jones
and
Wagoner heard in Watson.
Watson is particularly powerful on ballad material; his expressive and
heartfelt delivery, with its slightly anxious vibrato, engages the listener
from the moment he starts to sing, although he is equally at home whooping
it up on any number of rocking honky tonk shuffles and sawdust kickers.
Gene Watson was born in Palestine, Texas on October 11 in 1943. In the
early sixties he moved to Houston where he performed in local clubs, most
notably the Dynasty, with his brothers and cousins. Cutting a few
records for local labels did not yield any great success and it was not
until 1975 that he first became known to the record buying public when he
appeared on the Billboard country charts for the first time, albeit in a
small way, peaking at 87, with 'Bad water'. The song, first recorded
by rock act the Raelettes, was on the Resco Records label which had been
formed by Watson and local businessman Russ Reeder, as was its follow-up,
the erotic and
torrid 'Love in the hot afternoon'. Despite its then
controversial lyric and sensuously charged atmosphere, it still managed to
get airplay on country radio, at the time notorious for its conservatism,
and was actually picked up by a major label, Capitol Records no less.
Commenting on the record years later in an article with Craig Baguley for
Country Music People
magazine, Watson remembered '...back then it was kinda racy to be played on
the radio. A lot of people that recorded it before I did - it was
recorded I think seven times before - they would change it lyrically.
And I decided to record it exactly the way it was written, and I did, and
the rest is history'. It was with Capitol that Watson was to stay and
enjoy the most fruitful period of his career, charting with the imprint no
less than seventeen times until 1980, at which time he left the label due to
business difficulties. As Watson recalls, 'they (Capitol) wanted me to
alter the contract in various intricate ways...they flew me to Hollywood and
tried to negotiate a contract with me. It didn't work'.
The next label for Watson was MCA Records, where he maintained his chart
momentum and subsequently cut sides for Epic and latterly with Warner
Brothers. This took Watson into the 1990s although this decade was the
last to see him charting, ending his chart appearances on independent
labels, Broadland and Step One.
Although he ceased to be a chart contender, Gene Watson has been far from
inactive in the 2000s, touring constantly both in the USA and abroad - he is
particularly popular in Ireland - and continues to make albums of the
highest calibre. In 2007 he recorded 'In a
Perfect World', for Shanachie, a duet album that many considered one of
the finest releases of the year, with singers Lee Ann Womack,
Vince Gill,
Connie Smith, Rhonda Vincent,
Mark Chesnutt and Joe Nichols
all lining up,
eager to appear with the great man.
Following the success of its two reissue packages,
Hux Records
has continued to mine
the rich seam of Gene Watson's back catalogue and have now chronologically
released the next two albums, 'Reflections'
from 1978 and 'Should I Come Home' from 1979 in one
package. These albums maintain the superlative standard set by their
predecessors, arguably even surpassing them in terms of material and
performances evidenced in the opening cut of the 'Reflections'
album, 'One sided conversation'. This dark, atmospheric ballad which
peaked at #8, brilliantly yet heartbreakingly documents a failing loveless
relationship. In a thrilling and emotional bridge the song reaches an
awe inspiring climax in a passionate, almost abandoned vocal performance
from Watson.
The follow-up, 'Farewell party', was even more successful, reaching #5 in
early 1979. An older song, this was one of Watson's key singles even
naming his touring band the Farewell Party Band after it. Despite its
length (it gave DJs time to go to the bathroom', quips Watson these days)
and its doom-laden themes of death and burial plus a bitterly ironic lyric:
'...when my friends gather 'round at my farewell party/won't you pretend you
loved me', it savagely runs, it continued Watson's successful chart run.
Talking to
Country Music People, Watson noted, 'nobody else wanted me to record that song. We had
fifteen minutes left at the recording session. I remember it like it
was yesterday. I said, well we don't have fifteen minutes to waste and
I really want to record this song. Harold Bradley was the leader on
the recording session. I got a guitar and went through the song and
they copied down the chord charts. We got on the headphones, rode it
once to make sure the chords were right and then rolled the tape. What
you hear on the radio, that's the first take. We cut it in fifteen
minutes'.
The subsequent single, 'Pick the Wildwood Flower', a top 5 entry, was much
lighter in texture and feel and is a genial semi-biographical tale about an
itinerant musician and a kind of precursor to the song 'Guitar Man'.
Note fine rhythmic Pig Robbins piano fills and sawing fiddles from
Buddy Spicher and Tommy Williams. This was one of an astonishing eight songs
on this double collection of songs written by
Joe Allen, a Nashville session
bass player and consummate song-writer. In fact it was a
Joe Allen
song, 'Should I come home (or should I go crazy)', that was Watson's next
single and the opening track of the next album, 'Should
I Come Home', in 1979. Another huge hit, peaking at #3 on the
country charts, this is a deceptively relaxed swinger which has an edgy
subtext dealing with a man's failing grip on sanity implied in the title and
brought home powerfully in the lyric: 'lately I hear voices more and more'.
'Nothing sure looked good on you' gave Watson his first chart entry of the
80s, reaching #4 on the charts. This is a supremely cool mid-pacer
with a theme much used in country songs (though seldom better than here),
that of an ex-lover moving on to a better class of living with someone else
but at the sake of true love and genuine feelings and emotions.
Watson returned to the writing of
Joe Allen
for the last of the three
singles from the 'Should I Come Home' album,
'Bedroom ballad', a soft and tender love song with a sexy, nocturnal subject
matter, beautifully and sympathetically delivered by Watson.
Although these two albums yielded six A-sides, there is much else to be
enjoyed in this collection such as the rousing and wittily written 'The beer
at Dorsey's Bar', (the B-side of 'Nothing sure looked good on you'), '...our
love is colder than the beer at Dorsey's Bar'). Also worth noting is a
stunning rendition of Hank Williams' classic 'I can't help it (if I'm still
in love with you)', a funky country rocker in 'That evil child', written by
Wayne ('The letter') Carson, and a wispy, folk-tinged 'Circle driveway',
another Joe Allen song.
It is hard to think of too many major country artists that have been as
consistently good while still maintaining their country roots as Gene
Watson. This artist has been singing professionally since the late
1950s and making superb country records for nearly forty years.
Watson, who overcame colon cancer first diagnosed in 2000, is still active
today and his current touring schedule is as heavy as it has always been.
These two albums together provide a historic snapshot of some of the
greatest country music ever committed to disc.
Jon Philibert
Country Music People
'Reflections & Should I Come
Home'
Hux Records HUX 101 (2009)
1 'One sided conversation'
Written by
Joe Allen
Published by Joe Allen Music Inc. / BMI
2 'Take off them shoes'
Written by Joe Dougherty &
Tom Ghent
Published by Treaty of Ghent Publishing / ASCAP
'Take off them shoes'
features the Jordanaires
(Louis Nunley, Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins & Neal
Matthews) on background vocals
3 'Farewell party'
Written by Lawton Williams
Published by Western Hills Music Inc. / BMI
Alan Jackson
recorded 'Farewell party'
& included the track on
(his country 'covers' album) 'Under the Influence'
(Arista
Records, 1999)
Joe Nichols
recorded 'Farewell party'
& included the
track on ‘Revelation’
(Universal South Records, 2004)
Joe Nichols
also recorded Gene Watson's 'Should I come home (or should I go crazy)' & included the track on 'Joe Nichols III' (Universal South Records,
2005)
4 'Let's give it up or get it on'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Joe Allen Music Inc. / BMI
5 'For the memories'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Tree Publishing Company Inc. / BMI
6 'I wonder how it is in Colorado'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Tree Publishing Company Inc. / BMI
'I wonder how it is in Colorado'
features the Jordanaires
(Louis Nunley, Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins & Neal
Matthews) on background vocals
Gene Watson re-recorded 'I wonder how it is in Colorado'
& included the track on 'Gene
Watson: Then & Now' (Koch Records Nashville, 2005)
7 'Pick the
wildwood flower'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Tree Publishing Company Inc. / BMI
8 'I know what it's like in her arms'
Written by Lola Jean Dillon
Published by Coal Miners Music Inc. / BMI
9 'Mama sold roses'
Written by Dallas Harms
Published by Double Play Music / BMI
'Mama sold roses'
features the Jordanaires
(Louis Nunley, Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins & Neal
Matthews) on background vocals
10 'I don't know how to tell her'
Written by B. Fischer and Sonny Throckmorton
Published by Starburst Music / Tree Publishing Company Inc. /
ASCAP / BMI
'I don't know how to tell her (she don't love me anymore)' features the Nashville
Edition, with Janie Fricke
on background vocals
11 'Should I come home (or should I go crazy)'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Tree Publishing Company Inc. / BMI
Features Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin,
Jeanine Walker & Hurshel Wiginton
Joe Nichols
recorded 'Should I come home (or should I go crazy)'
& included the track on 'Joe Nichols III' (Universal South Records, 2005)
Joe Nichols
also recorded Gene Watson's 'Farewell party' & included the
track on 'Revelation' (Universal South Records, 2004); Gene Watson
included the original version
of 'Farewell party'
on 'Reflections'
(Capitol Records, 1978)
12 'I can't help it (if I'm still in love with you)'
Written by Hank Williams Sr.
Published by Fred Rose Music Inc. / BMI
Features 'The Nashville
Edition' (Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin, Wendellyn Suits & Hurshel
Wiginton)
Gene Watson's version of
Hank Williams'
'I can't help it (if I'm still in love with you)' was
also included on 'Hank
Williams Tribute' (EMI Records, 1992).; the album was reviewed by Craig Baguley
in the March 1993 issue of
Country Music People & you can read
the review here.
Hank Williams'
version of 'I can't help it (if I'm still in love with you)'
reached No.2 on the American country music singles chart in 1951.
13 'Nothing
sure looked good on you'
Written by Jim Rushing
Published by Coal Miners Music, Inc. / BMI
Features Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin, Jeanine Walker
& Hurshel Wiginton
Doug Supernaw
recorded
'Nothing
sure looked good on you'
& included the track on 'Fadin' Renegade'
(Tack Records, 1999)
14 'That evil child'
Written by Wayne Carson
Published by Screen Gems - EMI Music Inc. / BMI
Features The Sound 70
Singers (Ronald Drake, Beckie Foster, Allen Henson & Laverna Moore)
15 'Circle driveway'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Joe Allen Music / BMI
Features 'The Nashville
Edition' (Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin, Wendellyn Suits
& Hurshel
Wiginton)
Don Williams
recorded 'Circle driveway'
& included the track on 'Portrait' (MCA Records, 1979)
Ray Price
recorded
'Circle driveway' & included the track on 'Town
& Country' (Dimension Records, 1981)
16 'The heart of a clown'
Written by S. Nelson, J. Rollins and F. Kane
Published by Rightsong Music, Inc. / BMI
Features 'The Nashville
Edition' (Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin, Wendellyn Suits & Hurshel
Wiginton)
Sammi Smith (Thursday
5 August 1943 - Saturday
12 February 2005) recorded
'The heart of a clown'
& included the track on 'Today I Started Loving You Again' (Mega Records,
1975)
Willie Nelson recorded
'The heart of a clown' & included the track on 'Moonlight Becomes You'
(Justice Records, 1993)
17 'After the party'
Written by Joe Eddie Gough
Published by Little Ann Music / BMI
Features 'The Nashville
Edition' (Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin, Wendellyn Suits & Hurshel
Wiginton)
18 'The beer at Dorsey's Bar'
Written by R. Lane and D. Morrison
Published by Tree Publishing Company Inc. / BMI
Features The Sound 70
Singers (Ronald Drake, Beckie Foster, Allen Henson & Laverna Moore)
19 'Bedroom ballad'
Written by Joe Allen
Published by Tree Publishing Company Inc. / BMI
Features Joseph Babcock, Dolores Edgin,
Jeanine Walker & Hurshel Wiginton
20 'Beautiful you'
Written by Joe Eddie Gough
Published by Little Ann Music / BMI
You can read a CMP review of Gene Watson's 'Reflections & Should I
Come Home' here. The
review, which was written by Duncan Warwick, was published in the March 2009
issue of the United Kingdom monthly publication
Country Music People.
'Reflections & Should I Come
Home'
Hux Records HUX 101 (2009)
