Customer Reviews

Columbia Country Classics, Vol. 5: A New Tradition

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The final installment in this excellent series takes country music (on Columbia Records, at least) through the 60s, 70s and 80s and what a long, strange trip it's been. Label stalwart Johnny Cash kicks off the proceedings with "Daddy Sang Bass," one of his personal classics. But then, look: it's Bob Dylan, the Byrds and later, Poco -- rock and roll acts doing country! And what fine country it is; "Hickory Wind" is the absolute finest from the Byrds' Gram Parsons era and "Pickin' Up the Pieces" is a good early selection from Poco.

The rest is really a set of highs and lows, with the peaks including Merle Haggard's "Big City" and George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," classics in any idiom, and gems from Rodney Crowell, Moe Bandy and Willie Nelson. The lows include Sweethearts of the Rodeo, not even as pure country as the album they share their name with.

I'd say the best of this series is Vol. 3, "Americana," with Volume 2, "Honky Tonk Heroes" coming in a close second. For what it's worth, this is a solid third in the series.

This is a pretty good collection of country songs from the Columbia Records vaults, dating from the late 1960s to the 1980s. There are some great songs here, and there are some not-so-great songs here. That is to say, a few of them are not to my taste. But it is still a good representation of country music from the time period covered.