Customer Reviews

Jerry Reed Live Still

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been buying Jerry Reed LPs, 8-Tracks and CDs since the 1960s. This CD is for people like me: completists. If you want to own everything by the man, get this one. But, if you're looking for a place to start, or round out, your Jerry Reed collection, this isn't the place. No surprise, after decades of singing and smoking, Reed's voice is pretty well depleted. Evidence of this is clear on the song "Brand New Me" -- a new original number which is quite good, but on which Reed has to trot out vocal assistance to finish. The other songs are lethargic shadows of the original. The recording is sloppy -- the first track starts with Reed talking in mid-sentence, and the applause track is clumsily added in a couple of places. If you want to discover what made Jerry Reed great -- and as a songwriter and guitarist he had few peers -- consider picking up one of the other fine CDs available here.

Perhaps one has to make quite a few trips around the sun to appreciate performers who have done the same. Yes, Jerry doesn't sound like he did 30 years ago, but who does? Does this album having a driving beat? You betcha. The tempos on old favorites are the same as earlier recordings. Does Jerry sound like he's having fun? Yes, that hallmark orneriness still shines through. Does he share the spotlight on a gospel number? Certainly. Gospel music almost always features a tenor and bass as well as a baritone. Is there a little nostalgia thrown in? Yes, but Jerry has earned the right. The only mar is an intro edit that certainly shouldn't have found its way into the finished product. Nevertheless, I can't get enough of this album -- its beat, guitar licks, Jerry's way with a lyric, the humor and the history it represents. This compilation from a live performance warms my heart the way Rosemary Clooney's last albums did. Some performers mellow with age and reach right out and grab you. Jerry is one of those in my book.

This is an awesome CD !!!! Jerry blows me away with his hits, and the sound of the recording is great. This is a CD you can just put in a drive for miles riding high on light hearted songs with great guitar work..

Oddly, this cd simultaneously makes me happy and sad. For long-time Reed fans, I think it offers little in the way of anything close to the swagger and spark that once defined him. This album contains his stand-by favorites, and he does an admirable job at the ripe old age of 67.

"A Brand New Me" and "Father Time and Gravity" are the only two new songs, and are servicable with the later being quite funny, self-effacing and unconfortably true.

He shows a bit of the guitar glitz from his prior years but again, he is an old dude singing songs from the perspective of someone much younger, and it comes across as tired.

That being said, I would be willing to bet he still sang these with the same glint and devilish grin he always had. I'm glad he was still beating them down. RIP Jerry

Ordered shortly before the death of Jerry Reed, this CD did not disappoint. The fact that Jerry was older than the Smokey and the Bandit days ( who isn't?) was evident in his voice, but he still obviously enjoyed himself and he could still play the guitar so well! This is a good value for the price and will not disappoint.