Touch My Heart: Tribute to Johnny Paycheck

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 10, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sugarhill
• ASIN: B0002J4YLA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,291 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching Tribute, September 29, 2004

By 

Drunk & Crazy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Touch My Heart: Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (Audio CD)

You know Johhny Paycheck, he's the guy that did "Take This Job And Shove It". Now forget everything you know. Paycheck was more than the voice behind that somewhat unfortunate (critically speaking) 70's radio staple, he was a genuine country music outlaw who recorded some of the finest pure-country music that the genre has ever seen. His older material has all the bumps, warts and (true) tales of jail/heartbreak/redemption that are woefully missing from modern Nashville's airbrushed "product".

Thankfully, this tribute record captures the essence of the man's material as well the sound of that bygone era. It's so beautifully produced that you'd swear it was recorded on analogue equipment.

Standouts (and there are too many to mention) include Big Al Anderson's "Someone To Give My Love To", which sounds like some lost country hit you might have heard on the family station wagon's AM radio. Dallas Wayne's poignant and powerful tearjerker "I Did The Right Thing". Über-legend George Jones wrapping his vocal cords around "She's All I Got" like a rubber snake. The spooky séance that is Hank III's version of "I'm The Only Hell My Mamma Ever Raised". Bobby Bare Jr.'s vocal performance on "Motel Time Again", which leaves you asking why this guy isn't a bigger star (does he look like his Dad or something?) and the list goes on and on...

Big kudos to Robbie Fulks for knowing what other truly dedicated country music fans and archivalists already knew; that Johnny Paycheck meant so much more than "Take This Job And Shove It".

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From A Steel Players View, September 29, 2004

By 

Walter Stettner (Vienna Austria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Touch My Heart: Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (Audio CD)

Reading through the other reviews, I can only concur with what has been said so far - a classic recording that Johnny Paycheck would be proud of!

Being a steel guitar player myself, I'd like to add that the steel work on this album is truly a masterpiece by Lloyd Green, the famous musician who played on all of the early Paycheck recordings on the Little Darlin' label. His playing on this album sounds as fresh and creative as when he recorded with Paycheck in the 1960's. The steel guitar playing by Lloyd Green played an important role back then, he also manages to play throughout this album with the distinctive creativity and fresh sound he is famous for!

Walter Stettner,
Vienna, Austria

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If this doesn't touch your heart - you're probably dead., September 21, 2004

By 

N. Barber "Elvis Fontenot" (Stoke-on-Trent England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Touch My Heart: Tribute to Johnny Paycheck (Audio CD)

Often with tribute CDs, there are a couple of tracks and too much filler - with this Robbie Fulks-produced tribute to the late, great Johnny Paycheck, the opposite is true. From the opening blast of honky tonk - Neko Case's searing "If I'm gonna sink (I might as well go to the bottom)" through the twilight tones of Dallas Wayne, the sweetly guttural growl of Bobby Bare Jnr, all the way to Larry Cordle's beautifully melancholic "Old Violin" this CD packs a punch all the way. Want to turn someone onto Johnny Paycheck? - buy them this CD. Want to turn someone onto country music? - buy them this CD.