Customer Reviews

Touch My Heart: Tribute to Johnny Paycheck

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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".

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

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.

This tribute came about because of the dream of a New Jersey music fan, Fran Liscio. When Liscio learned, back in 2002, that the great country music singer and songwriter Johnny Paycheck was languishing in a nursing home, she hired her favorite alt country icon, Robbie Fulks, to produce a tribute album that would document Paycheck's enormous contribution to country music and also serve as a giant get well card for the ailing legend. Unfortunately, Paycheck died before the project was completed, but this album is so terrific and true to Paycheck's spirit and attitude that I am sure he can hear it all the way up in honky-tonk heaven.

Lloyd Green, the steel player who contributed so memorably to Paycheck's Little Darlin' recordings, is the linchpin of the incredible house band Fulks assembled for this project. Singers run the gamut from Legends (Jones, Bare, Owens, Bush, Gail Davies) to legend namesakes (Bare, Jr. and Williams III) to alt country outlaws such as Fulks himself, Neko Case, and Dallas Wayne, to stars of bluegrass (Larry Cordle and Jim Lauderdale), to gospel (Mavis Staples contributes the unforgettable title track). There's even Jeff Tweedy, joining a last-call version of "Take This Job and Shove It."

Massive kudos go to Liscio, Fulks and Sugar Hill Records for making the dream of this tribute into such an irresistible reality. If all you know about Johnny Paycheck is "Take This Job and Shove It" and a few half-remembered stories of bad behavior, you owe it to yourself to get this album and find out what a giant of country music he really was. And then, go buy yourself some Paycheck recordings! For a true fan of country music, there is little else as satisfying as hearing Johnny Paycheck croon, swoop, moan and soar his way through a song.

If you're already a Paycheck fan, you'll be thrilled to hear his music sung anew in such a loving, faithful, and musically top-notch tribute. Every track on this cd is a winner.

With "Touch My Heart", the collaborating musicians and producer Robbie Fulks have created an inspired and heart-warming tribute to the late Johnny Paycheck.

Including stellar performances by the likes of Neko Case, Al Anderson (one of my absolute favorite tracks), George Jones, Mavis Staples, and a haunting rendition of "I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised" by Hank Williams III (and that's only naming a few!), it really doesn't get much better than this.

Whether you're a long-time Paycheck fan, or a country music newby, "Touch My Heart" is a definite must-have.

To "Henry" from Bakersfield:- There is a very good reason all other reviewers of this album gave it 5 stars.
In one of the best tribute albums ever, Robbie Fulks has gathered together some stellar pickers, a diverse range of great singers and a catalogue of superb Johnny Paycheck songs (or songs he sang). From Neko Case's heart-wrenching rendition of "If I'm Gonna Sink" to Larry Cordles beautiful version of "Old Violin", this album smokes from start to finish. I have most of the original Paycheck versions and this album contains as good as or if not better versions of these great songs. Al Anderson's take on "Someone To Give My Love To" shows just what a great singer and player he is, while Dave Alvin has never sounded as manacing and gritty on "11 Months and 29 Days". Usually on tribute albums you find quite a few tracks which don't live up to or respect the original artist or his/her feeling for the song. Well here, Robbie Fulks has produced an album on which everything (artists, songs, backing band, sound quality and attitude) is just near perfect. I seriously suggest that if you wish to explore the Johnny Paycheck catalogue, you get this album first; not only does it prime you for the "Paycheck experience", but allows you to hear a range of great country artists doing some of their best work. It's not only a mighty introduction to Paycheck but an excellent introduction to the many artists involved. Most tribute albums would make the original artist turn in their grave but this one should allow Johnny Paycheck to Rest in Peace; if he's not already raising Hell in Heaven. Highly Recommended.

This is probably the best produced cover cd I have ever heard. Robbie Fulks put togeather a list of very tallented artists to do justice to a legend in Johnny Paycheck. I'm sure Johnny Paycheck is looking down on this masterpiece, and is very proud of it! All I can say, is if you are a Johnny Paycheck fan, buy this great cd, you will not be dissapointed!

A tribute album can be tricky business. Artists often mail in their songs and the production quality can be sketchy. Any compilation album can be a gamble (a particularly unlistenable U2 tribute CD comes to mind) and the listener inevitably skips over several tracks.

Touch My Heart is a happy exception to the tribute album rule. Producer Robbie Fulks' involvement and commitment are evident in every track. The CD starts with a honky-tonk bang: Neko Case belts out "If I'm Gonna Sink (I Might As Well Go to the Bottom)" like a young Dolly Parton. The first songs on the CD strike a balance between heartbreak and contentment. Case chooses to keep on drinking, even though it will mean "a whale of a fight," but Al Anderson follows with a valentine to married life in "Someone to Give My Love To." Dallas Wayne expertly conveys the uneasiness of the narrator's decision to stay with his wife in "I Did the Right Thing."

The range of selections speaks to Paycheck's versatility as an artist and to Fulks' talent at choosing both the songs and the musicians. The title track is a stark admission of how love can turn a person into "someone who can't live and yet can't die." However, Mavis Staples turns the song into something so lush and soulful that the invitation to "touch my heart" is more spiritual than forlorn.

Any questions about Paycheck's dark side are confirmed in Hank Williams III's take on "I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised." Williams conjures up something primeval from the bottom of the bayou that is both unsettling and enticing. Of all the artists on the CD, Williams is Paycheck's closest musical kin. (Though George Jones could understandably wrestle Williams for that honor.)

Fran Liscio, the album's executive producer, deserves much credit for making the project a reality. Her love of Paycheck's music and her faith in Fulks' production abilities helped make a CD that is more than a tribute. The album could be enjoyed by a listener who had never even heard of Johnny Paycheck. But that same listener would then want to buy all of Paycheck's records and learn for herself why some of country's most talented performers signed on to Touch My Heart.

This tribute album to Johnny Paycheck will not send me scurrying after his own work, but on the evidence in Touch My Heart at least sixteen times in his career he hit paydirt, not always with songs he himself wrote. The CD includes rousing honkytonk, wrenching ballads, and -- with Mavis Staples on the title track -- gospel drenched blues. It is, for me, the standout track, but there are many others that are very, very strong, including Old Violin, George Jones on She's All I Got, and Motel Time Again. Unlike too many tribute albums, Touch does not include only precisely the artists one would expect. Rather, here you get country classics like Jones, the rocker son of a country star (Bobby Bare, Jr), Staples, the terrific Neko Case, and a number of lesser known but impressive talents. This tribute album was worth making and worth having. So hats off to Robbie Fulks for pulling it together.

THE MAJORITY OF THE REMAKES ON THIS C.D. DO NO JUSTICE TO JOHHNY PAYCHECK'S MUSIC. I HAD TO COVER MY EARS WHEN I HEARD "I'M THE ONLY HELL MY MOMMA EVER RAISED" CAME ON. DID SOME OF THESE
"ARTISTS" GET PAID FOR DOING THIS? THIS IS NO TRIBUTE AT ALL.