Notes & Personnel Info |  | The raison d'?tre beyond Manteca's roots music compilations can get kind of obscure. But basically this (like its predecessor, Beyond Nashville) is a wide-ranging compilation of country music and country-derived music, as if to illustrate the wide-ranging (and often quirkier) manifestations of the form that can be fit under one umbrella. It spans the '40s to the early '00s, though it's tilted toward the last decade of that span, and includes a few less instantly familiar names than Beyond Nashville did. It contains country-rock, outlaw country, No Depression country-rock, rockabilly, early Nashville country-pop, bluegrass, classic brother country harmony teams, country-influenced singer/songwriters, Bakersfield country, rock stars like Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan doing country-influenced material, and more. In sum, it sounds rather like a mix tape that the staff of No Depression might have prepared for a long car ride, one that tries to be both respectful of classic traditions and eager to embrace sounds that test country's boundaries. For that reason, it might be too diffuse for some listeners, particularly more trad-minded country ones, and there's no getting around the fact that some of these cuts are only tenuously linked to country, like the techno-pop-flavored ones by Lambchop and Alabama 3, the fife and drum music of Otha Turner & the Afrosippi Allstars, or the norte¤o music of Nortec Collective. But overall, it's a good collection for those not uptight about definitions, and probably one where at least a few tracks will supply unexpected surprises even to those with large country collections. It's strongest, still, in its smattering of "classic" tracks, like "Went to See the Gypsy" by the difficult to license Bob Dylan (never mind that it doesn't sound like his most country-soaked performance by any stretch), the push and pull between old-time music and rockabilly in Wanda Jackson's "I Gotta Know," Janis Joplin's number one hit "Me and Bobby McGee," Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On," Buck Owens' "Act Naturally," Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," and Jerry Lee Lewis' early hit "You Win Again." These are balanced, though, by a great many modern acts both noted and ill-noted doing strongly or vaguely country-shaded material, from Kristin Hersh, the Palace Brothers, and Uncle Tupelo to the Waco Brothers and Alison Krauss & Union Station. Perhaps the most interesting items are those by acts not associated with country music, like the Lovin' Spoonful's early country-rockish effort "Darling Companion," soul singer Bobby Womack's "I'd Be Ahead if I Could Quit While I'm Behind," and Los Lobos' "Malaque," though that, again, isn't exactly heavier on country music than other styles. And you can't complain about the value for money factor, with each of the two CDs running over an hour. ~ Richie Unterberger |
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