I admittedly got into country music late in the game (or, at
\nleast, as late as an almost-30-year-old can get), so there are many
\nartists whose work I’ve never gotten the chance to appreciate. And
\nthe longer I do this job, the more exposure I get to such artists
\nas Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash – even Garth Brooks, after a
\nfashion.<\/p>\n
So after I’ve finished
\nSeven Decades<\/i>, the latest release from Hank Thompson, I have
\nto wonder out loud why Thompson is not as well known as Cash is.
\nThis disc serves more than as a celebration of the music Thompson
\nknows and loves; it suggests that Thompson should be as famous as
\nsome of the more well-known names in this genre.<\/p>\n
Thompson is reminiscent of such singing cowboys as Roy Rogers
\nand Gene Autry, though he has the devilish wink of Cash’s sense of
\nhumor in his delivery of the material (even if, vocally, he’s not
\nquite as strong as Cash). How he can swiftly maneuver through this
\ncollection of old standbys and new material while making everything
\nsound fresh and new is truly amazing.<\/p>\n
Need more proof than just my word for the comparisons? Take a
\nlisten to “The Night Miss Nancy Ann’s Hotel For Single Girls Burned
\nDown,” or “Abdul Abulbul Amir,” or even the newer compositions
\n“Condo In Hondo” or “Medicine Man,” and discover that Thompson
\nmakes the material sound like you’re listening to it in the front
\nrow of a small stage in a bar. It’s up-front, in your face, and
\nit’s enjoyable as anything imaginable.<\/p>\n
And while
\nSeven Decades<\/i> does feature older songs like “Wreck Of The
\nOld ’97,” “Scotch And Soda” and “In The Jailhouse Now,” this is
\nhardly a nostalgia trip that Thompson takes the listener on. The
\nway Thompson and his bandmates attack the material, it matters not
\nwhether the song is a year or five decades old; it’s in the
\ndelivery, which they nail head-on.<\/p>\n
Sure, if you’re not used to the older style of country, the 36
\nminutes this album encompasses might seem a little long at first.
\nBut the more time you spend with it, the more comfortable it will
\nbecome, not unlike an old pair of tennis shoes. (And, if it helps,
\nbreak the album up into two or three listens, and treat each trip
\nto the CD player like you’re listening to a few short stories.)<\/p>\n
\nSeven Decades<\/i> is the kind of album that proves Thompson
\nshould have been a bigger star than he presently is – and it may
\nmake some people feel sad that they didn’t give him more attention
\nin his (and their own) youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6379],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36701","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hank-thompson","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36701"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36701"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}