Teddy Thompson
My Love of Country
Chalky Sounds
18 August 2023
The album title, My Love of Country, unequivocally tells you that what you see is what you get; for his eighth album, Teddy Thompson has crafted a personal country jukebox that pays testament to his love of the genre with a selection of classic standards. These are not only faithfully rendered with his own vocal twang but also recorded in the way they did in the 60s, mapping out the charts and string parts and the musicians coming in and laying them down. Other than the rhythm section of Charlie Drayton on drums and bassist Byron Isaacs with Jon Cowherd on piano, all instruments are played by the legendary David Mansfield, who also served as producer. At the same time, there’s also a glittering array of guest voices on harmonies.
The ball starts rolling, setting the mood perfectly, with George Jones’s honky tonk heartbreaker 1972 hit A Picture of Me (Without You), the first of the celebrity guests coming with Vince Gill on Charlie Louvin’s 1964 sprightly pedal steel waltzer I Don’t Love You Anymore. He also hangs around for a frisky express train rhythm romp through both Randy Travis’s 1989 Western Swing flavoured Is It Still Over with Mansfield providing some mighty fine picking and the slow waltz, keening steel, drinking regrets ballad I’ll Regret It All In The Morning, written, of course by Thompson’s father Richard and featured on his and Linda’s Hokey Pokey album back in 1975.
Written by Buck Owens and originally the B side of his 1964 single I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail, Cryin’ Time was actually made famous by R&B legend Ray Charles who had a Top 10 hit with it on both sides of the Atlantic in 1966 and picked up two Grammys. With Rodney Crowell on harmonies, this follows the Owens original with pedal steel rather than a lathering of strings. That’s followed by a spry version of the Hank Cochran/Harlan Howard classic I Fall To Pieces, a huge – if slow climbing – 1961 signature hit, of course, for Patsy Cline (Brenda Lee had previously rejected it as too country), Thompson bringing just a hint of Orbison to his take.
Featuring Aoife O’Donovan and another wash of pedal steel, Love And Learn is one of two far lesser-known songs, appearing as an album track on Dolly Parton’s 1968 album Just Because I’m A Woman and written by her uncle Bill Owens; it’s good that Thompson is giving it the exposure it deserves. The other, with Krystle Warren on close harmonies, is the balladeering Oh, What A Feeling, penned by Don Everly and recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1959 as the B side of ‘Til I Kissed You, this, to the best of my knowledge, the only other recording save for Don’s 1977 solo version on Brother Jukebox.
Sandwiched in-between, and dating back a further five years, is another 24-carat country classic, Thompson joined by Logan Ledger for A Satisfied Mind, originally released by co-writer Red Hays but made famous by Porter Wagoner, who took it to No 1 in 1955. It’s become a country staple with covers by everyone from Johnny Cash and The Byrds to Dylan (twice) and Jeff Buckley, company among which Thompson can hold his head high.
It ends with Thompson alone on the vocals accompanied by steel, double bass and piano for unrequited love weepie You Don’t Know Me, another song popularised by Ray Charles (as a No 2 in 1962 off his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music album) but initially a 1956 country hit for Eddy Arnold who co-wrote it with Cindy Walker, albeit two months after Jerry Vale took it into the Billboard top 20 pop charts. Recorded with a clear affection for the music, this is another fine feather in Teddy Thompson’s cap and well worthy of a slot in any old-school country fan’s collection.