Killer Country
| Killer Country | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 1977−80 | |||
| Venue | Nashville, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | Elektra | |||
| Producer | Eddie Kilroy | |||
| Jerry Lee Lewis chronology | ||||
| ||||
Killer Country is a studio album by Jerry Lee Lewis, released on Elektra Records in 1980.[1] The album peaked at No. 35 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart.[2]
Recording
Killer Country was produced by
Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that is often singled out for praise; although it only reached number 18 on the charts, Lewis altered the spirit of the song much like he had years earlier when he recorded a boogie-woogie version of "Me and Bobby McGee", his ravaged voice giving the usually optimistic Judy Garland classic a forlorn vulnerability. "It had a certain feeling to it", Lewis told biographer Rick Bragg in 2014, "like a religious undertone. A something that you seldom ever can hear." The album also features Jerry Lee's first ever recording of "Folsom Prison Blues
".
The Caribou sessions
Sometime before the release of Killer Country, Lewis went to the Caribou Ranch recording studio in
FBI
already tapping it for other reasons."
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Robert Christgau | B+[4] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [5] |
| (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide | [1] |
The New York Times wrote that the album "keeps Mr. Lewis's singing and playing, together with a fine, rocking small band, in the foreground most of the way through, and while it's obviously aimed at a country market, it should also please Mr. Lewis's rock-oriented fans more than any of his other recent LP's... He sounds confident, inspired and ready for 1981."[6] Robert Christgau praised the "magnificently over-the-hill" "Thirty-Nine and Holding".[4]
Track listing
- "Folsom Prison Blues" (Johnny Cash)
- "I'd Do It All Again" (Jerry Foster, Bill Rice)
- "Jukebox Junky" (Danny Morrison, David Kirby)
- "Too Weak to Fight" (Chuck Howard)
- "Late Night Lovin' Man" (Rick Klang)
- "Change Places with Me" (David Wilkins, Maria A. Kilroy)
- "Let Me On" (Layng Martine Jr.)
- "Thirty-Nine and Holding" (Foster, Rice)
- "Mama, This One's for You" (Ray Griff)
- "E.Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen)
Personnel
- Jerry Lee Lewis - vocals, piano
- David Kirby, Duke Faglier - electric guitar
- Steve Chapman - acoustic guitar
- Kenny Lovelace - fiddle, electric guitar
- Bobby Thompson - banjo, acoustic guitar
- Russ Hicks, Stu Basore - steel guitar
- Bobby Dyson - bass guitar
- Bunky Keels - electric piano, organ
- Jimmy Isbell - drums, percussion
- The Lea Jane Singers - backing vocals
- John Gobe, Rex Peer, Terry Mead - horns
- Shelly Kurland - strings
- Billy Strange - string arrangements
References
- ^ a b (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. 2004. p. 484.
- ^ "Jerry Lee Lewis". Billboard. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ "Killer Country Jerry Lee Lewis". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Jerry Lee Lewis". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press.
- ^ Palmer, Robert (26 Sep 1980). "Confident disk from Jerry Lee Lewis". The New York Times. p. C14.
