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Elvis goes wild in the Country: to many this may seem an astonishing change of direction for Elvis. Really, it has been coming for a long while and can be seen as a perfectly logical step.
Though the album lasts barely half an hour, it does feature twelve songs, most of which are lamenting ballads, tales of love lost, divorce and parting, though some are rip-roaring numbers fighting back against the same themes, like "Why don't you love me like you used to do," the Hank Williams song that opens the album, which sounds as if it was a real pleasure to perform.
Elvis has temporarily stopped tying up the world with lexicography to produce an album of simple, direct, sad country covers, recorded In Nashville, providing his brain, voice and heart with a welcome deceleration.
So what is Elvis' aim in releasing this collection? At least part of it must be to wake up the rock audiences to the good side of country — much maligned and much neglected. (Check out Hank Williams for the best of it — he's an acknowledged influence on Dylan, Springsteen and Presley too.) This is not an album of slushy, sentimental songs about CB and crippled kids but a selection of the classier side of C&W. The only disappointment is that there are none of Elvis' own compositions here; "Stranger in the House" is a match for the best of Country, and there must be more where that came from.
The only question is where does he go from here? Having moved through 50's Rock n' roll, 60's Psychedelia, 70's pop, stax and Country, one can hardly accuse him of getting stuck in a rut. So what's next? A "self-portrait" featuring Paul Simon and Gordon Lightfoot covers? I think not. He already has some new compositions in the set, and is just as likely to play the Albert Hall backed by a full orchestra as to produce another sackful of chestnuts like this. As for everyone else, well, with "Good year for the Roses" and "Labelled with Love" scaling the charts, we should all get our stetsons and cowboy boots out — giddy up for the Country Revival!
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