Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck

Amazon.com
Even diehard fans of the late Johnny Paycheck are likely to find revelation in these tracks. Casual listeners know the country maverick best for "Take This Job and Shove It," given a rousing cross-generational sendoff here by Radney Foster, Bobby Bare, Buck Owens, and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. Yet this tribute, produced by Robbie Fulks, celebrates a range and depth beyond that anthem of defiance. Among the eclectic highlights: gospel singer Mavis Staples transforms the title track into pure church, Johnny Bush ("the country Caruso") applies his operatic pipes to "Apartment #9," Dave Alvin brings a bluesy swagger to the jailhouse in "11 Months and 29 Days," and Neko Case turns desperation into triumph on "If I'm Gonna Sink, I Might as Well Go to the Bottom." Only popster Marshall Crenshaw seems miscast, sounding a little too bright to reflect the darker recesses of Paycheck's soul. While Paycheck has been embraced as a kindred spirit by younger renegades, contributions by his former employer George Jones and legendary steel guitarist Lloyd Green show the respect that his legacy earns from his peers. --Don McLeese

Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck,Various Artists,Sugarhill [Country],Country,Country Collections,Neo-Traditionalist Country,Outlaw Country,Pop,Singer/Songwriter,United States of America,V/A Compilations

Average customer rating:

Money In The Bank

NO JUSTICE

From A Steel Players View

Touching Tribute

Take This CD and Play It!

Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Sugarhill [Country]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music
Outlaw & Progressive Country | Country | Styles | Music
General | Compilations | Country | Styles | Music
New Traditionalist | Contemporary Country | Country | Styles | Music
Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B0002J4YLA
Release Date: 2004-08-10

Tracks:

If I'm Going To Sink (I Might As Well Go To The Bottom) - Neko Case
Someone To Give My Love To - Al Anderson
I'm Barely Hangin' On To Me - Marshall Crenshaw
Shakin' The Blues - Robbie Fulks
I Did The Right Thing - Dallas Wayne
She's All I Got - George Jones
Touch My Heart - Mavis Staples
I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised - Hank Williams III
I Want You To Know - Jim Lauderdale
11 Months 29 Days - Dave Alvin
Apartment #9 - Johnny Bush
The Lovin' Machine - Billy Yates
Motel Time Again - Bobby Bare Jr.
A Man That's Satisfied - Mike Ireland
Take This Job And Shove It - Buck Owens
Old Violin - Larry Cordle

Amazon.com

Even diehard fans of the late Johnny Paycheck are likely to find revelation in these tracks. Casual listeners know the country maverick best for "Take This Job and Shove It," given a rousing cross-generational sendoff here by Radney Foster, Bobby Bare, Buck Owens, and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. Yet this tribute, produced by Robbie Fulks, celebrates a range and depth beyond that anthem of defiance. Among the eclectic highlights: gospel singer Mavis Staples transforms the title track into pure church, Johnny Bush ("the country Caruso") applies his operatic pipes to "Apartment #9," Dave Alvin brings a bluesy swagger to the jailhouse in "11 Months and 29 Days," and Neko Case turns desperation into triumph on "If I'm Gonna Sink, I Might as Well Go to the Bottom." Only popster Marshall Crenshaw seems miscast, sounding a little too bright to reflect the darker recesses of Paycheck's soul. While Paycheck has been embraced as a kindred spirit by younger renegades, contributions by his former employer George Jones and legendary steel guitarist Lloyd Green show the respect that his legacy earns from his peers. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews:

Money In The Bank.......2007-03-29

To "Henry" from Bakersfield:- There is a very good reason all other reviewers of this album gave it 5 stars.
In one of the best tribute albums ever, Robbie Fulks has gathered together some stellar pickers, a diverse range of great singers and a catalogue of superb Johnny Paycheck songs (or songs he sang). From Neko Case's heart-wrenching rendition of "If I'm Gonna Sink" to Larry Cordles beautiful version of "Old Violin", this album smokes from start to finish. I have most of the original Paycheck versions and this album contains as good as or if not better versions of these great songs. Al Anderson's take on "Someone To Give My Love To" shows just what a great singer and player he is, while Dave Alvin has never sounded as manacing and gritty on "11 Months and 29 Days". Usually on tribute albums you find quite a few tracks which don't live up to or respect the original artist or his/her feeling for the song. Well here, Robbie Fulks has produced an album on which everything (artists, songs, backing band, sound quality and attitude) is just near perfect. I seriously suggest that if you wish to explore the Johnny Paycheck catalogue, you get this album first; not only does it prime you for the "Paycheck experience", but allows you to hear a range of great country artists doing some of their best work. It's not only a mighty introduction to Paycheck but an excellent introduction to the many artists involved. Most tribute albums would make the original artist turn in their grave but this one should allow Johnny Paycheck to Rest in Peace; if he's not already raising Hell in Heaven. Highly Recommended.

NO JUSTICE.......2005-02-18

THE MAJORITY OF THE REMAKES ON THIS C.D. DO NO JUSTICE TO JOHHNY PAYCHECK'S MUSIC. I HAD TO COVER MY EARS WHEN I HEARD "I'M THE ONLY HELL MY MOMMA EVER RAISED" CAME ON. DID SOME OF THESE
"ARTISTS" GET PAID FOR DOING THIS? THIS IS NO TRIBUTE AT ALL.

From A Steel Players View.......2004-09-30

Reading through the other reviews, I can only concur with what has been said so far - a classic recording that Johnny Paycheck would be proud of!

Being a steel guitar player myself, I'd like to add that the steel work on this album is truly a masterpiece by Lloyd Green, the famous musician who played on all of the early Paycheck recordings on the Little Darlin' label. His playing on this album sounds as fresh and creative as when he recorded with Paycheck in the 1960's. The steel guitar playing by Lloyd Green played an important role back then, he also manages to play throughout this album with the distinctive creativity and fresh sound he is famous for!

Walter Stettner,
Vienna, Austria

Touching Tribute.......2004-09-29

You know Johhny Paycheck, he's the guy that did "Take This Job And Shove It". Now forget everything you know. Paycheck was more than the voice behind that somewhat unfortunate (critically speaking) 70's radio staple, he was a genuine country music outlaw who recorded some of the finest pure-country music that the genre has ever seen. His older material has all the bumps, warts and (true) tales of jail/heartbreak/redemption that are woefully missing from modern Nashville's airbrushed "product".

Thankfully, this tribute record captures the essence of the man's material as well the sound of that bygone era. It's so beautifully produced that you'd swear it was recorded on analogue equipment.

Standouts (and there are too many to mention) include Big Al Anderson's "Someone To Give My Love To", which sounds like some lost country hit you might have heard on the family station wagon's AM radio. Dallas Wayne's poignant and powerful tearjerker "I Did The Right Thing". Über-legend George Jones wrapping his vocal cords around "She's All I Got" like a rubber snake. The spooky séance that is Hank III's version of "I'm The Only Hell My Mamma Ever Raised". Bobby Bare Jr.'s vocal performance on "Motel Time Again", which leaves you asking why this guy isn't a bigger star (does he look like his Dad or something?) and the list goes on and on...

Big kudos to Robbie Fulks for knowing what other truly dedicated country music fans and archivalists already knew; that Johnny Paycheck meant so much more than "Take This Job And Shove It".

Take This CD and Play It!.......2004-09-22

A tribute album can be tricky business. Artists often mail in their songs and the production quality can be sketchy. Any compilation album can be a gamble (a particularly unlistenable U2 tribute CD comes to mind) and the listener inevitably skips over several tracks.

Touch My Heart is a happy exception to the tribute album rule. Producer Robbie Fulks' involvement and commitment are evident in every track. The CD starts with a honky-tonk bang: Neko Case belts out "If I'm Gonna Sink (I Might As Well Go to the Bottom)" like a young Dolly Parton. The first songs on the CD strike a balance between heartbreak and contentment. Case chooses to keep on drinking, even though it will mean "a whale of a fight," but Al Anderson follows with a valentine to married life in "Someone to Give My Love To." Dallas Wayne expertly conveys the uneasiness of the narrator's decision to stay with his wife in "I Did the Right Thing."

The range of selections speaks to Paycheck's versatility as an artist and to Fulks' talent at choosing both the songs and the musicians. The title track is a stark admission of how love can turn a person into "someone who can't live and yet can't die." However, Mavis Staples turns the song into something so lush and soulful that the invitation to "touch my heart" is more spiritual than forlorn.

Any questions about Paycheck's dark side are confirmed in Hank Williams III's take on "I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised." Williams conjures up something primeval from the bottom of the bayou that is both unsettling and enticing. Of all the artists on the CD, Williams is Paycheck's closest musical kin. (Though George Jones could understandably wrestle Williams for that honor.)

Fran Liscio, the album's executive producer, deserves much credit for making the project a reality. Her love of Paycheck's music and her faith in Fulks' production abilities helped make a CD that is more than a tribute. The album could be enjoyed by a listener who had never even heard of Johnny Paycheck. But that same listener would then want to buy all of Paycheck's records and learn for herself why some of country's most talented performers signed on to Touch My Heart.

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