Joe South Tribute, the

Joe South is a country artist from the sixties/seventies. He wrote a bunch of music for some really big artists (like Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Simon and Garfunkel.) He hit it big for himself with “Games People Play.” This is a great tribute album with some really strong vocals and captures the Motown/country/pop style of the sixties nicely. Recommend tracks: 4, 6, 9, 11

Track One: Nice, high powered, high energy song. Good guitar, vocals. Steady bass and drums. Very traditional 1960’s.
Track Two: Clear, smooth voice. Slow, Motown-y. Nice mix between back-up vocals and lead.
Track Three: More group band feel. A little bit of the Beatles (early, like ’63) and a little bit of the Beach Boys and the Temptations. Anyways, it’s nice, universal familiar sounding but also really good. Also slow love song. A little bit of psych sixties seeping through but not a lot.
*Track Four: Starts off high powered. A little bit of Belle and Sebastian and Rod Stewart. Apparently Lynn Anderson covered this song. But it’s so classic, this is a really good version.
Track Five: Very country. Slow moving again. Simple melody line. The chorus is super minimalist, spoken word. It’s different from the rest of the album.
*Track Six: Oh, Otis Clay is so good. The deep, blues/Motown voice works so well for this song.
Track Seven: Very Squeeze at the beginning. Mix of country, Elvis-pop. Makes you want to dance or sing along. Little bit of mariachi /big band feel.
Track Eight: Big country voice. Nice high-energy mix of country and blues. Acoustic guitar brings down energy a bit, but in a good way, takes a bit away from the big country feel.
*Track Nine: Nice mix of acoustic and harmonica. The lyrics and style are different from the rest. Not quite as smooth, “effortless” seeming as the rest of the songs. But combines a bunch of different genres really nicely.
Track Ten: Slower, more relaxed. Kind of electric country, talking about rednecks… Anyways, it captures the country drawl, slowness.
*Track Eleven: This song is high energy. Nice seventies electronics in the back. It makes you immediately look up. Very poppy, in fact, a little like a very early Freeze-pop.
Track Twelve: Very Motown. Traditional lyrics. Great back-up lyrics. The melody line repeats itself. It has a little Elvis Costello twist.
Julia 05/30