James Talley Done Right

Years ago I made an effort to purchase James Talley's classic Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot Of Love on CD only to find that the one company that released it, Bear Family, deleted it in the 90's (they did the same thing with Tom T. Hall's In Search of A Song). I was able to track down Talley's own web site, where he offers custom made versions of his old LP's. The made-for CDR sounded good enough, if it was vinyl I couldn't tell, but it was missing lyrics and personnel stuff. So, what a thrill to see that Talley's own label is doing this classic right. Released on Feb. 21, Got No Bread, now comes with lyrics, liner notes and thoughts by Talley, a second disc featuring an interview Talley gave in 1975 to promote. All of this makes the album a lot more legendary than you'll remember it. Basically, simple songs sung by a simple man. It's Country at its purest. John Morthland says that the album could only have come out in the wide open Country of the 70's. But I've always felt that Talley's work would've found a home (not on Capitol) but on a small Indie label in any decade. So, scoop this up kids, while the getting is good. May it never disappear from the CD (or digital) racks again.