Tom Jones- The Country Side of Tom Jones

DSCN4533This was $4.00.  I was not going to pass this up at any price, never less close to the top end of my purchasing limits.  You may have noticed this but I am trying to keep post construction down to 20 mins or less.cf16a7a69aa631c845ea9cca46e9ee94

Oddly enough, I have not come across a whole lot of Tom Jones, born in Wales in 1940.  I do not know if there is not a lot of records out there in the secondary market or if they are mostly over $5.00.  Either way, Jones had 36 Top Forty Hits in the UK and 19 in the US so he is no slouch.  He still performs here and there and was recently a judge on the UK’s version of The Voice.

Tom’s Web Page

LOS ANGELES - CIRCA 1978: Welsh singer Tom Jones poses for a portrait circa 1978 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry Langdon/Getty Images)

This album was released in 1978 as a compilation under London Records.  According to the back cover, all this material was previously released.  Many artists released country albums in the 1970’s.  I am guessing someone at the label wanted to ride the country and western fad with this release.king

The album is pretty good.  It has a decent collection of songs on it including “Little Green Apples” and “Wichita Lineman”.  The songs are mostly slower paced, taking advantage of Jones’ booming voice.  While the songs are C&W standards, the instrumentation is not.  It is safe to say that Jones puts his stamp on these and not vice versa.DSCN4534

For a sample, I went with “Cool Water” and “Ring of Fire” as I felt these were the best songs.Tom-Jones-4

Satisfactory record.