Jerry Jeff Walker - Its A Good Night For Singing

It's A Good Night for Singin'- Jerry Jeff Walker



VRB



From a professional clean vinyl transfer



Out of Print-Never on CD





While It's a Good Night for Singin' is usually as highly regarded as Viva Terlingua, Ridin' High, or Jerry Jeff Walker, it is not only the equal of those recordings, but perhaps, in its own way, more consistent than all of them -- or therefore their superior. Released in 1976, it has the strongest opening side of any record in Walker's career. It includes a stomping cover of Tom Waits' "Lookin' for the Heart of Saturday Night," reinvented as a rock roll song with B3s and Fender Rhodes pianos underneath a throbbing bass line (and replaces Waits' own version as definitive), and an urbanized honky tonk read of Butch Hancock's "Standin' at the Big Hotel" that blows away Joe Ely's and sounds a lot more like L.A. than Dallas -- which was the original intent of the song -- just to name two. In addition, Walker rounds out side one with the Gary P. Nunn/Karen Brooks classic "Couldn't Do Nothin' Right," a ballad of resignation and brokenness at leaving a lover who always expected more than there was to give; it also features Lee Clayton's greatest love song, "Won't You Give Me One More Chance," Bob Livingstone's "Head Full of Nothin'," and a stirring, good-timey take on Billy Joe Shaver's classic "Old Five and Dimers Like Me." What is most notable here is what a great interpreter Walker is on other writers' songs, rather than as a songwriter making them his own in the process. There is only one original on the set, and that's the immortal "Stoney," which proves Walker hadn't lost it, but was going for something else entirely. There are a couple of Keith Sykes' tunes on side two, including "Someday I'll Get out of These Bars" (which Walker hasn't yet, over 27 years later), Billy C. Farlow's "Leroy," and Bob Livingstone's title track, all of which prove, like the first side, that this was indeed an album for singing, not writing, and as such, it stands as one of Walker's water marks; it endures far better than some of his other material from the same period.



- Thom Jurek, All Music Guide



1976 It's A Good Night For Singin' (Out of print)



LP, MCA - MCA2022



1. Looking For The Heart Of Saturday Night (Tom Waits)

2. Standin' At The Big Hotel (Butch Hancock)

3. Couldn't Do Nothin' Right (Gary P. Nunn and Karen Brooks)

4. Won't You Give Me One More Chance (Lee Clayton)

5. Head Full Of Nothin' (Bob Livingston and Rick Fowler)

6. Old Five And Dimers Like Me (Billy Joe Shaver)

7. Very Short Time (Keith Sykes)

8. Some Day I'll Get Out of These Bars (Keith Sykes)

9. Stoney (Jerry Jeff Walker)

10. Dear John Letter Lounge (Rick Cardwell)

11. Leroy (Billy Callery)

12. It's A Good Night For Singing (Bob Livingston)