Jones Country

1983 studio album by George Jones

Jones Country

Studio album by

George Jones

Released| 1983
Genre| Country
Label| Epic
Producer| Billy Sherrill
George Jones chronology
| Shine On
(1983)  | Jones Country
(1983)  | You've Still Got a Place in My Heart
(1984)

|
|

Jones Country is an album by American country music artist George Jones released in 1983 on the Epic Records label.

## Background

[edit]

The album's name was taken from an outdoor music park operated and owned by Jones in Texas near his birthplace between the years of 1983 through 1988 prior to his and his wife's return to the Nashville, Tennessee area in 1989. Jones had operated several similar country music themed parks over the years, beginning with the short lived George Jones Rhythm Ranch in 1966 and then the Old Plantation Music Park in Lakeland, Florida in the early seventies when he'd been married to Tammy Wynette. Jones had also opened two Possum Holler Clubs in Nashville in 1967 and 1975. As he later recalled in his 1996 autobiography I Lived To Tell It All, one of benefits of the Jones Country park was that it took his mind off his drinking problem, which he was trying to kick: "Returning to Texas helped me stop drinking for a while. I went on a sobriety binge...Working on the place, I knew, would keep me busy. The busier I was, the less I would drink. I think my dry period lasted several months, with only an occasional slip."

## Recording

[edit]

Jones Country would end the singer's run of top ten LPs, peaking at number 27 on the Billboard albums chart. Part of the reason for this may have been overexposure – it was George's seventh album in three years – although this streamline production had been common practice at CBS Records at the time, with Jones's label mates Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson also producing albums at a furious pace. Oddly, no singles were released from Jones Country, despite Jones having scored the number one hit "I Always Get Lucky With You" earlier in the year. As Amazon.com explains, "At the time of the album's release George's record company were just about to issue the smash hit duet with Ray Charles 'We Didn't See A Thing' from Ray Charles' Friendship album. This could have been the reason for no initial single releases from Jones Country." The murder ballad "Radio Lover" would be released as a single six years later when it appeared (along with the cover of Jack Scott's "Burning Bridges") on the singer's 1989 album One Woman Man. One "lost classic" that did appear on Jones Country was "You Must Have Walked Across My Mind Again", a boozy slab of hardcore honky tonk that was written by Wayne Kemp and Warren Robb with lyrics that sound like diary writing from a typical George Jones Friday night. Jones thought so much of the song that he recorded it again on his 1992 album Walls Can Fall. "Girl at the End of the Bar" was a cover of a John Anderson song from his debut 1980 album, John Anderson.

## Reception

[edit]

Jones biographer Bob Allen summed up the album, as well as the plethora of other Billy Sherrill-produced Jones LPs from this period, as "uniformly competent" but "not particularly memorable", stating that "...during the mid-1980s Sherrill and the newly clean and sober Jones – as if making up for all the fallow years – began cranking out LPs at a faster rate than any time since the singer's years of over-recorded excess on the Musicor label, when he turned out a frightening amount of junk."

30 years after the release of this LP it became the focal point of a CD reissue project on April 15, 2013, paired alongside another LP, 1984's You've Still Got a Place in My Heart, for a 2-album on-1 CD release. Unfortunately the release of those studio albums onto CD for the first time didn't get much notice due to the death of Jones 11 days later on April 26 at the age of 81.

## Track listing

[edit]

No.| Title| Writer(s)| Length

|
|
|

1.| "Radio Lover"| Curly Putman, Ron Hellard, Bucky Jones| 3:26
2.| "Dream On"| Dennis Lambert, Brian Potter| 3:23
3.| "Hello Trouble"| Orville Couch, Eddie McDuff| 2:26
4.| "Burning Bridges"| Walter Scott| 2:39
5.| "Wino the Clown"| Curly Putman, Ron Hellard, Bucky Jones| 3:51
6.| "You Must Have Walked Across My Mind Again"| Wayne Kemp, Warren Robb| 2:54
7.| "I'd Rather Die Young"| Beasley Smith, Billy Vaughn, Randy Wood| 2:51
8.| "Girl at the End of the Bar"| John Anderson, Lionel Delmore| 3:26
9.| "One of These Days (But Not Tonight)"| Earl Montgomery| 2:26
10.| "Famous Last Words"| Curly Putman, Ron Hellard, Bucky Jones| 3:16

## External links

[edit]

* George Jones' Official Website
* Record Label

* v
* t
* e

George Jones

* Albums
* Singles
* Discography with Tammy Wynette
* Awards

Solo studio albums|

* Grand Ole Opry's New Star
* Country Church Time
* White Lightning and Other Favorites
* George Jones Salutes Hank Williams
* George Jones Sings Country and Western Hits
* George Jones Sings from the Heart
* George Jones Sings Bob Wills
* Homecoming in Heaven
* My Favorites of Hank Williams
* I Wish Tonight Would Never End
* George Jones Sings Like the Dickens!
* I Get Lonely in a Hurry
* The Race Is On
* Mr. Country & Western Music
* New Country Hits
* Old Brush Arbors
* Trouble in Mind
* Country Heart
* Love Bug
* I'm a People
* We Found Heaven Right Here on Earth at "4033"
* Walk Through This World with Me
* George Jones Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier
* The George Jones Story
* My Country
* If My Heart Had Windows
* I'll Share My World with You
* Where Grass Won't Grow
* Will You Visit Me on Sunday
* George Jones with Love
* George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne
* George Jones (We Can Make It)
* A Picture of Me (Without You)
* Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)
* In a Gospel Way
* The Grand Tour
* Memories of Us
* The Battle
* Alone Again
* I Wanta Sing
* Bartender's Blues
* My Very Special Guests
* I Am What I Am
* Still the Same Ole Me
* Shine On
* Jones Country
* You've Still Got a Place in My Heart
* Ladies' Choice
* Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
* Wine Colored Roses
* Too Wild Too Long
* One Woman Man
* You Oughta Be Here with Me
* And Along Came Jones
* Walls Can Fall
* High-Tech Redneck
* The Bradley Barn Sessions
* I Lived to Tell It All
* It Don't Get Any Better Than This
* Cold Hard Truth
* The Rock: Stone Cold Country 2001
* The Gospel Collection
* Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't
* Burn Your Playhouse Down – The Unreleased Duets

Collaborative studio albums|

* What's in Our Heart (with Melba Montgomery)
* Close Together (As You and Me) (with Melba Montgomery)
* Bluegrass Hootenanny (with Melba Montgomery)
* George Jones & Gene Pitney – For the First Time! Two Great Stars
* George Jones & Gene Pitney – Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee! (with Gene Pitney)
* It's Country Time Again! (with Gene Pitney)
* Double Trouble (with Johnny Paycheck)
* A Taste of Yesterday's Wine (with Merle Haggard)
* Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again (with Merle Haggard)
* George Jones & The Smoky Mountain Boys

Compilation albums|

* Hillbilly Hit Parade
* George Jones Singing 14 Top Country Song Favorites
* George Jones Sings His Greatest Hits
* The Fabulous Country Music Sound of George Jones
* Long Live King George
* The Crown Prince of Country Music
* A King & Two Queens (with Judy Lynn and Melba Montgomery)
* Blue & Lonesome
* Heartaches & Tears
* Famous Country Duets
* Hits by George
* The Best of George Jones
* All-Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
* Encore
* Anniversary – 10 Years of Hits
* By Request
* Super Hits
* Friends in High Places
* Super Hits, Volume 2
* 16 Biggest Hits
* 50 Years of Hits
* God's Country: George Jones and Friends

Live albums|

* First Time Live
* Live at Dancetown U.S.A.
* Live with the Possum

Related artists|

* Merle Haggard
* Melba Montgomery
* Johnny Paycheck
* Gene Pitney
* Margie Singleton
* Tammy Wynette

Related articles|

* George & Tammy

*[No.]: Number
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template