Killer Country

1980 studio album by Jerry Lee Lewis

Killer Country

Studio album by

Jerry Lee Lewis

Released| 1980
Recorded| 1977−80
Venue| Nashville, Tennessee
Genre| Country
Label| Elektra
Producer| Eddie Kilroy
Jerry Lee Lewis chronology
| When Two Worlds Collide
(1980)  | Killer Country
(1980)  | The Survivors Live
(1982)

|
|

Killer Country is a studio album by Jerry Lee Lewis, released on Elektra Records in 1980.[1] The album peaked at No. 35 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart.[2]

## Recording[edit]

Killer Country was produced by Eddie Kilroy, who had been involved with resurrecting Lewis's career back in 1968 when "Another Place, Another Time" hit the country charts. The single "Thirty-Nine and Holding" would rise to number 6, Lewis's first Top 10 country hit since "Middle Age Crazy" in 1977 and his last to date. However, it is Lewis's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that is often singled out for praise; although it only reached number 18 on the charts, Lewis altered the spirit of the song much like he had years earlier when he recorded a boogie-woogie version of "Me and Bobby McGee," his ravaged voice giving the usually optimistic Judy Garland classic a forlorn vulnerability. "It had a certain feeling to it," Lewis told biographer Rick Bragg in 2014, "like a religious undertone. A something that you seldom ever can hear." The album also features Jerry Lee's first ever recording of "Folsom Prison Blues."

## The Caribou sessions[edit]

Sometime before the release of Killer Country, Lewis went to the Caribou Ranch recording studio in Colorado and cut more than thirty songs from a wide variety of genres, but Elektra rejected them. Extensively bootlegged, many Lewis's aficionados praise the recordings as some of his best. Lewis's relationship with Elektra soon soured when its Nashville division was taken over by Jimmy Bowen. Lewis and Bowen did not get on, to say the least; in the liner notes to the 2006 box set A Half Century of Hits, Colin Escott recounts, "Instead of appreciating the chance to work with someone from his era, Bowen saw no chance of recouping the $300,000 Lewis was to be paid for his next four albums. In his autobiography Bowen says he offered Lewis $350,000 to leave the label, then tells an astonishing tale of sending some of his guys to mollify Lewis, only to have him pull a gun on them. 'Then he muttered something about killing me,' Bowen writes. If anything, the story became even more bizarre as Bowen sent a crew to tap Lewis's phone to gather evidence, only to find the FBI already tapping it for other reasons."

## Critical reception[edit]

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [3]
Robert Christgau| B+[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music| [5]
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide| [1]

The New York Times wrote that the album "keeps Mr. Lewis's singing and playing, together with a fine, rocking small band, in the foreground most of the way through, and while it's obviously aimed at a country market, it should also please Mr. Lewis's rock-oriented fans more than any of his other recent LP's... He sounds confident, inspired and ready for 1981."[6] Robert Christgau praised the "magnificently over-the-hill" "Thirty-Nine and Holding".[4]

## Track listing[edit]

1. "Folsom Prison Blues" (Johnny Cash)
2. "I'd Do It All Again" (Jerry Foster, Bill Rice)
3. "Jukebox Junky" (Danny Morrison, David Kirby)
4. "Too Weak to Fight" (Chuck Howard)
5. "Late Night Lovin' Man" (Rick Klang)
6. "Change Places with Me" (David Wilkins, Maria A. Kilroy)
7. "Let Me On" (Layng Martine Jr.)
8. "Thirty-Nine and Holding" (Foster, Rice)
9. "Mama, This One's for You" (Ray Griff)
10. "Over the Rainbow" (E.Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen)

## Personnel[edit]

* Jerry Lee Lewis - vocals, piano
* David Kirby, Duke Faglier - electric guitar
* Steve Chapman - acoustic guitar
* Kenny Lovelace \- fiddle, electric guitar
* Bobby Thompson \- banjo, acoustic guitar
* Russ Hicks, Stu Basore - steel guitar
* Bobby Dyson - bass guitar
* Bunky Keels - electric piano, organ
* Jimmy Isbell - drums, percussion
* The Lea Jane Singers - backing vocals
* John Gobe, Rex Peer, Terry Mead - horns
* Shelly Kurland \- strings
* Billy Strange \- string arrangements

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. 2004. p. 484.
2. ^ "Jerry Lee Lewis". Billboard. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
3. ^ "Killer Country Jerry Lee Lewis". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
4. ^ a b "Jerry Lee Lewis". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
5. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press.
6. ^ Palmer, Robert (26 Sep 1980). "Confident disk from Jerry Lee Lewis". The New York Times. p. C14.

* v
* t
* e

Jerry Lee Lewis

Studio albums|

* Jerry Lee Lewis
* Jerry Lee's Greatest!
* Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis
* The Return of Rock
* Country Songs for City Folks
* Memphis Beat
* Soul My Way
* Another Place, Another Time
* She Still Comes Around
* Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 1
* Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 2
* The Golden Cream of the Country
* She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye
* In Loving Memories: The Jerry Lee Lewis Gospel Album
* There Must Be More to Love Than This
* Touching Home
* Would You Take Another Chance on Me?
* The Killer Rocks On
* Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?
* The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists
* Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough
* Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis
* I-40 Country
* Boogie Woogie Country Man
* Odd Man In
* Country Class
* Country Memories
* Jerry Lee Keeps Rockin'
* Jerry Lee Lewis
* When Two Worlds Collide
* Killer Country
* My Fingers Do the Talkin'
* I Am What I Am
* Young Blood
* Last Man Standing
* Mean Old Man
* Rock & Roll Time

Collaborations|

* Together (with Linda Gail Lewis)
* Million Dollar Quartet (with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley)
* The Survivors Live (with Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins)
* Class of '55 (with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison)

Live albums|

* Live at the Star Club, Hamburg
* The Greatest Live Show on Earth
* By Request: More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth
* Live at the International, Las Vegas
* Last Man Standing Live

Soundtrack albums|

* Jamboree (1957)
* American Hot Wax (1978)
* Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
* Dick Tracy (1990)

Compilation albums|

* Original Golden Hits, Vol. 1
* Original Golden Hits, Vol. 2
* Rockin' Rhythm and Blues
* A Taste of Country
* Best of Jerry Lee Lewis
* All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology

Songs|

* "Another Place, Another Time"
* "Baby Baby Bye Bye"
* "Baby, Hold Me Close"
* "Break-Up"
* "Breathless"
* "Chantilly Lace"
* "Cold, Cold Heart"
* "Come as You Were"
* "Crown Victoria Custom '51"
* "Crazy Arms"
* "Don't Let Me Cross Over" (with Linda Gail Lewis)
* "Down the Line"
* "End of the Road"
* "Fools like Me"
* "Great Balls of Fire"
* "Hi-Heel Sneakers"
* "High School Confidential"
* "How's My Ex Treating You"
* "I Can't Seem to Say Goodbye"
* "I'll Make It All Up to You"
* "I'm on Fire"
* "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
* "In the Mood"
* "Invitation to Your Party"
* "It'll Be Me"
* "Jackson" (with Linda Gail Lewis)
* "Lewis Boogie"
* "Me and Bobby McGee"
* "Meat Man"
* "Money (That's What I Want)"
* "Old Black Joe"
* "Once More with Feeling"
* "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)"
* "One Minute Past Eternity"
* "Pen and Paper"
* "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye"
* "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)"
* "She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend)"
* "Sixteen Candles"
* "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
* "Sweet Little Sixteen"
* "Teenage Letter"
* "There Must Be More to Love Than This"
* "To Make Love Sweeter for You"
* "Turn On Your Love Light"
* "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)"
* "What'd I Say"
* "When He Walks on You (Like You Have Walked On Me)"
* "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
* "Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?"
* "Wild One"
* "Would You Take Another Chance on Me"
* "You Win Again"

Filmography|

* Jamboree (1957)
* High School Confidential (1958)
* Be My Guest (1965)
* American Hot Wax (1978)

Family|

* Myra Gale Brown (cousin/wife)
* Linda Gail Lewis (sister)
* Mickey Gilley (cousin)
* Carl McVoy (cousin)
* Jimmy Swaggart (double first cousin)

Related articles|

* Discography
* Great Balls of Fire!
* Walk the Line
* Kenny Lovelace
* Mack Vickery

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template