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The Award Winners/Rings and Things *

Tompall & the Glaser Brothers
1 disc

1. What Is a Woman, What Is a Man
2. Help Me Make It Through the Night
3. Girl I Used to Know, A
4. Bye Bye Love
5. Me and Bobby McGee
6. Snowbird
7. That's When I Love You the Most
8. Stand Beside Me
9. I See His Love All Over You
10. Simple Thing as Love, A
11. Faded Love
12. Rings
13. Lovin' You Again
14. Delta Lost
15. Days When You Were Still in Love with Me, The
16. Leave That for Memories
17. Sweet Love Me Good Woman
18. Blue Ridge Mountains
19. Back in Each Other's Arms Again
20. You're in Carolina
21. Phoney World
22. Pretty Eyes
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): HUX 129
Credits

Producer
Engineer
Personnel: Chuck Glaser, Jim Glaser, Tompall Glaser (vocals, guitar); Harold Bradley, Randy Scruggs (guitar); Leon McAuliffe (steel guitar); John Hartford (banjo); Keith Colman (fiddle); Fred Pierce (drums).
Liner Note Author: Alan Cackett.
Recording information: Glaser Sound Studios.
Hux's 2012 two-fer Award Winners/Rings & Things combines Tompall Glaser's final two albums with the Glaser Brothers before he headed out on his own with 1973's Charlie. Tompall began to carve out an outlaw persona with Charlie, a stance suited to his omnipresent orneriness, but these LPs from 1971 and 1972 find the Glaser Brothers in decidedly poppier territory. Yes, there are hints of the outlaw sound scattered over these two albums -- Award Winners has a covers of Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "Me and Bobby McGee," and concludes with a faithful version of Bob Wills' classic "Faded Love," while Rings has some more Western Swing -- but the hearts of these albums reside in Nashville. This is clearest on Rings, whose title track is a cover of a sugary AM pop hit by Cymarron. The Glaser Brothers followed the blueprint of the original fairly closely, and much of the rest of the album has a similarly sweet sound, an aesthetic that's applied even to songs of outlaws or heartbroken folk-tinged ballads. Far from sounding as if they're chafing at these Nashville restraints, the Glaser Brothers are comfortable in these lush settings, their harmonies easing into the tapestry of strings, keyboards, and acoustic and steel guitars. Award Winners isn't quite as sweet; it has a stronger folk underpinning, surfacing on a version of Anne Murray's "Snowbird" and rippling through the Kristofferson covers. But there's little question that both of these albums only hint at the ornery outlaw Tompall patented just a few years later and, naturally, that's the appeal of the two LPs: they're state of the art country-pop circa 1971 and 1972, charming because they embody their era and because the Glaser Brothers sound so good. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Critic Reviews

Uncut (magazine) (p.98) - "The real treats are on the 1972 album, which shows why the Glasers deserve to be filed alongside the SWEETHEART-era Byrds."