Stonewall Jackson Country

One of two albums Stonewall Jackson made in 1967, Stonewall Jackson Country includes the minor hit "This World Holds Nothing (Since You're Gone)," similar in concept to Skeeter Davis' "The End of the World." "There's No Reason to Be Living (Since You're Gone)" is another wrist-slashing ballad in the set. An air of melancholy surrounds the album because of its overabundance of weepers, for one thing, but also because of Jackson's talent for expressing a range of bleak emotions with his voice. The obligatory covers of recent and classic hits would seem to balance the sad songs -- it's a treat to hear Jackson tackle Marvin Rainwater's "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird," but his version of Wynn Stewart's "It's Such a Pretty World Today" is oddly mournful. Listeners who claim to hear the blues in country music will hear plenty of it on Stonewall Jackson Country with its love-gone-wrong songs and working-man laments. Warning: Jackson's performances put across the gloomy songs so effectively that the album's aura of defeat is contagious. ~ Greg Adams