The Bradley Barn Sessions
The Bradley Barn Sessions | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by George Jones | ||||
Released | October 11, 1994 | |||
Studio | Bradley's Barn, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Label | MCA Nashville | |||
Producer | Brian Ahern | |||
George Jones chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
The Bradley Barn Sessions is a duet album released in 1994 by American country music artist George Jones.
Recording
The concept behind The Bradley Barn Sessions was to place Jones in the hands of traditionalist country producer Brian Ahern, record at Owen Bradley's legendary Bradley's Barn studios, compile a selection of the singer's greatest hits, and have him sing duets with not just some of the biggest names in country but also pop music as well. Although the album – Jones' fourth for MCA – did not break the top twenty on Billboards country albums chart, peaking at 23, it features the first recorded duet between the singer and his ex-wife Tammy Wynette since their 1981 LP Together Again. The only single release from the album was "A Good Year for the Roses", a collaboration with Alan Jackson. As Jones noted in his autobiography two years later, "After the duets album was released, radio didn't know what to do with it...Alan was white-hot on the radio, and programmers wanted his voice. But some didn't want his if they had to take mine. The vast majority of Alan's other single records have gone to number one. His duet with me was his first not to crack the top 50." It actually peaked at number 57. In June 1995, the song won the Music City News Country Awards "Vocal Collaboration of the Year".
In addition to a who's who of past and present country stars, the album boasted two significant contributors from outside the country music field. The first was Mark Knopfler, primarily known as leader and guitarist for the rock band Dire Straits. A big country fan who had recorded an album with Chet Atkins in 1990, Knopfler played guitar and sang background on a remake of Jones's first number one country hit from 1959, "White Lightning", and can be heard laughing as Jones hams it up on the vocal. The other rock musician who sang with Jones was Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones on "Say It's Not You", which originally appeared on Jones's 1967 album If My Heart Had Windows. In a 2004 interview that was posted on his website, Richards said of the meeting, "That was a great experience...To sing with George – and get away with it! – was amazing. What a possum." In a 1996 Rolling Stone interview Jones confessed to Chuck Dean, "I'll be honest with you: I love Keith Richards more than anything as a person. He's a character – just fun to be around." An hour-long documentary-style special was filmed in late 1994 to promote the duet album. It aired in 1995 on The Nashville Network. Among the guests were the duet partners, Tony Brown, Brian Ahern, and Owen Bradley.
Several unreleased tracks recorded during this album's sessions were later included on Jones' 2008 duets album Burn Your Playhouse Down.
Reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic calls The Bradley Barn Sessions "a stilted, nearly lifeless album. The production is too clean and polished, lacking any of the grit of true honky tonk records. Furthermore, songs like "A Good Year for the Roses" suffer from the stringless, stripped-down arrangements.
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Duet partner(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "One Woman Man" | Tillman Franks, Johnny Horton | Marty Stuart | 2:50 |
2. | "A Good Year for the Roses" | Jerry Chesnut | Alan Jackson | 3:38 |
3. | "Why Baby Why" | George Jones, Darrell Edwards | Ricky Skaggs | 2:32 |
4. | "Golden Ring" | Bobby Braddock, Rafe Van Hoy | Tammy Wynette | 3:05 |
5. | "Say It's Not You" | Dallas Frazier | Keith Richards | 2:59 |
6. | "The Love Bug" | Wayne Kemp, Curtis Wayne | Vince Gill | 2:27 |
7. | "Where Grass Won't Grow" | Earl Montgomery | Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton | 3:52 |
8. | "The Race Is On" | Jones, Don Rollins | Travis Tritt | 2:29 |
9. | "Bartender Blues" | James Taylor | Trisha Yearwood | 3:54 |
10. | "White Lightnin'" | J.P. Richardson | Mark Knopfler | 3:31 |
11. | "Good Ones and Bad Ones" | Joe Chambers, Larry Jenkins | Mark Chesnutt | 3:08 |
Total length: | 34:25 |
Personnel
- Brian Ahern – rhythm guitar (track 1), bass (track 10), acoustic guitar (tracks 2, 5 – 7, 9, 11)
- Eddie Bayers – drums (tracks 1 – 3, 5, 7 – 10)
- Richard Bennett – acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 4, 6, and 11)
- James Burton – electric guitar (tracks 5 and 11)
- Jerry Douglas – resonator guitar (tracks 1 – 4, 8, and 9)
- Paul Franklin – steel guitar (tracks 5, 7, and 10)
- Vince Gill – guitar (tracks 4, 6, 7, and 10)
- Glen D. Hardin – piano (tracks 2, 3, 7 – 9)
- Emmylou Harris – acoustic guitar (track 5)
- Randy Howard – mandolin (track 11)
- John Hughey – steel guitar (tracks 4 and 6)
- David Hungate – bass (tracks 4, 6, and 11)
- John Jennings – electric guitar (tracks 3 and 9)
- Mark Knopfler – electric guitar (track 10)
- Mac McAnally – acoustic slide guitar (track 1), acoustic guitar (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7 – 10)
- Keith Richards – electric guitar (track 5)
- Hargus "Pig" Robbins – piano (tracks 1 and 10)
- Brent Rowan – electric guitar (tracks 2 and 8)
- Leon Russell – piano (tracks 4 – 6, 11)
- Ricky Skaggs – harmony vocals (tracks 4 and 8), fiddle (tracks 1, 2, 5 – 11), acoustic guitar (tracks 3 and 4)
- Tommy Spurlock – steel guitar (tracks 2, 3, 8, 9, and 11), resonator guitar (track 7)
- Harry Stinson – drums (tracks 4, 6, and 11)
- Marty Stuart – electric slide guitar (track 1), mandolin (tracks: 2 – 10)
- Glenn Worf – acoustic guitar (track 3), acoustic bass (tracks 1, 2, 5, 7–10)
Special Thanks
- Nancy Jones
- Tony Brown
- Renee White
- Owen Bradley
- Michael Sales
- Bob Bradley
- Glen D. Hardin
- Ricky Scaggs
- Tommy Waco Spurlock
- Greg Humphrey
- Joyce Write
- Julie Ballweg
- Marsha Southerland
- Pee Wee Johnson
- John Spencer
- Scott Dorsey
Photographer Fritz Hoffman
- v
- t
- e
- 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
- 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
- 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