John Anderson "John Anderson" (Warner Brothers, 1980)
John Anderson "John Anderson 2" (Warner Brothers, 1981)
(Produced by Norro Wilson)
Anderson might have hit a slight sophomore slump on this disc, but it's still so damn good you could hardly tell. This disc kicks off with his fine version of Billy Joe Shaver's "I'm Just An Old Lump Of Coal," as deserving a hit as any hard country song ever recorded. From there he moves on to a solid rendition of the old Lefty Frizzell tearjerker, "I Love You A Thousand Ways," effectively marking out his turf as the next, best honkytonker since George and Merle started to mellow... The rest of Side One doesn't really go anywhere; the songs are fine, but unmemorable... It's on Side Two were the unexpected gems reside. "Makin' Love And Makin' Out" and the smooth, sublime "Motel With No Phone" are two non-hit album tracks that make this still-on-vinyl-only oldie worth owning... Sure, these great twang tunes are followed by the monotonous pseudo-trucker novelty tune, "Chicken Truck," which was one of Anderson's lesser hits, but things pick up again with a fine barroom ballad, "The Same Old Girl," and the closer, a nice, languid weeper that was cowritten by the late Dave Kirby. All in all, as solid a hard country album as you could hope for in these modern times. Recommended!
John Anderson "I Just Came Home To Count The Memories" (Warner Brothers, 1981)
John Anderson "Wild & Blue" (Warner Brothers, 1982)
John Anderson "All The People Are Talkin' " (Warner Brothers, 1983)
John Anderson "Eye Of A Hurricane" (Warner Brothers, 1984)
John Anderson "Tokyo, Oklahoma" (Warner Brothers, 1985)
John Anderson "Countrified" (Warner Brothers, 1986)
John Anderson "Blue Skies Again" (MCA Records, 1987)
John Anderson "10" (MCA Records, 1989)
John Anderson "Too Tough To Tame" (Capitol Records, 1990)
John Anderson "Seminole Wind" (BNA Records, 1992)
John Anderson "Solid Ground" (BNA Records, 1993)
John Anderson "Christmas Time" (BNA Records, 1994)
John Anderson "Country 'Til I Die" (BNA Records, 1994)
(Produced by John Anderson & James Stroud)
John Anderson "Paradise" (BNA Records, 1996)
(Produced by John Anderson & James Stroud)
John Anderson "Takin' The Country Back" (Mercury Records, 1997)
(Produced by Keith Stegall)
John Anderson "Nobody's Got It All" (Columbia Records, 2001)
(Produced by Blake Chancey & Paul Worley)
John Anderson "Nobody's Got It All" (Columbia Records, 2001)
John Anderson "Easy Money" (Warner/Raybaw Records, 2007)
John Anderson "Bigger Hands" (Country Crossing Records, 2009)
John Anderson "Goldmine" (Bayou Boys Music Group, 2015)
Best-Ofs
John Anderson "Greatest Hits" (Warner Brothers, 1984)
Some of the best honkytonk hits recorded in the late '70s and early '80s. I really love Anderson's smoky, smooth vocals, as well as his perfect pitch for picking and performing hard country gems. He's had real soul, a great band, and plenty of totally killer material to work with. Sure, Moe Bandy was around, too, but Anderson's picture oughta be placed in the Country encyclopedia under any entry on "neo-traditional" artists: he really defined the style, and did it better than pretty much anyone else. These best-ofs, particularly the first volume, are both highly recommended (although if you can pick up the original albums, they're even better!)
John Anderson "Greatest Hits, Volume Two" (Warner Brothers, 1990)
John Anderson "Anthology" (Audium Records, 2003)
Okay, here's the deal: This is actually a pseudo-best of that features two CDs worth of re-recorded versions of Anderson oldies, running from his "Old Chunk of Coal"/"1959" Warner classics, to his later hits on BNA. It would have been great if this was really the multi-label best-of that his work cries out for, but even so, it's still pretty good. Anderson's voice is still a delight to hear, and his heart's all country. Worth checking out, even if the packaging is a bit misleading. I didn't keep my copy, though.
John Anderson "Greatest Hits" (BNA Records, 1996)
This collection covers a later phase of Anderson's career, his early 1990s work for BNA, where some newfangled glossy production overtook and kinda buried his growly honkytonk. In general, it's not as satisfying as the old stuff, but the guy is still more fun to listen to than most of the clone-ish pretty boys that have cluttered Nashville the last few decades. I dig the sound of Anderson's voice, though the material he's singing on here is pretty weak.
Links
Hick Music Index
For more traditionally-minded country fans, the early 'Eighties breakthrough of Florida-born neo-tradder John Anderson was a real breath of fresh air. Anderson had been plugging away since the mid-1970s but didn't get any traction in Nashville until the end of the decade -- a couple of singles from 1979 led to his first full album coming out the following year, and from there he quickly became one of Country's biggest stars. Though he definitely had a deeply rural good old boy vibe, Anderson also had great voice and a knack for picking songs with irresistibly poppy hooks... His biggest early hits, like "Swingin'," "Wild And Blue," and his version Billy Joe Shaver's "I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal" are flat out some of the best early '80s neo-trad you can find. By the end of the decade, Anderson's fortunes had faded after he left Warner Brothers, but he staged a pretty decent comeback after signing with BNA Records in the early '90s. Here's a quick look at his work...