Country Road "The Country Road Sing Country Gold" (Hilltop Records, 1969) (LP)
Country Road "Folsom Prison Blues: The Country Road Sing The Hits Of Johnny Cash" (Pickwick Records, 1972) (LP)
A not-terribly-convincing tribute to the fabled Man In Black... I mean, yes, the songs are all Johnny's tunes, but singer Mickey Barnett takes a youthful, nasal vocal tone that sure doesn't match the laconic style of Mr. Cash, and the guitar picking is for sure a little too fancy, more Chet Atkins than Luther Perkins. On the other hand, maybe sounding different than the source material is a plus: what's the point of a rote re-creation when we've already got all the original records? I dunno if Barnett was the driving force on all the Country Road albums, but he gets a full credit on this one, the only musician identified by name.
Country Road "Rose Garden" (Pickwick Records, 197--?) (LP)
Country Road "Big Country Hits" (Pickwick Records, 1973) (LP)
Country Road "Big Country Hits" (Pickwick Records, 1974) (LP)
Country Road "Big Country Hits, v.3" (Pickwick Records, 1975) (LP)
Country Road "Country USA" (Pickwick Records, 1974) (LP)
Their best-of collection! This double LP draws on their earlier records: Disc One is a straight, track-by-track reissue of JS-6142, the first Big Country Hits album, while Disc Two seems to cherry-pick individual tracks from several different records. Just plain nutty.
Country Road "Million Or More! '74" (Pickwick Records, 1975) (LP)
Country Road "John Denver's Country" (Pickwick Records, 1975) (LP)
(Produced by Charlie Hall & Bobby Ernspiker)
God bless Pickwick Records. Nine of John Denver's biggest hits (to date), covered by our favorite anonymous soundalike band. "Sunshine On My Shoulders," "Annie's Song," "Rocky Mountain High," one called "Take Me Home, Country Roads." There are no musician or producer credits, though Ellis Nassour contributes liner notes that mainly wax rhapsodic about John Denver, and only lightly glides over the fact that these nine songs are being covered by someone else. But they definitely took a different approach from John Denver's original soft-rock style, more like Hoyt Axton or Bobby Bare covering Denver's work. I kinda like it!
Country Road "Big Rig Hits" (Pickwick Records, 1976) (LP)
Pickwick leaned big into the CB-radio fad of the 'Seventies, as witnessed by this string of Country Road trucker albums released almost simultaneously during the '76 Bicentennial. So, if you always thought "Convoy" was a great song, but hated the way C. W. McCall done sung it, this one's for you. This album includes a groovy glossary of trucker terms, so ditch those double nickels, hammer down to the record racks and cough up a few green stamps so you, too, can learn the lingo and leave them Smokeys in your rear view. Threes and eights all around, good buddy!
Country Road "10-4 Teddy Bear & The Great C.B. Talk And Trucker Songs" (Pickwick Records, 1976) (LP)
Country Road "Teddy Bear's Last Ride" (Pickwick Records, 1976) (LP)
Country Road "Big Country Hits" (Pickwick Records, 1976) (LP)
Country Road "Big Country Hits" (Pickwick Records, 1976) (LP)
Like Mirror Image and The Nashville Country Jamboree, Country Road was one of several 'Seventies "soundalike" bands -- anonymous music industry ensembles cobbled together to produce knockoff versions of popular hits for literal bargain bin albums sold at drug stores and truck stops at a fraction of the price of the original hit records. The identities of the group's musicians and producers remains mysterious and obscured by the fog of time, although singer-guitarist Mickey Barnett was involved, at least early on... Nevertheless their legacy lives on the scratchy, dusty, warped discs of yesteryear... Here's a quick look at their work...
