BGO Records have released another edition in their series of four-album sets featuring country artist Jerry Reed. The latest CD set contains the albums East Bound and Down, Jerry Reed Rides Again, Sweet Love Feelings and Half Singin’ & Half Pickin’. These albums’ original release dates span 1977 and 1978.

The Albums

Beginning with the album named for the current hit, featured in the movie in which Reed co-starred Smokey and the Bandit, East Bound and Down is essentially a compilation. It is comprised of Reed’s three tracks from the movie, together with a seemingly random smattering of earlier album tracks. The interesting thing about this album, though, is that any fans of Reed might notice that the three movie tracks are alternate takes to the ones ultimately used in the film. So if anyone is more used to hearing the film soundtrack, the recordings here have variations which lend an added freshness.

Jerry Reed Rides Again is a pleasing return to Reed’s usual energetic, engaging output, with 10 new recordings. Though largely covers or penned by other writers, and with no instrumental in sight, he nevertheless demonstrates his individual talent for interpreting others’ material. The only track written by Reed–under his birth name, Hubbard, which he usually used for songwriting credits–We’ve Called It Everything Else, is catchy with a romantic and poetic touch which he so often paired alongside his powerful sense of melody and energy to such success.

Sweet Love Feelings feels like a departure that begins a slightly different era in Reed’s career. We enter the years in which he split his time between movie sets and the recording studio, co-starring in at least one movie a year until the early-mid eighties. The cover image seems like a concerted effort to give his output a different essence. It looks smoother, ironing out that young wildman image in which he had long dwelt. Sporting a smart-casually-dressed Reed, accompanied by his eldest daughter Seidina and two glamorous models in what appears to be a club setting.

While some of the tracks, also featuring the vocals of Seidina and Jerry’s wife, fellow country singer and songwriter Priscilla Mitchell (credited as Hubbard), support that more slinky and contemporary style hinted at by the cover image, there are also tastes of the fiery and enthusiastic energy fans would have come to expect. Tracks such as Lousiana Lady, Reverend Joe Henry and Busted balance Reed’s grit with his sentimentality with numbers like the softly-spoken and heartfelt-sung (I Love You) What Can I Say.

Half Singin’ & Half Pickin’ feels like an attempt to marry Reed’s prolific instrumental past with his new touring lineup. It sits between Reed’s brilliant musical sensibilities, his sense of fun and fire, and the demands of a changing country music industry. Long-time admirers of Reed may also notice how deep into the movie world he was at the time of recording and publicity for Half & Half: his beard indicates that he was simultaneously working on the Canadian production High Ballin’, for which he also provided the theme tune, High Rollin’.

The opening track, Second-Hand Satin Lady (And A Bargain Basement Boy), gives a sweet, romantic feel, whereas the next track, Gimme Back My Blues, takes us straight into the higher-tempo realm in which casual Reed fans might feel more at home. In fact, the entirety of side one–the ‘Singin” side–feels a little disjointed. The result of this is that, by comparison, the ‘Pickin” side feels very cohesive, with five very accomplished instrumental pieces, three of which were composed by Reed himself. This is a satisfying return to the world which had set Reed apart from contemporaries at the beginning of his album recording days in the mid 1960s.

Featuring Reed’s daughter Seidina’s vocal on duet I Don’t Know About You, Half & Half shows up a renewed attention to both his vocal and instrumental technique which would be in evidence over the next few albums he produced for RCA Records.

Overall, Half Singin’ and Half Pickin’ is a fun album with plenty of the tightness that one would expect and desire from Jerry Reed. It feels experimental and intensely interesting, offering an insight into perhaps some level of impostor syndrome in an artist whose very essence had been about feeling, passion and fire, rather than textbook technicality. Even when he released something more thoughtful than instinctual, like Half & Half, it still manages to be immersive and revelatory, despite its weakness in terms of cohesion and raw feeling.

Sound Quality

The four albums included here have been digitally remastered. Having heard some of them from original pressing vinyl records in the past, I can say that the sound is brilliant. It maintains the warmth and humanity of Reed’s recordings, with excellent clarity and balance.

A Little Something Extra…

The 20-page booklet included offers an extensive biography by John O’Regan, as well as Smokey and the Bandit director Hal Needham’s testimonial from the East Bound and Down album, as well as the session information for each individual album and its original cover art. This makes a welcome addition to the listening experience of the set.

Track Listing

Disc One

East Bound and Down
Lightning Rod
The Bandit
Bake
The Legend
Framed
You Took All The Ramblin’ Out of Me
Rainbow Ride
Just To Satisfy You
Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right
The Bully of The Town
It’s My Time
We’ve Called It Everything Else
Somethin’ Bout You Baby I Like
Right String But The Wrong Yo-yo
With His Pants in His Hand
The Phantom of The Opry
Semolita
So Fine
(I’m Just) A Redneck in a Rock and Roll Bar

Disc Two

Sweet Love Feelings
Louisiana Lady
Reverend Joe Henry
You Know What
I Feel For You
(I Love You) What Can I Say
Hold Tight
Banjo Man
You’re Gonna Need Someone
Busted
Second-Hand Satin Lady (And a Bargain Basement Boy)
Gimme Back My Blues
I Don’t Know About You
Baby We’re Really In Love
In The Sack
A Piece of Cake
Pretty Magic
(John Philip Sousa’s) Stars and Stripes Forever
Jiffy Jam
Nervous Breakdown

In Conclusion…

Despite some heavy departure from the centre and essence of Jerry Reed’s most enduring musical legacy, these four albums are nevertheless well worth a place on the shelf alongside the other four-album sets released by BGO Records.

A particular highlight for me is the track that finishes it all, Nervous Breakdown, a Reed-penned instrumental which has always stood out to me as one of his most fierce and brilliant, with the perfect blend of speed, clarity and emotional phrasing, in his entire catalogue.

I highly recommend this set to fans of Mr. Reed, those who enjoy late-1970s country music, as well as anyone who relishes the chance to dive into a pleasingly eclectic collection of sounds from an artist who had explored–and done his best to embody–so many areas of American entertainment, far outreaching the constraints of a single genre of music.

East Bound and Down / Jerry Reed Rides Again / Sweet Love Feelings / Half Singin’ & Half Pickin’ is available from BGO Records.