Reups
posted first by bluenorther...
Larry Jon Wilson
"New Beginnings" 1975
"Let Me Sing My Song to You" 1976
Larry Jon Wilson. Like Wilson himself, his music has defied easy categorization, and such descriptions as country folk, country blues, folk blues, country-narrative folk, and a mixture of soul and country all represent attempts to characterize Wilson's work.
Born on October 7, 1940, in Swainsboro to Louise Phillips and John Tyler Wilson, Larry Jon Wilson was raised in Augusta. He attended high school at Carlisle Military Academy in Bamberg, South Carolina, before matriculating at the University of Georgia to major in chemistry. From 1963 to 1973 he worked in Langley, South Carolina, for United Merchants and Manufacturers as a technical consultant in fiberglass manufacturing.
At the age of thirty, Wilson received his first guitar and taught himself to play. Four years later Wilson—by then a husband and the father of three children—abandoned the world of polymers for his music. In 1975 his first album, aptly titled New Beginnings, debuted to critical acclaim. Other albums with the Monument label of CBS Records followed, including Let Me Sing My Song to You (1976), Loose Change (1977), and The Sojourner (1979) . His compositions reflect his experiences, and many focus on his southern childhood; one writer calls them "eloquent, elegiac songs of the South." Of his first album, the critic for the Saturday Review in New York says, "Larry Jon Wilson's New Beginnings is, to sum up, the best thing I have heard in country, rock, pop, or you-name-it for a very long time." Wilson developed a devoted following of fans and critics on the touring circuit and gained the respect of well-known music colleagues. He was a favorite at the famed Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Larry Jon Wilson
"New Beginnings" 1975
"Let Me Sing My Song to You" 1976
Larry Jon Wilson. Like Wilson himself, his music has defied easy categorization, and such descriptions as country folk, country blues, folk blues, country-narrative folk, and a mixture of soul and country all represent attempts to characterize Wilson's work.
Born on October 7, 1940, in Swainsboro to Louise Phillips and John Tyler Wilson, Larry Jon Wilson was raised in Augusta. He attended high school at Carlisle Military Academy in Bamberg, South Carolina, before matriculating at the University of Georgia to major in chemistry. From 1963 to 1973 he worked in Langley, South Carolina, for United Merchants and Manufacturers as a technical consultant in fiberglass manufacturing.
At the age of thirty, Wilson received his first guitar and taught himself to play. Four years later Wilson—by then a husband and the father of three children—abandoned the world of polymers for his music. In 1975 his first album, aptly titled New Beginnings, debuted to critical acclaim. Other albums with the Monument label of CBS Records followed, including Let Me Sing My Song to You (1976), Loose Change (1977), and The Sojourner (1979) . His compositions reflect his experiences, and many focus on his southern childhood; one writer calls them "eloquent, elegiac songs of the South." Of his first album, the critic for the Saturday Review in New York says, "Larry Jon Wilson's New Beginnings is, to sum up, the best thing I have heard in country, rock, pop, or you-name-it for a very long time." Wilson developed a devoted following of fans and critics on the touring circuit and gained the respect of well-known music colleagues. He was a favorite at the famed Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee.
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posted by Lizardson at 11:30 PM
14 Comments:
thanks for this the most underrated
music voices in history!!!!!!!!!
This fantastic blog is being destroyed by ingrates / Trolls.
I can't believe many people have even heard of Larry Jon let alone have reason to remove his music.At 67 I'd be happy to gain a wider audience. Alas not . If anyone can re-up the re-up.[ This is just so sad and stupid-I fail to understand the vitriol of deleters]
Anyway big Thanks to Lizardson and everyone else.Over the years this blog has helped me discover a wealth of music I simply would never have encountered. THANK YOU.
Cheers
Dr Debaser
Thanks for these -- great stuff indeed!
awesome, thanks!
Three LJW albums on one blog is pretty stupendous!
Thanks to OP, re-upper, and to the magnificent Lizardson.
Well I'm confused - seems people got this after the person that said it was no longer there - I know this was the 2nd re-up , but it isn't there now on Mass Mirror - How about trying Media Fire. Anyway, thanks for the effort :)
"File not found" on MassMirror, so here are new links:
New Beginnings:
http://rapidshare.com/files/127772522/LJonWNewB.zip
Let Me Sing..:
http://rapidshare.com/files/127779364/LarryJWLetMeS.zip
Cheers.
Larry Jon Wilson - S/T (2008)
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1839/ljw08dxl7.jpg
An associate of the country outlaw generation that included Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, Larry Jon Wilson's burly baritone burr brought tableaux like "Ohoopee River Bottomland" and "Sheldon Church Yard" to vivid life, but his refusal to compromise curtailed his Seventies career after just a few albums.
He even harboured reluctance about this comeback album, which he insisted on doing "with no sticks and no plugs". Trimmed to little more than his voice and guitar, the results are as gripping as the late Johnny Cash recordings, full of languid ruminations on the past and bitter existential reflections like "Where From" ("A world you never asked for holds you hostage till you're 21", etc).
His candid attitude can be gleaned from the fact that, while Elvis does an "American Trilogy", Wilson here does a "Losers Trilogy" and a "Whore Trilogy", the latter incorporating poignant renditions of Paul Siebel's "Louise" and Mickey Newbury's "San Francisco Mabel Joy". There's also a version of the Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson "Heartland", its account of disillusion withering hope perfectly suited to Wilson's world-weary tones. : ~ Andy Gill
01. Shoulders
02. Losers Trilogy: If I Just Knew What to Say/Bless the Losers/Things Ain'
03. Heartland
04. Long About Now
05. Me with No You
06. Feel Alright Again
07. I Am No Dancer
08. Goodbye Eyes
09. Rocking with You
10. Throw My Hands Up
11. Whore Trilogy: Louise/Sunset Woman/Frisco Mabel Joy
12. Where From
http://rapidshare.com/files/162661432/LJW5in28years.zip
320 Kbps
A raw, unadorned set of songs make up the fifth album of Larry Jon Wilson, the enigmatic singer-songwriter from Augusta, GA.
If you’ve never heard of Larry Jon, it’s because, despite some golden opportunities, he always refused to sell out. But ask Kris Kristofferson or Willie Nelson who their favourite singers are the 68-year-old’s name is offered up.
In the early Seventies Wilson was thick with Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Tony Joe White - smart young southerners as enamoured with Bob Dylan as the Grand Ol Opry. Often labelled as country music’s ‘outlaw generation’, their music was spare, usually introspective and one detected a desire to dignify the south, to expunge the unsavoury elements associated with their elders. They drew from soul, blues and in Wilson’s case funk. Country-funk, or better funky-country would be a fair way to describe his two great Seventies albums: New Beginnings and Let Me Sing My Songs To You.
But Wilson’s eponymous fifth is another matter. Townes Van Zandt’s white-knuckle album Live At The Old Quarter is a spiritual ally. He stood in a packed Texas club and poured his heart out, and Larry Jon has done the same in a Florida studio.
At times Wilson’s big tobacco voice comes near to breaking over songs like Goodbye Eyes, Shoulders and Losers’ Trilogy. Larry sounds so close, you can hear his fingers screech across the acoustic guitar strings as the songs unfold. Often he just reminisces, subtly alluding to enormous loss and rescuing himself with wry poetical grace. : ~ Robert Spellman
All 12 tracks are first takes and unplugged recorded in one week on the Florida coast.
If that gives the impression of a rush job, the very opposite is true of the finished album. Wilson has a relaxed baritone voice somewhere between the country soul of Kris Kristofferson and the blues of John Lee Hooker.
The songs are about getting old and making the right life choices.
On 'Heartland', he sings "My American dream fell apart at the seams" but there's no trace of bitterness here, just a worldly reflectiveness steeped in memories. The upshot of it all is that contentment comes from finding a good woman and being true to yourself.
There's no raging against the dying of the light as he reflects that an "old rocking chair don''t scare me like it used to" (Rocking With You) and on the superb closing track 'Where From' he muses on how life-friends-choices-loves all come and go with only age and the end being constants.
Like the late great Townes Van Zandt, who he lived and toured with many years ago, there's no mould to contain old troopers like Wilson. He's one of a dying breed but this fine collection should guarantee that when he's gone he won't be forgotten. : ~ Whisperin & Hollerin
Seeking LJW's 1979 album, Sojourner.
Acknowledgements to Willy99 at Wild Safari Blog for the files.
Cheers.
(Lizardson,If you decide that this album is too recent for your blog, just ignore this post, and there'll be absolutely no offence taken - I'm chancing it because LJW's one of the criminally-underrated and deserves to be better-known.)
Thanks for this!
Yeah folks, just see Larry Jon in the Heartworn Highways movie workin´ in the studio on whoopee river ...
the guy has it all .. searchin for the other two remaining albums from the past. Love + Peace
First of all, many thanks for these fine and hard to find albums!
I saw LJW in London in 2005 and didn't realise he was the same guy making those cool and funky souds in the Heartworn Highways film... till I went searching for more.
Every once in a rare while, you'll come across an class artist that slipped under you radar and you get to catch up on their efforts from years ago. It's a really happy experience!
I managed to find LJW's Loose Change... and am now aiming for Sojourner. Wouldn't mind getting some assistance in this matter!
I managed to find LJW's Loose Change... and am now aiming for Sojourner. Wouldn't mind getting some assistance in this matter!
thank you sharing these wonderful recordings from larry jon wilson, one of the most underrated but deserving songwriters of our time. beautiful stuff here.
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