George Jones - That's The Way I Feel: Country Classics 1957-1962 [CD]

Widely acknowledged by country music fans and artists alike as the greatest singer the genre ever produced, the late George Jones could and did sing anything and make it sound great. For more than half a century his was among the most immediately recognisable voices in country, a man often imitated but never duplicated. The man recorded hundreds of sides that are a testament to his titanic talent, no matter how slight some of the songs he was given to record actually were. There really could be no finer standard bearer for the music 'Possum' stuck by from the start to the finish of his career. There are no 'slight' songs on this second Jasmine compilation of George's fantastic 50s and early 60s recordings. Every one of them is magnificent. "That's The Way I Feel" picks up from where it's predecessor left off and carries the George Jones story through to the end of 1962. It's mostly hardcore country music with the occasional sidebar of something akin to the rock 'n' roll George always said he disliked - but that he made a very good job of adapting to - here and there. The track listing includes three chart toppers, six top ten hits and eight which made the Country Top 30 among the many classics on offer, alongside a handful of early 60s remakes of tracks that had been among his biggest early 50s hits. It's hard to imagine that there could be a better single CD representation of this part of George's career than this one. Presented more-or-less chronologically, and with the usual comprehensive sleeve note in the splendidly illustrated booklet, this is vintage country music at it's very best. You would expect nothing less from George Jones.