Trouble Is A Lonesome Town
by Lee Hazlewood

From Mercury 10/19/2017 20:41 | #199819

This album is just amazing! Allmusic reviewer Stanton Swihart described it best when he said "Trouble is like a cross between a novel full of idiosyncratic character studies (à la Faulkner) and a John Wayne Western, with Hazlewood". It really is a fascinating album, and probably will rise higher on this list, so take this #6 rank with that in mind. It's got this low down, collage feel of all these interesting little studies of low down people. Its got Train songs, Prison Songs, all kinds of little love story songs, etc. And throughout there are these little spoken word intros by Lee which just make the whole album feel like a camp fire story session with an old cowboy you met along the way in your travels. The guitar is plain and beautiful acoustic glory, the harmonicas cries out sadly throughout. Which brings me to a random aside: I love harmonica in almost all settings. Harmonica played right on a record just is a clincher for me loving a song or sound. Like, I love "Nebraska" but if Springsteen messed up the harmonica on that album (he doesn't) I'd probably feel pretty meh about it. The harminica on "Papa Rollin' Stone" on Johnny Thunders' classic album "So Alone" instantly makes that my fave or second fave track on that masterpiece, oh and one of the great things (amongst many great great things ... you'll see how much I love the records later on in this diary methinks) about those classic Mickey Newbury albums is the occasional Harmonica atmospherics he dredges up. I mean Dylan strangely enough never quite used the harmonica well at all. I don't like the harmonica playing on his albums. If he had played harmonica with that mournful, tuneful, style, I would love his early albums even more (kind of a scary thought... I would never have even listened to any other music to this day if he'd nailed that aspect lol).

Okay, and so in closing, this album is just a hour or so long travel story or concept album or something about a little deadend town called Trouble. If you love country, folk, or just excellent songwriting I think you'll love this. Check it out.

Edit: I moved this from 7 to 6 to 5. Its a winner! And an excellent debut to boot.

"Trouble's little and it's lonesome.
You won't find it on any map.
But you can take three steps in any direction, and you're there.
It's a place to be born.
And it's a place to live.
And it's a place to die and be forgotten.
It's a town called Trouble.
And Trouble is a lonesome town" Applause Applause Applause

Grade: 8.8/10