George Jones

Smiling corpse or committed cuckold or drunk peering over the edge of the wagon, a sinner is what he am, and he's never sounded so abject or unregenerate--the twenty-years-in-five thickness of his Epic voice only intensifies the effect. If Billy Sherrill's chorales signify his helplessness, their unobtrusiveness-in-spite-of-themselves prove his triumph. And remember, it was Sherrill who found him these songs. (Grade: A-)

George Jones is now called, almost routinely, "the world's greatest country singer." To
support this claim, his admirers (of whom I am one) usually cite his prodigious vocal
powers: his multioctave range, the fluidity of his voice and his ability to breathe life into
even the most pedestrian lyrics. All these qualities are evident on I Am What I Am, Jones'
first solo album since he stopped being a practicing alcoholic over a year ago. T... More >

Smiling corpse or committed cuckold or drunk peering over the edge of the wagon, a sinner is what he am, and he's never sounded so abject or unregenerate--the twenty-years-in-five thickness of his Epic voice only intensifies the effect. If Billy Sherrill's chorales signify his helplessness, their unobtrusiveness-in-spite-of-themselves prove his triumph. And remember, it was Sherrill who found him these songs. (Grade - A-)