Fantastic sounds from Terry Allen – one of the key underground Texas talents who were helping transform the style of country music in the 70s – and one of the few who maybe never fully got his due! Terry's from the same scene as David Allen Coe, Billy Joe Shaver, and Guy Clark, but his music is much more underground than theirs – maybe only ever designed to be put forth in an intimate club setting, late in the night – where the very conversational style of Allen's songs almost make them feel like barroom musings of a cat who's seen a heck of a lot of life on this planet, but still very able to peer into the souls of those he comes across. This double-length set is Allen's masterpiece – originally issued on a small pressing back in the 70s, and very much an alt-country relic – but from a time when such a thing didn't even exist. Titles include "Cocktails For Three", "High Plains Jamboree", "Amarillo Highway", "Lubbock Woman", "Rendezvous USA", "The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma", "Truckload Of Art", and "The Pink & Black Song". Great reissue – with corrected sound, and a huge booklet of notes on Allen – with essays by David Byrne and others. CD

One of the most compelling albums ever recorded by guitarist Eugene Chadbourne – a set billed as "free improvised country and western bebop" – and which features Chadbourne serving up these wild variations on tunes by Carl Perkins, Roger Miller, David Allen Coe, Bobby Bare, Merle Haggard, and other country music legends! The album's much more Eugene than Nashville – although Chadbourne does sing lyrics on all of the tunes, but in a way that's very offbeat and hardly unlike the originals at all – as is his guitar work, which is acoustic and all twisted and turned up in all the offbeat phrasings you might expect! Much of the record is Chadbourne on vocals and electric dobro – but the set also features some drums by David Licht, saxes from John Zorn, and cello from Tom Cora. Titles include "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me", "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised", "Georgia In A Jug", "Motel Time Again", "Dang Me", "Window Shopping", "Jealous Loving Heart", "Mr Record Man", and "Swingin Doors". CD