Tuesday 19th September

Paul Kennerley, working in an office in England apparently, heard a record by Waylon Jennings and fell in love with Country Music. He had once been in an unsuccessful band but started to compose what we would now call Americana; country music tinged with rock.  He wrote a whole album ‘White Mansions’ which was about the American Civil War, mostly told from the Confederate side.  Somehow he got Glynn Johns to produce it, Eric Clapton to play on it and a host of great singers, including Waylon, John Dillon, Jessi Colter and Steve Cash.  And what a fantastic album it turned out to be.  The songs are simply brilliant and full of the sadness of defeat and the hopelessness of the Southern cause.  It was released in 1978…..and, basically it flopped.  I have no idea why, as it should have been the biggest hit – The Eagles were flying high at the time and it has a touch of ‘Desperados’ about it.

Anyway, I bought it – and it was rarely off my turntable.  Two years later and he released ‘The Legend of Jesse James’.  Another stellar cast including Johnny Cash, Levon Helm and Emmy Lou Harris.  If anything, the songs are even better and the sound a touch rockier.  It tells how after the Civil War many young men turned to outlawing, including Jesse and his brother Frank.  They stole from the banks, but were no Robin Hoods, killing pretty casually too.  The sequence where the gang fail and are hounded down, and Jesse’s eventual betrayal and death are poignant and brilliantly sung.  Sadly, this record did even less well than ‘White Mansions’.  They have subsequently been released as a double CD and are now actually selling quite steadily.  They are far closer to the sound of Steve Earle and other Country/Americana artists of today.  Maybe they were just far too early.

Kennerley went on to write for many country artists, but never seems to achieve the perfection of these two records, which remain in my very favourite list.

They are both on youtube now if you fancy hearing them…