Track Listing

1. Blue Eyed Elaine
2. Don't Be Ashamed Of Your Age
3. I Forgot To Remember To Forget
4. I Love You Because
5. Pistol Packin' Mama
6. Saginaw Michigan
7. Old Dogs, Children And Watermelon Wine
8. Old Cape Cod
9. Death Of Floyd Collins
10. The Blue Side Of Lonesome
11. In The Garden
12. Just The Other Side Of Nowhere
13. Old Rugged Cross
14. Where The Blue Of The Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7858 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-24
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Things don't get much schmaltzier than a Dobro played Hawaiian style, which is why it's fitting that Cowboy Jack Clement offers one up on "The Blue Side of Lonesome," Leon Payne's dated but charming classic--only one such excursion into blue-haired reminiscing on an album of over-the-top sentimentality. It was the legendary Clement who paired smart-ass folkie Prine and bluegrass totem Wiseman, but the singers themselves chose the repertoire, which reads like songs people of a certain age might pick on a dry drunk. The tunes range, believe it or not, from religious hymns to covers of Patti Page's 1957 hit "Old Cape Cod," Kris Kristofferson's underrated "Just the Other Side of Nowhere," and Tom T. Hall's "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine," with a little Elvis and Ernest Tubb thrown in for good measure. It's fitting that Prine and Wiseman revisit the Hall standard, since oddly, both singers vocally favor the Nashville storyteller from time to time. But one has to question their use of the Grand Ole Opry's Carol Lee Singers, who show up on several cuts and seem, well, just bizarre on a John Prine record, even as they evoke the lushly famous Nashville Sound of the 1960s. Suffice it to say, this is a quirky project, and if Prine's scratchy baritone and Wiseman's melodic tenor sometimes overlap to where you can't tell who's singing what, it doesn't much matter. You're listening to two new pals having what seems to be the time of their life. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

less carol, more geritol
I have loved John Prine ever since his first album, and Mac Wiseman has built a much-loved legacy, but "quirky" is a generous descriptor for this effort. Maybe they shoulda hung out around a backyard grill a few days before they recorded. Maybe they did, I don't know. As one earlier reviewer said, I really wanted to love this, but I felt as if I was just working too hard at it. The choice of songs from a pair of guys with their repertoires can always be second-guessed, but that isn't my criticism either. These are great songs. There just doesn't seem to be the energy I had hoped for. There's just too much Carol Lee and not enough juice. Maybe they weren't making the set I wanted them to, but it got over-produced into a time capsule insert, or something.

I wasn't looking for a squeaky-clean composite. That's not John Prine. Nor did I hope for bluegrass de luxe. That's not Mac Wiseman. I think it should be renamed "The Carol Lee Singers and Some Great Nashville Studio Pros Present a Period Piece for the Shower, featuring JP and MW."

OK, that's cold. But if I'm being unfair, it's in a time when the same Mac Wiseman can team up with Del McCoury and Doc Watson and produce a cleaner, more evocative collection Del Doc & Mac and Ricky Skaggs, 80-ish Doc and Earl Scruggs can make "Three Pickers." It's a shame this didn't come up to the same level.

Top Shelf
Totally top shelf, John Prine always sings the truth. Mr. Wiseman is new to me but they blend perfectly together. They present an album that can be played right through and enjoyed over and over again.
Music and poetry are combined to make an artform. I'm just a standard person but I know that if the art makes you feel something it's among the best. Of course, we all have different taste in art but this is an easy one, for everyone. John Prine challenges the world with a lot of his songs which, to me, are more like poems set to music. This album is a more of the "just for fun type". The title here is perfect. Try Great Days: The John Prine Anthology you'll love that too.

Standard Songs for Average people
I was glad to see something new out by Mac Wiseman. I was not familiar with John Prime, but he has a good strong voice and I thought they sounded good together. I would gladly buy it again.