Andrew Smith
“She was an excellent singer, a true singer, in the same league as Patsy Cline or Connie Smith in terms of range, clarity, and expressed feelings,” wrote Martin Hawkins about Jeannie C. Riley in the booklet accompanying this outstanding Bear Family reissue. “She was the real deal, a genuine country sounding singer but with the ability to deliver a song to a pop audience.”
Unfortunately, though, the song she is most remembered for, Tom T Hall’s Harper Valley PTA, in the long term restricted her career. “She loved the Harper Valley song at first for launching her career, and then she tolerated its longevity as she was making money, but there came a time when she felt resentful, unfree, and wouldn’t sing it,” Hawkins added.
Probably typical of those years, Jeannie was marketed as a kind of sex symbol, downplaying her country music credentials. She later abandoned miniskirts and go-go boots for more formal attire and became a born-again Christian in the mid-1970s, later singing gospel music.
She left Plantation in 1972 and recorded for other labels, but had only limited success. Thankfully, she reappeared on some Country Family Reunion clips, where her voice was as good as ever.
As the release title states, this 29-track compact disc is pure country but with songs that would also appeal to fans of popular music (for example, Good Enough To Be Your Wife). The tracks comprise, in the main, Jeannie’s Plantation label releases from 1968 until 1971.The presence of producer Shelby Singleton and ace session musician and future producer Jerry Kennedy are indelibly stamped on this reissue.
Session leader Kennedy, for example, played the memorable Dobro licks on Harper Valley PTA, and the accompanying musicians on these releases included such Nashville luminaries as Harold Bradley, Weldon Myrick, Bob Moore, Kenny Buttrey, Pete Drake, Henry Strzelecki, Joe Zinkan, David Briggs, Johnny Gimble, and others, giving the songs a noholds-barred country sound, which I found refreshing when I first heard these songs on vinyl during the late 1960s and 1970s. Jeannie’s strong, confident, country sounding vocals are impressive throughout.
As always, Bear Family also includes a comprehensive booklet and discography of the songs on the album, this time by respected author Martin Hawkins.
The CD can be ordered from Bear Family in Germany and Amazon in the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom. It’s one issue in Bear Family’s outstanding On The Honky Tonk Highway series, alongside releases by the Brother Boys (previously reviewed) and Augie Meyers (to be reviewed). I highly recommend this CD.
