Talley, James

Vinyl Records and Rare LPs:

	Ain't It Somethin' New - LP - ST 11695 First Copy We Have Had In Stock Of This Pristine, Factory Sealed 1977 Embossed Cover Original. “By The Time James Talley Issued His Fourth Album For Capitol, His Sound Had Been Transformed From A Simple Fusion Of Folk, Country, And Blues To A Hotbed Of Steaming R&B, Funky New Orleans Second-Line Rhythms, Country, And Even Rock. These 11 Tracks Suggest That Talley Was Moving Honky Tonk And Folk Music Into A New Era, One That Would Explode Just A Few Years Later. But Talley Was Ahead Of His Time And Ain't It Somethin' Didn't Even Chart. Despite The Changes In Arrangement And Style, Talley's Songs Are Still About The Same People He Wrote About On His First Record: The Poor, Working Class, Day Laborers, Farmers, Factory Men And Women Just Doing Everything They Can To Make A Life For Themselves. The Only Politics In Talley's Songs Come From His Experience As A Social Worker, A Farmer, And Growing Up In Torreon. Check The Beautiful Piano Lines And Melody In "We Keep Tryin'," Where He Sings: "Me And Mattie, We Ain't Got No Influential Friends/Just Tryin To Beat Them Blues." Or The Soft, Jazzy Overtones In "Dixie Blue," With Billy Puett's Clarinet Easing The Piece In Before Randy Scruggs Slips His Banjo Into The Mix And Steve Hostak Fills In With An Electric On Top Of Josh Graves' Dobro And Jerry Shook's Acoustics. "Nine Pounds Of Hashbrowns" Is Nashville Funky Strut At Its Finest And Talley Doesn't Even Have To Stretch To Get There: "Nine Pounds Of Hashbrowns And A Rock & Roll Degree/Will Take Me Anywhere You Might Want To See," With Horns, James Brown-Style, Punching The Margins And A Pair Of Dueling Greasy Guitars Riffing Outside The Melody. The Last Two Tracks On The Set Are Talley At His Best, The Poignant Ballad "The Poets Of The West Virginia Mines" And "What Will Be There For The Children?" In The 1970s, Talley Issued Four Masterpieces In A Row.” Thom Jurek, AMG. more
	Blackjack Choir New - LP - ST 11605 Sealed 1977 Embossed Cover Original. Saw cut. “Blackjack Choir Is Ultimate Expression Of All That James Talley Is As A Songwriter And Performer. Talley Used Basically The Same Band He'd Employed On His Previous Outings, But Added Reggie Young On Guitar And A Cello And Tuba For Texture On A Couple Of Songs. The Depth Was Already There, But Blackjack Choir Also Had Dimension. "Bluesman," The Opener, Kicks It Off With Young Kicking In On Electric, Talley In His Smooth Tenor Riding Above A Horn Section That Slips And Slides Through His Lyrics, Which Are, Of Course, About The Workmanlike Side Of Being A Bluesman. "Alabama Summertime" Is A Country Song With Pretty Steel Guitars, But Inside Its Sunny Disposition Is An Ache, A Blues, A Looking Back, A Longing. Talley's Command Of Southern Musical Styles And Voices Is Encyclopedic. "Daddy Just Called It The Blues," A Funky Urban Blues Tune That Brings A New Orleans Second Line Up Against The Funk And Chicago Blues, Sounds Like The Music Ray Wylie Hubbard And Waylon Jennings Were Trying To Make At The Time -- But This Stuff Has Way More Soul. But As In All Of Talley's Works, The Words Count At Least As Much As The Music. Talley Never Milks His Words For Emotion; He Just Tells His Stories In The First Or Third Person, And The Worker Is The Teller Of All Truth. For Prime Evidence, Check "Migrant Jesse Sawyer," A Story So Weighty And Full It's A Shame It Wasn't The Album's Closer. But That Comes Two Track Later, After A Working-Class Love Song: "When The Fiddler Packs His Case" Features Johnny Gimble Tearing It Up Along With Dobro Boss Josh Graves On A Bluegrass Stomper That Carries The Album Out On Its Highest Note. Blackjack Choir Carries The Listener Through The Many Sides Of The Working Life, And All The Moods And Textures Of That Experience. It's A Masterpiece.” All Music Guide - Thom Jurek. more
	Blackjack Choir Used - LP - ST 11605 Mint 1977 Embossed Cover Original With Custom Inner Sleeve Still In Shrink Wrap. No Cuts! more
	Blackjack Choir Used - LP - ST 11605 1977 Embossed Cover Original With Custom Inner Sleeve. Clean Cut Out Hole. “Blackjack Choir Is Ultimate Expression Of All That James Talley Is As A Songwriter And Performer. Talley Used Basically The Same Band He'd Employed On His Previous Outings, But Added Reggie Young On Guitar And A Cello And Tuba For Texture On A Couple Of Songs. The Depth Was Already There, But Blackjack Choir Also Had Dimension. "Bluesman," The Opener, Kicks It Off With Young Kicking In On Electric, Talley In His Smooth Tenor Riding Above A Horn Section That Slips And Slides Through His Lyrics, Which Are, Of Course, About The Workmanlike Side Of Being A Bluesman. "Alabama Summertime" Is A Country Song With Pretty Steel Guitars, But Inside Its Sunny Disposition Is An Ache, A Blues, A Looking Back, A Longing. Talley's Command Of Southern Musical Styles And Voices Is Encyclopedic. "Daddy Just Called It The Blues," A Funky Urban Blues Tune That Brings A New Orleans Second Line Up Against The Funk And Chicago Blues, Sounds Like The Music Ray Wylie Hubbard And Waylon Jennings Were Trying To Make At The Time -- But This Stuff Has Way More Soul. But As In All Of Talley's Works, The Words Count At Least As Much As The Music. Talley Never Milks His Words For Emotion; He Just Tells His Stories In The First Or Third Person, And The Worker Is The Teller Of All Truth. For Prime Evidence, Check "Migrant Jesse Sawyer," A Story So Weighty And Full It's A Shame It Wasn't The Album's Closer. But That Comes Two Track Later, After A Working-Class Love Song: "When The Fiddler Packs His Case" Features Johnny Gimble Tearing It Up Along With Dobro Boss Josh Graves On A Bluegrass Stomper That Carries The Album Out On Its Highest Note. Blackjack Choir Carries The Listener Through The Many Sides Of The Working Life, And All The Moods And Textures Of That Experience. It's A Masterpiece.” All Music Guide - Thom Jurek. more
	Got No Bread, No MIlk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot Of Love New - LP - ST 11416 Sealed 1975 Original. Clean Cut Out Hole. “James Talley's 1975 Debut For The Capitol Label Was Perhaps Unnoticed By The Country Music Establishment, Deemed Not Sophisticated Enough And Too Inside The Hillbilly Tradition For The Outlaws; Nonetheless, It Is An Unqualified Artistic Achievement. Featuring 12 Of His Own Songs, This Album Of Talley's Music Comes From The Rural Country Blues And From Bob Wills' Western Swing, And His Songs Are Rooted In The Everyday Lives Of Folks, Whether Working-Class Or Living In Poverty, Who Make The Best Of Difficult Situations Without Too Much Complaining. The Title Track, With Its Blues Riffing And Sweet Hillbilly Abandon, Tells The Story Of A Woman Loved Enough To Break A Man Without Malice Because She Loves Him Too. "Red River Memory" Is An Update Of The "Red River Valley" Legend Set To The Same Melody With A Shimmering Pedal Steel In The Background Just Under The Acoustic Guitars. "Give Him Another Bottle" Inhabits The Terrain Where Honky Tonk, Bluegrass, And The Blues All Meet And Converse. The Rodeo Queen At The Heart Of "Calico Gypsy" Is Classic Talley, Where People Are Evoked Not Only As Memories But As Reflections Of The Natural World From The Color Of The Sky To The Blooming Of Summer Flowers. Side One Closes With The Lone Cover On The Album, Johnny Gimble's "Big Taters In The Sandy Land," On Which The Author Plays Fiddle. The Rest Of The Disc — Such As Tracks Like "No Opener Needed," A Merle Haggard-Esque Bluesy Love Song, Or "Take Me To The Country," A Rambling Country Poem Where The Elegiac And The Prosaic Commingle Inside The Desperation Of A Broken Heart — Make Talley A Master Of The Ordinary. Talley Can Tell A Story Plainly Without The Use Of Extended Metaphors And Framework Artifices, And When He Communicates This Directly, He Can Touch Even The Hardest And Most Cynical Heart. This Is As Auspicious A Debut As There Is.” – Thom Jurek, All Music Guide. more
	Tryin' Like The Devil Used - LP - ST 11494 1976 Textured Cover Original. Strong VG++ Copy. Clean Cut Out Hole. Signed On The Back Cover With A Note To Famed Music Writer Greil Marcus. 5 Stars! “Tryin' Like The Devil Is A Masterful Work By One Of Country Music's Most Profound And Empathetic Of Talents.” All Music Guide, Thom Jurek. more
	Tryin' Like The Devil New - LP - ST 11494 Sealed 1976 Textured Cover Original. 5 Stars! “Tryin' Like The Devil Is A Masterful Work By One Of Country Music's Most Profound And Empathetic Of Talents.” All Music Guide - Thom Jurek. more
	Tryin' Like The Devil New - LP - ST 11494 Sealed 1976 Original. COH. more