Shel Silverstein

Reissue of his 1962 album. The multi-talented writer-cartoonist singer Shel Silverstein's most durable legacy has been his work as a children's book author, but between 1959 and 1980, he released a variety of albums, dabbling in multiple genres: Jazz, Folk, Country, Rock.

Shel Silverstein's most durable legacy has been his work as a children's book author, but between 1959 and 1980, he released a variety of albums, dabbling in multiple genres: jazz, folk, country, rock, and penning several memorable tunes, including the title track, famously covered by Johnny Cash. This rich collection from Water Music gathers all his country hits sung, with a smile and a wink, in an unmistakable basso profundo.

Veteran folksinger Bob Gibson had been a friend of Shel Silverstein's long before he devoted an album to singing compositions by the country and novelty songwriter. Silverstein, the author of "The Cover of Rolling Stone" and "A Boy Named Sue," supplied Gibson with a characteristic collection of mostly comic story songs for this release. "The Man Who Turns the Damn Thing Off and On" poked fun at automation, for example, while "Golden Kiss" was the tale of a country songwriter who encounters the ultimate country music muse so she says, anyway and "Makin' a Mess of Commercial Success" was a first-person account of a beer drinker's recruitment to make a beer commercial.

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor. He is known for such hits as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson is the sole writer of most of his songs, and he has collaborated with various other figures of the Nashville scene such as Shel Silverstein. In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup "The Highwaymen". In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Collection includes: Kristofferson (1970); Me & Bobby McGee (1971); The Silver Tongued Devil And I (1971); Border Lord (1972); Jesus Was A Capricorn (1972); Breakaway (1974) with Rita Coolidge; A Star Is Born (1976) with Barbra Streisand; Natural Act (1978) with Rita Coolidge; A Moment of Forever (1995); The Austin Sessions (1999); The Essential Kris Kristofferson (2004) 2CD; This Old Road (2006); Closer To The Bone (2009); Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends: The Publishing Demos 1968-72 (2010); Feeling Mortal (2012).

This collection of 22 underground curiosities reflects the clash between 1960’s liberals and the American Establishment.
Republicans were alarmed by the druggy psyched out sounds of both ‘Keep Your Mind Open’ by the Kaleidoscopes, and ‘Turn On’ by The Godz. Meanwhile Canned Heat’s attack on the LAPD in the song ‘Sic ’em Pigs’, the sexual permissiveness behind ‘Somebody To Love’ by Grace Slick, and The Great Society & Tiny Tim’s high-camp rendition of ‘Highway To Hell’ provided further evidence of a subversive enemy within the ranks. Other classics on the CD are ‘Kick Out The Jams’ by the MC5, Captain Beefheart’s ‘Dachau Blues’, Shel Silverstein’s ‘Have another Espresso’, and ‘1969’ from The Stooges.

If any one performer personified the outlaw country movement of the '70s, it was Waylon Jennings. Though he had been a professional musician since the late '50s, it wasn't until the '70s that Waylon, with his imposing baritone and stripped-down, updated honky tonk, became a superstar. Jennings rejected the conventions of Nashville, refusing to record with the industry's legions of studio musicians and insisting that his music never resemble the string-laden, pop-inflected sounds that were coming out of Nashville in the '60s and '70s.

'Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy.'
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.
Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk…and the tree was happy.