It saddens me greatly to have to report the passing of singer/songwriter Larry Jon Wilson who died of a stroke on Monday (June 21) while visiting family in Roanoke, Virginia. He was 69.
However Wilson never quit performing nor did he stop writing songs from his uniquely Southern perspective as can be seen in the essential 1981 documentary Heartworn Highways which features Wilson in the studio the morning after a rough night along with fellow Music City outlaws Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Young, David Allan Coe and youthful apprentices Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell.
Some twenty-eight years later, Jeb Loy Nichols and Jerry DeCicca of the Black Swans tracked him down and created a makeshift recording set-up in Wilson's beachfront residence where they documented Wilson informally playing through a selection of his recent compositions, sometimes spontaneously fitting together stray ideas and snippets as he went.
The brilliant comeback album that resulted, simply titled Larry Jon Wilson (1965 Records/Sony BMG), unfortunately suffered from the same distribution problems and negligible promotion which ensured all of his previous releases remained well under the radar.
Since the UK-based 1965 Records, a Sony BMG boutique label run by former Rough Trade A&R dude James Endeacott (who's lone claim to fame is signing The Libertines), were reluctant to send review copies to media and no Toronto retail outlets were stocking it, I actually had to win a copy of the CD in an online auction in order to write about the album – which I did. Evidently other journalists who were also fans of Wilson's work were not as lucky and those who'd never heard of him before weren't given the opportunity to play catch up.
Naturally, the folks at Sony BMG were too busy with Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and their Country Gold: The 90s collection to bother with a record that might not sell platinum so
That led to a tiny bit of Pitchfork hype but it was too little too late. Wilson soon sank back into obscurity and his impressive recorded legacy will now be left for those in-the-know to cherish and future generations to discover.
Here's a clip of Wilson recording Ohoopee River Bottomland which appeared on the second volume of the excellent series Country Got Soul (Casual) compiled by Jeb Loy Nichols. Hopefully we'll someday see a third volume highlighted by more stellar Wilson tunes from his Monument tenure.
Ohoopee River Bottomland by Larry Jon Wilson
LINKS
New Beginnings
Let Me Sing My Song To You
Loose Change
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