"The World Of Charlie McCoy/The Nashville Hit Man/Charlie My Boy!/Harpin' The Blues" by CHARLIE McCOY – June 1968 US Debut Album Plus His Seventh (September 1974), Ninth (May 1975) and Tenth Studio Albums (February 1976) all on Monument Records - featuring Members of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry plus sessionmen Mac Gayden, Bobbie Emmons, Reggie Young and more (October 2024 UK Beat Goes On Compilation – 4LPs onto 2CDs – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"…The Nashville Man…"

Award-winning Harmonica virtuoso Charlie McCoy has 50-plus years of Nashville sessions to his name and West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Awards up to the wazoo - let alone his stints with fondly remembered US Country-Rock acts like Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. Charlie was also quietly enamoured to listeners in Blighty long before they knew his name – the Area Code 615 Harmonica-driven instrumental "Stone Fox Chase" being the theme music to The Old Grey Whistle Test Rock TV programme on BB! Hosted of course by Whispering Bob Harris. Every week his chugging harp hit our living rooms – and we did not know him. 

Back to the matter at hand - this is only the second outing in the UK for his American Monument Records studio albums under his own name (May 2018 saw another BGO twofer compilation). What you get here is four – the first dating from 1968 (his US Debut not issued in the UK), then his Seventh from 1974 with two from 1975 - his Ninth (not issued in the UK) and Tenth studio sets. In short what you get is a quartet expertly remastered by Andrew Thompson onto two discs wrapped in a tasty card slipcase with a chunky 20-page booklet inside. You get the usual front and rear repro artwork pre-ambling the text - new May 2024 liner notes from BGO's resident Folk and Country scribe – John O'Regan. It's a substantial haul – it really is. If only most of it was worth listening to. Here's Harpin'…

UK released Friday, 4 October 2024 (delayed from May and September - released 27 September 2024 in the USA) - "The World Of/The Nashville Hit Man/Charlie My Boy!/Harpin' The Blues" by CHARLIE McCOY on Beat Goes On BGOCD1527 (Barcode 5017261215277) is a Compilation that remasters Four Albums onto Two CDs and plays out as follows:

CD1 (64:53 minutes):
1. Jump Back Baby [Side 1]
2. Gimme Some Lovin'
3. Hey Baby
4. Candy Man
5. (Turn On Your) Love Light
6. Harpoon Man
7. Fingertips [Side 2]
8. Up Tight
9. Ode To Billie Joe
10. Shotgun
11. Juke
12. Good Vibrations
Tracks 1 to 12 are his debut album "The World Of Charlie McCoy" – release June 1968 in the USA on Monument SLP-18097 in Stereo (no UK issue). Produced by Fred Foster.

13. Silver Threads And Golden Needles [Side 1]
14. Help Me
15. Fire Ball Mail
16. The Way We Were
17. Keep On Harpin'
18. You Win Again
19. Boogie Woogie (A/K/A.T.D.'s Boogie Woogie) [Side 2]
20. I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)
21. Heart Over Mind
22. Ruby
23. Let Me Be There
Tracks 13 to 23 are his seventh studio album "The Nashville Hit Man" – released September 1974 in the USA on Monument KZ 32922 and August 1975 in the UK on Monument MNT 80115

CD2 62:52 minutes): 

1. Old Joe Clark [Side 1]

2. The Twelfth Of Never
3. City Lights
4. I Honestly Love You
5. New River Gorge
6. Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends
7. Everybody Stand Up And Holler For The Union [Side 2]
8. Making Believe
9. Back Home in Indiana
10. Sweet Memories
11. Juke
Tracks 1 to 12 are his ninth studio album "Charlie My Boy!" – released May 1975 in the USA on Monument KZ 33384 (no UK issue)

12. After Hours [Side 1]
13. Lovesick Blues
14. (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle
15. Basin Street Blues
16. A Tribute To Little Walter
17. Columbus Stockade Blues
18. Blue Yodel No.1 (T For Texas) [Side 2]
19. Blues Stay Away From Me
20. St. Louis Blues
21. Night Life
22. Working Man's Blues
Tracks 12 to 22 are his tenth studio album "Harpin' The Blues" – released February 1976 in the USA on Monument KZ 33802 and May 1976 in the UK/Europe on Monument MNT 69204

The pre-Summer 1968 debut was not about originality – almost every song an R&B or 60ts Soul cover version with the occasional nod to Pop Charts popularity  – Rufus Thomas for "Jump Back Baby", England vs. US R&B by The Spencer David Group for "Gimme Some Lovin'", Bobby Bland for "(Turn On You) Love Light", Bruce Chanell and his "Hey Babe", Roy Orbison and Fred Neil for the licking stick of "Candy Man", Stevie Wonder hitting those high Harmonica notes on "Fingertips" and "Up Tight", Bobbie Gentry slink with "Ode to Billie Joe", the summer love of The Beach Boys feeling 1968 "Good Vibrations" – you get the picture. 

McCoy puts in a half-decent effort as principal vocalist (Bergen White and Mac Gayden are the Backing singers) while his up-and-down the scales Harmonica fills anchor every frantic dancefloor-orientated stab at 60ts hip. It is genuinely hard to call the languid acoustic guitar and harmonica wails of "Ode to Billie Joe" a sexy-cool instrumental – but the great audio and speaker-to-speaker production at least give it more than a fighting chance (probably the best cut on the LP, expect to hear it in a Movie or TV show any day soon). But stuff like his rearranged go's at the Jr. Walker And The All-Stars neck-jerking hit "Shotgun" and The Beach Boys intricate "Good Vibrations" will only make you want to run back to the January 1965 Motown original and the October 1966 Capitol 45-masterpiece no matter how hard either of these McCoy pretenders try. The Little Walter Chess classic "Juke" is another tasty moment as is the Mac Gayden, Wayne Moss, Wilburn original song co-write "Harpoon Man".

But while the debut is tolerable – by the time we get to platter number two on offer here - we have reached 1974 – huge production values – massive sessionman list – but everything is saccharine poured on syrup – faux Country-Pop of almost insufferable dimensions. The weepy Barbra Streisand vehicle "The Way We Were" is awful but at least his cover of the Hank Williams classic "You Win Again" gets a slide guitar, piano honky-tonk, harmonica shuffle that works in its own cheesy way. But even the presence of his band Barefoot Jerry cannot save "Boogie Woogie" – a wimp instrumental that opens Side 2. Fiddles, strings and pedal-steel give a barn-dance shuffle to the Mel Tillis song "Heart Over Mind" – but it all ends on a bad vocals version of "Let Me Be There" – cheeseball that is hard to bare in 2024.

Big production values again for the Banjo and Harp romp that is "Old Joe Clark" – a Traditional McCoy goes on Flying Burrito Bros on. But then its back to schlock with "The Twelfth Of Never" compounded by bippity-boppity fay Country takes "City Lights" immediately followed by more chart wallow in "I Honestly Love You" (Osmonds and Olivia Newton-John for God sake). The only moments of respite are instrumental covers of the Kris Kristofferson song "Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends" and a Mickey Newbury ballad "Sweet Memories" – but again they are overdone with strings and pedal-steel. McCoy revisits Little Walter for the LP closer "Juke" – but this time with a Rockabilly Stray Cats bop that just about crucifies an R&B classic.

The "Harpin' The Blues" album opens with a spoken-word passage on the Blues – oh dear oh dear – and again song after song Countryfies classics with Harmonica and Pedal Steel and overdone Strings and Girl Singers oohing-and-aahing as if they are sincere. Here in 2024, there is a terrible lingering hick-nature to these 70ts LPs. New Orleans gets done too – Rag Time – making for odd bedfellows with the razor-sharp production on the finger-clicking "Columbus Stockade Blues". Again, he talks intros to Little Walter and Jimmie Rogers covers and there is no doubting the Dobro playing expertise on "Blue Yodel…" but his words feel intrusive in the middle of songs rather than enlightening or even entertaining. 

If you are a Charlie McCoy fan then the fantastic audio and presentation will make BGOCD 1527 an essential purchase – but for everyone else, I urge a listen first…