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JONATHAN RICHMAN
Jonathan Goes Country (reissue, 1990) ROUNDER
Indifferent to expectations, the punk progenitor hooks up with rootsy sessioneers in Missouri.
By Pete Paphides
“If you didn’t want me to want you this way/You never should have seen my rock’n’roll band play”
JUNE 2023 TAKE 313
1 CALEXICO (P42) 2 SUARASAMA (P45) 3 DEBBIE HARRY (P46) 4 NEIL YOUNG (P48) 5 TOWNES VAN ZANDT (P51)
REISSUES | COMPS | BOXSETS | LOST RECORDINGS
THIRTY-THREE years after its original release, it’s worth pondering why a new Record Store Day reissue of Jonathan Richman’s sole foray into country music has already generated much more excitement among fans than it did the first time. And in order to answer the question, we could do worse than take a look around the musical landscape of 1990 and remind ourselves of what had yet to happen. Uncle Tupelo had only just released their first album. Americana and alt.country had yet to enter the lexicon. It’s not as though the post-punk generation had been swerving country altogether, but it’s worth noting that LA punks X felt the need to change their name to The Knitters when they decided to make a country album. Violent Femmes dressed in John-Boy Walton’s cast-offs, but their thing was punk angst on a back porch, minus voltage.
REISSUE OF THE MONTH
9/10