Country Funk II 1967-1974 vinyl

In 2012, "Country Funk 1969-1975 (Volume I)" gathered together songs from a genre with no name. It's a genre created not from geography or shared ideology, but a term applied retrospectively based solely on the feel of the songs: hip-swinging rhythms with bourbon on the breath. These were songs to make your cowboy boots itchy, written and performed by the likes of Bobbie Gentry, Johnny Jenkins and Link Wray. Songs that encompass the elation of gospel with the sexual thrust of the blues; country hoedown harmonies cut with inner city grit. Compiled from tracks dating from the late '60s to the mid '70s, "Country Funk" is the sound of country music blending with sounds and scenes from coast to coast, white America's heartland music blending with the melting pot as the nation assessed its identity in advance of its bicentennial year.

The good news for the people who fell in love with the first volume of "Country Funk" is this: there's plenty more where that came from. Light In The Attic has followed up that first 16-track disc with a second volume, "Country Funk Volume II 1967 - 1974", and a new set of loose-talking, lap steel-twanging tracks. On the single CD / 2xLP volume you'll find household names like Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kenny Rogers, Jackie DeShannon, JJ Cale, Bobby Darin and Dolly Parton. You'll also find obscure artists like Bill Wilson, whose lost "Ever Changing Minstrel" album was produced by the feted Dylan producer Bob Johnston, and Thomas Jefferson Kaye, noted producer of Gene Clark's opus "No Other". Gene Clark's here too, as half of Dillard & Clark, wringing raw emotion from The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down".

Rocafort Records, Juno Recommends Rock/Indie, Mocambo, Daniel T. (Cosmic Kids/Heat-Wave)