AMG Review of I Wonder Where You Are Tonight

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

McCoury's first album as a bandleader was recorded in two days in December 1967. Although he didn't have a regular band at the time, he was backed by a solid quartet (though five other musicians appear in all, with Tommy Neal and Dewey Renfro alternating on bass), three of them capable background singers as well. McCoury's vocals had the high, lonesome sound for which bluegrass is esteemed, but put over with more easygoing, engaging friendliness than some slicker, flashier singers and players. The songs were a well-chosen mix of traditional standards and songs by his one-time boss Bill Monroe; the Monroe-Lester Flatt collaboration "Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong"; Johnny Bond; Kitty Wells; Jimmie Rodgers; and, on just one tune (the ballad "Dreams," one of the more pensive heartfelt numbers), McCoury himself. According to Chris Strachwitz's liner notes, the 2002 CD reissue discards the compression heard on the stereo mix of the original LP and more accurately reflects the music as it was originally recorded.