AMG Review of For the Good Times

Thom Jurek
All Music Guide

This is a strange collection of Bobby Bare tunes. It's hardly a best-of, as "Detroit City" and "Streets of Baltimore" are not in the contents. And the tunes seem to come from his Mercury and Camden periods with the possible exception of "Sunday Morning Comin' Down," from his last RCA set. The other strange thing is the copyright date on the back of the CD, which claims its first release (as if it were a real album) was in 1962, when the earliest tracks here date from 1970. Strangeness aside, it is a pretty choice collection of Bare versions of tunes by Kris Kristofferson -- "Lovin' Her Was Easier," "Me and Bobbie McGhee" and "For the Good Times" -- and a slew of Tom T. Hall numbers including "That's How I Got to Memphis" and "The Year Clayton Delaney Died" among others. Also included are readings of Joe South's "Don't It Make You Want to Go Home," and a completely sincere and moving take on John Denver's "Leavin' on a Jet Plane." This is Bare at his level best, the early '70s, out from under Chet Atkins' oppressive countrypolitan mandate and paving the way for the outlaws like Willie and Waylon to do their own thing as well. Recommended.