AMG Review of Country Comes to Carnegie Hall

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

This live recording from a spring 1977 showcase starts off on a strong note, with Hank Thompson & His Brazos Valley Boys, and gets better from there. Thompson's five numbers are as strong as any of the live performances that have surfaced from previous decades, with the added advantage of incredibly good sound, which makes this an important addition to any collection of his work. Freddy Fender represents a different but no less compelling side of country music, and is in equally good form. Roy Clark's set is just a river of fun, flowing with the kind of instrumental virtuosity -- on the electric guitar, banjo, and acoustic guitar -- that, at ~Carnegie Hall, is usually reserved for classical performers and their instruments. And finally, Don Williams closes out the recording with his achingly lyrical singing, laced with a lean instrumental sound that represents the countrypolitan sound at its best. The Varese CD reissue contains one bonus track, Roy Clark doing "Yesterday, When I Was Young" -- it's as good as anything else here, and why it was left off the original release is anyone's guess.