New York Town

AMG Review of New York Town

Eugene Chadbourne
All Music Guide

Country & western music is not a genre known for superior live albums, but here is one of the best and a feather in the cap to producer Billy Sherrill, commonly known for his slick studio productions. Here it is Paycheck's best working band on the other end of the microphones, cranking out a pretty typical set down at New York's Lone Star Café. In 1980, there were not many country artists working regularly in the Big Apple; it was mostly those who could offer outlaw credential that were offered a stage. On the strength of this and his Top Ten hit "Take This Job and Shove It," Epic brought Paycheck into New York City to record live, publicizing the outlaw image while simultaneously attempting to tone him down slightly for the cosmopolitan New Yorkers. The success of this advertising campaign was diminished slightly by a Paycheck interview in the Village Voice in which he described his condition during parts of his career thusly: "I coulda puked and opened a liquor store." He is shown looking jaunty on the cover, and the album's opening track and title song is a puffy bit of fluff, Paycheck mouthing highly original lines such as "They call it the Big Apple..." in his ever so smooth baritone. From then on, things kick off beautifully with a manic-tempo, almost punk rock version of the old-time sawhorse "Ragged but Right." Editing is subtle as the group moves from one tune right into the next. The turn between "Ragged but Right" and "'She Thinks I Still Care" would most certainly cause a wreck if done on the highway. This band is absolutely as tight as a band can get, and features two outstanding soloists: P.T. Gazell on harmonica and Jim Murphy on pedal steel. Most of the songs have been previously recorded by Paycheck, but the new allad "In Memory of a Memory" is something of a showstopper, the type of tragic material this artist does to the hilt. "Take This Job and Shove It" gets a pretty perfunctory run-through at the end, yet some of the other performances earn the rare distinction of sounding even better than the original studio versions.