When James Talley originally recorded the sixteen songs on Touchstones, he was just past 30 and earning recognition at a time when country music was searching for its soul. A former fine art student, academic and social worker, Talley was soulful, but never hit it big with the Nashville establishment. Yet in the course of four albums on Capitol from 1975-78, he proved himself with song after song that spoke plainly and honestly about simple living, country folk, hard times and pure, aching love. So it’s a joy to hear Talley now, more than two decades later, dust off the best songs from his early work for a second spin.
Although it’s tempting to say the material has been Texas-fied (the recording was done in San Antonio with sidemen including Ponty Bone and Joe Ely), the arrangements have mostly kept close to the originals. What’s different is that the wisdom and worldliness have caught up with the songs. Talley’s voice is lower, and more seasoned. There’s a feel of deliberation that comes from experience; he isn’t just singing these words, he’s lived them. “Bluesman”, a rocker on 1977’s Blackjack Choir, is now a slow burn, one of the few songs that have been overtly rearranged. The love expressed in “Up From Georgia” is still as keen, but somehow sweeter. The pain of his most overtly political song, “Richland, Washington”, is even more haunting after 25 years of reflection.
Touchstones is no career filler; it’s an overview of talent that still deserves more attention than it got.
