John Anderson – The Essential…

Ordinarily, the release of a country star’s latest greatest hits package into the marektplace would hardly be cause for comment. And yet there is more to John Anderson than his first major hit, “Swingin'”, and its current unhappy echo, “Somebody Slap Me”.

There was, after all, a reason Brian Henneman named his pre-Bottle Rockets outfit after an Anderson song. Of course, that song, “Chicken Truck”, isn’t on this set. Nor are a number of other reasons one might wish to reappraise Anderson’s career.

Here’s the problem: Sitting on the floor is a vinyl copy of his 1982 album, Wild & Blue. The album that produced “Swingin'”. But for a momentary curiosity in a used record bin, I wouldn’t know that three cuts in, Anderson flat nails the Lefty Frizzell/Johnny Cash hit “Long Black Veil”. Nails it.

Wild & Blue is no longer in print, but no less than three greatest hits packages are. With some singers that’s fine, for their career and artistry may neatly be summarized by their hits. Anderson, however, rewards greater exploration. And this Essential set offers a particularly uninteresting and horribly incomplete picture of his possibilities.