Keith Whitley – RCA Country Legends

He deserves better, but Keith Whitley will be stuck forever in the 1980s. Like John Anderson and Randy Travis, Whitley found inspiration in the delicately curly-cued phrasing of Lefty Frizzell. But unlike his fellow New Traditionalists, Whitley’s ’80s sides haven’t aged well, and because he died of alcohol poisoning in 1989, he didn’t record any more.

Much of his studio work is marred by the decade’s least endearing production traits: straight-up-and-down rhythm tracks that don’t swing, groove or rock, and those off-putting ’80s sonics that leave almost every instrument sounding like it might be a synthesizer. Throw in his tight, Reagan-era perm, and his fate as a period piece is sealed.

Consequently, this edition to the RCA Country Legends line is about all the later Whitley anyone needs. (His earlier bluegrass work with Ralph Stanley and others is another matter.) Typical of this series, the choices here are frustratingly quirky, collecting what appears to be a more or less random selection of hits, B-sides and album tracks.

Some of these cuts are primarily interesting for historical purposes. Whitley boot-scooters such as “Quittin’ Time” and David Halley’s “Hard Livin'”, for example, are the unmistakable blueprint for any number of Brooks & Dunn hits, and the 1990 duet hit “‘Til A Tear Becomes A Rose” was a posthumous studio fabrication with widow Lorrie Morgan.

At the heart of the disc, though, is an exquisite trio of ballads: the tender “When You Say Nothing At All”, “I’m No Stranger To The Rain” and, especially, the Bob McDill-penned “Don’t Close Your Eyes”. These singles, each a country chart-topper in the last year of his life, transcend their era and remind just how moving a singer Whitley could be.