A belated Happy Birthday is in order here for George Jones, who turned 77 on September 12. May you celebrate many, many more, George.
Jones, of course, has been widely recognized, and for quite some time now, as country music’s greatest singer ever. So it’s odd that, while country singers still all but continuously bow in deference to his legend, an identifiable George Jones influence is conspicuously missing among country singers these days. Then again, this lip-service-without-influence is nothing new. Everyone sings Jones’ praises, but no one sings like Jones. Very few through the years have even tried.
The most influential vocalists in the history of modern country music are, I’d argue, Elvis Presley and, more pertinent to this disucssion, Lefty Frizzell. Lefty’s delicate, curlicued, always-more-a-whisper-than-a-scream croon can be heard unmistakably in the singing styles of so many country singers who rose in his wake: Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Don Williams, Tom T. Hall, Johnny Rodriguez, Johnny Duncan, Wynn Stewart, John Anderson, John Conlee, George Strait, David Frizzell, Keith Whitley, Gene Watson, Vern Gosdin, Rodney Crowell, Randy Travis, Clint Black, Joe Nichols, and who knows how many others.
Some of those singers, of course, have a bit of Jones in them as well; Alan Jackson employs certain Jonesian slides, and John Anderson does too. And there have been singers here and there who have been undisguised Jones acolytes Mark Chesnutt, Mel Street, and, of course, Johnny Paycheck, who co-created the mature Jones style while playing in Jones’ band. Mostly, though, Frizzell is the man.
He was the man even for Jones, who has always said he was greatly influenced by Frizzell. But what Jones adds to the Frizzell approach is the far harder twang of his other heroes Hank Williams, Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe and the full-throated, rounded-and-ragged-but-right tones of those singers as well. The combination of all these strains makes the Jones style very nearly sui generis.
Interestingly, if we want to hear a Possum influence among still-active singers, we need to listen to women in particular, Lee Ann Womack and Patty Loveless.
Appropriately, both women have new albums that pay tribute to Jones. Womack’s Call Me Crazy includes a version of the Jim Lauderdale song “King Of Broken Hearts”, which Lauderdale wrote with Jones in mind. (It’s named after a 1965 Jones LP.) More explictly in tribute, Loveless’ new Sleepless Nights includes takes on such Jones hits as “Color Of The Blues”, “[He] Thinks I Still Care”, and her current single, “Why Baby Why”.
Jones may not have been as influential a vocalist as we might have expected, given his reputation, but it’s makes perfect sense that the two finest country singers working today Loveless and Womack would both wish to genuflect to their King.
