ARNOLD, EDDY - Each Road I Take (CD)

THE 1970 LEE HAZLEWOOD & CHET ATKINS SESSIONS. The countrypolitan crooner Richard Edward Arnold - better known as Eddy Arnold - scored 147 U.S. chart hits between 1945 and 2008, sold over 85 million records, and earned inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Grand Ole Opry. Yet, in 1970, the superstar known as "The Tennessee Plowboy" found himself at a crossroads. That year, he released two remarkable albums ending one chapter in his career and beginning another. Love and Guitars would be his final full-length collaboration with Nashville-based producer and legendary guitar man Chet Atkins, with whom he had first worked in 1950. Standing Alone marked his first and only project with hip maverick Lee Hazlewood - a pairing which inspired some of the finest vocals Arnold ever committed to record. Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records' Each Road I Take: The 1970 Lee Hazlewood & Chet Atkins Sessions boasts both of these seminal, never-before-reissued albums together with Arnold's singles from the landmark year, as well as two previously unreleased tracks produced by cult hero Hazlewood. Love and Guitars departed from the usual lush sound of Arnold's recordings, surrounding his burnished baritone with a cadre of Nashville's top guitarists including Jerry Reed, Harold Bradley, Ray Edenton, and Atkins himself (who rarely played on Eddy's records by that point), and tackling a dazzling array of material from Merle Haggard, John Denver, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Kris Kristofferson, and Henry Mancini in a raw, acoustic-based setting. Standing Alone then moved Eddy to Hollywood for his first session outside of Nashville in six years. He was joined by Hazlewood and the fabled Wrecking Crew for a contemporary-flavored set of strong, adult material by writers such as John Stewart, Steve Young, Ben Peters, and Mac Davis which blurred the lines between country, folk, and pop-rock. Four rare single sides including the Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned "Ten Times Forever More" round out this first-time-onCD collection. Each Road I Take features new liner notes by The Second Disc's Joe Marchese as well as fresh remastering by Mark Wilder. It's 27 tracks present two distinct roads taken by Eddy Arnold - both showcasing the resonant storyteller's voice that turned The Tennessee Plowboy into a legend of popular music.