Stonewall Jackson rarely gets his due as one of the hardest honky tonk stars of the 1960s; there were plenty of acts who kicked up more dust, but few were willing to plumb the depths of loneliness, heartbreak, hard living, and alcohol the way
Jackson did when he was of a mind, and his dry, flinty voice was the perfect vehicle for the downbeat songs he brought to life, sounding as if he'd lived every sad, bitter tale he sang and remembered them like they happened only yesterday. Omni Recording Corporation's 2011 release The Lonesome in Me is a sibling to their earlier
Jackson collection Life of a Poor Boy -- like that disc, this collects the material from one of
Jackson's Columbia albums (in this case, 1970's The Lonesome in Me) and augments it with an abundance of bonus material, adding enough single sides and album tracks to expand the album from 11 to 28 songs. The bonus material is from roughly the same period (released between 1968 and 1972), and while
Jackson wasn't having many hits by the end of the 1960s, the music on this set leaves no doubt that he was as effective a vocalist as ever, and the choice of material was impressive. If there are any more doomstruck songs than "Somebody's Always Leaving," it's hard to imagine anyone having the nerve to record them, and "Nashville" runs a close second, while "Morals of a Man," "Thoughts of a Lonely Man," and the title tune are remarkably unsentimental tales of heartache and melancholy. You don't want to play this album at a party, but Omni's expanded The Lonesome in Me is a superb celebration of one of the greatest interpreters of hurtin' songs to ever step before a microphone. ~ Mark Deming