"Faded Love and Winter Roses" was one of the last half-dozen Top 30 hits of
Carl Smith's career, reaching number 25 in 1969. Despite that minor distinction, the song is a comparatively bland and predictable Fred Rose ballad that pales beside
Smith's other chart hits of the period. The album of the same name has 11 songs, including new versions of Western swing oldies "One Has My Name, the Other Has My Heart" and "Time Changes Everything," and the more recent hit "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive."
Smith made it through the Nashville sound era relatively unscathed, and his sound remained constant from the early '60s through the early '70s. Producer Don Law took a "traditional" approach with
Smith, surrounding him with pedal steel and fiddles, so that his shuffles and weepers remained oases of '50s-style honky tonk. The album would have benefited from a few livelier tunes, but the album is practically identical to his others of the period. ~ Greg Adams