Sunday 10 April 2016

The International Jim Reeves – JIM REEVES****

Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart/The Old Kalahari/The White Cliffs Of Dover/True/I’m Crying Again/Guilty/Blue Canadian Rockies/The Hawaiian Wedding Song/You Are My Love/Heartbreak In Silhouette/Tahiti/Golden Memories & Silver Tears

The tragic death of velvet voiced Jim Reeves resulted in many of his earlier albums charting in the UK posthumously. International Jim featured songs from many lands, including South Africa were he was very popular. (UK:11)

"I have really enjoyed listening to this album. It is truly a lover's treat. As a teenager several decades ago, I was and still am an ardent Jim Reeves fan."

"The musical orchestrations by the celebrated Chet Atkins for all of Jim Reeves songs are beautiful beyond description. This is a magnificent country album which every collector of Jim Reeves songs should have and will, I am certain, treasure forever."

"Buy a Jim Reeves album and you're almost certain of a very satisfying listening experience. His International is certainly one of these. My only (slight) regret is the tendency to over-orchestrate Jim's voice."

"This LP shows the versatility of one of the world's greatest singers. The International Jim Reeves is heavily - I think overly - orchestrated and contains WW2 classics such as White Cliffs Of Dover and Auf Weidersehen, as well as several Afrikaans songs which had been released earlier in South Africa. In this case, Jim has inserted some English lyrics into the songs."

"It seems that, at the time of his death, Jim was moving more towards the sound encapsulated in the International Jim Reeves album. I have become a huge Jim Reeves fan over the last few years. What a golden voice - smoother than butter."

"Guilty showcases his real voice, incredible depth and clarity. A truly touching song. Nobody does lyrics like this anymore. And we are poorer because of it. Nothing raunchy, no double meanings, nothing to suggest anything more than a guy in love with a girl so deeply that.... well that's all he's guilty of."

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