Search - Grandpa Jones :: Grandpa Jones - 16 Greatest Hits

He's pickin' and I'm grinnin'

Daniel Jolley | Shelby, North Carolina USA | 09/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I grew up watching Hee Haw on Saturday nights, but I never really got excited about Grandpa Jones until I entered my 20's. About ten years ago, I started looking high and low for any Grandpa Jones recording I could find, and this album is the first one I managed to come across. It was well worth the wait. Grandpa Jones was a pioneer in the field of old-time country music and bluegrass, which I happen to love. This album doesn't have all of my Grandpa Jones favorites, but it does have some of his best. Raccoons, coon dogs, trains, and the joys of simple country living pervade much of Grandpa's music--these are basically fun, down-home banjo-pickin' tunes. One coon dog alone, the irrepressible Rattler, merits three songs on this 16-song collection, and Uncle Eff's Got the Coon naturally has to do with a raccoon. Are You From Dixie? is one of my favorite Grandpa Jones songs; you don't have to answer this question in the affirmative to enjoy the song, but I think it is safe to say that such music is more popular below than above the Mason-Dixon line. The frenetic pace of Grandpa's picking and singing on this and many other songs is downright infectious and rarely fails to energize me or lift my spirits. Grandpa delivers even more joy to the listener through humor. I'm My Own Grandpa is a joyously funny song, but it can give you a headache if you try to follow along with the genealogy of the thing. The very concept of a Grandpa Boogie is funny, as is the song itself. Without a doubt, though, 15 Cents is All I Got is the true comedy champion among these tracks; it is truly one of the funniest things I have ever heard. In between choruses, Grandpa stops and tells us about a visit to his rich uncle's house where he discovered a little room unlike anything he had ever seen before; his observations about this room (a bathroom) and his guesses as to what the strange plumbing fixtures there are used for will have you rolling in the aisles--guaranteed.This is basically just a fun, exceedingly enjoyable album. Grandpa Jones also sang many great gospel songs over the course of his career, but this particular CD only offers a couple of gospel-related tracks: There's A Hole in the Ground and Jonah and the Whale. Overall, I find this to have been a superb introduction to Grandpa Jones music. Some of his other songs are rather somber, and I could appreciate and enjoy those more serious recordings all the more after having fulfilled my Grandpa Jones 101 requirements with this collection. Every single song on here has the potential to make you a fan of this wonderful entertainer. Grandpa Jones' death in 1998 has left a void in traditional country music that will never be filled, but his music and his great spirit will continue to delight fans of country music for untold years to come."