Search - Lee Clayton :: Lee Clayton

A forgotten "classic"

Roger Jönsson | Lund, Sweden | 05/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Discovering this album today is a bit like beeing let in on a well-kept secret or finding a strange old book that catches the imagination. Lee Clayton seems to be largely forgotten today, except as the writer of some great songs recorded by the guys in The Highwaymen. He probably never was very well known, but he had a unique sound that Willie & Waylon never really managed to duplicate. He doesn't sing much better than Kris Kristofferson, but like him he has a great talent for writing songs and sounding completely honest. There is often a strange air of utter loneliness and despair in his work. In this respect he is perhaps also comparable to Townes Van Zandt, although Lee's music is much more in the honky tonk/outlaw-tradition. At least on this, his first and finest LP. Songs like the tender "Red Dancing Dress", the bluegrass-flavoured "Henry McCarthy" or the sad story of an alcoholic war vet in "Bottles Of Booze" are certainly lost classics. And you will probably never hear a more scary drinking song than "Lonesome Whiskey". After this record Lee lived isolated in a desert for a few years. Later he went on to make another pair of fine records, "Border Affair" (very fine indeed) and "Naked Child" with a more rock-oriented producer, but he never again fully captured the unique and desperate "late night honky tonk"-mood of his debut."