I received the much-anticipated, remastered, reissued 3-album Jessi Colter set from Amazon a few days ago and can report that the project is absolutely gorgeous from start to finish ... with one horrific exception. More about that in a minute. As indicated in prior entries, there has been a relative flurry of Jessi Colter classic 1970s album reissues on CD, beginning with the two-fer by Raven Records (I'm Jessi Colter + Diamond in the Rough + 3 tunes from That's the Way a Cowboy Rocks and Rolls) and now by BGO Reissues (I'm Jessi Colter + Jessi + Diamond in the Rough). The former set, which offered 23 songs and the entirety of Jessi's uber-classic Capitol debut disc, is the less attractive of the two offerings, all things being considered. The latter is superior because it is includes Jessi's first three superb Capitol albums in toto (on two compact discs), in chronological order, more lavishly packaged than the Raven product, and notably "remastered from the original tapes"; the Raven product's packaging does not make this claim).More than anything else, the BGO product gives us the crucial sequence of Jessi Colter songs exactly as they were released to her fans from Spring 1975 to July 1976, with pristine, digitally remastered audio quality, lots of sexy Jessi-photos and a nice slip-case. The photos are all derived from the three original album covers and sleeves, each obviously rendered in their stand-alone photographic glory, i.e. you get the clean photos of Jessi without the album credits superimposed. The cover (seen above) features Jessi famously attaching bling from the back cover-shot of I'm Jessi Colter. The insert-booklet features shots from both the I'm Jessi Colter album front-cover and the Jessi album sleeve -- the gorgeous sepia head-shot of smiling Jessi-in-profile and the Jim Moffit "parchment" artwork listing all of the songs from Jessi and each song's musical motif ('Without You' = Trouble, 'Hand That Rocks the Cradle' = Maturity, etc.). The jewel case's tray-card preserves the wonderful Jim Moffitt painting of Jessi in-the-woodlands that graced the back cover of Jessi, only without the album credits in the mix. I always loved that painting and thought it captured the almost mystical ambiance of an album I still consider to be Jessi's artistic masterpiece (though just by-a-hair ... after Out of the Ashes and Mirriam).
The liner notes provided with the BGO collection are, unfortunately, an abomination. For a three-album reissue of this significance, the folks at BGO might have paid their staff writer to do a little more than pull inaccurate information from the web in such a clearly disinterested, disoriented manner. The guy possibly didn't give much of a rip, stating a few dry statistical facts about Jessi's career and then meandering down every possible tangent by following Wiki-links about other artists. For example, in "writing" about Jessi's early days as a songwriter alongside Duane Eddy, our intrepid investigator notes that Dottie West recorded one of Jessi's songs in 1965. He then apparently googled Dottie West and started giving us a completely unnecessary run-down of Dottie's recording career. Huh? This sort of extended "walkabout" occurs with almost every mentionable individual connected with Jessi's records (session players, producers, coffee-brewers, you get the picture). Jessi's actual music and style are never really discussed. This was not the case with the Raven reissue's liner-notes, where the writer obviously took time to analyze Colter's music, influences, and impact before rendering insightful commentary.
Research, people. It's called research! One of the things that has always annoyed me is the underestimation of the great Jessi Colter, and the BGO package's lousy liner-notes only magnified that irritation, but the musical legacy preserved is beyond reproach, and that is what matters most. Moreover, I will be correcting any "underestimation issues" with my upcoming Jessi-bio, which I swear is indeed upcoming. I simply need to organize it and find a window of time in which to lay it out here on the blog. My bio of Jessi and analysis of her music is based upon extensive research and citation of legitimate sources ... not sloppy Wikipedia hen-scratch.
Buy the BGO three-fer collection here, at Amazon, or at your preferred online retailer. Who knows how many they will print? To have these immaculate Jessi Colter classics in such polished-up, contemporary media format is a Godsend, folks. And please wait patiently for the Jessi-bio. I promise that it will be fascinating, and that it will shine a powerful light upon this iconic outlaw-lady's important (and too often overlooked) contribution to original American roots music. Cheers for now, y'all.
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