One of two albums
Stonewall Jackson
made in 1967,
Stonewall Jackson Country
includes the minor hit
"This World Holds Nothing (Since You're Gone),"
similar in concept to
Skeeter Davis
'
"The End of the World."
"There's No Reason to Be Living (Since You're Gone)"
is another wrist-slashing
ballad
in the set. An air of melancholy surrounds the album because of its overabundance of weepers, for one thing, but also because of
Jackson
's talent for expressing a range of bleak emotions with his voice. The obligatory covers of recent and classic hits would seem to balance the sad songs -- it's a treat to hear
tackle
Marvin Rainwater
's
"Gonna Find Me a Bluebird,"
but his version of
Wynn Stewart
"It's Such a Pretty World Today"
is oddly mournful. Listeners who claim to hear the
blues
in
country
music will hear plenty of it on
with its love-gone-wrong songs and working-man laments. Warning:
's performances put across the gloomy songs so effectively that the album's aura of defeat is contagious. ~ Greg Adams