Frizzell’s ‘Love’ Recaptures Early Genius

**** LEFTY FRIZZELL

“That’s the Way Love Goes: The Final Recordings of Lefty Frizzell”

Varese Vintage

There has been so much tribute paid to Frizzell’s landmark hits from the ‘50s on Columbia Records that his comeback sessions in the ‘70s for ABC Records have long been greatly underappreciated.

It’s easy to understand the reason for the focus on the earlier work. In a remarkable yearlong stretch that began in the fall of 1950, Frizzell gave us nine Top 10 country singles that defined singing in modern country music the way Hank Williams’ hits around the same time defined modern country songwriting.

Sadly, Frizzell’s productivity faded quickly, due in part to his widely documented alcohol problems and his bad career judgment. Despite his legendary past, Frizzell (born William Orville Frizzell in Corsicana, Texas, in 1928) was such a marginal figure by the early ‘70s that Columbia dropped him from its roster.

Though he wasn’t able to bounce back into the Top 10 with ABC Records, he made two extraordinary albums for the company, and those works are spotlighted in this single disc.

Frizzell most certainly knew these ABC recordings were going to be his last hurrah, and he brought a character and conviction to them that he hadn’t exhibited in years. Considering the bad shape he was in when he got to ABC, the tenderness of his singing is all the more affecting on such wistful numbers as “That’s the Way Love Goes” and “Life’s Like Poetry.”

But the showcase pieces are “I Never Go Around Mirrors” and “I Can’t Get Over You to Save My Life,” which Frizzell wrote with Whitey Shafer. In retrospect, both songs express regrets for time wasted and dreams unfulfilled in ways that sound almost like farewell notes to his family and friends, and maybe even his fans. He died in 1975 of a stroke.

The 16 songs on “Love Goes” represent an essential part of Frizzell’s body of work, and anyone who wants to step up to a microphone in Nashville these days still can find inspiration in them.

Frizzell stepped away from the straightforward approach of country vocalists to bend and hold notes in ways that gave the words new emotional resonance. Merle Haggard is the singer most profoundly influenced by Frizzell, but almost every other country singer of worth, from Willie Nelson to Randy Travis, reflects some of the Frizzell touch.

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