This set collects highs from George Jones’s prolific stretch at Epic Records from 1971 to 1988. The teardrop manifestos to loss and loneliness are many, particularly “A Picture of Me (Without You)” (the lulling strings and pedal steel ache) and the haunting Tammy Wynette cowrite “These Days (I Barely Get By).” And no Jones set would be complete without the barstool sadsacks, documented perfectly on “If Drinking Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)” and James Taylor’s “Bartender’s Blues.” “He Stopped Loving Her Today” is the classic yarn of a man who never stopped loving the woman who left him.

iTunes

Spotify

Share