Larry Jon Wilson

• New Beginnings [Monument, 1975] B+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

New Beginnings [Monument, 1975]
A sleeper from a previously unrecorded Georgian who looks to be around forty. Capsule portrait: he named his crippled son after his father, a dirt farmer who moved to the city with misgivings, and Bertrand Russell, both of whom he "knew and loved." The record is as original as you might hope, catchy and fresh-sounding despite overlays of schlock intended to hook the country audience. I wish I could say it was promising as well, but I suspect not. The drawback to rediscovering home truths, which is definitely Wilson's calling, is that when the excitement fades--and even a modest career takes its toll--the reaffirmations turn back into platitudes. That has already begun to happen on the weak cuts here. B+