Friday, July 10, 2009

Semi-Obscure Album Review: Dean Martin - The Nashville Sessions

Hey pallies, likes wow pallies....just loves to find so much pure Dinodevotion by bloggers. Check out a blogg tagged "Wack Beats" modded by pallie Scott and his cool review of our Dino's last vinyl ..."The Nashville Sessions." To read this in it's original format, just clicks on the tagg of this Dinopost...and pallies, might I ask that you takes the time to leave Scott some Dinopatter to encourage his Dinoaddiction...you will note that he sez that only ever comments on his blog posts/

How cool is it to find 'nother lover of our Dino sharin' his Dinodevotion in print...Scotty doesn't speak of the stellar Dinotune "Since I Met You Baby" so am gonna have to put him on to the Dinovid of that for Dinosure. Again, just lovin' findin' pallies all over the web who are sharin' their passion for our great man. Dinopassionately, DMP

2009-07-10
Semi-Obscure Album Review: Dean Martin - The Nashville Sessions
With this "feature," making about 700 "things" I do on this blog nobody reads, I want to talk about albums that really nobody gives a flying shit out. All of five people on RateYourMusic have rated this particular piece of music, and we're talking about Dean freaking Martin here. It has never been given a CD release. I got a pretty copy of this baby on vinyl at an antique mall in Coloma, Michigan. It's one of my favorite pieces of my music collection. I wrote this review in 2005, shortly after purchasing it and giving it a curious listen.


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DEAN MARTIN
The Nashville Sessions
1983, Warner Bros.

I suppose if this were particularly good, and/or worth recommending to much of anyone on earth, it wouldn't have been Dean's last studio album. However, in the great tradition of trying to defend things you like for no real reason - the albums you see the obvious flaws in but somehow warmly embrace them, the albums that you know if anyone else listened they wouldn't really get it - let me just say this: I liked it.

The Nashville Sessions is intriguing on a few levels, but this may only be intriguing to, well, me. I love Dean Martin and I have a special place in my heart for Billy Sherrill-style country production, with the cheesy ass-sounding guitars and repetitive drumming, the silly cornball strings. Everything about it is obnoxious, but I don't care. But Sherrill, and producers like him, need a voice in front of that shit or it's going to be absolutely horrible. George Jones and Tammy Wynette made Sherrill; Dean Martin makes Jimmy Bowen sound a lot better here. I know the production sucks, and I don't care.

Dino's voice sounds old, but what can you expect? I'm not entirely certain he was actually alive, because he is quite clearly a Dean Martin figure from a wax museum on both the front and back covers for this album. However, it's not a bad old. He just sounds like what you'd expect an old Dean Martin to sound like, sort of like the Cash American series.

Nothing about these songs would be any good unless it was Dean Martin singing them in vintage Dino style, aged like a fine wine. He gets some help from Merle Haggard ("Everybody's Had the Blues," the best song on the album) and Conway Twitty ("My First Country Song," which comes out far better than I expected), and in both instances, the two parties sound excited to work with one another, rather than doing it to make a buck. And that's good, because I'm pretty sure this didn't make any bucks at all.

"Old Bones" starts the album perfectly, as Dino puts it out there that he's an old fart, but he's had a good run, fighting the aging process with all he's got, but at the same time realistic that it's going to happen anyway. He also has that classic drunken slur, which is just nice to hear.

What can you say about songs like "Shoulder to Shoulder" or "Love Put a Song in My Heart"? They're gaudy, old woman songs; things you'd have expected even that curmudgeony Dorothy to like if the Golden Girls gave it a spin. But they work OK enough, really. I couldn't exactly tell you why. They just sort of do.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but I'll go so far as to say I really do enjoy it, and it's probably going to be a frequent listen for me. It's totally flawed, in no way great, and I think about zero percent of anyone would get why I like it at all. But damned if I didn't try to explain anyway.



Posted by Scott at 5:00 AM
Labels: 1983 reviews, dean martin

11 comments:

Maria Jensen said...

Well this is around the time where Dean kind of started to fade away for him self.. But to me, as long as it is Dean, well it's Dean.. Nothing else to say, no matter how old the records are..
Love how he writs about Dean getting older.. *like good wine*
By the way the cover picture is real Dean and NOT from pictures or statures from museum!

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie Maria, gotta agree with you...if it is our Dino...gotta have it....I loves this cover pix of our Dino so much...and yes it is our real Dino....woulda loves to own the vinyl of this Dinodisc...

Keith said...

Hey pallie DMP. Great album cover. Whether it's Dino at his best or not, it's Dino. That's still better than all the other stuff out there.

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie Keith, won't hear any disagreement on that Dinoposition...

Always On Watch said...

His last album, if I recall correctly.

I'm not sure that Dino wanted to record this set of songs as the recording was done after Dino Jr. perished in that plane crash. Our Dino was never the same after that. Who could blame him?

I do listen to "The Nashville Sessions" from time to time as I have the vinyl. Loyal fan that I am, I bought it as soon as it was released.

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie AOW, just did some checkin' of Dinodates...The Nashville Sessions was released in 1983, four years before our Dino's beloved boypallie Dino Jr. crashed...what I loves best 'bout the Dinosessions is "Since I Met You, Baby"...that amazin' tune that formed our Dino's only MTV vid...

Maria Jensen said...

Yes, i was about to say the same thing about record, but you wrote it before me... If i am not wrong, it was released in summer time of 1983..

Yeah, i really like his vid to that tune ^^ I think Dean Jr produced it?

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie Maria, great Dinominds think in the same Dinodirection...it was actually our Dino's younger boypallie Ricci who directed our great man in that amazin' MTV vid....Ricci tells all 'bout it in his Dinobio, "That's Amore"...that musta be one Dinotome you have yet to devour...

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie Maria, great Dinominds think in the same Dinodirection...it was actually our Dino's younger boypallie Ricci who directed our great man in that amazin' MTV vid....Ricci tells all 'bout it in his Dinobio, "That's Amore"...that musta be one Dinotome you have yet to devour...

bookbigot said...

Excellent stuff. We're so focused on the latest and greatest meaningless stuff (i.e., Jonas Bros and H. Montana) that we don't look back to a time when, frankly, music was bit more profound. Thanks for bringing it back.
Bigot
http://www.musicbigot.com/

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie bookbigot, nice to have you dropp by the ol' ilovedinomartin Dinoblog...glad you found us and glad you like what we are up to here....I am glad to say that we are findin' more and more of today's youth who are findin', gettin' to know, lovin' and honorin' our Dino...the best there ever was, the best there ever will be...our King of Cool...do hope you will stop by 'gain to share your thoughts...