Great Country Songs

It was only 1996 when this CD was originally released, but technology improved over the years. That’s why this CD is re-released in a remastered version, using the DSD technology.
The choice for this album is a bit strange. After withdrawing many releases from the market, a country album is one of the obvious albums to make available again, but the choice for this compilation is a bit strange, since it doesn’t contain only mastertakes, but also a few alternates. On the other hand that might be a reason for some people to buy it

Design

The cover art is exactly the same as the 1996 release, except for a short remastering note (no explanation whatsoever) and the change of the year of release (2002?). The only “extra” is a piece of paper, in “ELV1S 30 #1 Hits”-style, around the box to show that it is a newly remastered release. Since we have no review of the original on-line, here is a short description.
The “booklet” is a fold-out, containing trackinformation and liner notes by Charles Wolfe. You can call it different, but nothing special.

Content

As the title indicates this album gives us many of Elvis’ country recordings, more or less chronological. A disadvantage of this choice is that you get songs that do not really fit together. The Sun-recordings and the 60’s / 70’s country songs are sounding so differently that it makes this an incoherent album. The sound quality did improve quite a bit compared to the 1996 release. Especially the 1970 songs like e.g. “Make The World Go Away” or “I Really Don’t Want To Know” make this very clear. As mentioned before, the inclusion of five alternate takes might be (have been) a reason for many to buy this release. On the other hand, the remix of Guitar Man (1980) instead of the original might be a reason not to buy it to many others.

Conclusion

Since there are no extra tracks, you do not need this release for the music itself if you have the original. Still we think it might be worth the effort to get rid of the original - you can always give it to a non Elvis-fan as an introduction to the King’s music - and buy this one.