High Country Snows

A couple of years after the hits stopped, took this detour down the / acoustic music road. The result is a fine collection of mostly original songs, an album that holds up better than much of his earlier, better-known work. Accompanied by some of Nashville's top studio aces, sings of the California gold rush in the beautiful accompanies , and on the instrumental workout and leads his all-star group speeding through several other -flavored rave-ups. There's a touch of here as well, with pitching in on vocal harmonies. By the time of this album's release in the mid-'80s, radio was no longer playing the music of mellow singer/songwriters like , but the lovely ballad found some airplay on stations. Although the set-closing is a too-long slow drag similar to some of the singer's earlier overblown productions, is a surprising musical high point for . ~ Jim Newsom