Roger Miller - (1969) Walkin' In The Sunshine LP

After a triumvirate of near-perfect albums came this harbinger of the decline of a particularly imaginative and original country artist. Upon listening to the first side, one wonders if this is the same Roger Miller whose string of zany hits had made listening to the hit parade so much fun. We get three of his most inconsequential and unformed songs ever recorded, and sandwiched between are covers of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Green Green Grass of Home" that should never have been hatched. Miller positively sleepwalks his way through these performances. Things definitely look up upon a flip of the side, though. We get three high quality Miller songs, and, although close inspection reveals these also to be a bit imitative of his past glories, they are still full of the detail and spiky twists this artist is known for. "Pardon My Coffin" is really a fantastic song, despite the "Sixteen Tons" lick in there. And how about this bit of poetry tossed in at the end of "I'd Come Back to Me": "If egg was foo, if I was you, you'd be too young for me." Miller's cover of "Hey Good Lookin'" by Hank Williams makes one wonder why he didn't approach more of his cover versions like this. He takes total liberty with the lyrics and structure of the song, turning it inside out very casually, as if what he was doing was the original version. Not all the material on the second side is that good, but the high points would certainly have become more well-known parts of the Miller canon if they had not been surrounded by such drek on their original release. The session backup sounds great when they stick to a small jazz-flavored country combo. The strings are the last thing Miller needs, weighing him down worse than if arranger Jerry Kennedy himself had climbed onto the artist's back and demanded a shoulder ride. A key part of Miller's sound all along, Kennedy should have known better.