Maps of Music

Killer Country (1980)

Where the lyrics of Killer Country take you, and where it was really made.

Jerry Lee Lewis's 1980 Elektra album opens with a Johnny Cash cover and was recorded in Nashville, yet its best-known line of praise comes from a critic's note on an over-the-hill theme.

Key places

Nashville recording site (1980)

Recording site Nashville — The album's recording venue is listed as Nashville, Tennessee. The point uses the building-level coordinates of the Acme Feed and Seed address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Killer Country: studio album by American musician and pianist Jerry Lee Lewis
• Released on Elektra Records in 1980 (metadata: August 1980)
• Ten tracks, including a cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues"
• Album peaked at No. 35 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart

Background

• Album aimed at the country market, as noted in contemporary press coverage
• Lewis's rock-oriented fans were also expected to respond to the record

Recording

• Recording location listed as Nashville, Tennessee
• Personnel: Jerry Lee Lewis on vocals and piano
• Electric guitar by David Kirby and Duke Faglier; fiddle and electric guitar by Kenny Lovelace
• Electric piano and organ by Bunky Keels; drums and percussion by Jimmy Isbell
• Backing vocals by The Lea Jane Singers; horns by John Gobe, Rex Peer and Terry Mead
• String arrangements by Billy Strange; strings by Shelly Kurland

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• American country and rock and roll pianist, singer, and songwriter, nicknamed "The Killer".
• Made first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans; early Sun Records recordings in 1956 in Memphis.
• 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" brought worldwide fame; followed by "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential".
• 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is widely regarded as one of the greatest live rock albums.
• Switched to country in 1968 with "Another Place, Another Time", which revived his career; 30 songs reached the Billboard country top 10 across his career.
• Last Man Standing (2006) was his best-selling release; Mean Old Man (2010) was another major seller.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (2022).

Members

• Solo artist; the Million Dollar Quartet session on Sun Records included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The New York Times: the album keeps Lewis's singing and playing, with a rocking small band, in the foreground
• The New York Times: aimed at a country market, it should also please Lewis's rock-oriented fans more than his other recent LPs
• The New York Times: Lewis sounds confident, inspired and ready for 1981
• Robert Christgau: praised "Thirty-Nine and Holding" as magnificently over-the-hill

Records

• Billboard Top Country Albums chart: peaked at No. 35

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album opens with Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" as a cover.
• "Over the Rainbow", by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, closes the track listing.
• "Mama, This One's for You" is credited to Ray Griff.
• "Thirty-Nine and Holding" is credited to Jerry Foster and Bill Rice, and Robert Christgau singled it out in his review.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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