Grand Tour

by George Jones

Product Description:

Personnel includes: George Jones; The Jordanaires (background vocals).

Reissue producer: Mike Ragogna.

Engineers: Lou Bradley, Ron Reynolds.

Originally released on Epic (33083).

THE GRAND TOUR gives the listener a front-row seat for a journey through heartbreak, regret and longing, and there's no more qualified tour guide than George Jones. Even for the undisputed king of country music, this early-'70s album was a true milestone. Jones's phenomenal, plaintive tenor was at its zenith on THE GRAND TOUR, wrapped around a group of songs as fine as any he's ever recorded.

One is hard pressed to think of a more gloriously tragic chronicle of romance-gone-wrong than the title tune, which finds Jones audibly reveling in his misery. Like a little boy who can't wait to gross you out with his insect collection, Jones drags you by the ear through a litany of domestic casualties. He plays the cuckold on "She Told Me So," where his acceptance of an unfaithful lover's lies extends to his stubborn insistence that "there's roses blooming in the Arctic Circle." Strangely, the album closes with the bitter "Our Private Life" (written by Jones and wife Tammy Wynette), which finds Jones castigating fans who look too close at his tabloid-friendly exploits, and defending his vices so proudly that you know he'll end up right back at track number one.