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Johnny Paycheck was the archetypal country singer. Best known for the David Allen Coe - penned “Take This Job And Shove It” --- you’ve either heard it or heard of it --- Paycheck, born dirt poor in Appalachian Ohio, was catapulted from being a name country performer to a music superstar. Legendary Nashville producer Billy Sherrill deserves no small part of the credit for this transformation. While Sherrill is best known as the guiding light behind the countrypolitan sound, he played to Paycheck’s strengths and character weaknesses. Paycheck by 1970 had weathered two spells in prison and was notorious for his drinking and carousing in a town and an industry where such behavioral elements were regarding as a badge of honor. Sherrill took Paycheck’s outlaw image to the recording studio and the results --- TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT and ARMED AND CRAZY --- are honky-tonk country standards from beginning to end.

Raven Records has combined 1977’s TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT and 1978’s ARMED AND CRAZY as a single release, and adding as a bonus five tracks from Paycheck’s MR. HAG TOLD MY STORY, a collection of Merle Haggard covers. “Take This Job And Shove It,” the title and lead off track, is pure honky-tonk music, what with the generous use of a pedal steel guitar underpinning Paycheck’s vocals, full of piss and attitude, as is its followup off of ARMED AND CRAZY, “Me And The I.R.S." There are weepers here as well; “From Cotton To Satin” is a classic track of loss with a nice bit of irony before it is all over, visiting a theme that is repeated throughout (“When I Had A Home To Go To,” and “Thanks To The Cathouse (I’m In The Doghouse With You)” from ARMED AND CRAZY). And drinking…oh yeah, there are drinking songs on here, tracks like “The Spirits of St. Louis,” “Barstool Mountain,” “Georgia In A Jug,” “Armed And Crazy,” and “Look What The Dog Drug In.” None of these tunes, alas, would make it onto terrestrial country radio these days, given not only the topics but Paycheck’s rawboned delivery and the no-frills, four and five piece arrangements that support it.

Paycheck’s career subsequently went down in flames, due to a third prison stint --- for attempted murder, in Ohio --- and relapses into substance abuse. Paycheck was one of those guys who wasn’t slumming when he was singing. He was simply telling it like it, and he, was. And this collection will give you twenty-five reasons why. Recommended.