Charlie Walker - Honky Tonkin' With Charlie Walker

In this week's episode, we're featuring one of the finest collections of straight-ahead honky tonk music that I've ever heard: "Honky Tonkin' With Charlie Walker" (1971). Charlie made his name cutting material akin to Ray Price's honky tonk output - country shuffles, and lots of them. His big hit came in the late 50s with "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down", and this album, from over 10 years later, follows in that vein. We open with "Honky Tonk Season", a galloping tongue-in-cheek ode to a frosty one in a dingy barroom, and continue with highlights including "Let's Go Fishin' Boys (The Girls Are Bitin')", "Before I Found The Wine" and the cautionary "A Honky Tonk In Dallas". All fiddle and steel guitar (except for a ridiculous cover of the Stones "Honky Tonk Women" - who the heck told Walker that was a good idea??) with a tenor Texan twang, if anybody ever asks you: 1. "Who was Charlie Walker?" or 2. "What's honky tonk music?" - Play them this.