Old Dogs
The Old Dogs are Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings, Mel Tillis, and Jerry Reed, four old-school country & western legends now rejected by a youth-obsessed Nashville. Refusing a rocking chair, these good old boys have fought back and made music for the mature, twang-lovin' audience they know is still huge. To wit, the 11 steel-guitar-driven cuts here, all from wacky songwriting legend Shel Silverstein, are aimed at the senior set. The 10 punch-line novelties ("I ain't too old to cut the mustard, I'm just too tired to spread it around") are joined by the bittersweet, and even wise, closing ballad "Time." The overdubbed crowd noise grows more than annoying and there isn't a note here that suggests you can teach old dogs new tricks. But this disc argues loud and clear that, by God, the old tricks are still plenty good enough.--David Cantwell