John Anderson - lead vocals, guitar; Mike Jordan - piano; Ax Lincoln - tack bass; Larry Emmons - bass; Jim Wolf - drums; Tom Morley - fiddle; Vern Pildren - lead guitar; Bucks Reed - pedal steel
Emerging from Florida and later Nashville, Tennessee (where he moved in the 1970s), John Anderson was a singer/songwriter closely akin to the famed Bakersfield, California sound. The Bakersfield style launched the careers of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, among others, and played a pivotal role in the development of Anderson's own music.
He was still a rising star when this show was recorded for the Silver Eagle Cross Country Radio Concert Series in November, 1984. At the time of this show, Anderson was promoting his Greatest Hits album, his sixth record since signing with Warner Brothers Nashville in 1980.
Anderson, along with his contemporaries Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle, gained popularity by bringing a contemporary sound to a traditional style of country music. As such, these artists were tagged "the New Traditionalists." Recorded live in Nashville, TN, this show features a set full of Anderson originals and classic country covers, which makes for an outstanding show. Opening with "Chunk Of Coal" and the radio fave "She Just Started Liking Cheatin Songs," Anderson offers up an excellent collection of all his already recorded material, as well as songs from his pre-fame honky-tonk days.
"Your Lying Blue Eyes," "Goin' Down Hill" and the traditional "Long Black Veil" reveal Anderson's more pensive side before he kicks it back into overdrive for his humorous "Chicken Truck," the story of a frustrated hot-rodder stuck on a two-lane country road behind a very slow moving truck full of live chickens. Everything on his Greatest Hits album appears in the show, but these live renditions are arguably better versions. They include "Love You A Thousand Ways," "1959," "Haunted House," "Crazy Arms," "She Sure Got Away With My Heart," "Would You Catch A Falling Star," "Swinging" and "Black Sheep."