The Country Side of Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers' first real country (as opposed to western) album, more than 35 years after his recording debut, marked a new artistic and commercial era for him, as he started charting singles in that market on a steady basis and found a new audience, just at the point when a lot of men his age would have been looking at retirement. The content consists mostly of working class anthems, including covers of Merle Haggard's then-recent "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me," interspersed with a few ballads and some inspirational/topical material ("Vision at the Peace Table") that doesn't really work. The accompaniment is generally stripped down here, and Rogers' singing sounds supremely confident. Spurred by the presence of the hit single "Money Can't Buy Love," it was a success and led to the release of two more LPs for Capitol.