Billie Jo Spears
The Country Collection

I couldn't have asked for a better return, coming back by debuting on these pages with a character of the caliber of Billie Jo Spears. Billie Jo Spears; the last name ironically sounds bitterly ironic, and even the first name, to be honest, doesn't escape unpleasant resonances, resonances that make you smile a bit sadly thinking about who Billie Jo Spears was, about her beautiful and simple songs that are the very essence of the concept of "down to earth", yet in a never obvious and always sincere manner.

A true Texan, Spears (for antonomasia) was one of the "queens" of country, especially in the '70s, and this allows for a few brief reflections: apart from some canonical and institutionalized names, country music is a mysterious object for us, little followed, I would even say little understood, often misunderstood. A genre that I have recently begun to explore again, with a more mature approach than in the past. But I will talk about this on other occasions, especially because defining BJ Spears solely as a country artist is, in my opinion, quite reductive, and even though this massive collection is indeed titled "The Country Collection," you can find much more in it. Firstly, the attitude is far more liberal both compared to other contemporary performers of hers (such as my old acquaintance Dolly Parton) and compared to much of modern country: 63 songs and no "God," no "Jesus," no "The Lord," and this already says a lot. Then there are "Blanket On The Ground" (her signature song), "What I've Got In Mind" (a top hit in the UK), and "Mr. Walker It's All Over" (the first success, dated 1969): go read the lyrics and you'll discover that not only did she absolutely not embody the stereotypical female-wife-children-church image, but, in the latter case, she was also ahead of her time, not in an absolute sense but surely by the standards of the genre (mainstream country).

Before moving on to the songs, let's try to define Billie Jo Spears's personality a bit better as a performer: she had a normal voice, beautiful but "normal", and this is one of her strengths. A voice I would describe as "brunette," and in fact, I think she shines best in the (many) episodes tinged with blue-eyed soul present in this collection. But above all, she was believable and sincere; she was someone who sang with passion, with enthusiasm, putting her heart into it as well as class; and it's useless to deny it, useless to hide: such performers are a lost breed. Performers who demand nothing, voices you never tire of, but it's especially simplicity that has been lost, that has been debased, overwhelmed by useless frills, by nauseating sequins. Billie Jo Spears, her voice, the emotions she conveys had an effect on me that I would describe as almost therapeutic, because in the end, I need little to be "lit up," as long as that "little" is the "right little."

63 songs, we were saying, and there's very little cherry-picking to do here; "The Country Collection" is full, abundant, in its entirety, of beautiful songs, often even extraordinarily melodious. It's also a matter of structure: choirs, arrangements, all perfectly interlocked, and a crescendo like that of "Blanket On The Ground" can't help but be its ideal manifesto. The trademark is always the same and is readapted with always excellent results to more varied sounds than one might perhaps expect: there's a lot of rockabilly, including a splendid and iconic "Lonely Hearts Club", then "Livin' In A House Full Of Love", "It Coulda Be Me", "Hearts Over Mind". But it's when the sounds approach more "black" territories that Billie Jo fully expresses the potential of her voice, reinterpreting the classic "Heartbreak Hotel" in a very feline and sexy manner, in a languid and subdued torch song like "Misty Blue" and in ballads interpreted always with the right amount of intensity and melodramatic charge, "Angel In Your Arms" and "Silver Wings And Golden Rings" above all, occasionally indulging in a more "jazzy," crooner-like, and intimate register, for example, in a languid "Happy Ever After". There's also a very successful cover of "I Will Survive", embellished with a brief and delightful guitar interlude and with an interpretation that, in terms of grit and credibility, has absolutely nothing to envy compared to Gloria's.

And her country often approaches sounds more generally cataloged as vintage easy listening, "What I've Got In Mind" is the most evident example, sometimes even veering into "Broadway" territories, which further highlights the choirs and vocal harmonies, one of the salient features of the entire repertoire presented here: in this regard "I'm Good At What I Do" is an "inspirational song" of absolute effectiveness, not forgetting the very cinematic charm of "If You Want Me". And then the nostalgic charm of "57 Chevrolet" and "Sing Me An Old Fashioned Song", the "pure" emotion of "Snowbird", many other ballads, in which an uncommon delicacy for the standards of the genre is often reflected, especially in "Slow Movin' Outlaw", "She's Out There Dancing", and "See that Funny Little Clown".

I place Billie Jo Spears at the highest peak of a lost Olympus, along with Petula Clark, with whom she shares the same simplicity and the same ability to evoke passion and empathy. It seems to me that her name is less known than that of many other colleagues (after all, "Blanket On The Ground" was her only #1 at home) precisely because she was a kind of "anomaly", relatively speaking, and being nonetheless a Texan country singer, thus a daughter of that provincial, white, Protestant America that surely doesn't enjoy particular esteem from certain intellectual circles, certainly did not help and favor her potential rediscovery and reevaluation. I'll take care of it, then, honoring her with five, very full stars; she deserves them all.