James Talley
Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money but We Sure Got a Lot of Love

In the flourishing catalog, which has been forming from the second half of the 20th century to the present, of traditional and North American singer-songwriter music (let's remember, partly influenced by Gaelic!), among those who managed, as early as the 60s and 70s, to establish themselves on the most prestigious scenes (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, etc.) and those who fell into oblivion or earned a narrow following, there is a gigantic space. An ocean of names, faces, voices, guitars or pianos, harmonicas or entire orchestral setups, souls made of light and shadow.
Artists like Phil Ochs, Jackson C. Frank, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Carole King, and Jim Croce, and folksingers more sui generis, borderline, like Tim Buckley, Van Dyke Parks, Laura Nyro, and Randy Newman, were able to raise their voices just enough to be remembered by an audience of more than just a few souls.
But outside of these more or less strong personalities, there existed (and some still exist today) musicians who, while drawing from tradition, reworking it, and tracing their lines in a personal and often original way, as their more illustrious colleagues did, nevertheless were not picked up by the radar, by choice or by "simply a twist of fate". Among these, the Texans Mickey Newbury and Terry Allen, David Ackles (from Illinois) and Hoyt Axton (from Oklahoma). Yet someone is still missing! Missing is a fellow countryman of Axton, a gentle son from the northernmost part of the old confederate regions, a certain James Talley.

Born in 1944 in Tulsa, but raised, in his early years, in an unincorporated area of the same Arkansas, in Mehan in Payne County, James Talley moved with the family first to Washington State, and later to New Mexico. He graduated in Albuquerque and it was there that he met Pete Seeger, who would encourage him to write songs that absorbed the culture of the Southeast.
In '68 he moved to Tennessee, specifically to Nashville, the Mecca of country music. In 1973, within the Hound's Ear Studios in Franklin, about 30 km from the state capital, he recorded his first work, a cult album that would become, due to its significance and its union of multiple elements into a homogeneous and not too diluted solution, his showpiece, his ultimate. The LP was given a curious title: "Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love". If, as can be seen, such a denomination presents itself as extensive, the same cannot be said of the content: the album, in its original version (it would be reissued in 2006 in a special edition, with an interview by Mike Hanes, from May 5, 1975, on the second CD), has a running time of just over half an hour, the songs are very short. However, don't be fooled by such an element, because the content richness and contaminations make the ensemble quite satisfying and believable!
Released in 1975, Talley's debut LP is certainly not lacking in instrumentation. Many musicians were involved in the project, with great cohesion. In these grooves, you can hear three different acoustic guitars, an equal number of electric guitars, a steel guitar, the Dobro guitar, the mandolin, two basses, in short, it's a triumph of string instruments. There's also room for Lisa Silver's violin. Added to these are the drums and percussions (even spoons), as well as wind instruments belonging to classic jazz: tuba (Ralph Childs), clarinet (Dave Poe), and trumpet (Tommy Smith). Rick Durrett alternates on the piano, organ, and accordion. For a country blues record, the spectrum is quite broad. Coordinating everything, Talley himself, who acts as producer, is accompanied by Richie Cicero, Lee Hazen, and Tony Lyons for the arrangements.

"Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love" was taken on by Capitol Records, which, however, did not provide adequate advertising, resulting in a low number of sales. However, to Talley, a discreet figure without any craze for success, it mattered just enough (he would release three more classics to come with Capitol). Playing is sufficient for him, and the sincerity of intent is felt after just a few seconds into the listening. What "jumps to the ear", so to say, is a great capability and vocal vivacity from Talley, who has a bluegrass background inscribed in his throat, but without the clichés that a certain genre standard might imply.
The first track on the list, with its lively stride, does not foreshadow the melancholy of the second, the title track, which links it in an ideal kinship to the already mentioned Townes Van Zandt, also a cult singer-songwriter with deep sensitivity and pronounced compositional genius. Talley's vocal timbre is accompanied by a skilled and magnetic acoustic guitar riff, with a simplicity and genuineness that are not taken for granted. The sound is crystalline, clean, but not self-serving.
The more you progress in listening, the more the eclecticism and bittersweet zest of the whole ensemble become glaringly evident: "Red River Memory" continues the course set by the title track; the instrumental "Big Taters in the Sandy Lane" allows Lisa Silver to dive into a beautiful violin solo; "No Opener Needed", with an epic refrain with background vocals of indisputable merit, is a moving lament; "Mehan, Oklahoma" constitutes a heartfelt, yet not mawkish, ode to the community he lived in, ever since he was an infant; the sleepy and captivating "Take Me to the Country"; the bucolic "Red River Reprise", a delightful instrumental to close the circle, with the end of the crickets opening to a bare acoustic guitar, which in turn passes the baton to the violin.

Over the years, Talley has gathered around him a noteworthy following of enthusiasts, despite never elevating himself to the status of a leading singer-songwriter. His early records, including the object of this discussion, are classics for a niche which could gradually expand, without detracting from the charm of the reference figure.
Many industry professionals, his colleagues, have re-performed his songs, above all Johnny Cash and a surprising (but not too much!) Moby, who draws a lot from tradition, the beautiful one. But not only! Even Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States (from 1977 to 1981), is a great admirer of his, and had the pleasure and honor of having Talley play for him.
In recent years, inactive at the discographic level, Talley has settled permanently in Nashville, where he has his independent label, Cimarron Records, since 1999. On his official website, he is available to welcome any requests for performances to be held in places proposed by fans or industry professionals. Throughout his career, he has not limited himself to the USA but has also played in Europe (somehow, in 2002, he played in a middle school in Chiari, in the province of Brescia!).

Rating: 8.5/10