Johnny Paycheck On His Way CD

Personnel: Johnny Paycheck (vocals, guitar).
Liner Note Authors: Aubrey Mayhew; Tom Kittypaw.
Although Johnny Paycheck (born Donald Eugene Lytle) looks surprisingly clean-cut and idol-worthy on the cover of ON HIS WAY, the music on offer is straight-up, tear-in-your-beer 1960s country. More than a decade before the bearded, cowboy-hat-wearing Paycheck hit the big time with the defiant "Take This Job and Shove It," the Ohio native was a baby-faced singer belting out songs in the country-crooner vein of George Jones and Ray Price. This excellent 2005 compilation presents 15 of Paycheck's best mid-'60s tracks, most notably the Hank Cochran-penned jukebox lament "A-11" and the lovelorn "Heartbreak, TN," by Jack Clement. Other standouts include the humorous tunes "Help Me Hank (I'm Fallin')," where Paycheck playfully begs Cochran to write him another hit, and "The Lovin' Machine," a gleefully innuendo-laced honky-tonk number. These recordings, which were frequently out of print before this Koch collection, are essential for Paycheck fans seeking to hear the late performer's underrated early work.
The title of Koch's second collection of Johnny Paycheck's Little Darlin' recordings explains it all: this captures the period when Johnny was hitting his stride, when he was On His Way. If the first volume chronicled The Beginning, when Paycheck was finding his identity as he dabbled in Western swing and country staples, this collection -- consisting of material recorded in the mid-'60s (exact dates are nowhere to be found in the liner notes, regrettably) ...