James Talley Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot Of Love CD

Disc Two contains a interview with Mike Hanes of WKDA Radio, Nashville, Tennessee from May 5, 1975.

James Talley's 1975 debut for the Capitol label was perhaps unnoticed by the country music establishment, deemed not sophisticated enough and too inside the hillbilly tradition for the outlaws; nonetheless, it is an unqualified artistic achievement. Featuring 12 of his own songs, this album of Talley's music comes from the rural country blues and from Bob Wills' Western swing, and his songs are rooted in the everyday lives of folks, whether working-class or living in poverty, who make the best of difficult situations without too much complaining. The title track, with its blues riffing and sweet hillbilly abandon, tells the story of a woman loved enough to break a man without malice because she loves him too. "Red River Memory" is an update of the "Red River Valley" legend set to the same melody with a shimmering pedal steel in the background just under the acoustic guitars. "Give Him Another Bottle" inhabits the terrain where honky tonk, bluegrass, and the blues all meet and converse. The rodeo queen at the heart of "Calico Gypsy" is classic Talley, where people are evoked not only as memories but as reflections of the natural world from the color of the sky to the blooming of summer flowers. Side one closes with the lone cover on the album, Johnny Gimble's "Big Taters in the Sandy Land," on which the author plays fiddle. The rest of the disc -- such as tracks like "No Opener Needed," a Merle Haggard-esque bluesy love song, or "Take Me to the Country," a rambling country poem where the elegiac and the prosaic commingle inside the desperation of a broken heart -- make Talley a master of the ordinary. Talley can tell a story plainly without the use of extended metaphors and framework artifices, and when he communicates this directly, he can touch even the hardest and most cynical heart. This is as auspicious a debut as there is. ~ Thom Jurek

While James Talley probably never qualified as an Outlaw in the mid-'70s, his rootsy country sound was closer to Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings than say Larry Gatlin. Even then, Talley was never an easy artist to pigeonhole, and it's hard to imagine an artist as idiosyncratic recording for Capital today. Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love was Talley's debut, and make no mistake about it: it's real country, with fiddles, dobro, and mandolin. The album was reissued in 2005 on Talley's own Cimarron label with the addition of a second disc comprised of a promotional interview from the time. Got No Bread kicks off with a tasteful bit of western swing on "W. Lee O' Daniel and the Light Crust Dough Boys" before dipping into the buoyant title track, with snappy electric guitar underpinning Talley's country-flavored vocal. The arrangements are -- compared to today's country standards -- spare, with small variants custom-made for each song. Lyrically, Got No Bread is an ode to another place and time, an album that never forgets country music'

Music critic and author Jerome Clark has called James Talley's "Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money..." "A hymn for the American Ages." When it was first released 30 years ago by Capitol Records, it was hailed as an American classic by such music writers as

Personnel: James Talley (vocals, acoustic guitar); James Talley; Tony Lyons, Dave Gillon, Johnny Bell (vocals); Jerry McKuen (guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin); Jerry McKuen (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin); Steve Hostack, Steve Hostak (electric guitar); Johnny Gimble (mandolin, electric mandolin, fiddle); Dave Poe, Dave Poe (clarinet); Tommy Silver, Tommy Smith (trumpet); Steve Mendel (upright bass, electric bass); Steve Mandell (upright bass, bass guitar); Doyle Grisham (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, steel guitar, dobro); John Hiatt (acoustic guitar); Lisa Silver (fiddle); Rick Durrett (accordion, piano, electric piano, organ); Ralph Childs (tuba); Wayne SecresUncut (p.126) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Talley's disarmingly simple, honest and heartfelt songs are steeped in the spirit of Guthrie....A long-lost piece of genuine Americana reclaimed."
Dirty Linen (p.87) - "Talley's songs are full of Saturday nights, Sunday suits, honky-tonks, and sweethearts.....A sound resonant of rural Oklahoma."