The cuddly-bear crooner of recent years may seemingly represent everything that’s safe and cosy about country music, but Kenny Rogers was a bit of a risk-taker in his day. Who else can claim charttopping hits about crippled war veterans (Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town) or gang rape (Coward Of The County)?
Before crossing over to the mainstream, Rogers led the (slightly) radical longhair band, The First Edition, whose early hit, Just Dropped In, was put to such good use in the Coen Brothers’ comic masterpiece, The Big Lebowski. But even after embracing the more showbiz elements of the industry, he continued to tinker with the form. Although not a prolific writer himself, Rogers has retained a knack of seeking out interesting material from sources not normally associated with country (Barry Gibb and Lionel Richie, for example).
The Journey hops and skips through the singer’s early days, and is packed with rarely-seen 60s footage and curios such as a duet with Willie Nelson on Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies. It’s a bit of a haphazard trip, and a little more editing and attention to chronology would have been useful, but it’s an attractive enough compilation of live performances and eulogies for even the most casual fan.
