''High-Tech Redneck'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song " He Stopped Loving Her Today", ...

. It was released in 1993 on the MCA Nashville Records label and went

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

in 1994.

Recording

By 1993, Jones had recorded two critically acclaimed albums for MCA but was still having a great deal of difficulty getting played on the radio, which was focused on younger, emerging stars. The new album, which employed two producers,

Buddy Cannon Buddy Cannon (born April 20, 1947 Lexington, Tennessee) is an American country music songwriter and record producer. Active since the late 1970s, he is known primarily for his work with Willie Nelson and as Kenny Chesney's record producer, for w ...

and

Norro Wilson Norris Denton "Norro" Wilson (April 4, 1938 – June 8, 2017) was an American country music singer-songwriter, producer, and member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Wilson wrote or co-wrote numerous hit songs during more than 40 ye ...

, was an attempt by MCA to broaden the singer's appeal, with biographer Bob Allen observing in his book ''George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend'', "In 1993, the label released ''Hi-Tech Redneck'', a new and oddly uneven Jones LP that tried to cast him in a slightly different and more lighthearted perspective, in hopes of breaking the radio deadlock." It did not work; the album made it to number 30 on the ''Billboard'' country albums chart while the single peaked at 24—a very respectable showing in reality, considering the lack of radio play the singer was receiving. The other single from this album to make a chart appearance on ''Billboard'' was his duet with

Sammy Kershaw Samuel Paul Kershaw (born February 24, 1958) is an American country music artist. He has released 16 studio albums, with three RIAA platinum certifications and two gold certifications among them. More than 25 singles have entered the Top 40 on the ...

, "Never Bit a Bullet Like This", a song also found on Kershaw's 1994 album ''Feelin' Good Train''. The album was dedicated to Conway Twitty, who had died in June 1993 and features a cover of Twitty's " Hello Darlin'" to close out the album, which Jones had also recorded during his stint on the Musicor label. "A Thousand Times a Day" was later recorded by

Patty Loveless Patty Loveless (born Patricia Lee Ramey, January 4, 1957) is an American country music singer. She began performing in her teenaged years before signing her first recording contract with MCA Records' Nashville division in 1985. While her first ...

on her 1996 album ''The Trouble with the Truth,'' from which it was released as the second single, becoming a Top 20 hit for her that year. "The Visit" was later recorded by

Chad Brock Chad Brock (born July 31, 1963) is an American country music singer and disc jockey. Before beginning his musical career in the late 1990s, he was a professional wrestler in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), until an injury forced him to retire ...

on his 2000 album ''Yes!''

Reception

Jimmy Guterman of ''New Country'' magazine rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying that "Jones expertly walks through a series of boasts, gags... fables, and depictions of emotional devastation that suggest what Hank Williams might have sounded like had he lived to record using the

Nashville sound The Nashville Sound originated during the mid-1950s as a subgenre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of the rough honky tonk music, which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s, with "smooth strings and choruses", "sophist ...

." Guterman also praised the duet with

on "Never Bit a Bullet Like This" as a "riot", and noted the album's cover of " Hello Darlin'" that it "succeeds both as a tribute to Twitty's style and to Jones' ability to wrench new ideas out of a song country fans have heard hundreds of times."

Track listing

Personnel

*George Jones – vocals, guitar *

Barry Beckett Barry Edward Beckett (February 4, 1943 – June 10, 2009) was an American keyboardist, session musician, record producer, and studio founder. He is best known for his work with David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, and Roger Hawkins, his bandmates in ...

– piano * David Briggs – piano *Mike Chapman – bass *Sonny Garrish – steel guitar *Rob Hajacos – fiddle *

John Hughey John Hughey (December 27, 1933 – November 18, 2007) was an American musician. He was known for his work as a session pedal steel guitar player for various country music acts, most notably Vince Gill and Conway Twitty. A member of the Steel Gu ...

– steel guitar *Kirk "Jellyroll" Johnson – harmonica *

– vocals *Mike Lawler – keyboards *

Brent Mason Brent Mason (born July 13, 1959) is an American, Nashville, Tennessee-based recording studio guitarist and songwriter, performing primarily country music. Guitar World Magazine listed him as one of the "Top Ten Session Guitarists of All Time". ...

– guitar * Reggie Young – guitar *Danny Parks – guitar *Larry Paxton – bass *Steve Turner – drums *

Lonnie Wilson Lonnie Wilson is an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer, known primarily for his work in country music. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Wilson was originally the lead singer of the band Bandana, which charted ten singles on the Hot Co ...

– drums *

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist ...

– background vocals *Cindy Walker – background vocals *Dennis Wilson – background vocals *

Chely Wright Chely Wright (born Richell Rene Wright; October 25, 1970) is an American activist, author and country music artist. She initially rose to fame as a commercial country recording artist with several charting singles, including the number one hit ...

– background vocals *Curtis Young – background vocals *

Nashville String Machine Nashville String Machine is a musical collective comprising session musicians, based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Members of the group have been credited on records dating from 1972 to the present, although the group was formally formed ...

– strings

Certifications

References

{{Authority control George Jones albums MCA Records albums 1993 albums Albums produced by Buddy Cannon Albums produced by Norro Wilson