Old Dogs was an 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, ...

supergroup composed of singers

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

Mel Tillis Lonnie Melvin Tillis (August 8, 1932 – November 19, 2017) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s as part of the outlaw country movement, ...

Bobby Bare Robert Joseph Bare Sr. (born April 7, 1935) is an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for the songs "Marie Laveau", " Detroit City" and "500 Miles Away from Home". He is the father of Bobby Bare Jr., also a musician. Early ca ...

, and

Jerry Reed Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thi ...

. Signed in 1998 to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

, Old Dogs recorded a self-titled studio album for the label that year. The album's content was written primarily by author, poet, and songwriter

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer / songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended universit ...

. Most of the group's songs were based on the realization of

aging Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

, after Bare told Silverstein that there were "no good songs about growing old." The album was recorded live in studio, so audience applause can be heard between the tracks. The two discs come in different cases, and has different album art for them. The album was also issued as a single disc. "Still Gonna Die" was released as a single from the project. The album was one of the last projects Silverstein completed in his lifetime; he died in May 1999, five months after the album was released.

''Old Dogs'' (1998)

Track listing

All songs written by Shel Silverstein; "She'd Rather Be Homeless", co-written by Anne Dailey.

Disc 1

# "Old Dogs" - 2:21 # "Come Back When You're Younger" - 3:35 # "I Don't Do It No More" - 3:41 # "She'd Rather Be Homeless" - 3:59 # "Cut the Mustard" - 3:25 # "Young Man's Job" - 3:08 # "When I Was" - 2:07 # "Couch Potato" - 3:44 # "Hard When It Ain't" - 2:41 # "Jittabug" - 2:58 # "Me and Jimmie Rodgers" - 4:56

Disc 2

# "Elvis Has Left the Building" - 2:55 # "Wait Until Tomorrow" - 3:16 # "I Never Expected" - 3:23 # "Ever Lovin' Machine" - 3:12 # "Slap My Face" - 2:30 # "Old Man Blues" - 3:45 # "Rough on the Livin'" - 2:53 # "Alimony" - 3:33 # "Still Gonna Die" - 3:45 # "Time" - 3:34

Single-disc version

#"Old Dogs" #"I Don't Do It No More" #"She'd Rather Be Homeless" #"Cut the Mustard" #"Young Man's Job" #"Me and Jimmie Rodgers" #"Elvis Has Left the Building" #"Rough on the Livin'" #"Still Gonna Die" #"I Never Expected" #"Time"

Credits

Vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

- Vocals *

- Vocals, Guitar * Pete Wade -

Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

Thom Bresh Thomas Charles Bresh (February 23, 1948 – May 23, 2022), sometimes spelled Tom Bresh, was an American country music guitarist and singer. Active from the 1970s, Bresh charted multiple singles on the '' Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts. Bi ...

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Mike Leech - Bass * Fred Newell - Guitar,

Steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

* Bobby Emmons -

Electronic keyboard An electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument, an electronic derivative of keyboard instruments. Electronic keyboards include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs an ...

* Jamey Whiting - Keyboard *

Hargus "Pig" Robbins Hargus Melvin Robbins (January 18, 1938 – January 30, 2022), known by his nickname "Pig," was an American session keyboard player. Having played on records for many artists, including John Stewart, Dolly Parton, Connie Smith, Patti Page, Lor ...

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Jay Vern - Organ * Eddy Anderson -

Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Michael Clarke - Drums * Jonathan Yudkin -

Fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

* Ron De La Vega -

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* David L. Schnaufer - Jew's Harp * Gary Kubal -

Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Robert Lovett - Bass,

Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

Jessi Colter Mirriam Johnson (born May 25, 1943), known professionally as Jessi Colter, is an American country singer who is best known for her collaborations with her husband, country musician Waylon Jennings, and for her 1975 country-pop crossover hit " I' ...

- Backing vocals *

Bobby Bare Jr. Robert Joseph Bare Jr. (born June 28, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Early life Bare was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of singer Jeannie Bare (née Sterling) and country musician Bobby Bare, Sr. His parents met i ...

- Backing vocals

Chart performance

Singles

References

External links

Mel Tillis' Official Website
{{Authority control American country music groups Atlantic Records artists Musical quartets American supergroups Musical groups established in 1998 Country music supergroups