Larry, I was just wondering if any new information has surfaced yet as to why Mary left so much material on Jim unreleased. Thanks to the Voicemasters CD's, we've had so much new material to enjoy, and I can't understand why Mary never put any of it out. There was Jim's concert with the Nashville Symphony, the radio shows and many unreleased demos like "I'm A Hit Again". She couldn't have possibly thought this material wasn't good enough to release. In fact, most of these were far superior to some things that she did put out.
You need to remember that RCA was acquired by a German company, BMG, and new people took over before Mary was through releasing material. She complained to me bitterly that they were not interested in doing anything on Jim. In fact, on my blog (at the link below) I have a taped phone conversation I had with her in which we discussed this. Sony ultimately acquired the RCA catalog.
Mary ran out of time and was very frustrated by the lack of interest in or appreciation for Jim's recorded legacy by the new owners of RCA. In our conversation, you can hear her speak candidly to me, describing the label execs as "so dumb it's unbelievable."
(Her demeanor throughout our conversation surely establishes we knew each other well, contrary to the oft-repeated accusations of some of the wackos out there that I didn't know the woman).
Thanks, Larry. You answered a lot of my questions, and so did the tape of your phone call with Mary. I didn't realize that tape was there. I don't know how I missed it, but I just listened to the entire thing, and it was very interesting. I do agree with you that so many of today's country singers like Garth Brooks, although they certainly have some talent, they are NOWHERE NEAR being in the same league as Jim. It astounds me how Garth and some of the others in Country music today have had such amazing success, and they are only fair at best. It certainly shows that the general music buying public has lowered their standards since Jim was around, and will buy just about anything.
on May 19, 2014, 10:45 pm