REVIEW POTPOURRI: Farther Down the Road series contains over 60 volumes

The album, Farther Down the Road

by Peter Cates

Farther Down the Road, Volume 2

CBS Special Products, cassette, recorded 1972-1985.

The above was one of a cassette/CD series under the same title of more than 60 volumes, sponsored by Rotella, a line of lubricating products for the heavy duty engines inside extremely large trucks. As with the entire series, this week’s second volume was an anthology of country/western recordings, distributed only through gas stations and truck stops and given to any customer purchasing a minimum of three gallons of the Rotella lubricating oil. Its selections were:

Johnny Cash – One Piece at a Time
Janie Fricke – He’s a Headache
The Gatlin Brothers – Houston
Barbara Mandrell – Midnight Oil
Charlie Daniels Band – Devil Went Down to Georgia
Willie Nelson – Midnight Rider
Tammy Wynette – Another Chance
Ronnie McDowell – Watchin’ Girls Go By
Charly McClain – Men
Merle Haggard – Are the Good Times Really Over ?

My favorites are those by Cash, Nelson and Wynette, the anthology itself being a good one.

A quote from Graham Greene’s essay on Saki, but referring to the novelist who wrote Tale of Two Cities and other such books – “Dickens developed a style so easy and natural that it seems capable of including the whole human race in its understanding.”