Personnel: George Jones (vocals); Don Potter (acoustic guitar); Pete Wade, Danny Parks (electric guitar); John Hughey (steel guitar); Harold Bradley (tic tac); Paul Franklin (dobro); Glen Duncan (fiddle); Terry McMillan (harmonica); Gary Gazaway (trumpet); Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano); Rodger Morris, Mike Lawler (keyboards); Roy Husky, Jr. (acoustic bass); Paul Leim (drums); Farrell Morris (percussion); Jim Chapman, Marabeth Jordan, Jana King, Millie Kirkham, Larry Marrs, Louis Nunley, Julie Reeves, Curtis Young, Dennis wilson, Bergen White (background vocals).
Recorded at Javelina Studio, Music Mill, Woodland Studios and Groucho Studio, Nashville, Tennessee. Includes liner notes by George Jones.
Personnel: George Jones (vocals, guitar); Don Potter (acoustic guitar); Pete Wade, Danny Parks (electric guitar); John Hughey (steel guitar); Paul Franklin (dobro, fiddle); Glen Duncan (fiddle); Terry McMillan (harmonica); Gary Buho Gazaway (trumpet); Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano); Mike Lawler, Rodger Morris (keyboards); Roy M. "Junior" Husky (upright bass); Paul Leim (drums); Farrell Morris (percussion); Larry Marrs, Curtis Young, Dennis Wilson , Jana King, Jim Chapman, Julie Reeves, Marabeth Jordan, Bergen White, Louis Dean Nunley, Millie Kirkham (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Brian Tankersley.
Recording information: Groucho Studio, Nashville, TN; Javelina Studio, Nashville, TN; Music Mill, Nashville, TN; Woodland Studios, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: Peter Nash.
Unknown Contributor Role: Harold Bradley.
A companion piece to his best-selling autobiography of the same name, I Lived to Tell It All is a surprising return to form by George Jones. Where The Bradley Barn Sessions tried to be an authentic release in the vein of a Hightone record and where High-Tech Redneck was clueless in its calculation, I Lived to Tell It All is an effortless encapsulation of Jones' gifts. There are honky tonk raveups, there are heart-tugging barroom weepers, and, best of all, there are several novelties that rank among the most clever and self-deprecating that Jones has ever recorded. Those that were seeking the pseudo-gritty production of The Bradley Barn Session may be discouraged by the slicker sound of I Lived to Tell It All, but there's no denying that Jones sounds recharged and energetic; he's getting a genuine kick singing these songs, which are all loosely auto-biographical. In terms of content and performance, it's his best record since I Am What I Am. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
This album coincided with the release of Jones's tell-all autobiography of the same title. Consequently, it serves as a musical look back at the high and low times of Jones's notoriously colorful life and career. Fortunately, that also means the sound is closer to his classic '60s material than his earlier, more beefed-up '90s productions. The opener "Honky Tonk Song" is based on an infamous, true tale of drunken debauchery from Jones's past, and musically, it lives up to its title.
Much of the other material here follows suit; there are plenty of drinking songs in the time-tested Jones tradition, and finely written ones at that--Dean Dillon and Larry Butler's "Back Down to Hung Up on You" favorably recalls the '70s work of Billy Joe Shaver. When things get raucous, as on "Billy B. Bad," Jones shows that the occasional rockabilly shadings of his early work are still present in his musical world. I LIVED TO TELL IT ALL is a return to form, and is the '90s Jones album to get. minimize