By 1973, Tompall Glaser had established a reputation for being a mean sunbitch, a wild and wooly drunk, a man of uncommon generosity and moodiness given to prolonged bouts of solitude, and the wild animal of the party. In other words, he was "complicated." Charlie is the final album by Tompall the Glaser Brothers and is a fitting send-off and the beginning of earnest outlaw music. The 11 tracks here are 11 chapters in Glaser's life and experience, and they range from the tough yet misunderstood cowboy of An Ode to My Notorious Youth, a honky tonk song about being barred from honky tonks, to the tenderness of The Loneliest Man, to the repentant medley of Mickey Gilley's rendition of I'll Fly Away combined with Hank Williams' I Saw the Light. And then there's the mysterious title track, a thinly veiled composite of Glaser and his friends. Side two is seamlessly fine, but the two most outstanding cuts are Glaser's own funky honky tonker Bad, Bad, Bad Cowboy and his cover of Kinky Friedman's Sold American, which has a different accent than the original but is as deeply felt and emoted. On this cut, Glaser looks into the mirror and stares at a reflection that no longer looks him in the eye, but past him as if he were a ghost. The effect is chilling, haunting, and some strange kind of beginning where a man leaves the security of his past behind, but not his demons. Along with The Outlaw Band, this is one of Glaser's greats and should be sought out by anyone interested in 1970s outlaw music. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

1		Charlie
2		Mr. Lonesome
3		Ode to My Notorious Youth
4		Loneliest Man
5		I'll Fly Away
6		Cowboys and Daddys
7		Big Jim Colson
8		Bad Bad Bad Cowboy
9		Gideon Bible
10		Let It Be Pretty
11		Sold American

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