I-40 Country

Jerry Lee Lewis didn't get much of a boost out of his 1973 return to rock & roll — a revival arriving on two separate LPs, one recorded in England (The Session) and one back home (Southern Roots) — so he slid back to country, scoring a hit with "Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough" from the album of the same name. I-40 Country arrived a year later, easing into stores in 1974 under the guise of a truck-driving country LP. While these 11 songs do sound good on the open road, none of them are about big rigs or highways, nor do they roll along to a Bakersfield beat. No, they're straight-ahead barroom weepers punctuated by the very occasional novelty — so occasional, it doesn't extend beyond "Alcohol of Fame." The opening pair of "Tell Tale Signs" and "He Can't Fill My Shoes" were hits — reaching 18 and eight, respectively — but the attention is often drawn to "Room Full of Roses," a version that coincided with a version his cousin Mickey Gilley turned into a career-making hit. Gilley sounds invested in his version but Jerry Lee sounds as if he's singing through a hangover, a (possible?) affectation that is also the key to the appeal of I-40 Country. Not one of his stronger records, either in terms of content or performance, it nevertheless has a bleary-eyed charm — a record for mornings that arrived too quickly or road trips that are lasting hours too long.