Tears & Heartaches/Old Records

The cumbersomely-titled Tears and Heartaches/Old Records takes its name from the album's two singles, neither of which were hits despite the liner notes' claim. The album is another of Starr's late-career country albums and, stylistically as well as chronologically, falls between Just Plain Country and Kay Starr Country. The sound is more traditionally "country" than the former, but is still rooted in Starr's established pop style unlike the latter. "I Waited a Little Too Long," in fact, is a pure pop ballad with strings, and "Make the World Go Away" is a ubiquitous country-pop crossover song. But "Flowers on the Wall" uses a banjo, and the nostalgic "Old Records" is easy to imagine coming from the mouth of any country songstress. Starr had a minor hit a few years earlier with Buck Owens' "Foolin' Around," so here she performs his "I Don't Care" with bright, Bakersfield-style electric guitar accompaniment. Starr wasn't able to make a go of it in country music in the '60s and '70s — if, in fact, that is what she was trying to do — but her country albums are appealing and a little bit novel coming from such an established pop star.