High-Tech Redneck

Untitled

High-Tech Redneck is an album by American country music singer George Jones. It was released in 1993 on the MCA Nashville Records label and went Gold in 1994.

Recording

By 1993, Jones had recorded two critically acclaimed albums for MCA, but was still having a great deal of difficulty getting played on the radio, which was focused on younger, emerging stars. The new album, which employed two producers, Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson, was an attempt by MCA to broaden the singer's appeal, with biographer Bob Allen observing in his book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, "In 1993, the label released Hi-Tech Redneck, a new and oddly uneven Jones LP that tried to cast him in a slightly different and more lighthearted perspective, in hopes of breaking the radio deadlock." It did not work; the album made it to number 30 on the Billboard country albums chart while the single peaked at 24 - a very respectable showing in reality, considering the lack of radio play the singer was receiving. The other single from this album to make a chart appearance in Billboard was his duet with Sammy Kershaw, "Never Bit a Bullet Like This", a song also found on Kershaw's 1994 album Feelin' Good Train. The album was dedicated to Conway Twitty, who had died in June 1993, and features a cover of Twitty's "Hello Darlin'" to close out the album, which Jones had also recorded during his stint on the Musicor label.

"A Thousand Times a Day" was later recorded by Patty Loveless on her 1996 album The Trouble with the Truth, from which it was released as the second single, becoming a Top 20 hit for her that year. "The Visit" was later recorded by Chad Brock on his 2000 album Yes!

Reception

Jimmy Guterman of New Country magazine rated the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying that "Jones expertly walks through a series of boasts, gags... fables, and depictions of emotional devastation that suggest what Hank Williams might have sounded like had he lived to record using the Nashville sound." Guterman also praised the duet with Sammy Kershaw on "Never Bit a Bullet Like This" as a "riot", and noted of the album's cover of "Hello Darlin'" that it "succeeds both as a tribute to Twitty's style and to Jones' ability to wrench new ideas out of a song country fans have heard hundreds of times."

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"High-Tech Redneck"	Byron Hill, Zack Turner	2:26
2.	"I've Still Got Some Hurtin' Left to Do"	Donny Kees, Richard Ross	2:51
3.	"The Love in Your Eyes"	Wayland Holyfield, Norro Wilson	3:52
4.	"The Visit"	Gene Ellsworth, Brad Rodgers, Charles Stefl	3:21
5.	"Silent Partners"	Bobby Braddock	3:03
6.	"Tear Me Out of the Picture"	Bill Rice, Sharon Rice, Mike Lawler	3:25
7.	"A Thousand Times a Day"	Gary Burr, Gary Nicholson	3:06
8.	"Never Bit a Bullet Like This" (featuring Sammy Kershaw)	Jim Foster, Mark C. Petersen	2:21
9.	"Forever's Here to Stay"	Larry Bastian, Buddy Cannon	3:38
10.	"Hello Darlin'"	Conway Twitty	2:43

Personnel

• George Jones – vocals, guitar
• Barry Beckett – piano
• David Briggs – piano
• Mike Chapman – bass
• Sonny Garrish – steel guitar
• Rob Hajacos – fiddle
• John Hughey – steel guitar
• Kirk "Jellyroll" Johnson – harmonica
• Sammy Kershaw – vocals
• Mike Lawler – keyboards
• Brent Mason – guitar
• Reggie Young – guitar
• Danny Parks – guitar
• Larry Paxton – bass
• Steve Turner – drums
• Lonnie Wilson – drums
• Vince Gill – background vocals
• Cindy Walker – background vocals
• Dennis Wilson – background vocals
• Chely Wright – background vocals
• Curtis Young – background vocals
• Nashville String Machine – strings

Chart performance

Album

Chart (1993)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums	30
U.S. Billboard 200	124

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions
		US Country	CAN Country
1993	"High-Tech Redneck"	24	62
1994	"Never Bit a Bullet Like This"	52	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Certifications

Region	Certification
United States (RIAA)	Gold