Hello Walls is perhaps the best-known
Faron Young album, largely because of
Willie Nelson's stellar title track, which was a monster smash as a single. But despite the fact that it's the first track on the album, and that Nashville was already deeply entrenched in filling albums around singles with crap,
Young wasn't so easily put down. His voice, his own songwriting, and his ideas about production in a studio were not to be taken lightly, and here they aren't. Along with "Hello Walls," a slew of other fine songs round out this collection, many of them being signposts for other artists: "There's Not Any Like You Left" proved to be an enormous influence on
Buck Owens, "Big Shoes" on
Merle Haggard, "Forget the Past" on
Conway Twitty, and many more. Truth be told, of the 12 tracks here, only "Out of My Heart" and "Anything Your Heart Desires" are losers. The rest is
Young at his best, coming out of the
Hank Williams mold and creating a honky tonk sound that was amiable and full of clever lyrical tricks, with a backing band that was as good as any in the business. This is a great place to start any
Faron Young collection.