James Talley
Dave Pomeroy — revered session bassist, president of the Nashville Musicians Association and international vice president of the American Federation of Musicians — is talking about an album he produced: Bandits, Ballads and Blues, the latest from singer-songwriter James Talley.
“James is considered by many to be the Godfather of Americana, and I think it’s a pretty appropriate title,” Pomeroy says. “He was mixing up genres in a way that very few people were doing at that time, certainly in Nashville.”
That time was the mid-1970s, when Talley made four albums for Capitol Records that cemented his place in history as one of the great musical storytellers. He began that string with 1975’s Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love, which he self-financed and produced. Got No Bread earned him acclaim from major music critics, including Robert Hilburn in the Los Angeles Times, Dave Marsh in Rolling Stone, and Robert Christgau and Greil Marcus in The Village Voice.
His second album Tryin’ Like the Devil earned him more critical praise, as well as an invitation to perform at the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter. When one of Talley’s biggest supporters at Capitol left following his third album Blackjack Choir, the label dropped the ball on the promotion for his next record Ain’t It Somethin’. Talley chose to part ways with the label after that, but his career lost traction.
To support his family, Talley took a job in real estate in 1983 and soon became a successful Nashville agent, but he never stopped writing songs and making records. He released three studio albums and a live album via Bear Family between 1985 and 1994, and between 2000 and 2008, he released another six albums on his own Cimarron label. In his review of the first of those Cimarron releases, a tribute album titled Woody Guthrie and Songs of My Oklahoma Home, then-Scene music editor Bill Friskics-Warren christened Talley “the Godfather of Americana.”
As with many of the greatest Nashville singer-songwriters, Talley’s music is hard to categorize precisely. He’s been called country, he’s been called blues, and there even is a Latino influence in his writing from time spent in New Mexico in his youth. But the folk traditions of fellow Oklahoman Guthrie and others are at the heart of his songwriting.
“I’ve always loved folk music,” Talley says. “I love the stories in it.”
Released in January and rich with stories, Bandits, Ballads and Blues is Talley’s 15th album. It’s his first since 2008’s Heartsong, and it almost certainly will be his final release. “This is my last album,” the 80-year-old Talley confirms.
Talley had previously worked with Pomeroy as a producer on 1992’s The Road to Torreon. When he decided to make one final record, he enlisted Pomeroy’s help again.
“I had reached a point where I had more than enough songs for an album,” Talley says. “Dave and I went through what I had and picked out the best songs for the record.”
The title is more or less an overview of the kinds of material that made the cut: some songs about outlaws, some ballads and some blues. In three of the songs, Talley says farewell — to a parent in “The Dreamer (A Song for My Father),” to his faithful dog in “Somewhere in the Stars (A Song for Diego)” and to a neighbor who was a Vietnam vet in “For Those Who Can’t (For Frank Archuleta).”
With the exception of a few overdubs recorded at Pomeroy’s home studio, Bandits, Ballads and Blues was tracked in April 2023 at Sound Emporium, the studio where Talley cut Blackjack Choir. The month before Talley recorded the album, the University of Oklahoma Press published his memoir, Nashville City Blues: My Journey as an American Songwriter. The book, which has received glowing reviews, features a foreword by Peter Guralnick, who recognized Talley’s importance in his authoritative 1979 exploration of roots music, Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians. The significance of overseeing Talley’s final recording sessions was not lost on Pomeroy.
“There was a certain amount of heaviness going in, like, ‘This is my last record,’” Pomeroy recalls. “I said, ‘All right, man, let’s really do it the way we want to do it and with the right people.’ That was a huge component — picking the band. And everybody exceeded James’ and my very high expectations.”
In addition to Pomeroy on bass, Talley was backed on the record by Doyle Grisham on acoustic guitar and pedal steel; Mike Noble on acoustic and electric guitars; Billy Contreras on fiddle; Jeff Taylor on accordion, piano and organ; and Mark Beckett on drums. The overdubs at Pomeroy’s studio included a trumpet part on “Jesus Wasn’t a Capitalist” by Andrew Carney and background vocals on a pair of songs by The McCrary Sisters — Regina, Ann and Alfreda. Jason Kyle Saetveit, who serves on the SAG-AFTRA Nashville board with Talley, also contributed background vocals remotely.
If Bandits, Ballads and Blues is indeed Talley’s swan song, it is a fitting finale to a historic career.
“I’m proud of it,” Talley says. “And maybe people will discover it eventually. I’m amazed at how people keep discovering my Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money album.”
