Tommy Cash - Rise and Shine (1970)

Tommy Cash's first album for Epic takes its title from a Carl Perkins song and leans heavily on the Merle Haggard songbook, using "Silver Wings," "Irma Jackson," and "The Fightin' Side of Me" as the foundation for a solid collection of progressive country-pop circa 1969. Cash blends these progressive country tunes with a conservative streak, surfacing on Hag's "The Fightin' Side of Me" and Glenn Sutton's "The Tears on Lincoln's Face." Sutton has another pair of tunes here, highlighted by the riotous "The Honest Truth," a song co-written with Cash that ends with the narrator being slain by his wife after a night of debauchery. That's the wildest things get on Rise and Shine: the rest rolls along gently, particularly on the reflective "Memory Town" and swaying "Carried Away," turning into a solid slice of early-'70s mainstream country. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine