Steve Young - Rock, Salt and Nails LP

Label: Real Gone

Rock salt color vinyl edition.

Folks can argue if Steve Young's debut Rock, Salt and Nails is the first "outlaw country" album, but there is no argument that it's one of the best. Featuring a star-studded line-up of like-minded players like Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, James Burton, Chris Ethridge, and Bernie Leadon, this 1969 record starts out with Young's impassioned interpretation of the O.V. Wright/Otis Redding classic "That's How Strong My Love Is," which offers an emphatic bookend to Parsons' own country-soul masterpiece "Dark End of the Street," recorded the same year with the Flying Burrito Brothers.

The rest of the record (produced by Tommy LiPuma) is a beautifully-paced blend of covers and originals, highlighted by Young's immortal "Seven Bridges Road," memorably covered by The Eagles among many others. Rock, Salt and Nails has somehow never been reissued on vinyl in the U.S. A flat-out masterpiece.