This Oklahoma songwriter's 1975 Capitol LP was too rural and honky-tonk to be a hit, but it scored big with critics and is a stunning debut reissued with a bonus interview CD. The album stands as a monument to heart, modesty and nuance. An unvarnished wonder steeped in the music of Woody Guthrie, Bob Wills and Merle Haggard, Talley's record was a “quietly proud album (which) evokes a time and place and a way of life like very little other music before or since.” as John Morthland wrote in No Depression. Pete Seeger had told him to write about the world he knew, and so he did. The sound and spirit wasn't nostalgic; Talley's western memories were real and rich with promise.