LEWIS, Jerry Lee
Southern Swagger

1-CD with 28-page booklet, 32 tracks. Playing time approx. 73 mns.

A unique collection of Jerry Lee's most confident/sexually aggressive performances. Because sexual energy fuelled Jerry Lee's best music, 'Southern Swagger' is a very powerful collection that stands with his 'Best Of' compilation. The collection covers his entire Sun period through his early 1970s recordings and includes rare alternate takes and mixes.

Southern Swagger Nobody had more of it than Jerry Lee Lewis. He was the menace every parent had in mind when the cry went out, 'Lock up your daughters!' A wild man on the loose. 'If the good Lord made anything better than a woman,' Jerry Lee famously observed, 'He kept it for himself.'

Jerry Lee Lewis had no illusions about himself. Through a long and varied life, he has remained true to his inner demons. And we have those demons to thank for some of the rawest, most honest and inspired music in the history of rock 'n' roll.

The tracks on this album are drawn from Jerry Lee's earliest years on the Sun label in Memphis, with a few added examples from the next decade at Mercury Records. Jerry was barely past his teenage years when he began recording the music we present here. Each track, in its own way, reflects something about Jerry Lee's view of the universe and his place in it. As philosophies go, this one is pretty simple: Raising hell and chasing women are what it's all about.

As this disc reveals, Jerry Lee's swagger was not something he developed as his career and reputation grew. It was there from the very earliest days. Even on his later country-based sides for Mercury, Jerry is still irrepressible. Whether he's playing the role of pathetic loser, beaten-down lover or dumb schmuck who's about to get left behind, Jerry still manages to sound like he's come out on top. That, of course, is part of his enduring appeal.

Jerry could hardly keep that confidence, that bravado, that Southern Swagger under control. Sometimes it reared its lustful, sneering head in his music. A phrase here, an aside there. Until now, samples of Jerry Lee's Southern Swagger have been scattered over his entire career, buried like little time bombs among hundreds of singles and albums. For the first time, we gather a lusty collection of such performances on a single CD - both the issued tracks as well as some originally unissued alternate takes. For good measure, we throw in some unguarded studio chatter. This CD offers the best look ever at what makes Jerry Lee the royalty of Southern Swagger. In a field dominated by super-size egos, Jerry Lee is still King.