A Collection of Lost George Jones Recordings Will Be Available Next Month: Full Tracklist and What To Expect

A collection of previously lost George Jones recordings will hit streaming services next month. George Jones: The Lost Nashville Sessions will feature 16 classic tracks like fans have never heard them before. “The Honky Tonk Downstairs,” the first single from the collection dropped last Friday (October 18).

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Jones originally recorded the tracks in the ‘70s for radio airplay and promotion. As a result, he cut the tracks in one or two takes. So, even though the album has familiar songs, they’re recorded in a way that will be fresh to even longtime fans. Additionally, producer Paul Martin enhanced the tracks to meet modern sonic standards. They also added instrumentation and backing vocals to fill out some recordings.

[RELATED: Exclusive: Hear George Jones’ New Song “The Honky Tonk Downstairs,” the First Single From ‘The Lost Nashville Sessions’]

Usually, these promotional recordings would air on the radio, then the tapes would go into the garbage. That wasn’t the case for this collection, though. Thomas Gramuglia, president and executive producer at Country Rewind Records found the masters and knew that he had something special on his hands.

Nancy Jones on George Jones: The Lost Nashville Sessions

Recently, George Jones’ widow Nancy Jones spoke about the forthcoming collection with American Songwriter. She said that she was initially on board with releasing the lost recordings. However, she wanted to know more about their origin and how Gramuglia found them. When she learned that they were promotional recordings for radio airplay, she knew they would be special.

“George was comfortable in there because he wasn’t trying to do it in the studio where you had to stop and talk and stop and do this and redo that and wait for this,” Mrs. Jones said. “He just sung straight on, and he was comfortable with it. It’s totally different than what George would’ve done in the studio,” she added.

“They’re songs that you’ve heard before, but you’ve never heard them sung this way,” she said of the collection. “Being George Jones instead of being like, ‘Oh, darn, I made that mistake. Let me redo that.’ It wasn’t none of that. It was just straight through.”

The Lost Nashville Sessions Tracklist

1. “Window Up Above”
2. “I’ll Share My World with You”
3. “The Race Is On”
4. “The Grand Tour”
5. “Once You’ve Had the Best”
6. “Love Bug”
7. “She Thinks I Still Care”
8. “Four O Thirty-Three”
9. “The Honky Tonk Downstairs”
10. “Old Brush Arbors”
11. “A Picture of Me Without You”
12. “Walk Through This World With Me”
13. “Tender Years”
14. “She’s Mine”
15. “White Lightnin’”
16. “Hey Good Lookin’”

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