After All These Years

Album Review

Eddy Arnold's warm, neighborly voice has served him well over the years, and since he made his first recording in 1944, he has been at this an astounding sixty-plus years, during which time he has notched 92 Top Ten hits and reached the top spot 28 times. In 2005, at 87-years-old, Arnold has released his 100th album, the calm, wise and unassuming After All These Years, which was produced by Jack Clement and Jim Malloy. Arnold's voice isn't as strong as it used to be, but the warm, caring tone is still there, and he wisely tackles willfully nostalgic ballads that turn his increasingly hushed singing into a clear strength, and on songs like the lead-off track here, the gentle "Old Porch Swing," he gives the lyrics a priceless fragility and presence. Other highlights include the light rocker "Don't She Look Good," and two songs that originally appeared on Clement's 1978 album All I Want to Do in Life, "When I Dream," and "It'll Be Her." Arnold also revisits his 1956 hit, the durable "You Don't Know Me," which was a hit in 1962 for Ray Charles, and again in 1981 for Mickey Gilley. It may be an autumnal statement, but After All These Years has a quiet, easy pace about it that makes it refreshingly novel when placed next to the hustle, bustle, and bluster of most contemporary country releases.