Larry Jon Wilson, a singer/songwriter somewhere between Tony Joe White and Jim Croce, cut four LPs in the second half of the 1970s, none of which sold many copies (New Beginnings, Let Me Sing My Song To You, Loose Change, Sojourner). It's hard to understand why, because he's simply great.
Luckily enough director James Szalapski filmed him doing the selfpenned "Ohoopee River Bottomland" in a recording studio in 1975 for his movie "Heartworn Highways", a musthave for any fan of the midseventies new country scene. Other performances include singer/songwriters Townes van Zandt, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Johny Hiatt, David Allan Coe, a very young Steve Earle, Charlie Daniel Band and Barefoot Jerry with "Two Mile Hike", yet another hard to get piece of great music. The movie is available on a 2003 dvd in an extended version.
Larry Jon Wilson still performs occasionally and cut two great songs for the album "The Country Soul Revue Testifying", produced by Dan Penn.
PS: Somehow the sound wasn't on the clip, so I edited it from the soundtrack.

Update: The new cd "Larry Jon Wilson" was released on 1965 Records in July 2008.
James Endeacott, proprietor of eclectic record label 1965: We've just signed a guy who's 70 years old Larry John Wilson who was mates with Kris Kristofferson in the '70s. He's not made a record in 28 years and he's just made one for us, just him and a guitar recorded in a room overlooking a beach in Florida, and it's heartbreaking.

FAN WEBSITE: www.larryjonwilson.com

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