Johnny Paycheck - 11 Months and 29 Days (1976/2018)

11 Months and 29 Days created the rowdy, rebel persona that made him a star in the late '70s, but it's not too far removed from the music that Johnny Paycheck was making just a few years prior to its 1976 release; he was already signed to Epic and already working with Billy Sherrill, who helped polish Paycheck enough for the big 1971 hit "She's All I Got," which almost became a pop crossover tune. The genius of Sherrill is that he was so commercially savvy he could figure out how to get mavericks like Paycheck onto the charts without diluting their power, and that's especially true with 11 Months and 29 Days, which was considerably rougher than She's All I Got there's no attempt at sweetening with strings here, a move on that 1971 effort and on Sherrill's productions for George Jones yet clearly the work of a Nashville pro in its nuanced productions, where the slight shifts in tone and additional musicians are subtle yet carry enormous impact. Witness how 11 Months begins with Paycheck's greasy jailhouse blues of the title track and the relaxed barroom shuffle of "The Woman Who Put Me Here" before slowly shifting toward the honky tonk weepers of "The Feminine Touch" and "I Sleep with Her Memory Every Night" before snapping into a rip-roaring cover of Paul Simon's "Gone at Last" that amplifies all the gospel influences of the original. It's varied but focused thanks to Sherrill's easy touch, and it emphasizes Paycheck's range the suppleness of his ballads, the grit and danger of his honky tonk ravers, and how he can break free of either. It's a terrific album with only one flaw: it wasn't a hit. But even if it didn't tear up the charts, it established the sound and persona that became Paycheck's signature in the late '70s.