For me, Ole Ian is "da man" when it comes to Western music -- not C & W like they make today but WESTERN meaning COWBOY music. He is the only artist in any performance field that I've joined a fan club for.

Although "18 Inches of Rain" is probably his most "produced" album since he recorded it in Nashville and there are some studio musicians instead of his cadre of Canadian friends playing the accent instruments, e.g., fiddle, I like it best of all the albums. I think the somewhat eclectic mix of musical styles and subjects include some of his best material. Heck it don't get no better than "MC Horses"! Second to me is probably his somewhat long album "Old Corrals and Sagebrush and Other Cowboy Culture Classics" probably because it's a mix of his material and traditional or otherwise old cowboys songs. His last album "Songs from the Gravel Road" is probably my least favorite since he gets a bit away from the cowboy style and throws in a little jazz. "One Jump Ahead of the Devil" was sort of the culminating effort in his brief foray into country-rock. Although the material on that one isn't bad, I didn't care for the sound mix and other production touches; to me it sounds muddy on most every song.

I think I now have everything Ian has ever done except possibly a couple of the special issue collections that are nothing more that mixes of material from the other albums. That includes all Ian and Sylvia and Ian solo. When I occasionally perform songs for small groups, I always throw in a few I&S or Ian cowboy songs unless the event is specific to another musical genre, eg Celtic.

So my recommendation is if you liked Ian's work with Sylvia, you should like most of his solo work.

SC