Money Talks: Greatest Hits

Jimmy Money has spent a career proving that regret sounds better through a valve amplifier.

The gravel-throated drifter of modern Americana has written about empty chairs, unpaid tabs, women who were probably right and roads that become philosophical only after the last service station. His songs smell faintly of coffee, rain and a jacket that should not be left near an open flame.

Money Talks: Greatest Hits gathers the strongest evidence from that career into one deeply unhealthy package. The title track remains Jimmy’s nearest approach to swagger: a dusty, hard-striding number about cash, pride and the speed with which one replaces the other. Even here, victory sounds rented.

“Some Road Left” finds an older, wearier Jimmy taking inventory. The voice is lower, the arrangement is wider and every guitar note seems to know there are fewer miles ahead than behind. It could have become sentimental. Instead, Jimmy clears his throat, looks away and lets the band say the difficult part.

Then there is “The Cigarette Still Burns,” a masterclass in refusing to recover. Jimmy sits with cold coffee, an empty chair and enough regret to make a country singer consider retraining. Haunted guitars drift through the room while he stares into the middle distance, still unwilling to admit that she was probably right.

Taken together, these songs reveal the trick behind Jimmy Money. Beneath the smoke, road dust and barroom mythology is a writer unusually alert to small defeats. He understands that lives do not always break dramatically. Sometimes they simply fail to improve.

MERINGUE! asked Jimmy whether he had any advice for younger artists.

He took a long drag and said, “Keep the receipt.”

Richard says the compilation reminds him of Sandra.

Nobody at MERINGUE! knows Sandra.