First issued in 1999 (the same year as Sahm’s death), this updated Prime Of… augments the original’s 15 cuts with a further 26, beginning with 1964’s “Sugar Bee” and jumping off somewhere around the late ’70s. It’s a patch-up of sorts, but nevertheless reaffirms Sahm as a unique country/blues/Tex-Mex/soul filter, be it via anguished balladry (“Dallas Alice”), Bayou swing (“Beginning Of The End”), strutting two-step (“She’s About A Mover”) or frisky barrio (“Please Just Say So”). A fitting companion piece to last year’s near-definitive Sahm round-up, The Genuine Texas Groover.
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