VIA PRESS RELEASE | Ween’s beloved country music detour, 12 Golden Country Greats, turns 30 this summer and Rhino is celebrating by remastering the album and expanding it with more than 20 unreleased demos and outtakes from the Nashville sessions.
12 Golden Country Greats (Deluxe Edition) will be available July 31 on 3CDs and 3LPs, with a color-vinyl version available exclusively from Rhino.com and Ween.com. The Deluxe Edition will also be available for streaming and digital download. Pre-order here. Previously unreleased track “Bad Day In Brownsville” is available digitally today.
To make 12 Golden Country Greats, Dean Ween (Mickey Melchiondo) and Gene Ween (Aaron Freeman) traded the Tascam four-track cassette recorders of their early years for the professional polish of Bradley’s Barn near Nashville.
Produced by Ben Vaughn, the duo recruited The Shit Creek Boys—a group of elite session musicians including The Jordanaires, who had previously backed Elvis Presley. Sticking to Nashville tradition, Melchiondo and Freeman provided only vocals, allowing veteran players like pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins and fiddler Buddy Spicher to handle the instrumentation across songs like “Piss Up A Rope,” “I’m Holding You,” and “Pretty Girl.”
The Deluxe Edition’s bonus material includes two tracks cut from the original album: “I’ve Got No Darkside” and the Jerry Garcia tribute “So Long, Jerry.” Their inclusion completes the “12” tracks suggested by the album’s title, appearing here as both four-track demos and fully produced Nashville session outtakes.
The collection is further expanded by additional rarities, including the first official release of “Boston Chicken,” their cover of the Rolling Stones “Fool to Cry,” “Good Timing Rhyming Song,” and more across this 36-song collection.
