High-Tech Redneck

High-Tech Redneck
Studio album by George Jones
Released	November 23, 1993
Genre	Country
Length	30:46
Label	MCA
Producer	Buddy Cannon Norro Wilson
George Jones chronology
Walls Can Fall (1992)Walls Can Fall1992 High-Tech Redneck (1993) I Lived to Tell It All (1996)I Lived to Tell It All1996

High-Tech Redneck is an album by American country music singer George Jones. It was released in 1993 on the MCA Nashville Records label and went Gold in 1994.

Recording

By 1993, Jones had recorded two critically acclaimed albums for MCA but was still having a great deal of difficulty getting played on the radio, which was focused on younger, emerging stars. The new album, which employed two producers, Buddy Cannon and Norro Wilson, was an attempt by MCA to broaden the singer's appeal, with biographer Bob Allen observing in his book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend, "In 1993, the label released Hi-Tech Redneck, a new and oddly uneven Jones LP that tried to cast him in a slightly different and more lighthearted perspective, in hopes of breaking the radio deadlock." It didn't work; the album made it to number 30 on the Billboard country albums chart while the single peaked at 24 - a very respectable showing in reality, considering the lack of radio play the singer was getting. The other single from this album to make a chart appearance in Billboard was his duet with Sammy Kershaw, "Never Bit a Bullet Like This", a song also found on Kershaw's 1993 album Feelin' Good Train. The album was dedicated to Conway Twitty, who had died in June 1993, and features a cover of Twitty's "Hello Darlin'" to close out the album, which Jones had also recorded during his stint on the Musicor label.

"A Thousand Times a Day" was later recorded by Patty Loveless on her 1997 album The Trouble with the Truth. "The Visit" was later record by Chad Brock on his 2000 album Yes!

Reception

Ron Wynn of AllMusic praises the collection, writing that Jones sounds "steely on the title cut, and such songs as "I've Still Got Some Hurtin' Left to Do" and "Tear Me Out of the Picture" are the type of earnest, unsophisticated heartache songs that define country."

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"High-Tech Redneck"	Byron Hill, Zack Turner	2:26
2.	"I've Still Got Some Hurtin' Left to Do"	Donny Kees, Richard Ross	2:51
3.	"The Love in Your Eyes"	Wayland Holyfield, Norro Wilson	3:52
4.	"The Visit"	Gene Ellsworth, Brad Rodgers, Charles Stefl	3:21
5.	"Silent Partners"	Bobby Braddock	3:03
6.	"Tear Me Out of the Picture"	Bill Rice, Sharon Rice, Mike Lawler	3:25
7.	"A Thousand Times a Day"	Gary Burr, Gary Nicholson	3:06
8.	"Never Bit a Bullet Like This" (featuring Sammy Kershaw)	Jim Foster, Mark C. Petersen	2:21
9.	"Forever's Here to Stay"	Larry Bastian, Buddy Cannon	3:38
10.	"Hello Darlin'"	Conway Twitty	2:43

Personnel

• George Jones – vocals, guitar
• Barry Beckett – piano
• David Briggs – piano
• Mike Chapman – bass
• Sonny Garrish – steel guitar
• Rob Hajacos – fiddle
• John Hughey – steel guitar
• Kirk "Jellyroll" Johnson – harmonica
• Sammy Kershaw – vocals
• Mike Lawler – keyboards
• Brent Mason – guitar
• Reggie Young – guitar
• Danny Parks – guitar
• Larry Paxton – bass
• Steve Turner – drums
• Lonnie Wilson – drums
• Vince Gill – background vocals
• Cindy Walker – background vocals
• Dennis Wilson – background vocals
• Chely Wright – background vocals
• Curtis Young – background vocals
• Nashville String Machine – strings

Chart performance

Album

Chart (1993)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums	30
U.S. Billboard 200	124

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions
		US Country	CAN Country
1993	"High-Tech Redneck"	24	62
1994	"Never Bit a Bullet Like This"	52	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Certifications

Region	Certification
United States (RIAA)	Gold