Elvis Presley - I'm Leavin' (1971)

For this year's Record Store Day, a limited edition Elvis Presley album was released called 'I'm Leavin'', consisting of the best of his folk and country recordings from 1966 to 1973. It included masters from Elvis' session at RCA Victor's Studio B in Nashville from May 1971, where during the recording of some gospel and holiday songs, he taped a number of contemporary folk tunes. The session has attained legendary status over the years, and although some of the songs did eventually turn up, randomly scattered onto subsequent releases over the following few years, there are still some that are unheard. So while it's great to hear five of those songs on the Record Store Day release, I feel that they missed an opportunity there, as they could have released an album consisting of just the songs recorded in Nashville in 1971. As they didn't, then I'll have to, and so this it what the RSD album should have been, with all of the tracks taken from the May 1971 session. I've edited a couple of the tracks, but mostly these are just as they were recorded, and even though I'm not that much of an Elvis fan (heresy, I know, but I love the 1956 stuff and not much else) I do really like this album, and that has to be down to the superb selection of songs which were chosen to cover.

Track listing

01 I'm Leavin'
02 Early Morning Rain
03 I'm Still Here
04 Until It's Time For You To Go
05 Help Me Make It Through The Night
06 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
07 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
08 It's Only Love
09 I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen
10 Amazing Grace
11 (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me
12 I Will Be True