Larry Jon Wilson wasn’t so much ahead of his times as slightly sideways from them. The blend of country-influenced, heartfelt songwriting and swampy funk grooves that powers this long-overdue reissue of the Georgia-born songwriter’s first two albums was fairly fashionable when these records were cut in the mid-70′s. But Wilson chose to go to the extremes. When the tracks opt for heartbreak and sorrow, Wilson digs way down into the Blues, keeping things intimate – to a point where it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing such deeply personal tunes, despite their richly sumptuous melodies. When the occasion calls for a rhythmic throb, Wilson and his stellar studio band conjure a swampy funk that’s deeper than anything that his admirers and contemporary colleagues – Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt, Mickey Newbury – managed to procure.

Raised in Augusta, Georgia, LJW had a serious stab at music at a relatively late stage, giving up respectable employment as a technical consultant (Wilson studied chemistry at the University of Georgia) to become a full-time musician and songwriter in his early 30s. By the time of his 1975 debut New Beginnings, Wilson was already 35 – an antique specimen from a rock ‘n’ roll perspective.

Not that it should’ve mattered: New Beginnings is easily strong enough to counter any suspicions of advanced age-derived un-hipness. Anyone with even a passing interest in the union between soul and country music, established in the early 70s and maintained by such contemporary acts as the Duke & The King, will be able to tell they’ve located solid gold as soon as Wilson’s deep baritone utters the first appreciative “mm-hmm” a few bars into the opening ‘Ohoopee River Bottomland’, a fat-bottomed swamp-funk account of hard times in the city and country alike. Funny, nostalgic, sad, wistful, righteously pissed-off: New Beginnings is country-influenced American songwriting at its finest, from the feverish country-got-soul groove pulsating behind the weary sigh of ‘Through The Eyes of Children’ to the elemental lament ‘Things Ain’t What It Used to Be (and Probably Never Was)’, a country standard that somehow got away, Wilson’s compelling presence and rich voice keeping saccharine and self-pity at bay at all times. Even so, New Beginnings failed to propel Wilson to even the relatively modest cult acclaim enjoyed by his likeminded contemporaries.

Some of the frustration can be heard on 1976′s Let Me Sing My Song to You. Both the title track and the self-deprecating ‘Drowning in the Mainstream’ speak of Wilson’s hope to inch at least a few steps towards the big time without making too many compromises, but it’s probably telling that the album packs a couple of covers that come closer to country conventions than Wilson’s own songs ever would. That said, any album containing the likes of the heartfelt, deeply beautiful tribute of ‘Ballad of Handy Mackey’ and the superlative country-gothic funk opus ‘Sheldon Churchyard’ must rank as essential listening.