Consumer Guide Album

Doug Sahm: Rough Edges [Mercury, 1973]
Look at it this way--if the Atlantic genius factory hadn't tried to transform this all-time ready-steady-go into a '70s folk hero, Mercury would never have hashed together these Quintet rejects. Apparently the potential singles were already used up--covers of Roy Sharpe's "Linda Lu" and Tom T. Hall's "The Homecoming" are the standouts. But every one is as unkempt and wonderful as the rest of Doug's Mercury stuff. And somebody (compiler Paul Nelson? remix engineer Al Vanderbilt?) has insured that the sound is uncommonly bright and strong. B+