One of the defining documents of what became the Americana movement nearly twenty years after its initial release in 1975, James Talley's debut album, Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money But We Sure Got A Lot of Love, is getting a proper reissue on its 30th birthday, on Talley's own label, buttressed by a stirring, Talley-penned essay on the life's journey that forged him as an artist, as well as a bonus disc containing an unabridged interview with the artist that was originally issued as a promo-only disc to radio stations prior to the album's release. It's an impressive package honoring a landmark work by a still-vital artist who continues to conduct his career with an uncompromising vision of himself, his music and his message. Mainstream country was in the first throes of the Outlaw movement in 1975, and though Talley was never lumped in with Willie, Waylon and the boys, he possessed (and still does) the same reverence for the music's deepest roots, its link with the working class, and an unswerving self-assurance when it came to presenting his music his way. The music lives on the shoulders of giants, such as Woody Guthrie (both in the populist sentiments of the folk-ish, strutting title song and in the clever nursery rhyme wordplay of "Daddy's Song"), Bob Wills (in the spirited western swing of "W. Lee O'Daniel and the Light Crust Doughboys") and any number of classic country tunesmiths whose influence is evident in tender, beautifully crafted, soulfully rendered love songs such as "Take Me To the Country" (with an aching pedal steel line every bit as sensitive and nuanced as Talley's heartfelt vocal) and the honky tonk hearbreaker, "No Opener Needed" (check it out, Willie Nelson). This is where the soul of a man resides. Bear witness. -David McGee