Jerry acknowledged \’Southern Roots\’ as the last good rock \’n\’ roll album anybody cut on him. Discover the ten \’lost\’ tracks from this landmark session. Historic recordings presented in unprecedented detail – with all the chatter and all the outtakes that were never intended to be heard. Hear raw vocal/piano versions as they were recorded in the studio prior to overdubbing. Hear Jerry improvise his way through Percy Sledge\’s hit When A Man Loves A Woman, turning it into a chilling slice of psychodrama in the process. These are the MERCURY recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis to take to the Desert Island with you – essential listening for any Jerry Lee Lewis fan.

At long last here are the original session tapes that produced Jerry Lee Lewis\’ 1974 \’Southern Roots\’ LP. Produced by Huey Meaux, a fellow Louisiana wildman, the final results reveal what happens when two fiery, free-spirited forces lock horns in the studio. Meaux had just gotten out of prison and had a reputation you wouldn\’t want in your family tree. Separately, Meaux and Lewis each spelled trouble in a big way and could be impossible to work with. Together? God knows what would happen. The results could be an utter disaster or a stroke of genius. As Meaux later observed, \”I knew Jerry and I would fight, but in the end we\’d come out with the record. We fought, but we delivered.\” For three days in September, 1973 Jerry Lee Lewis and Huey Meaux went at it, and each other. Listen as Jerry Lee is turned loose in the studio by a producer who did try to rein in Jerry\’s ego. In fact, Meaux did everything he could to feed it. That ego is nowhere more evident than on Jerry\’s version of the Percy Sledge 1966 hit, When A Man Loves AWoman, which Jerry turns into a sermon on war between the sexes. Jerry and Huey cut mostly southern music – soul, country, R&B and a touch of swamp pop. They even included a surprisingly impassioned version of Johnny Ray\’s 1952 hit record, Cry. Little did we know that there was supposed to be a second \’Southern Roots\’ album. Only ten tracks ever appeared on the LP – a scant 34 minutes of music – but we\’ve got it all here, including the music that was scheduled to appear on the second \’lost album,\’ all neatly overdubbed and ready for release. We\’ve also go to the stuff you were never meant to hear, and there\’s plenty of it. Some 40 years later this CD lets you be a fly on the wall as Jerry and Huey square off at one another, laughing, arguing and making music late into the night. It\’s Jerry Lee as you\’ve never heard him before.