I Wonder Where You Are Tonight

1	Hey, Hey Bartender 2:39
2	Willie Roy 3:58
3	Prisoner's Song 2:28
4	I'm Coming Back but I Don't Know When previously unreleased 3:05
5	I Wonder Where You Are Tonight 2:39
6	Fire on the Mountain 1:42
7	You're a Flower in the Wildwood 2:36
8	Used to Be 1:55
9	Dreams 4:18
10	Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On 2:12
11	Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong previously unreleased 3:22
12	Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms 2:43
13	Blue Yodel 2:35
14	A Beautiful Life 2:17

Barnes & Noble

Among the most acclaimed of today’s bluegrass artists, singer-guitarist-bandleader Del McCoury can trace his current status back to unimpeachable musical roots. Playing professionally since 1957, McCoury joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in the early '60s. After a short but memorable stint with the finest of all bluegrass units, McCoury set out on his own: I Wonder Where You Are Tonight, recorded in 1967, was his first album. Although cut with pickup musicians rather than a full-time unit, this debut captures all the exuberance and polish that has endeared McCoury to successive generations of bluegrass fans. The leader sounds fresh and frisky on this collection of standards, including Monroe’s “Used to Be” and Jimmy Rodgers’s “Blue Yodel,” as well as McCoury’s terrific original “Dreams.” In other words, this isn’t just an early snapshot of an emerging talent; it’s a fully satisfying work in itself. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

McCoury's first album as a bandleader was recorded in two days in December 1967. Although he didn't have a regular band at the time, he was backed by a solid quartet (though five other musicians appear in all, with Tommy Neal and Dewey Renfro alternating on bass), three of them capable background singers as well. McCoury's vocals had the high, lonesome sound for which bluegrass is esteemed, but put over with more easygoing, engaging friendliness than some slicker, flashier singers and players. The songs were a well-chosen mix of traditional standards and songs by his one-time boss Bill Monroe; the Monroe-Lester Flatt collaboration "Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong"; Johnny Bond; Kitty Wells; Jimmie Rodgers; and, on just one tune (the ballad "Dreams," one of the more pensive heartfelt numbers), McCoury himself. According to Chris Strachwitz's liner notes, the 2002 CD reissue discards the compression heard on the stereo mix of the original LP and more accurately reflects the music as it was originally recorded. Richie Unterberger