The Excellent Sides of Swamp Dogg, Vol. 2

The second volume of Jerry Williams’ comprehensive career retrospective *The Excellent Sides of Swamp Dogg* collects two of Williams’ finest early ‘70s albums, the relatively slick *Cuffed, Collared and Tagged* and 1973’s independently released, and subsequently achingly obscure *Gag A Maggot*. *Cuffed, Collared & Tagged* found Williams and his usual studio accomplices recording at Muscle Shoals and Philadelphia’s famed Regnet Studios. Unsurprisingly the ambience of these legendary venues had little effect on Swamp Dogg’s powerful musical personality, and *Cuffed, Collared and Tagged* bears more resemblance to down-home Swamp Dogg efforts like *Rat On* than it does to the work of Muscle Shoals regulars like Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. *Gag A Maggot* features some of Williams’ finest songwriting, including the bitter “Choking To Death on The Ties That Bind” and the bawdy “I Couldn’t Pay For What I Got Last Night.”