Artist:     Steve Goodman

Album:     Unfinished Business

Label:     Omnivore Recordings

Release Date:     8.9.19

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I can’t think of a better title for this 1988 Grammy winner reissue for several reasons. First and foremost, it represents in both content and thought, the promise of what might have been, had not Steve Goodman been taken out of the game early on by Leukemia at the age of 36. Secondly, I had the honor some years later, of being part of an album by the same title from Walter Hyatt, another tremendous talent, who was also taken far too young.

Originally compiled by Al Bunetta, Steve’s longtime friend and manager, there is all kinds of business to state here: demos, outtakes, live and unissued recordings. Barn burners like “Mind Over Matter” and “Milli Make Some Chili” and, the stop-you-in-your-tracks Goodman standard “The Dutchman,” recorded live. Also very alive is Steve and Jethro Burns rendering Hank Snow’s signature song “A Fool Such As I.” To make this reissue seem further finished, nine more bonus tracks have been added, and eight of them have not been heard before.

Somewhat ironically for me is reason three. The last song on this 19-song set is a real provocateur from Steve and his longest time friend John Prine. “The Ballad Of Flight 191(They Know Everything About It)” deals with the worst US air disaster, (273 fatalities, in 1979) which occurred in their mutual home town. Snark crashes in the constant repetition of the the tag line “They know everything about it except why … Why that plane fell out of the sky.” My favorite co-writer and friend, Walter Hyatt, was one of the victims of the Valu-Jet disaster in 1996, and “Flight 191” hits hard.

—Ken Spooner