Sorry You Couldn't Make It

{{Music ratings

| MC = 79/100{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/sorry-you-couldnt-make-it/swamp-dogg/critic-reviews|title=Metacritic Review|publisher=Metacritic|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sorry-you-couldnt-make-it-mw0003345714|title=AllMusic Review|publisher=AllMusic|last=Deming|first=Mark|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

| rev2 = Exclaim!

| rev2score = 7/10{{cite web|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/swamp_dogg-sorry_you_couldnt_make_it|title=Exclaim! Review|website=Exclaim!|last=Bell|first=Kaelan|date=March 4, 2020|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

| rev3 = God Is in the TV

| rev3score = 8/10{{Cite web|last=Godley|first=Simon|date=March 5, 2020|title=Swamp Dogg – Sorry You Couldn't Make it (Joyful Noise Recordings)|url=http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2020/03/05/swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-make-it-joyful-noise-recordings/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=August 2, 2020|website=God Is in the TV|language=en-US}}

| rev4 = Paste

| rev4score = 8.2/10{{cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/swamp-dogg/swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-make-it-review/|title=Swamp Dogg Proves He Can Succeed at Any Genre on Sorry You Couldn't Make It|work=Paste|last=Edelstein|first=Steven|date=March 20, 2020|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

| rev5 = Pitchfork

| rev5score = 7.1/10{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-make-it/|title=Pitchfork Review|website=Pitchfork|last=Hussey|first=Allison|date=March 17, 2020|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

| rev6 = PopMatters

| rev6score = {{Rating|8|10}}{{Cite web|last=Zuppardo|first=Scott|date=March 10, 2020|title=Swamp Dogg Returns With Joyful Noise on 'Sorry You Couldn't Make It'|url=https://www.popmatters.com/swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-2645421646.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=July 25, 2020|website=PopMatters|language=en}}

| rev7 = Spectrum Culture

| rev7score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://spectrumculture.com/2020/03/31/swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-make-it-review/|title=Spectrum Culture Review|website=Spectrum Culture|last=Paul|first=John|date=March 31, 2020|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

| rev8 = Tom Hull

| rev8score = B+({{Rating-Christgau|hm2}}){{Cite web|last=Hull|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Hull (critic)|date=March 16, 2020|title=Tom Hull: 2828-Music-Week.html|url=http://tomhull.com/ocston/blog/archives/2828-Music-Week.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=August 2, 2020|website=tomhull.com}}

| rev9 = Uncut

| rev9score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{Cite web|last=Lewis|first=John|date=April 9, 2020|title=Swamp Dogg – Sorry You Couldn't Make It|url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-make-it-123891/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=August 2, 2020|website=UNCUT|language=en-GB}}

}}

Sorry You Couldn't Make It was met with generally favorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 79, based on eight reviews. The aggregator Album of the Year has the critical consensus of the album at a 77 out of 100, based on eleven reviews.{{cite web|url=https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/199341-swamp-dogg-sorry-you-couldnt-make-it.php|title=Album of the Year Review|website=Album of the Year|access-date=May 18, 2020}}

Steven Edelstone of Paste praised the album saying "Sorry You Couldn't Make It represents yet another late-career experiment in a lengthy one filled with them, a back-to-basics approach by an artist who's seen it all. There’s no telling where Swamp Dogg goes from here, but if his most recent handful of releases are anything to go off of, it'll likely sound nothing like Sorry You Couldn't Make It. But it also means that no matter what genre he tries on next, the results will be astounding". Scott Zuppardo of PopMatters stated "Sure, he loves his horns, we all do, but his country roots are showing on this record, and it's glorious". John Lewis of Uncut said "The lyrics are presented with such conviction that it becomes quietly devastating. Rather like Swamp Dogg himself". Allison Hussey of Pitchfork said "His new album Sorry You Couldn't Make It restores him to a more even keel, examining grief from greater distance while savoring life's little sweetnesses. Billed as Williams' country album, Sorry You Couldn't Make It hits its thematic marks within funkified arrangements". AllMusic's Mark Deming said "Sorry You Couldn't Make It declares there should be a place for Swamp Dogg in the country pantheon alongside Charley Pride, Stoney Edwards, Darius Rucker, and the other brave artists who've confronted the color line in Nashville". Kaelen Bell of Exclaim! said "Though it still flirts with the blues, soul and R&B that he's built his name on, the record has a country-fried warmth, coloured by slide guitar and Southern rhythms. That those Southern rhythms are played mostly by chintzy drum machine, that they're undermined by hip-hop-biting guitar samples or artificial horns, is the record's vaguely outlandish appeal". Music critic Tom Hull said "Jerry Williams, started out as an Atlantic r&b producer, released a brilliant debut as Swamp Dogg in 1970, and has been fading in and out ever since, his best moments the ones farthest out. Plays it safe here with a round of soulful blues, but lured John Prine in to cameo on two nostalgic ones, which are daring enough".

{{Track listing

| title1 = Sleeping Without You Is a Drag

| length1 = 4:01

| title2 = Good, Better, Best

| length2 = 2:50

| title3 = Don't Take Her (She's All I Got)

| length3 = 4:59

| title4 = Family Pain

| length4 = 3:08

| title5 = I Lay Awake

| length5 = 3:42

| title6 = Memories

| length6 = 4:47

| title7 = I'd Rather Be Your Used to Be

| length7 = 4:15

| title8 = Billy

| length8 = 2:44

| title9 = A Good Song

| length9 = 2:54

| title10 = Please Let Me Go Round Again

| length10 = 4:40

| total_length = 38:06

}}

• Jerry "Swamp Dogg" Williams Jr. – vocals

Vocalists

{{div col}}

• Channy Leaneagh – vocals (tracks: 1, 7)
• Jenny Lewis – vocals (tracks: 1, 7)
• Mina Moore – vocals (tracks: 1, 7)
• Justin Vernon – vocals (tracks: 2, 4), piano (track 1), guitar (tracks: 2-10)
• Carmen Marks – vocals (track 3)
• Courtland Williams – vocals (track 3)
• Harry Watkins – vocals (track 3)
• Leona Leshon – vocals (track 3)
• Sherron Crenshaw – vocals (track 3)
• Taj' London – vocals (track 3)
• John Prine – vocals (tracks: 6, 10)

{{div col end}}

Instrumentalists

{{div col}}

• Jim Oblon – guitar (tracks: 1, 4)
• Chris Bierden – bass (tracks: 1–7, 9, 10)
• Larry "MoogStar" Clemon – synth (tracks: 1–3, 5–9), congas (track 6)
• Carmen J. Camerieri – horns (tracks: 2, 3, 9)
• Derrick Lee – Hammond B-3 (tracks: 1, 3, 10), Rhodes piano (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10), piano (tracks: 3, 5–9), chorus arrangement (track 3)
• Jacob Hanson – guitar (track 3)
• Alistair Sung – cello (tracks: 3–5, 7)
• Sam Amidon – fiddle (track 4)

{{div col end}}

Technicals

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• Ryan Olson – producer
• Mark Nevers – engineering, mixing
• Zack Pancoast – assistant engineering
• Robert Weston – mastering
• David McMurry – photography
• Daniel Kent – design, layout
• Ryan Hover – design, layout

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://swampdogg.bandcamp.com/album/sorry-you-couldnt-make-it Sorry You Couldn't Make It] at Bandcamp
• {{Discogs master|1695401|Sorry You Couldn't Make It}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2020 albums

Category:Swamp Dogg albums

Category:Joyful Noise Recordings albums