Johnny Paycheck's Little Darlin' recordings have been collected on CD a couple of times, once in a superb overview from the Country Music Foundation, once in an aborted series by Koch. Both attempted to present a thorough overview of Paycheck's career, whereas Omni's Nowhere to Run: Little Darlin' Years 1966-1979 opts for an impressionistic portrait, an approach underlined by their wildly misleading sticker proclaiming Paycheck "The David Lynch of Country Music." Paycheck may have had a taste for the bizarre, but thinking of this as the soundtrack to a Frank Booth joyride is inaccurate: this is pure honky tonk and progressive country, made without affectation but possessing a violent, fatalistic streak and a wry sense of black humor. Chroniclers of country oddities that they are, Omni gravitates toward this side of Johnny, ignoring hits like "A-11," "The Lovin' Machine," and "Jukebox Charlie" seemingly for aesthetic reasons, but they can't change the music; they can't change the fact that Paycheck is among the purest, best country singers, and that's why this is decidedly more than a period curio: it's great, enduring music. And Omni has found a good chunk of Paycheck's Little Darlin' recordings that have never made their way to CD before: there are ten duplicates from the CMF's The Real Mr. Heartache, but many of other 19 tracks make their CD debut, with a handful seeing their first release here. Nowhere to Run begins in 1966, essentially picks up where the Koch series left off, then runs until the singer left Little Darlin' for Epic, so this serves up a lot of rare Paycheck for eager collectors, who will not be disappointed by the high quality of "The Pint of No Return," "Problem Solvin' Doctor," and "The Late and Great Me," but this isn't solely for fanatics. Although it may downplay the hits and early honky tonk, this winds up as an excellent overview of Johnny Paycheck's '60s recordings and, as of 2009, the only one easily available, too.