COUNTRY, BLUEGRASS & OLD TIMEY
Merle
Haggard -> Butch Hancock
MERLE HAGGARD |
Anti 86593 |
If I Could Only Fly |
● CD $16.98 |
This album released in October 2000 is the
first album of all new material by Hag in six years.
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Bear Family BCD 15740 |
Same Train - A Different Time |
● CD $21.98 |
29 tracks, 76 min., essential. Merle was rising to the top of
his profession when he recorded his first of several tributes, this one to
Jimmie Rodgers. I remember this album well, for it introduced me to
Rodgers for the first time. Capitol, in their infinite lack of wisdom,
never bothered reissuing the original double LP on CD, and undoubtedly
some of you who tried to buy the Japanese CD reissue missed out due to
limited supply. This one makes it worth the wait. Not only are all the
original tunes included, one outtake from the sessions, Jimmie the Kid,
appears for the first time anywhere. All the narrations from the original
album appear, as do two later covers. Hag's attempts to do these songs his
own way, but preserve the spirit of the originals succeeded beyond
anyone's wildest dreams, in part because he and producer Ken Nelson kept
the music lowkeyed. Nearly complete session information appears here
(taken right from Musicians' Union contracts). Not only are veteran disc
jockey Hugh Cherry's original notes presented, new notes by Charles Wolfe
reveal, for the first time, Cherry's crucial role in conceiving this
album. Hopefully, Bear will next set their sights on Haggard's 1970 Bob
Wills tribute. (RK)
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Bear Family BCD 15744 |
Untamed Hawk |
● CD $119.98 |
133 recordings, 5 CD's, essential. Nobody more deserves the
box set treatment than Merle Haggard. His work is generating so many
reissues that fans who found nothing in record store bins a couple years
ago will find now them overflowing. This one starts
at the beginning: with 1962 recordings and compiling all available the
Tally and Capitol recordings through 1968, except for a few lost masters.
The sole deliberate omission is the Jimmie Rodgers tribute album "Same
Train, A Different Time," which Bear already reissued. All the early hits
are included, and the early Tallys reveal much about Haggard's early
material. Though Skid Row and Life In Prison were good then
and now, much of the Tally material was lackluster. Hag's first hit, the
Wynn Stewart number Sing A Sad Song, showed Haggard parroting Marty
Robbins. Things improved as his own style emerged on the final Tallys.
From Capitol on, Haggard was on an upward curve that produced some of the
greatest country music of any era, from Strangers and Swinging
Doors through Branded Man and Sing Me Back Home. He did
his share of Buck Owens flavored ditties, but even then it was obvious he
was heading for the Hall of Fame. The eight unreleased songs include the
original Swinging Doors, cut in Nashville with Bakersfield
musicians. The Bear Family excellence continues to apply to the packaging.
Complete sessionography was included, with Rhino Records' Patrick Milligan
burrowing at the L.A. Musicians' Union to get complete data. Rare photos
abound in the booklet, the weak point being Dale Vinicur's notes. She
spent time interviewing a very cooperative Haggard, yet her notes reflect
little of that information. She quotes too much from his autobiography
when his 1990's insights into 60's music would have added much. Her
pretentious introduction sounds almost like a put-on. The music, however,
is the star, and it merits the treatment it got here. (RK)
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Capitol 35711 |
Down Every Road, 1962-1994 |
● CD $55.98 |
Four CD box set. A 100 song retrospective of this great
and influential country singer and songwriter. Discs 1 through 3 feature
his Talley and Capitol recordings (1962 and 1977) including his incredibly
rare Skid Row - his first Talley single, of which only 200 were
pressed! The fourth disc features some of his best recordings from RCA,
Epic & Curb from 1977 to 1994. Includes several unissued sides.
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Capitol 91254-2 |
The Best Of The Best Of Merle Haggard |
● CD $11.98 |
This is an 11 song issue of material recorded for Capitol in
the 1970's. Starts off with a live version of Merle's theme song Okie
From Muskogee, and includes a mix of ballads Hungry Eyes/ Today I
Started Loving You Again/ Every Fool Has A Rainbow and up-tempo songs:
Workin' Man Blues/ Daddy Frank/ The Fightin' Side Of Me. Love or
him hate him, this is the essence of Merle in a 30 minute package. (PG)
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Columbia 65947 |
Big City |
● CD $11.98 |
Another classic album newly remastered as part of the
American Milestones series. Possibly Merle's best album of the 80s with
two bonus unissued tracks.
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Curb 77352 |
A Christmas Present |
● CD $8.98 |
10 songs originally recorded for Capitol including If We
Make It Through December/ Bobby Wants A Puppy Dog For Christmas (!) /Grandma's
Christmas Card/ Silver Bells/ Silent Night, etc.
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Curb 77410 |
All Night Long |
● CD $11.98 |
This disc opens promisingly with All Night Long, a
nice duet with Randy Travis. The sound quality and musicianship are good,
and songs like Holding Things Together/ If You've Got Time/ Uncle Lem
are the stand-outs here. Unfortunately some of the lyrics on this disc can
be seen as somewhat offensive to minorities and women, and there is even a
insult about San Francisco and its' "filthy modern hippy folks."
If you like Merle Haggard, you might like this disc, but it's not going to
convert many new fans. (PG)
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Curb 77490 |
18 Rare Classics |
● CD $11.98 |
At last - a Curb collection with decent liner notes AND a
healthy selection of tunes, all drawn from his later Capitol recordings of
the 60's and 70's. With Green Green Grass Of Home/ Running Kind/ Silver
Wings/ Grandma Harp/ Kentucky Gambler/ A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere
Today and more. (MB)
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Epic EK 39545 |
His Epic Hits - The First 11 |
● CD $9.98 |
This album features 11 of Hag's biggest hits recorded for
Epic between 1981 & 1984 - Reasons to Quit (with Willie
Nelson)/ That's the Way Love Goes/ Big City/ Someday When Things Are
Good/ My Favorite Memory/ C.C. Waterback, etc
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Epic EK 46925 |
Greatest Hits Of The 80's |
● CD $9.98 |
10 cuts from Merle's last decade with Epic, yielding such
hits as Yesterday's Wine (with George Jones), A Friend In
California/ Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star/ Chill Factor/ 5:01 Blues/ A
Better Love Next Time and more.
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MERLE HAGGARD |
MCA Special Products 1645 |
Serving 190 Proof |
● CD $7.98 |
One of his best MCA albums - Footlights/ Driftwood/ I
Must Have Done Something Wrong/ My Own Kind of Hat , etc
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MERLE HAGGARD |
MCA MCAD 5573 |
His Best |
● CD $9.98 |
10 more fine sides - I Think I'll Just Stay here And
Drink/ Red Bandana/ It's Been A Great Afternoon/ Misery & Gin/ If
We're Not Back In Love By Monday, etc.
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MERLE HAGGARD |
Varese Vintage 66164 |
20 Number One Hits |
● CD $15.98 |
With so many reissues of Merle's classic recordings
available I'm not sure if there really is a need for remakes of his hits
made in the 90s. That being said, however, these are certainly fine
renditions of 20 of his number one hits originally issued between 1967 and
1981 and the performances here captures the spirit of the originals
without slavishly copying them. Songs include I'm A Lonesome Fugitive/
Sing Me Back Home/ Mama Tried/ Working Man Blues/ The Fightin' Side Of Me/
Carolyn/ Everybody's Had The Blues/ Things Aren't Funny Anymore/ Always
Wanting You/ The Roots Of My Raising and more.
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ED HALEY |
Rounder 1131/32 |
Forked Deer |
● CD $22.98 |
Two CD set featuring home recordings from the 40s of the
artist who is considered to be the most important old time fiddler to come
out of the eastern Kentucky-western West Virginia area between the turn of
the century and the 40s.
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DICKSON HALL |
And More Bears 25006 |
Outlaws Of The Old West |
● CD $21.98 |
Reissue of 1956 MGM album featuring songs about famous
outlaws including Jesse James, The Dalton Brothers, Billy The Kid, John
Wesley Hardin and others.
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TOM T. HALL |
Bear Family BCD 15631 |
Ballad Of Forty Dollars/ Homecoming |
● CD $21.98 |
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TOM T. HALL |
Bear Family BCD 15658 |
I Witness Life/ 100 Children |
● CD $21.98 |
Today Tom T. Hall, one of Nashville's most literate
composers, is remembered mainly for the saccharine, terminally poignant
pap he did in the 1970s, the worst of it on the level of Hummel figurines.
It was different in the late sixties and early seventies when he wrote
hard-hitting, insightful, witty and knowing songs. Bear Family's Richard
Weize wisely decided to reissue his four best Mercury LPs from 1969 and
1970 on two CD's. "Ballad of Forty Dollars" issued in 1969, featured the
title song, which was also his first Top Ten hit, plus such gems as the
1967 "I Washed My Face In the Morning Dew" and "The World
the Way I Want It." Homecoming is built around the title track and
the comical "A Week In A Country Jail," his first Number One
record, along with "Nashville Is A Groovy Little Town,"
"George (and The North Woods)," (a hit for Dave Dudley) and the
rocking "Shoeshine Man." One Hundred Children also spotlighted
several gems, "Salute to a Switchblade," "Girls in Saigon
City," "America the Ugly," and the lame title song. Among I
Witness Life's high points were "I Can't Dance," "The
Hitch-Hiker" and "Mama Bake A Pie." Dale Vinicur's scanty
notes on both volumes are buffered with passages from Tom T.'s
autobiography and his book on songwriting. BCD 15631 features scant
session information, but BCD 15658 features complete session personnel.
The music counts the most, however, and if you have these two sets, you
have much of his best work. (RK)
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TOM T. HALL |
Mercury 824 143-2 |
Greatest Hits |
● CD $9.98 |
Homecoming, I Miss A Lot Of Trains, The Year That Clayton
Delaney Died, Me And Jesus and seven more from the storyteller. But
where's I Like Beer and I Love Little Fuzzy Pups? I don't
get it. [MB)
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TOM T. HALL |
Mercury 824 144-2 |
Greatest Hits Vol. 2 |
● CD $9.98 |
11 tracks, 29 min., recommended The budget CD reissue of a
compilation originally issued in 1975. On it, the great country
story-teller's featured chart successes include Country Is/ I Love/
Sneaky Snake/ I Like Beer/ Who's Gonna Feed Them Hogs, and Old
Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine. It's all winning material, but
with digital technology where it is now is, why not put volumes one and
two on one disc? Oh well. The sound is excellent, and there are no notes
at all. (DH)
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TOM T. HALL |
Mercury 526 992-2 |
Storyteller, Poet, Philosopher |
● CD $25.98 |
Two discs, 50 tracks, recommended. Mercury's heart is in the
right place giving Tom T. Hall a box set and generally, they've done right
by him. Though the Storyteller got schmaltzy in his latter years to the
point some of his stuff required warning labels for diabetics, his early
material stuff remains hard-hitting and exhilarating. . The most obvious
hits, Shoeshine Man, Salute to A Switchblade, Ballad of
Forty Dollars, A Week in a Country Jail, The Year Clayton Delaney Died,
That's How I Got to Memphis Ravishing Ruby and Me and Jesus are
clearly the heart of the collection. notable duets include Hello We're
Lonely with Patti Page, Molly and Tenbrooks with Bill Monroe, Last
of the Drifters with Johnny Cash and his minor 1970 hit Day Drinkin'
with labelmate Dave Dudley. It is kind of odd they didn't add his final
Top Ten single, a remake of the old pop song P.S. I Love You. Two
songs, Give Her My Best andLevi Jones appear for the first
time anywhere. Six numbers, never before appeared on any previous LP. Bob
Oermann's excellent and insightful essay compliments the music just right,
and Mercury's designers did Oermann's booklet ample justice with its
beautifully simple layout. It's a shame the package itself is so tacky.
There's no jewel boxes for the discs, just CD spindles glued to the flimsy
cardboard box. (RK)
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GEORGE HAMILTON IV |
Bear Family BCD 15773 |
To You & Yours, From Me And Mine |
● CD $169.98 |
Six discs, 179 tracks, fans only
Grand Ole Opry stalwart
George Hamilton IV is far bigger in Europe than in the states. He started
as a teen crooner before moving into mainstream country. From then on,
that's where he had his biggest US success. This collection begins in
1956, when he was recording for the tiny North Carolina-based Colonial
Records and moves through his complete 1956-1960 ABC-Paramount pop and
country recordings, among them A Rose and A Baby Ruth and his first
country hit: Before This Day Ends. The set concludes with his
1961-65 complete RCA Victor recordings, including the country-to-pop
crossover hit Abilene, as well as Three Steps to the Phone, If
You Don't Know, I Ain't Gonna Tell You and Fort Worth, Dallas or
Houston. Hamilton used interesting musicians, including Jimmy Dean's
Texas Wildcats (with Billy Grammar on lead guitar). His ABC Paramount pop
sessions were recorded in New York with studio musicians and conducted by
Don Costa, later known for his work with Sinatra. Eventually, he wound up
in Nashville, where he found his true footing recording with the session
greats of the day, among them his close friend guitarist Billy Byrd. For
the hardcore Hamilton fan, this is his best work. Nor is it all studio
recordings. Included are various demo recordings, live performances on the
Grand Ole Opry and a Hamilton appearance on the old Arthur Godfrey show,
all from Hamilton's own collection. The set, which undoubtedly will sell
well in Europe, features a lavish hardcover book, an essay by Dale Vinicur
based on interviews with Hamilton and some of those who worked with him,
and a complete discography covering the entire nine year period of the
collection. (RK)
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BUTCH HANCOCK |
Sugar Hill 1038 |
Own The Way Over Here |
● CD $14.98 |
11 tracks, 60 min., recommended. Hancock, like his fellow
Lubbock-raised buddies Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Joe Ely, is one of the best
when it comes to storytelling in song form, Texas style. His voice isn't
quite as distinctive as theirs, but it's far better than, say, Terry
Allen's. And it's well suited to his musical insights into life. This is
an anthology of previous work, with a couple of new songs added to tunes
taken from five regional albums on the Rainlight label. True fans may wish
for certain Hancock cult classics (for example, only Corona del Mar
is included from the Firewater Seeks Its Own Level album), but the
songs that are here are very good, and representative of his artistry.
Hancock is solo on a few, and on others is backed by an insider's all-star
band with Gilmore, Lloyd Maines on pedal steel, accordion ace Ponty Bone
and a dozen more, ranging from Dylanesque folk-rock, to bleary-eyed,
Mexican- drenched border ballads. (
LK)
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ESCO HANKINS |
B.A.C.M. 058 |
Rising Sun |
● CD $14.98 |
22 tracks recorded between 1947 and 1951 by this fine but
obscure artists from Knoxville, Tennessee whose music shows the very strong
influence of Roy Acuff - especially on the earlier tracks. He covers quite a
few of Acuff's songs including I'm Building A Home/ Glory Bound Train/
Fireball Mail/ Streamlined Cannonball and others. The title song is a
fine version of the traditional House Of The Rising Sun and other
songs include A Daddy's Lullaby/ No One Will Ever Know/ World Of Sorrow
and others.
ESCO HANKINS: A Daddy‘s Lullaby/ All The World Is Lonely Now/ An Angel
Smiles When Mother Smiles At Me/ Beneath That Lonely Mound Of Clay/ Branded
Wherever I Go/ Fireball Mail/ Glory Bound Train/ I‘m Building A Home/ I‘m
Praying For The Day When Peace Will Come/ Low And Lonely/ No One Will Ever
Know/ Please Forgive Me/ Precious Jewel/ Rising Sun/ Streamlined Cannonball/
Sweeter Than The Flowers/ Things That Might Have Been/ Wait For The Light To
Shine/ Waiting For My Call To Glory/ What Good Will It Do/ World Of Sorrow/
Wreck On The Highway
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