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COUNTRY,
BLUEGRASS & OLD-TIMEY
Gillian
Welch -> The Vern Williams Band
| GILLIAN WELCH |
Acony 101 |
Revival |
● CD $16.98 |
10 Tracks, 42 Mins, highly recommended. It's like they opened
a time capsule and discovered a great country recording by an unknown
artist. Gillian Welch has the song writing style, the sound and even the
look of a woman who came out of the hills of depression-era rural America.
She wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks here (David Rawlings deserves
mention for his co-writing, harmonizing and guitar playing). Speaking of
the song-writing, you won't find any filler here and four of the songs are
stand-outs. T-Bone Burnett does an exemplary job as producer and the
players include guitar great James Burton. Looking for a rising star?
Well, here you go. (RS)
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| GILLIAN WELCH |
Acony 102 |
Hell Among The Yearlings |
● CD $16.98 |
Second album from this talented new performer whose music is
steeped in the mountain music of the past. She's a very soulful and
distinctive singer who together with David Rawlings writes original songs
that sound like they could have been written 50 years ago without sounding
anachronistic - great tunes and lyrics. Arrangements are mostly stripped
down acoustic with guitars and occasional banjo. Songs include Caleb
Meyer/ The Devil Had A Hold Of Me/ Mt Morphine/ Miner's Refrain/ I'm Not
Afraid To Die/ Whiskey Girl, etc.
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| KEVIN WELCH |
Dead Reckoning 0003 |
Life Down Here On Earth |
● CD $15.98 |
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| KITTY WELLS |
Bear Family BCD 15638 |
The Queen Of Country |
● CD $99.98 |
4 CDs, 114 songs, 4 hours, 53 min. essential
The
long-awaited CD follow-up to Bear's previous Kitty LP box is here, with an
additional year of recording added, taking the set through the year 1958,
It begins with her eight RCA recordings from 1949-1950 RCA sides and
through all the Deccas including the classic It Wasn't God Who Made
Honky Tonk Angels, along with other hits Paying For That Back
Street Affair, Release Me Makin' Believe, and her hit
duets with Red Foley like One By One, Make Believe, As Long As I Love
and You And Me. Several more solo hits cut in 1958 are added, among
them, Jealousy, Mommy For A Day, All The Time and the complete
sessions for her excellent Dust on the Bible gospel LP. A new
improved LP size booklet features the usual rare photos (some in color),
an improved discography and completely revised biographical essay by
Charles Wolfe, who wrote the booklet for the original (still available) LP
box set. (RK)
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| KITTY WELLS |
MCA 10081 |
Country Music Hall Of Fame Series |
● CD $7.98 |
Miss Kitty won a well-deserved special Grammy
for her groundbreaking work, which established that women could become
country superstars as well. But if you can't afford the Bear Family Decca
Box, these 16 songs cover most, but not all, the high points her own
career from 1952 to 1965 starting, not surprisingly with It Wasn't God
Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, the 1952 hit answer to Hank Thompson's Wild
Side of Life, that launched her. Several other early and rare songs
included here weren't hits, but are excellent nonetheless, including her
1952 cover of Faron Young's Gotham recording I Heard the Juke Box
Playing, Icicles Hanging From Your Heart I'd Rather Stay
Home and My Cold, Cold Heart Is Melted Now, her answer
to Hank Williams' Cold, Cold Heart. Obvious hits include Release
Me, Making Believe, I Gave My Wedding Dress Away, Searching,
her hit cover of Don Gibson's I Can't Stop Loving You, (which
reached a higher spot on the charts than Gibson's), Mommy For A Day,
Amigo's Guitar, Heartbreak, USA, Will Your Lawyer Talk to
God, Password and her final Top 20 hit, A Woman Half My Age,
from 1966. Complete discographical information and fine Ronnie Pugh liner
notes round it out. (RK)
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| KITTY WELLS |
Tee-Vee TVCD 6023 |
20 Greatest Hits |
● CD $11.98 |
Re-recordings of many of Kitty's most famous songs made in
the 80s - It wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels/ Mommy For A Day/ I
Gave My Wedding Dress Away/ She's No Angel/ Making , etc. Good
performances but a far cry from the originals.
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| DOTTIE WEST |
Buddah 99828 |
RCA Country Legends |
● CD $11.98 |
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| SPEEDY WEST |
Bronco Buster 9054 |
The Steel Guitar Transcriptions of Speedy
West |
● CD $18.98 |
A collection of 22 sides recorded by this legendary steel
guitarist for radio transcriptions in 1954. These were previously issued
on a limited edition album on the Danny label in the 1970 and has been
newly remastered for CD. Includes Blue Steel Blues/ Panhandle Rag/
Missouri Waltz/ I Love You So Much It Hurts/ Farewell Blues/ Honeysuckle
Rose/ Dragging The Steel/ Lover/ Marie, etc.
SPEEDY WEST: At Sundown/ Birth Of The Blues/ Blue Steel Blues/ Bye Bye
Blues/ Don't Sing Aloha When I Go/ Dragging The Steel/ Farewell Blues/
Honeysuckle Rose/ How Come You Do Me Like You Do?/ I Love You So Much It
Hurts/ Indian Love Call/ Kentucky Waltz./ Lover/ Marie/ Missouri Waltz/
Moonlight And Roses/ Panhandle Rag/ Sentimental Journey/ Steeling The
Blues/ Tennessee Border/ Texas Playboy Rag/ Two Of A Kind
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| SPEEDY WEST |
Jasmine 3515 |
There's Gonna Be A Party ... - Featuring
Jimmy Bryant |
● CD $11.98 |
Great collection of 29 tunes recorded live on Tennessee
Ernie Ford's early 50s radio program featuring the West Coast wizard of
the steel guitar displaying his brand of pyrotechnics on a selection of
originals (Speedin' West/ This Ain't The Blues/ Railroadin'/ Hop, Skip
& Jump, etc), jazz and pop standards (Lover/ Birth Of The
BluesLet The Rest Of The World Go By/ I'm Confessin', etc) and country
favorites (Blue Bonnet Rag/ I Love You So Much It Hurts/Texas Playboy
Rag and more. On five tracks he is joined on electric by his frequent
collaborator JImmy Bryant who also does a fine solo version of Limehouse
Blues and picks up fiddle to do a fiddle duet with Harold Hensley on Arkansas
Traveler. All tracks feature accompanied by the housa band. Sound
quality is excellent and there are often umrous introductions from Ern.
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| SPEEDY WEST
& JIMMY BRYANT |
Bear Family BCD 15956 |
Two Of A Kind |
● CD $99.98 |
4 CD set with book. 112 tracks including the duos complete
recordings for Capitol from 1950 through 1956, Speedy's later solo LPs and
a whole disc featuring them accompanying singers like Tennessee Ernie
Ford, Spike Jones, Jean Shepard, Ella Mae Morse and others
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| SPEEDY WEST
& JIMMY BRYANT |
Razor & Tie 82192 |
Swing Strings |
● CD $15.98 |
20 more great steel guitar/ electric guitar instrumentals
recorded in the 50s by this dynamic duo - Frettin' Fingers/ Two Of A
Kind/ Yodeling Guitar/ Opus 1/ T-Bone Rag/ China Boy/ Jammin' With Jimmy/
This Ain't The Blues/ Whistly Stop/ Pushin' The Blues/ Caffeine Patrol
and more.
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| JOHNNY WESTERN |
Bear Family BCD 15429 |
Gunfight At O.K. Corral |
● CD $21.98 |
CD reissue of Americana 0001 - a selection of 20 western
songs - mostly theme songs of famous cowboy movies or T.V. series - with
Billy Strange, Harold Bradley & Jack Clement - Ghost Riders in the
Sky/ The Gunfighter/ Ringo/ Cross The Brazos at Waco/ Bonanza/ Rawhide/
High Noon/ Hannah Lee/ Ballad of Boot Hill/ Wyatt Earp, etc (
FS
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| JOHNNY WESTERN |
Bear Family BCD 15552 |
Heroes And Cowboys |
● CD $75.98 |
3 CDs, 74 tracks, approx. 3 hr. 25 min. good
Big-voiced
Johnny Western is a favorite of Bear Family head Richard Weize and popular
in Europe. In the states, though he recorded for years, he was mainly
known as the vocalist on the theme for the CBS TV western "Have Gun
Will Travel". The set begins with his first 3 singles for the J-O-C-O
label of Minnesota and then picks up his complete 1959-1963 Columbia
recordings including the HGWT theme The Ballad of Paladin, which
series star Richard Boone insisted Western record, along with two 1962
songs recorded with Johnny Cash's Tennesee Three. Also covered are his
four Philips recordings, his four Hep sides, three sessions for JRC and 18
performances done in 1960 for Armed Forces recruiting transcriptions . The
only LP not on this set is Western's 1984 Gunfight At OK Corral album,
available on BCD 15429. Dale Vinicur provides complete notes, the usual
rare photos are everywhere and the excellent discography was compiled by
John L. Smith and Richard Weize. (RK)
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| ONIE WHEELER |
Bear Family BCD 15542 |
Onie's Bop |
● CD $21.98 |
| If you like good hillbilly music you'll love this. I'd rank
Onie's singing right up there with the very greatest stars - Hank, Lefty,
Webb, etc. His deep, rich baritone never fails to please and he has a
fabulous "break" in his voice that's really effective. Most of
the 31 tunes start off with the classic fiddle introductions common in the
honky tonk style and they just get better from there. All of the tunes
here were done for Sun, Columbia and Okeh from 1953-1957 and I'll be
hogtied if I can find a bad one among 'em. I could go on about this
forever but why bother since Colin Escott has already written a 24 page
booklet for inclusion. This is essential. Jump Right Out Of This
Jukebox/ A Beggar For Your Love/ Walkin' Shoes/ Run 'em Off/ Love Me Like
You Used To Do/ A Million Years In Glory , etc. (AE)
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| CLARENCE WHITE |
Sierra 26023 |
33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentasl |
● CD $15.98 |
A remarkable collection of guitar instrumentals featuring
this dazzling and innovative flatpicker recorded at his home on a portable
tape recorder in 1962 with Roger Bush on rhythm guitar. Calrence was at
the time a member of the fledgling Kentucky Colonels and was later to
bring his guitar prowess to bear in his work with The Byrds. Here he works
his way through a collection of traditional and old time country tunes
like Wildwood Flower/ Black Mountain Rag/ He Will Set Your Fields On
Fire/ Cripple Creek/ I Am A Pilgrim/ False Hearted Lover/ Sally Goodin
and lots more. Sound is occasionally a bit distorted but Clarence's talent
comes through loud and clear.
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| HOWARD WHITE |
Bear Family BCD 15575 |
Nashville Sideman With Friends |
● CD $21.98 |
White, veteran road steel guitarist for a number of
musicians including Cowboy Copas and Hank Snow, was author of the
enormously entertaining 1990 memoir "Every Highway Out of
Nashville" about his days on the road. This 14 song collection
includes his complete four-song 1953 Hickory Records session which
demonstrates the clear influence of White's idol, non-pedal steel virtuoso
Jerry Byrd. The remaining 10 numbers were recorded in 1976 for a White
instrumental dobro LP of Western Swing and honky tonk standards It
includes such country standards as Jealous Heart/ Midnight/ Columbus
Stockade Blues and Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain along with Bob
Wills chestnuts like Deep Water/ San Antonio Rose/ Roly Poly and Rose
of Old Pawnee. The performances are flat since these kinds of songs
don't work well on acoustic instruments. Dale Vinicur's liner notes,
though well-written, are badly focused and occasionally incorrect. At one
point she says that by 1976 the "Nashville Sound" had been
evolving for nearly 40 years, which makes little sense since the term is
accepted as applying to the pop-oriented country records recorded in the
late fifties. Vinicur says little about White's career, padding out the
notes with biographies of the studio musicians who worked on the 1976
album. Why? (RK)
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| ROLAND WHITE |
Sugar Hill 3826 |
Trying To Get To You |
● CD $15.98 |
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|
| KEITH WHITLEY |
Rounder 0399 |
Sad Songs And Waltzes |
● CD $15.98 |
15 track collection by the late lamented honky tonk singer
reissues his 1981 album "Somewhere Between" and adds the four
1983 demos that landed him his record deal with RCA.
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| SLIM WHITMAN |
Bear Family BCD 15768 |
Rose Marie - His Recordings, 1949-1959 |
● CD $145.98 |
6 CD's, 163 songs, recommended
15 years ago everyone was
either goofing on Slim Whitman's yodeling and sentimental numbers--or
buying up the LP's marketed on TV. With that in mind, a Whitman box set
might seem a little much for most people. Bear Family, however, did this
one as much for the European market as the U.S., since Whitman has a
strong following over there. Comprehensive as always, this collection
starts at the beginning with Whitman's musically satisfying but
unsuccessful 1949-1950 RCA sides. Based at the Louisiana Hayride,
Whitman's career turned completely around when Lew Chudd of Imperial
Records signed him in 1951. The set assembles all the 1951-1959 Imperials,
ones that distinguished him from the raw-voiced honkytonkers of the
moment. 1952 brought his first hit with the unusual Love Song of the
Waterfall and through 1956, he found a formula that, like that of
Sonny James in the 1960's, relied heavily on covers of pop standards, in
Slim's case, Indian Love Call, which scored with pop fans and
earned him a Gold Record. Followups like Secret Love, Rose-Marie, Singing
Hills and the 1955 rendition of Cattle Call all established
him. In England, his first tour in 1956 brought him stardom in Europe that
continues today. Done with Whitman's cooperation, the package features
never before seen photos and an outstanding essay by Kevin Coffey, whose
normal forte is Texas Honky Tonk and Western Swing. For hardcore
Whitmanphiles this is heaven. For those who can take him (like myself) in
more limited doses, act accordingly. (RK)
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| SLIM WHITMAN |
Capitol 54321B |
Vintage Collection |
● CD $11.98 |
15 tracks from this unique and very popular performer
including two tracks previously unissued in the USA - Love Song Of The
Waterfall/ Song Of The Old Waterfall/ My Heart Is Broken In Three/ There's
A Rainbow In Every Teardrop/ Rose Marie/ I Talk To The Waves/ Rainbows Are
Back In Style/ It's A Sin To Tell A Lie, etc.
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| THE WILBURN BROTHERS |
King 746 |
The Wonderful Wilburn Brothers |
● CD $9.98 |
Reissue of album originally issued in 1961 featuring the
first recordings by this popular duo made for Four Star in the late 40s
and early 50s before their big successes for Decca. Some of these
recordings were originally issued as by The Wilburn Family. Not as
polished as their successful Decca recordings these tracks are mixture of
old timey brother duets, blues, old time gospel and honky tonk country and
is more interesting than a lot of their more commercial recordings. The
liner notes by an unnamed bard have to be read to be believed!
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| JESS WILLARD |
Bear Family BCD 16256 |
Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor |
● CD $21.98 |
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| SLIM WILLETT |
Collector 2857 |
Boppin' Hillbilly Series |
● CD $16.98 |
30 tracks, 73 mins, recommended 30 tracks by this Texas
performer including his original version of the classic song Don't Let
The Star Get In Your Eyes and some intriguing songs about oil
drilling (Tool Pusher/ Off Shore Drilling Rig/ Drill Bit Honky Tonk
and others). Also includes Come Sundown/ Don't Waste Your Heart/ Crazy
Crazy/ Haywire Jones/ Live While You're Young (Dream While Your Old)
and others. Also includes four solo cuts by Slim's backing group Shorty
Underwood & The Brushcutters. Sound on some cuts is pretty rough. (FS)
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| DON WILLIAMS |
Hip-O 112 271 |
Anthology |
● CD $23.98 |
Two CD set.
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| LUCINDA WILLIAMS |
Elektra 61351 |
Sweet Old World |
● CD $11.98 |
If her songs were as consistently good as her voice is
irresistible, Lucinda Williams might rule the world, or at least vast
portions of the country radio airwaves. But probably not. You'd have to
drive all night to find a song as tender as Little Angel, Little
Brother, but it doesn't exactly have "hit" written all over
it. It does have "honesty" all over it, though, as does the
entire album, which is why you'll keep coming back for more and why Ms.
Williams never will rule the world. But Lucinda rules her guitar just
fine, and her songs, especially Six Blocks Away/ Something About What
Happens When We Talk/ Sweet Old World reward repeated listening.
Recommended. (JC)
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| LUCINDA WILLIAMS |
Mercury 558 338-2 |
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road |
● CD $17.98 |
Long awaited new album from this outstanding singer and
songwriter.
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| ROBIN & LINDA
WILLIAMS |
Sugar Hill 1052 |
Sugar For Sugar |
● CD $15.98 |
12 tracks, 48 mins, highly recommended Another polished and
tuneful recording by this great husband and wife team, featuring their
distinctive blend of acoustical country, bluegrass, and gospel music.
Robin and Linda have always been strong performers but they have formed a
particularly winning association with their current group, the Fine Band.
Their harmony singing is beautifully complimented by Jim Watson on bass
and especially Kevin Maul on dobro and Hawaiian guitar. Linda's banjo work
is also a standout. The regulars are joined by Mary Chapin Carpenter and
Tim and Mollie O'Brien who sing harmony on several numbers. All songs were
written by Robin and Linda, with the exception of a version of Greg
Brown's moving reminiscence, The Cheapest Kind. In Together All
Alone they savor the pleasures of being snowed in. Sugar for Sugar
charts the ups and downs of romance and Traffic Light is a humorous
commentary on the changing rural landscape. These performers just keep
getting better and better! (DP)
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| TEX WILLIAMS |
Country Routes RFD 17 |
On The Air, 1947-1949 |
● CD $16.98 |
26 previously unissued tracks from radio transcriptions with
vocals from Tex, Deuce Spriggens and Smokey Rogers and instrumental work
from Joaquin Murphy, Johnny Weis and others.
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