Andrew Smith
Bear Family have issued yet another interesting, budget priced, and fully documented double-CD set with this release. Bill Carter, its featured artist, recorded country and rockabilly music from 1953 until 1961. He was born in 1929 in Arkansas; his family moved to Oklahoma in 1937 and then California in 1943.
He performed locally and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force from 1949 until 1953, before joining Big Jim DeNoone’s western-swing band and then striking out on his own, even accompanying the likes of Lefty Frizzell, Freddie Hart, T-Texas Tyler, and Buck Owens on tours. By the mid-to-late 1950s, he waxed some rockabilly numbers to cash in on the booming rock ‘n’ roll movement.
The inclusion of such tracks on this release adds variety to the other types on offer. Bill Carter dropped out of the recording business afterwards to become a prison chaplain and a producer of Christian music, following a religious conversion.
The versatile Carter has an excellent voice and handles several genres of music effortlessly, with a variety of song styles, ranging from Cool Tom Cat and I Wanna Feel Good, with their raunchy electric guitar accompaniments, to the steel-guitar-backed country weeper I Couldn’t Keep from Crying, and country gospel music like This World Is Not My Home, the Grady and Hazel Cole and Hank Williams inspired The Tramp On The Street, and Won’t You Go There with Me.
In addition, The Legend of Billy the Kid is a historically accurate Western narrative song that wouldn’t be out of place on a Marty Robbins album, albeit with different accompaniment. The variety of songs on these compact discs certainly makes for entertaining hearing, especially given the sheer number of tracks, where listening can be monotonous if the genre remains the same throughout. The set comprises 67 tracks, 41 of which are on CD for the first time, and of these, 14 have not been released previously at all.
Carter’s credentials are impressive: he appeared on Shreveport’s Louisiana Hayride and Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. He recorded in Nashville (accompanied by stellar musicians of the calibre of Don Helms, Tommy Jackson, Hank Garland and Bob Moore), on the West Coast (with Roy Nichols, “Fuzzy” Owens, Billy Mize and Bonnie Owens), and for other labels such as Uncle Jim O’Neal’s Rural Rhythm label. (I still recall corresponding with Uncle Jim, who wrote multi-coloured letters using several pens.)
As with all Bear Family CDs, the set contains comprehensive liner notes (in this case a 50-page booklet, including discography, by Michael Hurtt). It can be ordered direct from Bear Family or Amazon (USA) and Amazon in other countries.
Bear Family are known for their excellent service and Fort-Knox-like packaging, so the set should be delivered in pristine state if ordered directly from Bear Family.
Check out the Ramblin’ Fever promotion on YouTube
