Andrew Smith
Bear Family BCD17549 (12-CD box set)
The German Bear Family company has produced some excellent multi-CD sets of country music over the past few decades, though sadly, Bear seems to have ceased releasing new box sets—that is until now, with this collection, which lives up to the high standard of its predecessors, and with what appears to be a complete collection of Jim Stanton’s Rich-R-Tone and Folk Star label issues between 1946 and 1954.
Rich-R-Tone is mainly remembered by Bluegrass enthusiasts for releasing the first commercial recordings of the Stanley Brothers, as well as other pioneering Bluegrass acts like the Sauceman Brothers, the Bailey Brothers, Jim Eanes, and others. Since these recordings were made in the decade immediately following Bill Monroe’s classic (Monroe, Flatt, Scruggs, Wise, Watts) band of the mid-1940s, the Bluegrass tracks make for fascinating listening.
But the sides aren’t all Bluegrass: a significant number are by country artists with pre-Nashville-Sound accompaniment, such as George Allen, or acoustic old-time country, like Curly King & His Tennessee Hilltoppers, who bear a passing resemblance to the Blue Sky Boys—all in all, making for enjoyable listening.
And there are early recordings of better-known country artists like Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, and Cliff and Bill Carlisle. The label’s reach extended to folk music, and honky-tonk, country boogie, old-time, gospel, and regional novelty songs by the likes of Jim Hall and others. A fellow collector from the USA once told me that he thought the late 1940s and early 1950s were a “golden age” for country music.
This set strengthens that view, not only for nascent Bluegrass music but also for country artists. In 1949, Stanton started the Folk Star custom label, and sides from this company are included, too.
Dr Ted Olson (of East Tennessee State University) and Matteo Ringressi (a collector and discographer) compiled and annotated the set, in co-operation with co-producer Richard Weize, the founder of Bear Family. Ted Olson has also co-compiled other Bear Family box sets, including The Bristol Sessions, The Johnson City Sessions, and The Knoxville Sessions, all featuring pioneer recording sessions during the formative years of recorded country music.
In fact, a bonus single-CD of The Johnson City Sessions is included with this set. To an extent, this collection complements a previous Bear Family set: Martin Hawkins’ and Colin Escott’s (apparently now-deleted) Tennessee Jive: A Shot In The Dark (BCD 15854), which focused on Nashville’s independent country music labels from 1945 to 1955 – but not Rich-R-Tone or Folk Star.
A tiny portion of the tracks on Rich-R-Tone have been released (on vinyl albums) before, but everything else is here for the first time on compact disc. The accompanying full-color, 144-page hardcover book consists of sections describing:
- A general introduction to Stanton and the Rich-R-Tone and Folk Star labels;
- The artists involved and their backgrounds; and
- Discographical information.
All are indexed for easy reference. The book is likely to be the definitive guide to these recordings, making the set exceptional value for money: 12 CDs, 317 tracks, with the expected high-quality mastering we’ve come to expect from Bear Family. As of now, Amazon Australia has this set for about $331—equating to just over a dollar Australian per track, or even less in US dollars.
Highly recommended!
