Sanford Clark – Rocks
Andrew Smith This Bear Family 31-track CD highlights some of Sanford Clark’s output between 1956 and 1967 for their “Rocks” series. Best known for his hit, The Fool and a minor hit follow-up, A Cheat (both with guitar by Al Casey), Clark was a pleasant-voiced rockabilly and country performer who was associated for much of […]
Bill Carter – Ramblin’ Fever
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 […]
Augie Meyers – High Texas Rider
Andrew Smith Augie Meyers features on another album in Bear Family’s On The Honky Tonk Highway series. Perhaps best described as “Texas Country,” tracks on this entertaining 26-track album run the gamut from anthems to Texas (Deed To Texas, Deep In The Heart Of Texas, Sun Shines Down On Me In Texas, High Texas Rider), […]
On the Honky Tonk Highway with Jeannie C. Riley
Andrew Smith “She was an excellent singer, a true singer, in the same league as Patsy Cline or Connie Smith in terms of range, clarity, and expressed feelings,” wrote Martin Hawkins about Jeannie C. Riley in the booklet accompanying this outstanding Bear Family reissue. “She was the real deal, a genuine country sounding singer but […]
Gary Williams – The Traveling’ Blues Boy
Andrew Smith I was introduced to Gary Williams during late 1970s when I imported his A Tribute To Jimmie Rodgers vinyl album on the German Folk Variety label (FV 12013). (Folk Variety was the forerunner of Bear Family.) At the time, there were two other Folk Variety albums of his (My Reflection, FV 12004, and […]
Willie Nelson – Bluegrass
Andrew Smith Continuing in the tradition of mainstream country singers who have recorded “Bluegrass” albums – from Rose Maddox (Sings Bluegrass, 1962), Porter Wagoner (The Bluegrass Story, 1964), George Jones and Melba Montgomery (Bluegrass Hootenanny, 1964) through Carl Smith (Sings Bluegrass, 1971), Buck Owens’ album of Bluegrass standards (Ruby, 1971), the award winning Dolly […]
XMAS, MOJO, Bob Dylan, Bobcats, and a Good Bit More
James Akenson Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat. Well, not really since we won’t even order one from a mail order catalog like Mackenzie. It may be September, but out here on the Ponderosa time flies. It will soon be time to think about the outside Christmas lighting and then a tree in […]
On The Honky Tonk Highway with The Brother Boys
Andrew Smith The Brother Boys, founded in the late 1980s by Ed Snodderly and Eugene Wolf, are from East Tennessee. They’re still active today, performing music that has been described as “new hillbilly”. Alana Nash characterised it as “a smart amalgam of the tongue-and-groove vocal harmony of the Wilburn Brothers, the lonesome quality of […]
Call It Lust, Sin, Booze, and Jesus: Call It Sacred and Profane
James Akenson Once upon a time in a galaxy long ago I wrote a piece about Tennessee Tech University PhD student Randy Williams. The title “Randy Williams: Just for the Hell…Or The Heaven…Of It” fit nicely with what Randy Williams thought would be the focus of his PhD research. Turns out he was spot on. […]
You Shoulda Could a ( and Woulda) Been There: ICMC 2023
James Akenson Yes. Indeed! You shoulda,coulda…let’s add woulda to be complete…been there for the 2023 International Country Music Conference (ICMC ). The 2023 edition of ICMC took place Thursday 1 June through Saturday 3 June in The Board Room of The Massey Business Center at Belmont University overlooking Music Row and downtown Nashville. Even […]