COUNTRY,
BLUEGRASS & OLD-TIMEY
Gene Clark ->
Connie & Babe
GUY CLARK |
Sugar Hill 1025 |
Old Friends |
● CD $17.98 |
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GUY CLARK |
Sugar Hill 1055 |
Keepers |
● CD $17.98 |
Guy performs 15 of his favorite songs (including two new
ones) on this live recording at Nashville's Douglas Corner.
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SANFORD CLARK |
Bear Family BCD 15731 |
Shades |
● CD $21.98 |
68 minutes, fans only. Sanford Clark, best known for
his rockabilly classic The Fool in 1956, persevered into the 60's
releasing country-ish tunes for various small labels. He wound up on the
Ramco label in 1966, releasing 5 singles from 1966-68. After that he
joined Lee Hazlewood in L.A., recording a bunch of tunes over the years
with little success. After a listen to this CD you'll know why. Some of
the songs are pretty good, especially the "prison" songs, but
Clark's vocals and the backing are dull. If you have a band and need some
material try Better Go Home (Throw That Blade Away)/ Blackjack County
Chain/ The Girl On Death Row or even Mother Texas (You've Been A
Mother To Me) , you'll do it better than Clark. (AE)
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AL
CLAUSER & HIS OKLAHOMA COWBOYS |
Cattle CCD 231 |
The Golden Age Of Al Clauser & His
Oklahoma Outlaws |
● CD $18.98 |
22 tracks - most from late 40s radio transcriptions
featuring western band that were very popular in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area.
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ZEKE CLEMENTS |
Cattle 220 |
Early Star Of The Grand Ole Opry |
● CD $19.98 |
Tracks recorded between 1945 and '47 commercially and from
radio transcriptions.
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 12 |
12 Greatest Hits |
● CD $11.98 |
Classic sides - Walkin' After Midnight/ Crazy/ I Fall To
Pieces/ Strange/ She's Got you/ Why Can't He Be You/ Leavin' On Your Mind,
etc.
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 87 |
Patsy Cline Showcase |
● CD $11.98 |
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 224 |
A Portrait Of Patsy Cline |
● CD $9.98 |
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 4038 |
The Patsy Cline Story |
● CD $15.98 |
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD4 10421 |
The Patsy Cline Collection |
● CD $58.98 |
In the past, MCA hasn't done right by Patsy, despite the
renewed interest in her career and her incredible influence on other
singers. They spread her legacy over a variety of recordings. This
four-CD, 104 song collection, is the ultimate Cline reissue, finally done
right. By chronologically arranging the material, it reveals the evolution
of her music beginning with two 1954 live performances from her days on
Jimmy Dean's Washington, D.C.-based Town and Country TV show. Her late
fifties recordings for Bill McCall's Four Star records, were released on
Decca's Coral, produced by Paul Cohen and Owen Bradley. Though the
material wasn't always topnotch, these recordings, many of them upbeat
western swing tunes, reveal Patsy's extraordinary feel for pop phrasing
that so many have tried to emulate since. Her transition from hard country
to the more neutral Nashville Sound Owen Bradley helped create can easily
be traced. By the time she recorded "I Fall to Pieces,"
"Crazy" and "Sweet Dreams" she'd turned a new leaf and
become a master of ballad singing. Everything is here that needs to be,
even her versions of pop tunes like "That's My Desire" and
"Anytime." The live recordings (some previously released on two
MCA live LP's) include "Bill Bailey" and "Just A Closer
Walk With Thee" attest to her onstage energy and charisma,
particularly. The remastering is excellent, the packaging outstanding,
with a beautiful booklet loaded with color photos, a complete and detailed
discography by Don Roy and a fine essay by the CMF's Paul Kingsbury (my
choice for the latter would have been Nashville Banner writer and Cline
expert Jay Orr). One problem is the overuse of the now-popular practice on
reissues of starting a selection with a few seconds of studio chatter
before the music begins. A minor point for an essential package. (RK)
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 11579 |
Live At The Cimarron Ballroom |
● CD $11.98 |
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 25019 |
A Songwriters Tribute |
● CD $9.98 |
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 25199 |
The Last Sessions |
● CD $9.98 |
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PATSY CLINE |
MCA MCAD 27069 |
Always |
● CD $9.98 |
10 songs - Always/ True Love/ That's My desire/ I'll Sail
My Ship Alone/ Foolin' ' Round, etc.
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PATSY CLINE |
Razor & Tie 2108 |
The Birth Of A Star |
● CD $11.98 |
17 tracks, 43 mins, recommended Previously released in
England, this 17 track collection consists of Patsy's
January 21, 1957 performance of Walkin' After Midnight on the CBS
TV show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show, which she won. The success
for a singer barely known outside the Winchester, Virginia-Washington D.C.
area was impressive and helped make her version of the song a hit. The
remaining material comes from subsequent 1957-58 appearances on Godfrey's
daytime CBS shows, which featured no guest stars and a "family"
of little known performers. Many of the songs were recorded for Coral as
well, and though the recordings were mostly hard country, Patsy had to
sing them with Godfrey's pop house band, doing a surprisingly good job
that portended her later success recording with full orchestrations.
Particularly nice are Try Again, Two Cigarettes in an Ash Tray, Your
Cheatin' Heart, and the ripsnorting Write Me in Care of The Blues,
one of the best performances of her entire career. Not everything
on these shows was so memorable. Stop The World and Let Me Off,
with its annoying vocal chorus, is akin to fingers scratching a
blackboard. The Man Upstairs is a rather dense pop-gospel throwaway
and the non-religious, secular Down By the Riverside is pure
showbiz nonsense (wonder how The Man Upstairs liked it?). Patsy holds her
own in the obligatory, between song banter with the egomaniacal Godfrey ,
who once fired one of his "family" on the air without warning.
Patsy's a year's worth of appearances with Godfrey, most of them on this
collection, and in that time she had no other hit records. It's a
worthwhile survey of this early part of her career before she had any
sustained success. The booklet features rare photos and concise notes by
Rich Kienzle. (AK)
PATSY CLINE: Awards Dialogue/ Come On In/ Don't Ever Leave Me Again/ Down
By The Riverside/ Hungry For Love/ I Don't Wanna Your Cheating Heart/
Intro/ Ship/ Stop The World/ The Man Upstairs/ Then You'll Know/ Too Many
Secrets/ Try Again/ Two Cigarettes In An Ashtray/ Walking After Midnight/
Walking After Midnight/ Walking Dream/ Write Me In Care Of The Blues No
Wheels On This
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PATSY CLINE |
RCA 66983 |
The Essential Patsy Cline |
● CD $14.98 |
20 tracks, what's the point? As I said, the RCA Essentials
series is nothing if not inconsistent. Consider this totally unnecessary
addition. Apparently the geniuses at RCA decided they needed some Patsy in
their catalog. To that end, they've gone where many other labels have gone
before by licensing 20 of her 1950's Four Star recordings, originally
issued on Coral. Ya really gotta wonder about priorities at a label that
ignores truly important RCA artists like Pee Wee King in favor of dumping
more Patsy into an already glutted market. They couldn't even produce the
booklet right. Wade Jessen's liner notes were printed in sepia ink over
sepia-toned photos of Patsy, making them impossible to read. If you're
still convinced you must have this, you get Walkin' After Midnight, A
Church A Courtroom and Goodbye, Lovesick Blues, Three
Cigarettes In An Ashtray, etc. etc. And you probably already have
them. Check and be sure before ordering this one. (RK)
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PATSY CLINE |
Sundown 501 |
Crazy Dreams - The Four Star Years |
● CD $29.98 |
Available again with a new number. Double CD featuring all
50 of Patsy's recordings for Bill McCall's Four Star label between 1955
and 1960. The recordings have been carefully researched to find the best
possible original sources without the added instrumentation marring some
reissues. Comes with 20 page booklet with biographical information and
full discographical information.
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Bear Family BCD 15706 |
The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy/ Once Upon
A Rhyme |
● CD $21.98 |
20 tracks, 72 min., recommended.
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Bear Family BCD 15707 |
Longhaired Redneck/ Rides Again |
● CD $21.98 |
21 tracks, 63 min., recommended. Coe is one of country's
most underrated artists, as evidenced by these CDs, each containing two
full albums from the mid-'70s. There are no filler or loser tracks to be
found. Coe has all the right credentials to be a star: prison life in the
past, a composer with the ability to write witty and never corny lyrics
that draw laughter (and occasional tears) while ringing true due to the
combined perspective of intelligence and experience, a rough-hewn Merle
Haggard-inflected voice, and studio production that mixes honky tonk
piano, a bleary-eyed band with just the right guitar twang, and songs that
tell engrossing stories. Coe composed Tanya Tucker's Would You Lay with
Me (in a Field of Stone), did the definitive versions of Guy Clark's Desperados
Waiting for a Train and Steve Goodman's You Never Even Called Me by My
Name (all on Mysterious). Which, if one is only going to buy one of
these CDs, has the advantage. But both are among the better
outlaw-drenched country recordings of the period. Each comes with
eye-boggling color photography and incisive liner notes. (
LK)
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Bear Family BCD 15839 |
Tatoo/ Family Album |
● CD $21.98 |
Available early April. Two Columbia albums - "Tatoo"
from 1977 and "Album" from '78 on one CD.
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Bear Family BCD 15840 |
Human Emotions/ Spectrum VII |
● CD $21.98 |
Two albums - "Emotions"
from 1978 and "Spectrum" from 1979 on one CD.
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Bear Family BCD 15841 |
Compass Point/ I've Got Something To Say |
● CD $21.98 |
Two Columbia albums -
"Compass" from 1979 ad "Something" from 1980 on one CD.
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Bear Family BCD 15842 |
Invictus Means Unconquered/ Tennessee
Whiskey |
● CD $21.98 |
Two Columbia albums - "Invictus"
from 1981 and "Tennessee" from 1981 on one CD.
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DAVID ALLAN COE |
Columbia CGK 39585 |
For The Record - The First 10 Years |
● CD $17.98 |
Retrospective two LP set features 20 hits recorded between
1974 & 1984 - You Never Even Called Me By My Name/ Jody Like a
Melody/ If That Ain't Country/ Take This Job & Shove It/ Jack Daniel's
If You Please/ Divers Do it Deeper/ This Bottle (wit h George Jones)/ Stand
By Your Man, etc
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TOMMY COLLINS |
Bear Family BCD 15577 |
Leonard |
● CD $129.98 |
Merle Haggard's 1981 hit "Leonard" was, of course,
the true story of Bakersfield sound pioneer Tommy Collins. an outstanding
vocalist and composer whose career never quite worked out as it should
have. Except for out of print European and Japanese LP reissues of
Collins' Capitol material, little has been available. These five CD's
begin with his two Hank Williamsy 78s for the Fresno, California based
Morgan label in 1951 through his complete 1953-1964 Capitol and Tower
recordings (16 released here for the first time) and 1965- 1968 Columbia
output, a total of 144 songs in chronological order. Collins' raw voice
shined on his early Capitol hits, the 1954 novelties "You Better Not
Do That" and "Whatcha Gonna Do" though the overemphasis on
novelties reached a low point with the incredibly stupid "Boob-I-Lak."
He was far stronger on ballads, evidenced by "Let Me Love You"
and "High on A Hilltop" (both Collins originals) and Werly
Fairburn's "I Guess I'm Crazy." He also did some outstanding
gospel recordings such as "Upon This Rock", one of many sacred
tunes he recorded with wife Wanda for his Light of the Lord LP. With no
hits from 1955 to 1964, he recorded theme LPs. "Wreck of the Old
97" and "The Last Letter" for the album Songs I Love to
Sing, made up of country standards. Occasionally he turned to rockers like
"Black Cat," one of the better tunes of the genre. Many early to
late fifties sides feature hot Telecaster work from Buck Owens (which led
to Buck becoming a Capitol studio guitarist and, later, a recording
artist). One 1963 Collins session featured Buck, Joe Maphis and Don Rich
backing him. On another, Wynn Stewart and band backed Collins and an
unreleased 1964 session featured bluegrass backing. His final Capitol date
featured vocal harmonies from Merle Haggard. His 1965 move to Columbia
resulted in only one big record: "If You Can't Bite, Don't
Growl," in 1966. Nashville didn't change his sound much (except for a
superfluous vocal chorus) but had he its moments. "Be Serious
Ann" is not only impressive for Collins's vocal, but for Nashville
session regular Ray Edenton's rolling acoustic guitar. Dale Vinicur's
detailed notes were based on new interviews with Collins. The set features
an exhaustive sessionography by Richard Weize and Patrick Milligan. Since
Capitol doesn't have personnel listings for sessions, but these are based
on original contracts in the files of L.A.'s Musicians' Union. Uneven in
spots, this set shows that Collins's legacy had many fine moments. (RK)
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COMMANDER
CODY & HIS LOST PLAN |
AIM 1059 |
The Tour From Hell, 1973 |
● CD $15.98 |
12 tunes recorded live in Australia - I Took Three
Bennies & My Semi Truck Won't Start/ Four Five Times/ Down To Seeds
& Stems Again/ Goin' Back To Tennessee/ All I have To Offer You Is Me/
Sister Sue, etc.
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MIKE COMPTON
& DAVID GRIER |
Rounder 0280 |
Climbing The Walls |
● CD $14.98 |
This is a very good all instrumental album by mandolinist
Mike Compton, formerly of The Nashville Bluegrass Band, and David Grier,
one of the real rising stars and the most exciting new guitarist in
traditional bluegrass in a long time. David, the son of former Bluegrass
Boy Lamar Grier, has exceptional chops, and a nice feel for the
traditional tunes. He isn't as flashy here as on his Rounder solo album,
but the ensemble playing is tasty and satisfying. Fiddler Blaine Sprouse
and bassist Roy Huskey, Jr. are also prominently featured, and Billy Rose
plays bass on several cuts. 12 in all, including Honky Tonk Swing/
Black Mountain Rag/ Going Up Caney/ Over The Waterfall/ Flop Eared Mule.
(RP)
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RAY CONDO &
HIS RICOCHETS |
Joaquin 2502 |
Swing Brother Swing |
● CD $14.98 |
13 songs, essential Rockabilly revivalists may recall Ray
Condo as leader of the Hardrock Goners, a band that included a pretty high
rockabilly content. Condo and his bass player Clive Jackson then merged
with steel guitarist Jimmy Roy and guitarist Stephen Nikleva and drummer
Steve Taylor from Roy's Five Star Cowboys to create the Ricochets, one of
the most exciting new acts in a long time. Not only does their tough,
muscular fusion of rockabilly and swing set them apart from anything
around today, their musical sophisticated goes beyond that of Big Sandy or
the grossly undertalented and overhyped Nashville combo BR5-49. Condo, who
sings and plays tough sax on occasion, has the out of control edge of the
best rockabillies. Jimmy Roy is an outstanding steel player dedicated to
the Noel Boggs-Joaquin Murphey school and Nikleva knows when to come in
and when to hold back. The band write practically none of their songs, and
their strength is in what they choose. Part of their roots are 1930's
small band swing tunes like the title song (originally done by Wingy
Manone and later by Count Basie) and Red Allen's "There's A House
in Harlem For Sale. Others are R & B faves, most notably Ruth
Brown's hit Teardrops From My Eyes and the moody What More Do
You Want Me To Do? a Larry Darnell number. It's also refreshing to
hear a swing band doing something other than rehashing Bob Wills
favorites. The best example is their jumping version of Loud Mouth,
originally recorded in the 30's by Texas Western Swing pothead Smoky Wood
and his Modern Mountaineers (of Everybody's Truckin' fame). They
don't give rockabilly short shrift, knocking off brilliant versions of Lew
Williams Something I Said and Glenn Barber's Ice Cold Water.
Only one song, the exciting instrumental Strathcona, is an
original. Jeff Richardson of Joaquin fooled everyone by following up his
Jimmie Rivers reissue by releasing an album by a new act with major-league
potential in the roots-Americana market. (RK)
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RAY CONDO &
HIS RICOCHETS |
Joaquin 2504 |
Door To Door Maniac |
● CD $14.98 |
Long awaited follow-up to their great "Swing Brother
Swing".
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JOHN CONLEE |
Curb 77437 |
The Best Of John Conlee |
● CD $10.98 |
John Conlee had a string of country/ pop hits in the early
80's, including Common Man/ I'm Only In It For The Love/ As Long As I'm
Rocking With You/ In My Eyes. These and 8 other songs are featured on
this 40 minute disc. I liked Fellow Travelers, a simplistic but
good-hearted plea for global cooperation. The music is slick, smooth, and
well produced, although the use of synthesizers and electric drums is a
little cheesy. But Conlee makes it work with solid vocals and well crafted
songs. (PG)
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