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COUNTRY, BLUEGRASS & OLD-TIMEY

Gene Clark -> Connie & Babe

GENE CLARK
GUY CLARK
SANFORD CLARK
AL CLAUSER & HIS OKLAHOMA COWBOYS
ZEKE CLEMENTS
BILL CLIFTON
PATSY CLINE
DAVID ALLAN COE
TOMMY COLLINS
COMMANDER CODY & HIS LOST PLANET AIRMEN
MIKE COMPTON & DAVID GRIER
RAY CONDO & HIS HARD ROCK GONERS
RAY CONDO & HIS RICOCHETS
JOHN CONLEE
CONNIE & BABE

GENE CLARK Columbia CK 48523 Echoes ● CD $9.98

 
GUY CLARK Sugar Hill 1025 Old Friends ● CD $17.98
 

 
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.

 
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)

 
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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 87 Patsy Cline Showcase ● CD $11.98
 

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 90 Sentimentally Yours ● CD $9.98

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 224 A Portrait Of Patsy Cline ● CD $9.98
 

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 4038 The Patsy Cline Story ● CD $15.98
 

 
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)

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 11579 Live At The Cimarron Ballroom ● CD $11.98
 

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 25019 A Songwriters Tribute ● CD $9.98
 

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 25199 The Last Sessions ● CD $9.98
 

 
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.

 
PATSY CLINE MCA MCAD 42142 Live At The Opry ● CD $9.98
 

 
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

 
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)

 
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.

 
DAVID ALLAN COE Bear Family BCD 15706 The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy/ Once Upon A Rhyme ● CD $21.98
20 tracks, 72 min., recommended.

 
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)

 
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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
DAVID ALLAN COE Columbia CK 35627 Greatest Hits ● CD $9.98
 

 
DAVID ALLAN COE Columbia CK 38318 Biggest Hits ● CD $9.98
 

 
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

 
DAVID ALLAN COE Columbia CK 40185 Greatest Hits ● CD $9.98
 

 
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)

 
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.

 
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)

 
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)

 
RAY CONDO & HIS RICOCHETS Joaquin 2504 Door To Door Maniac ● CD $14.98
Long awaited follow-up to their great "Swing Brother Swing".

 
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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