How many Slim Harpo recordings do you know? Perhaps you’ve heard “Raining in My Heart” (not the Buddy Holly tune), which made it to No. 34 on Billboard’s pop chart in 1961; “Baby, Scratch My Back,” which reached No. 16 […]
How many Slim Harpo recordings do you know? Perhaps you’ve heard “Raining in My Heart” (not the Buddy Holly tune), which made it to No. 34 on Billboard’s pop chart in 1961; “Baby, Scratch My Back,” which reached No. 16 […]
By 1969, as this second completist six-disc box of his Capitol recordings begins, Merle Haggard was well-established as a smooth purveyor of working man’s blues, from “Mama Tried” to “Sing Me Back Home”. During the span of this extraordinary collection, […]
While Bill Monroe stood as the Father of Bluegrass in the ’60s (though often eclipsed during that time by Flatt & Scruggs), older brother Charlie — half of the legendary pre-bluegrass duo the Monroe Brothers — worked two jobs, one […]
Blame it on the Cold War. With America’s extensive European military presence, Armed Forces Radio playing country discs, and country acts touring those bases, it was inevitable European civilians would embrace the music. RCA Victor’s expert promotion machine in Europe […]
After World War II, Leon McAuliffe, steel guitarist-vocalist for Bob Willss Texas Playboys from 1935-43, formed a tight western outfit, later dubbed the Cimarron Boys, and led it for well over two decades, hitting their musical peak at Columbia from […]
Wilma Lee Cooper called the distinctive blend of bluegrass, pre-bluegrass Appalachian music, and mainstream country that she and husband Stoney Cooper played “mountain music with a beat.” The “beat” came through on uptempo tunes reflecting the same rhythmic backbeat that […]
He was one of America’s top-selling male vocalists in 2006, which could reflect an expanded audience from the success of the Walk The Line biopic and/or the dearth of decent contemporary fare. Bear Family, who extensively explored Cash’s Sun and […]
Country singers and writers (Hank Williams among them) felt that having Homer Haynes and Jethro Burns parody or “butcher” their songs was a true badge of honor. Adding rock to their satirical focus at RCA in the ’50s, they combined […]
This four-CD box concludes Bear Family’s encyclopedic six-box exploration of Monroe’s career. The focus here, Monroe’s last thirteen years on MCA, starts in 1981 when, diagnosed with colon cancer, he wrote and recorded the somber, decidedly un-Monroe instrumental peroration “My […]
Jim Ford is a music-world Zelig. He grew up with Loretta Lynn a neighbor and later was in a relationship with Bobbie Gentry, afterward contending that he wrote “Ode To Billie Joe”. There he is in the photo collage adorning […]
FRESH TRACK: Sue Foley – ‘Nothing in Rambling’Check it out
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