Hi, there! Welcome to my so-called "guide" to hard country and real hick music. I admit, it's a pretty fluid term, so maybe I should tell you a little about myself so you'll understand where I'm coming from. I'm a hillbilly music fan from 'way back when -- I started listening to country back when Hee Haw, Charlie Rich and Billy Sherrill ruled the airwaves, and as I got older my tastes shifted to the hard stuff -- Hank, Hank, Lefty, Webb, and Hank. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, then this website might be real helpful...) When I went off to college, I became a hotshot radio programmer, just about the time this here "alt.country" scene started up, in the late '80s, and I've tried to keep up my fingers in the pie ever since.
This section of my website originally started out as an overview of hillbilly boogie and honkytonk music, the hard country styles that led to the birth of rock and roll in the early '50s. I also write about several other styles of hick music, including separate sections for alt.county, bluegrass and western swing (as well as a bunch of non-country stuff...) But this new section -- which will expand greatly over time -- combines profiles and reviews I've written about a wide variety of what I call "real" hick music, which is, well... just stuff that I happen to like. Anyway, I hope you'll find the website useful and entertaining... Feel free to write me with comments or suggestions if you think there's something I've missed...
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Roy Acuff was one of the main movers and shakers in the growth of Nashville from just another Southern city into the nerve center of American country music. He gained nationwide fame as the host of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s, as the ambitious regional radio show expanded into a nationally broadcast program, soon to become the premiere hillbilly radio show. Acuff was also a key player in the music publishing industry; the Acuff-Rose publishing house, founded with partner Wesley Rose, became one of the dominant powers in Music City, brokering high profile deals between artist's, managers, record labels and the numerous songwriters that flocked to Nashville in the postwar years. Finally, Acuff was a fine performer who helped form a bridge between country music's bluesy "hillbilly" roots and its smoother postwar incarnations. This fine 25-song collection includes his biggest hits, back from when Acuff was king of the hillbilly singers, including such early country standards as "Great Speckled Bird," "Wabash Cannon Ball" and "Beautiful Brown Eyes." Coming up at a time when an entire generation of singers devoted themselves to imitating yodeller Jimmie Rodgers, Acuff found his own voice, hewing to nostalgic and religious material, but singing in a stripped-down, less emotive style that softened the twangy, backwoods music and made it more accessible to a mainstream audience. Acuff was a prefect country spokesman, sticking to a tradionalist repertoire while expanding the music's appeal into a wider audience. As with other ASV releases, this generously programmed best-of has first-rate song selection, fine sound quality, and -- most importantly -- includes the original versions of tunes that Acuff re-recorded numerous times in years to come. Thus far, this is the best single collection of Acuff's work to be found in the CD era... Highly recommended!
This set originally came out as an LP, back in 1985, and the cover art ain't much to write home about. But hey, if it's curated by the folks at the Country Music Foundation, you know it's gotta be good. Vintage oldies from Acuff's early years; I have it on vinyl and I suspect that the sound quality is better there than on the CD reissue, which came out fairly early in the digital era. Still, it's a first-class look at Acuff's glory years, worth picking up if you wanna check him out.
This was the old standard-issue best-of from the early CD era. It's another nice set, generously programmed with twenty tracks, all taken from Acuff's early years. Pretty tasty stuff; more or less interchangable with the ASV and CMF albums listed above.
This 2-CD set is drawn from Acuff's 1950s recordings, made for the Capitol and Decca labels, and includes re-recorded versions of many of his classic songs, first recorded on Columbia in the 1930s and '40s. It's nice, though the studio sound at the time was much smoother and less bluesy than on the originals. Although he was one of the most powerful men in Nashville at the time, Acuff was still a bit of a throwback, with sparse arrangements and a plain, simple delivery that was in sharp contrast to the increasingly lavish production and poppish crooning of the day. Personally, I find his old stuff more exciting, but this is still a nice set, and has Bear Family's hallmark great sound quality and well-researched liner notes.
Roy Acuff "Songs Of The Smoky Mountains" (Capitol, 1955)
The world of country music had long since passed Acuff over as a recording star when this album came out. His style was antiquated and a bit stiff, and though he was a major force in the Nashville song publishing establishment, his hits were few and far between following the advent of the swank, hi-fi "Nashville Sound." That being said, this is a mighty fine album. Sure, Acuff was kind of long in the tooth and geezerly, but he made the most of modern recording techniques and the crackerjack studio crews available at the time. Revisiting some old hits, he gives them a new lease on life with the sonic richness of the stereo era, and like many old-school country singers, he knows how to sing with sincerity and conviction, particularly on the gospel material. This album is certainly worth picking up... an old master still in fine form.
Roy Acuff "The Voice Of Country Music" (Capitol, 1965)
Although this 14-song collection is a step backwards from Sony's previous Essential collection of a decade earlier (which had a half-dozen more tracks on it), it's nice that students of country music can still find an affordable best-of set for this legendary figure. And the sound quality is quite nice; CD technology has come a long way since '92. So, all in all, I'd say this one's a winner, full of prime material from Acuff's peak years, 1938-49. If you don't already have this music, you should pick this one up and check it out.
Religious material; this disc is generously packed with twenty tracks, although I'm not sure what vintage they are (haven't seen the album myself, and often these cheapie reissues don't have the greatest liner notes anyway...) If you're interested, though, you might also want to check out my Country Gospel section for similar albums.
A collection of gospel material recorded during Acuff's stint on his own Hickory Records label, recorded during the 1960s and '70s.
For years, I've had a great old LP on the Binge Disc label of this guy's stuff, so imagine my delight to find a Bear Family CD with twice as many songs on it... Adams was a second-stringer who hailed from Waco, Texas and worked in several regional bands. Imperial Records, and then Decca, recorded him in the early 1950s, when honkytonk and hillbilly boogie were on the rise. This disc opens with a couple of bluesy cowboogie tunes that sounds like early Ernie Ford, and moves into bouncy, jaunty hard country that has echoes of the western swing Adams grew up with, as well as the hardnosed honkytonk of Hank Williams (who Adams toured with, before Williams died). Adams is best known for his novelty songs, particularly the goofball hillbilly hit "Hey, Liberace," which bemoaned Liberace's popularity with the women (If only they knew...!) There's much stronger material on here, though: the song that I used to play on the radio (more times than I'd care to admit) is the gleeful "If A Beer Bottle Had A Nipple On It (You'd Be A Baby All Your Life)" and when Adams dug into the real-deal broken heart songs, he was a force to be reckoned with. Not a great singer, but a solid hillbilly honkytonker, Adams is one of those little-know also-rans that it's a delight to stumble across. I dig it!
A great set of mid-1960s, West Coast-flavored trucker songs... Adams, a sassy singer who sounded a bit like Loretta Lynn, had a sizeable hit with the novelty song "Little Pink Mack," and they naturally tried to follow it up with similar material, like "Six Days Awaiting," an answer song to Dave Dudley's wildly popular "Six Days On The Road." That didn't work quite as well, but the rest of this album is still a lot of fun -- it's pure, glorious Bakersfield twang, and definitely worth checking out if you like the cool old stuff. Adams even pays homage to a West Coast foremother, Rose Maddox with a fine version of "Big, Big Day Tomorrow," a great old weeper that Rose recorded a few years earlier. Folks looking for lost gems in country's past would be well advised to snap this tasty reissue up now, while you still have the chance!
A great reissue record that fills in a major blank in the history of women in country music. Allen was a powerful, appealing singer whose material split between novelty numbers ("Take It Back And Change It For A Boy" being a highlight...) and sentimental weepers. She's a bit like a softer version of Rose Maddox - rural but heartfelt, and a compelling performer. She hung out with Elton Britt and Zeke Manners (which may explain the upbeat nature of many of these tunes...) and while she was billed as a yodeler, this collection only has a couple of full-on yodeling tunes. Apparently, Allen gave up recording around 1955, but this disc collects a fabulous sweep of material made from 1944-1949. Although her unvaried vocal style gets a little monotonous if you listen to the disc repeatedly, this is great in small doses, and highly recommended.
Dave Alvin - see artist discography
John Anderson "Greatest Hits, Volume Two" (Warner Brothers, 1990)
Some of the best honkytonk hits to be recorded in the late '70s and early '80s. I really love Anderson's smoky, smooth vocals, as well as his perfect pitch for picking and performing hard country gems. He's had real soul, a great band, and plenty of totally killer material to work with. Sure, Moe Bandy was around, too, but Anderson's picture oughta be placed in the Country encylopedia under any entry on "neotraditional" artists: he really defined the style, and did it better than pretty much anyone else. These best-ofs, particularly the first volume, are both highly recommended (although if you can pick up the original albums, they're even better!)
John Anderson "Greatest Hits" (BNA, 1996)
This collection covers a later phase of Anderson's career, his late '80s/early '90s work for BNA, where some newfangled glossy production overtook and kinda buried his growly honkytonk. In general, it's not as satisfying as the old stuff, but the guy is still more fun to listen to than most of the clone-ish pretty boys that have cluttered Nashville the last few decades. I dig the sound of Anderson's voice, though the material he's singing on here is pretty weak.
Liz Anderson -- see artist discography
Tom Anderson/Al Rogers "Two Short-Lived Hillbilly Careers" (Binge Discs, 2006)
Holy cow...! This is the kind of reissue record that makes me still feel in love with country music, like there's always new, fun stuff out there to discover, if you just keep looking. The real find here is Tom Anderson, a mystery figure who recorded some awesome, true-blue hillbilly country tunes for the MGM label. The dozen tracks on this disc date back to 1953-54; what happened to Anderson after that is anybody's guess -- even the normally informative folks at Binge disc drew a total blank on both of these artists. Anyway, Anderson had it all -- a great singer with plenty of twang (like early Ray Price, perhaps), he had a strong band (called the Deep Valley Boys), and was also a fine songwriter, penning winners such as "The Moon And I," "Sweet Love" and "If Your Heart Had A Window." Indeed, all of his tracks are good, twangy fun -- I'd play any of them on the radio, anytime. The second singer, Al Rogers, also recorded for MGM (and Capitol, and RCA...) but he's a bit less exciting... Rogers was a baritone crooner in the Red Foley/Ernie Ford mould, singing barrel-chested weepers like "It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You" and "All Alone, All Alone," which he wrote under his given name of Alex Phillip Rogers. His debt to Red Foley is made all too apparent on his early single, "Shuffle-Boogie Bellhop," which is practically a note-for-note swipe of "Chattanoogie Shoeshine Boy." Still, corny stuff can be fun, too, and even though the contrast between these two randomly-paired artists leaves Rogers at a disadvantage, his stuff is still a nice find. Another great collection -- easiest way to track it down is to contact Binge Discs directly, or try the same place I got it, Down Home Music, in the SF Bay Area.
Hick Music Index