Music label Country Rewind Records in conjunction with Select-O-Hits records has started a series of classic traditional country artists including Jeannie C. Riley, Johnny Russell, Carl Smith and The Blue Ridge Mountain Bluegrass Band. This is what I would call nashville's version of BBC sessions that has been released throughout the years of many classic rock artis such as the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream just to name a few. These are recordings from some of the best country artists of the 50s, 60s and 70s , tren setting artists that paved the way for our current contemporary artists of today, at that time radio had more shows where they would have an artist come in to the studio and play their hit single and then if time permitted they would perform some of their favorite songs that either were currently on the charts or a former chart topper at the time, and they would perform those classic songs the way they would have done it had they recorded those particular ditties themselves;
Thomas Gramuglia, owner of Country Rewind Records rescued the master tapes of the material contained in these packages. These performances just as the bbc sessions I mentioned were originally only broadcasted on the air circa the 1960s and the 1970s, and they haven't been heard since on any type of package release on these artists. The music contained in these packages have been remastered for the highest quality for digital sound for your listening pleasure, they have also been upgraded to a more contemporary sound by adding some background vocals or orchestration arrangement, but I will say this you can't tell that there were even upgrades to the material at all they all have the classic traditional country sound that you can only hear from these original classic artists, infact if you have a good imagination and the younger generation reading this review can visualize what your parents and or/grandparents would tell you as a child that they didn't grow up with television...they're right about that as the cost for a television was quite expensive back then, our parents and grandparents would gather around the radio while sitting in the living room and listen to a variety of different shows the grand ole opry being one of them on the radio and each week they'd hear their favorite artists take the stage and perform their what are now known as classic hits of the day, well while you're listening to these superior sounding albums close your eyes and visualize what I just described and take a little trip down memory lane with the family while listening to these historical music pieces.
The first of the four releases that just came out recently is female artist Jeannie C. Riley, the album being titled "The Music City Sessions", which of course contains her 1968 monster hit for pop and country charts "Harper Valley PTA", which also later became a movie starring Barbara Eden of I Dream Of Jeannie, and then later a television show as well from 1978-1981, although Jeannie would never obtain another #1 chart hit on the pop and country charts, she did have moderate success with some other songs and some are included in this package, includeing "Me and Bobby McGhee" penned by Kris Kristofferson and written for Female rock legend Janis Joplin who would have a monster hit with it towards the end of her life and career. Crying Time originally recorded and written by Buck Owens for the b-side of his hit "I've Got A Tiger By The Tail", did not chieve a hit for him, but would two years later in 1966 for Ray Charles, Jeannie takes a turn on making this classic her own with her vocal stylings, some of Jeannie's other moderately charted hits included in this package are "Back Side Of Dallas", "Country Girl", "Girl Most Likely" "There Never Was A Time", "Tings Go Better With Love", and then some other great cover tunes as i'll call them with Jeannie's vocal stamping on them including "Okie From Muskogee" a classic sixties hit for Merle Haggard, and this is a treat to hear her doing legendary Dusty Springfield's hit "Son Of A Preacher Man" done in a totally different style from Dusty's memphis r&b soul version but Jeannie's is very catchy to the ear, and then one of my personal favorites to have been covered is "Games People Play" written and performed originally by Joe South, this one doesn't have as much of a spin on it as it was basically a traditional country tinged song to begin with, if you are a fan of Jeannie C. Riley you should definitely go out and get this definitive collection of material that hasn't been heard since the original airing of these on the radio which is close to 50 years this won't just attract the original fans of her music this will also bring some new fans that are interested in hearing where some of their current country artists got their influences from.
The second album released from this record label is Grand Ole Opry member Johnny Russell with the album entitled "All I Got To Do Is Act Naturally", and with in this collection of material there are some of Johnny's more memorable singles including his big hit from 1973 "Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer", along with other singles he recorded throughout his career including "Catfish JOhn", "Mr. and Mrs. Untrue", "She Burnt The Little Roadside Tavern Down", The Baptism Of Jesse Taylor", "She's In Love With A Rodeo Man", and there are some interesting renditions of some classic hits that were made big by other artists, but again in this case Johnny puts his touch to them starting with "Act Naturaly" another great classic penned and recorded by Buck Owens and was a successful hit for Buck and also the Beatles, infact in the late 80s Buck would re-record the hit with Beatle Ringo Starr and release a music video to accompany the single release, I will say that Johnny's version of this classic doesn't sound much different from Buck's or the Beatles version he kept it mostly in the same style just his vocalization is the difference from the other version. "Good Hearted Woman"....yes the Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson classic duet in which i'm sorry to say no offense to Johnny Russell's version but there will never be a version that can compare to Waylon and Willie's version, nice attempt at it though, the next classic is really just that it's pretty much a standard to learn for every boy and man who learns to play a guitar and that's Chuck Berry's "johnny B Goode" and let's face it everyone does this one their own way Johnny is no different when it comes to this one giving that countrified twang sound to this rock anthem, "Jambalaya" who hasn't covered this country classic which is a fun toe tappin' tune for you to hearr. All in all these are tastey delectable treats for the die hard fan of Johnny Russell who most likely did these covers in different performances throughout his career, it's ashame that we lost Johnny at age 61 in July of 2001 due to diabetes complications, i'm sure he would have been proud to hear these performances digitally remastered for his original fans and his new fans he will most likely pick up from this fine collection of his classic performances.
moving on to the third release in this wonderful series of classic performances of legendary Grand Ole Opry members and Country Music Hall Of Fame members as well. This next artist really doesn't need any introduction as he was known as Mr. Country and that's Carl Smith, and that' also just so happens to be the name of this release "Mr. Country" and this package is a definitive collection of quite a few of his single releases that spanned close to three decades worth of his fine craftsmanship of songwriting and singing, including four number one hits with "Are You Teasin' Me"& "When You Feel Like You're In Love, Don't Just Stand There", which were both originally released by carl in 1952 "Hey Joe" #1 in 1953 and "Loose Talk" #1 in 1954 these as you can see were all number ones that Carl had achieved along with others that didn't make it on to this compilation too, staying in Carl's catalog of singles "If Teardrops Were Pennies", which didn't achieve number 1 status at the time but it still made the top ten and reached number 8. "I Overlooked An Orchid While Searching For A Rose" , which was Carl's second single release in 1950 and from research this writer did couldn't find find any charting for this song , but quite frankly it is a beautiful ballad telling his story of looking for his love of a specific nature but stumbled upon someone even better then he originally set out for, "Mr. Moon" was a number 4 hit for Carl, and of course there are these glorious tracks for the fan that's been on board with his music from the beginning and for all the new fan listeners that are just getting on the band wagon and starting to hear this historically recorded material. In 1951
"The Best Years Of My Life" a #15 hit in 1959, "She Called Me Baby" a #32 hit single just barely getting past #40 in 1965, "Deep Water" Carl's first #10 hit single for the first time in a while for the year 1967 which was the summer of love, "Foggy River" a #18 the following year in 1968, "I Love You Because" a #14 single in 1969, and would later get recorded by the king of rock and roll himself Elvis Presley and even though it didn't chart for the king, anything as far as this writer knows about Elvis's musical history generally got the original performer more recognition and fan followers.
This is a well thought out collection of Carl's hits, yes there are hits missing but this is a good starter collection for someone who is just getting on board and starting to listen to his material.
Our final release in the bunch is the Blueridge Mountain Bluegrass Band and their album entitled "Leaving On A Jet Plane". this band features many songs written by some of the best artists through the 20th century including John Denver and Carl Perkins just to name a couple although their voices are not featured in the material contained in this compilation, you are still going to want to go out and pick this album up for your musical library just to say you at least have it. The musicians featured playing and singing on here are superb and top notch players to say the least as you have to be to be pickin' bluegrass in this writer's opinion. The players in the band are as follows: Dr. James Satterwhite on the Bass and Guitar, John
Kribs a well seasoned Guitar player on the track Stony Lady, John Terry Frost on Lead Vocals,
Laddie Cain Harmony Vocals, Anthony Hannigan on Mandolin, Dave Bevins on Dobro, Chris Leske on Banjo, Arlin
Green on Bass, Sara Milonovich on Fiddle and Vocals, and they're all on this plentiful package of music contained within this jam packed package and when it all comes to the end of each of these albums written in this review you'll want to hit the repeat button on the cd player or however you listen to your music these days and hear them again.
Here is the list of tracks contained within this fun filled finger pickin' package, Adrenaline Hayride, Leaving On A Jet Plane, Stony Lady,
Cripple Creek, when I hear this song I think of the sixties band The Monkees who if you bought their live 1967 album you'll hear Peter Tork perform this piece during his solo portion of the show on just his banjo with no other accompanyment, Bartender's Blues which is originally penned and performed by James Taylor who in my opinion is one of our great songwriters of the 20th centurey next to Bob Dylan of course, Dixie Hoedown, You Are My Sunshine, Head Over Heals In Love With You , Blackberry Blossom, Blue Suede Shoes an interesting version to say the least but it is a toe tapper that will get you up and wanting to cut a rug as the saying goes for this classic tune and no one does this track the same every recorded version has something special about it, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, More Pretty Girls Than One, Ballad of Jed Clampett, everyone knows this one especially if you've seen the sixties television show either when they originally aired or in syndication somewhere who doesn't love the Beverly Hillbillies you'll have this one stuck in your head for hours after hearing it as it's such a fun track to sing along with, Summertime, a classic penned by George and Ira Gershwin for the play Porgy and Bess, and is a very well covered tune by so many contemporary artists including just these few here to mention Sam Cooke, Janis Joplin, and Paul McCartney. Salt Creek penned by Grand Ole Opry member Bill Monroe and lastly to close out this package of is Grandfather's Clock, a traditional bluegrass standard but nevertheless a great closer for an album.
I highly recommend all of these fine packaged releases and there is more of these albums to come from the label. For more information on where you can purchase these albums you can go directly to their website: ww.countryrewind.com or www.amazon.com
and on those sites you can purchase physical copies on cd or digitally stream the material through your favorite media platform of choice for your music listening. If you like this type of traditional country music then you should check out the current contemporary country music stars that are inspired by these artists and more of the classical traditional country music sound. Just a few artists of today to mention that are inspired by some of the folks here are Garth Brooks, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire and many more. This music is a lost art form because of radio today only playing current top forty hits and not a mix of today and yesterday's music there's plenty of room on these stations for all of it, and it's sad when we're forced to listen to those same top forty songs over and over every other hour of the day, if it wasn't for this music written about in this review, we wouldn't have what we have now for music these artists paved the way for the current contemporaries out there and it should be made known to the world.
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