No comments about Outlaws of Country ((the Life, Times & Music Book/CD Ser.)).

No comments about Nashville Sings Christian Country.

3 comments about Songs of Inspiration.

1. I have been searching for any albums that I could find by the Chuckwagon Gang. I listened to them as a young boy and had lost track of their music after a move to the west coast. I found a cassette tape and knew I had to find them on CD if possible. I recently ordered the two albums featured on this site and I play them constantly, both at home and in my truck. Rose and Effie have the most beautiful, clearest voices I have ever heard. Their arrangements on every song bring our the quality of the lyrics and mesmerize the senses in a most pleasant way. I would love to have other albums if they are available, no matter what songs are on them. They are the greatest and most inspirational gospel group I have ever heard.



2. This is great' We have looked for years for the Old Time Religion That our parents instilled in us.So many are searching for a good feeling and it is right at our side,but we don,t see it sometimes.Juist play the old time gospel songs and see how relaxing they are.The Chuck Wagon Gang Is Found At Last.Thanks



3. I do not have this particular CD, but I have heard of The Chuckwagon Gang all of my life (I'm 55). I had the privilege to sing with a group that "introduced" them when they sang in El Dorado, AR. I got to visit with them backstage and it was the thrill of my life. I know that they have retired now, but I would love to have as many of their tapes and/or CD's as possible.

No comments about How Great Thou Art: Gospel Classics.

No comments about Do Right By Me.

1 comments about The Old Home Place: Bluegrass and Old-Time Mountain Music.

1. First, an expression of small irritation: The subtitle notwithstanding, there is no, or at least hardly any, "old-time mountain music" here, unless you count the Nashville Bluegrass Band's version of the Carter Family's "My Native Home." That, however, is resurrected in a more or less contemporary bluegrass setting. The selections here are not, with a couple of exceptions, those 19th-Century home-sweet-home songs that found their way to the Southern mountains and other parts of rural America, to be rediscovered as "old-time" folk music. It is obviously true, of course, that without that background this particular genre of bluegrass wouldn't exist.

   The songs and arrangements here mostly represent state-of-the-art bluegrass as it explores the once-staple subject of home, otherwise missing from nearly all popular music these days. What's "old time" here is the sense that where you come from and dream of going back to one day matter even now. The "home place" is always rural or small-town. You don't have to have rural roots, or to have moved to the big city and then, many years later, come back home (as I, for example, did), to relate to these fine songs and performances. (Modesty should exclude me, but won't quite, from including among the just-mentioned Suzanne Thomas's "Leaving This Land," which I co-wrote. I confess, though, that whatever the composition's inherent virtues or flaws, I love what she did to it.) Many of the songs either are hymns (the Cox Family's reading of the standard "Little Whitewashed Chimney") or hymnlike (Laurie Lewis's powerful "Who Will Watch the Home Place?"). The most strikingly original song is the Rice Brothers's "This Old House" -- not the old gospel tune, but a more recent song, told from the point of view of a house as the family that has lived within it for many years moves out. It could be mawkish, even preposterous, but it turns out to be as heart-wrenching as Hazel Dickens's uncompromising "Hills of Home," which is as devoid of sentimentality as a song of this kind could be.

   Among other high points, Vern Williams does a hard-driving, trad-bluegrass romp through Stephen Foster's "Old Kentucky Home" and restores it blazingly to life. Still another plus is the liner notes, by the revered country-music historian Bill C. Malone, who puts America's musical homes in context of our culture and history. The CD is good enough to make you homesick even if you're already there.

5 comments about Greatest Hits.

1. Not only do you get Sixteen Tons but there is also Shotgun Boogie and the Ballad of Davey Crockett. No wonder Mr. Ford was popular during the golden age of pop singers, the 1950's because as this CD shows his songs were fun and there is a feeling of joy in his voice.



2. This was a gift for my brother-in-law and he was very surprised when I gave it to him for his birthday. He loved it!



3. Tennessee Ernie Ford was a great man and had a great voice. We are thoroughly enjoying his CD.



4. One reviewer stops just short of calling Ernie Ford a "hick" and questions the appeal of the songs represented in this little album, claiming to have never heard of them. Well, let's look at the facts.
   
   Yes he did sell millions of gospel/hymn LPs and EPs over the years and, for that reason, to many people whose musical tastes don't go beyond that genre this is the type of music for which he is best remembered. But the reality is, Ernie Ford appealed to a wide spectrum of musical preferences and that is born out by the fact that he also put 29 selections onto the Country singles charts, and 21 onto the pop charts between 1949 and 1976.
   
   And here you get all three of his # 1 hits - Mule Train which reached # 1 Country [4 weeks at that spot] and # 9 Pop in 1949, the hilarious Shotgun Boogie which stayed at # 1 Country for FOURTEEN weeks in late 1950/early 1951 and reached # 14 Pop, and Sixteen Tons, TEN weeks at # 1 Country and EIGHT weeks at # 1 Billboard Pop Top 100 in 1955. The Cry Of The Wild Goose just missed the # 1 Country slot in 1950, settling for a # 2 as well as # 15 Pop. Not bad for a "hick" and, to boot, these will be recalled by many, if not that one reviewer.
   
   The other seven selections here didn't fare too badly either. His version of The Ballad of Davy Crockett [there were several that year] made the Top 10 in both Country and Top 100 in 1955, and In the Middle Of An Island reached # 23 Top 100 in late summer 1957 with its flipside, Ivy League, registering as a "follow along" hit. Then there was the comical warning not to take the Bible too lightly in That's All, which made it to # 12 Country and # 17 Top 100 in March 1956, The Rovin' Gambler, a # 60 Top 100 that May, and First Born which topped out at # 46 Top 100 in December.
   
   The Jack Fascinato orchestra backed him on all the hits in this package with the exception of tracks 2 (here he was back by the Cliffie Stone orchestra), 4, 6, and 7. To the reviewer who wondered about "One Suit" that was the flipside of another 2-sided hit for Capitol, 1957's The Watermelon Song [# 87 Top 100] and One Suit [# 93]. These are among the hardest to find of Ernie's Pop hits, along with the B-side to Sixteen Tons, "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry" which reached # 78.
   
   As I have mentioned in other reviews [Beach Boys, Young-Holt Unlimited], this EMI-Capitol 10 Best Series is one of the best such compilations to hit the market in the early days of CDs as all tracks are original hits and with excellent sound quality. The only drawback is the complete lack of liner notes.



5. This is a great recording which contains at least five of TEF's best western songs.
   
   I've always love western music. My favorites are Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, TEF, and Tex Ritter.

No comments about Country Hits, Vol. 2.

No comments about Best Country Gospel Box, Vol. 2.

No comments about The Best of Nashboro Gospel.