For Country Music Collectors, post your latest acquisitions

A truly essential album.

 

Merle Haggard's 2-LP set Same Train, A Different Time is a phenomenal Rodgers tribute album, and actually a great way for the modern listener to approach Rodgers' music.

 

I've been binge buying country stuff lately - a lot of '60's Capitol Haggard, '60's Capitol Buck Owens, 6-eye Columbia monos of the two Marty Robbins gunfighter ballad records, a bunch of early Johnny Cash, and some Waylon. Addictive stuff, for sure.

 

Bear Family and KOCH have issued standalone CDs of the album and it is a great album.

 

That sounds like an awesome experience. Get any good stories from him?

 

I bought a sealed copy of Vern Gosdin's "Chiseled in Stone" album yesterday. Bought it in Minneapolis, MN but it originally came from Ernest Tubb's Record Shop! Best $8 I spent on record store day I do believe. You gotta love (and miss) The Voice.

 

The Omni Recording Corp. (Australia) CD is excellent as a single disc, as well...
Dick Curless - The Long Lonesome Road



Omni have put out some off-beat stuff. Some I've been diggin' into are these. The Porter Wagoner is terrific!!
(fwiw, according to the CD notes, all tracks are licensed)






Omni Recording Corp Label at Tower.com »

 

His dad was in a band with my two Great Uncles in the thirties and we talked about that Also talked The Delmore Bros. I asked him to perform Sand Mountain Blues which was a Delmore song the Louvin's covered and he said "I would love to sing it for ya ....but honestly ...I don't remember the lyrics."

 

Any suggestions for 50's/60's Bakersfield country? Right now I have stuff from Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart, Jean Shepard, Rose Maddox, Skeets McDonald, and Merle's on the way. I've checked out Tommy Collins but a lot of his stuff is a bit silly for my tastes.

 

There is also Freddie Hart, Don Rich, Hank Thompson, Red Steagall, and C.W McCall. All of them are great. Dwight Yoakam isn't 50's or 60's Bakersfield, but he has a lot of great material too.

 

I have the Red Simpson box. He was pretty interesting. If I can find Tommy Collins for around $30 I think I will go for it, but I don't have hopes for it. One box that really surprised me was Merle Travis. The sound is awesome and he was very consistent. I also have the first Hank Thompson box which I would also highly recommend.

 

my latest country pickups; (3 of these were only 26 cents each)

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I've never been big on truck-driving songs, which I've why I've been hesitant about guys like Red Simspon and Dick Curless and C.W. McCall. Though, upon closer inspection Bear Family's Dick Curless box, he wasn't as reliant on trucker country as his charting singles suggest.

I find instrumentals to be exhausting in large doses, but I may pick up a single-disc Merle Travis collection at some point. Problem is none seem to encapsulate his whole career, so it's tough to pick which.

I've had that Hank Thompson set in the back of my mind for a while. It's a whopper, but my one CD really doesn't do him justice.

It would be fantastic if Jan Howard's early recordings, especially for Challenge/Jackpot, were reissued in their entirety.

 

Hank Williams Sr.

Ramblin' Man
Honky-Tonkin'
The Immortal Hank Williams
Hank Williams as Luke the Drifter
Moanin' the Blues

I mentioned this score in another thread. It's my best recent vintage haul. All are minty and all are the first 12" yellow MGM label pressings of each title.

 

Because of how great Joey+Rory's "Hymns That Are Important To Us" CD is, I went & purchased the rest of them & they are all great!
The only one I'm waiting for now is their Christmas album. I am also working on getting all of their DVD's too.

 

Next stop is Bear Family!

 

His book is worh a read! Some amazing stories behind the music there.

 

Bear Family included this Wagoner album in their 3 CD The Cold Hard Facts Of Life.

Mr. Loudermilk is the cousin of the aforementioned Louvin Brothers.

 

I forgot that about Loudermilk! His album is just, well, something else!!

Re: Wagoner Porter - I love that Bear Family release They compiled 6 Porter albums, but the Omni CD I posted above is actually a compilation, mainly of RCA/Victor 45s, many of which i never had before (and new to CD). Confusingly though, they chose to use the same LP cover (almost) as the Carroll County Accident LP (that's available in full on the Bear Family set) and retitled it to "Rubber Room". The Omni Recording Corp. tend to focus on neglected album tracks or singles that are sometimes "darker" or even odd-ball! Here's the tracklist for anyone interested...

Rubber Room: The Haunting Poetic Songs of Porter Wagoner 1966-1977 - Porter Wagoner | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic »



Scary stuff

 

Alison Krauss and Union Station - Paper Airplane
Rounder LP

 

Opted for this PD compilation offering a selection of Jan Howard's '58-'62 recordings. It's missing about a third of what she did during that time, but there's lots of great stuff including several numbers written by her husband Harlan. My favourites are the hard-driving songs recorded at the same time as Wynn Stewart's best work.

 

The Sturgill Simpson is something else. Totally unable to define. A lot of soul, rock and whatever with country charm. The Nirvana song is not the highlight of the album; IMO, people made too big of a deal about it. Overall it's as genre bending as Waylon's 70s albums and the couple of times I've heard listened to it, so far, was the just the beginning of scratching the surface of what's there. I'm thinking that I'm really going to like it.

The Jamey Johnson is an older one and is as good of a place to start, as any, to get into him. I've seen him live and recall him playing some of the songs from this album. If you've never heard him, start here:

 

then go here:

 

Hayes Carll - Lovers & Leavers

 

Before my Joey+Rory shopping spree I added these to my library.