Have you heard any of his more recent releases through Heart Of Texas Records? "Live At The Louisiana Hayride" is a neat document of his live performances over the span of a few years. His recent album "Family Man" has kept Frankie performing every year and I heard on a radio station I listen to that he is doing some shows in 2015.
Very true indeed! Although the first Webb Pierce box is excellent, it shocks me to see his later works remain so overlooked. Webb was still making quality albums into the 1960s and literally charted into the 1980s.
Tribute, if memory serves, the single disc contains a sampling of what was included on the box. To be honest, I bought it mostly for the artwork and the small booklet.
Individual CD: Jimmy Donley - The Shape You Left Me In Louie And The Lovers - The Complete Recordings Box Sets: Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys - San Antonio Rose Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys - Faded Love Cliff Bruner And His Texas Wanderers Ella Mae Morse - Barrelhouse, Boogie And The Blues Acadian All Star Special
Could you please share your source information about this happening? I've just checked the Bear Family site and there's no mention of a Lefty Frizzell box coming. Thanks
I own about 30 BF boxes and like them all. As for the most rare and OOP sets that I own, I'll say Ann-Margret 1961-1966 & Flamin' Guitars by Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant
The only BF box I have that might be OoP is The Collins Kids - Hop, Skip & Jump. It's pretty juvenile, especially compared to the material Brenda Lee was recording at the same age, but the less childish stuff is pretty great: Good one. I just wish it included undubbed versions of some of his songs; those Anita Kerr Singers were laid on way too thick in several cases.
Absolutely agree. Somehow I'm usually able to disregard those cheesy back-up singers and concentrate on Donley's voice and lyrics. There's a nice double CD on Ace, In The Key Of Heartbreak, that collects the stuff Donley did for Huey Meaux's labels. Have really enjoyed this thread. I have a large number of Bear Family releases and and I can not think of one I am not happy to own.
My library used to have the LF box, along with about 50 more titles. People walked off with all of it. One of the memorable ones for me was --
I can usually do that too, but a couple are just painful. One in particular, "My Baby's Gone", has this great swamp groove that's destroyed by the backup's percussive vocal interludes. Is it possible for me to somehow post this audio clip I have of how it sounds with the Anita Kerr Singers removed? That Ace collection is every bit as good as his Decca recordings.
Webb's many LPs after the BF box period, and his material that pre-dates the BF box are incredibly good. I recall that Webb's oversized ego made him unpopular in Nashville, but that is almost to expected from a star artist (those with no ego rarely get on stage). I often wondered if that was a reason for few reissues, on Bear Family or elsewhere. That wail in his voice stands out among the very greatest ever.
That's called "creative listening". It is great fun (and it opens up a lot of music) to be able to listen to a recording, of any artist in any style, and hear different arrangements, different instruments, and even different voices and different lyrics. I can listen to a woman's voice and hear a man, listen to a man's voice and hear a violin or piano, listen to a singer with band or orchestra and hear it a capella, hear entirely different lyrics, and so on. Maybe I listen too much. And then....when I listen to my wife.....
My 4 Dean Martin box sets. I don't have any other issue from BF. But I often order Elvis FTDs from them via mail order.
The best thing about Bear Family is their dedication to keeping their material in print. None of this "limited edition" stuff like Mosaic (an admirable company), HipO and Elvis FTD. When a Bear box goes out of print, more than likely it will be repressed. It can take a while because the book publishing is the most difficult and expensive part. It is rare when a license to BF expires and cannot be renewed for whatever reason. Why should Elvis FTD material, especially the studio sessions, be put out of print? Give it to Bear Family.
Definitely. If you own the Bear Family single disc, the 2-disc set from Ace is both essential and a nice compliment to the other. I believe Edsel had released some of the material prior to Ace, who conveniently brought all of those recordings together into one set. The fact Jimmy Donley is still being reissued in the 2000s while titles by bigger recording artists remain out of print is proof that his songs are timeless.
John D. Loudermilk's Compilations... David Allan Coe's 70's/80's stuff Johnny Preston Eddie Cochran box Johnny Burnette box Johnny Cash box's Waylon Jennings box's Lefty Frizzell box and..... The Chuck Berry Guitar Case edition
Without permission? Wow. It's very hard to fit even one under your shirt, as many a Bear Family collector who had to smuggle a boxset past his wife knows so well.
Pardon for going off-topic and let's end it with this - my city had the largest CD collection of any library system in USA in the 2000s, it was obscene, and had zero security measures in place. For a long time things seemed to stay put, but when the economy went south (early-mid 2000s) things started disappearing in droves. They had just about every jazz compilation you could possibly imagine, including every title from Mosaic, 3-5 copies of each usually, and the more common ones from Blue Note/Atlantic etc., and just about every Bear Family release, I think somewhere between 50-100 boxes. Same thing for rock catalog. By the late 2000s everything was gone. For the longest time they did not acknowledge a problem, I contacted them repeatedly until I caught someone's ear. I showed them a list of titles I'd downloaded from their website around 2003, and showed them a couple years later 90% were gone. They eventually put in security but the damage was done. I think they wholesaled whatever was left and went to an online service.
When I wrote that, I thought you were talking about your personal library. About the Portland Library, I thought that was the classic "public library discard" thing that nearly every public library does for items - ANY items - no matter how expensive, no matter how historically or artistically significant, that do not circulate with high frequency, or which are older than a certain date, or which are part of a categorical reduction. I looked at the Portland Library system on the web (from 3,000 miles away) and its incredible Bear Family collection (multiple copies in multiple branches) it appeared that many had been discarded. Bear Family is a label that appeals to far fewer people than the mass-appeal products in most library music collections. In addition, box sets intimidate many typical library users that just want a "little something". They sit on library shelves and in most libraries are discarded after a sometimes too brief period. Libraries generally do not make a big public statement about discards, sometimes they are obvious in the giveaways or special sales, but other times it is very discreet (yeah, you say it, they "wholesaled it"). But they ALL do it at an amazing rate. Many of those BF sets from the Portland system were sold on Amazon by that dealer who bought them "wholesale", but they could not fetch any real price because most of the box cases were gone (as libraries do, they repackaged everything). Many discs were scratched. I have friends who bought some (not me, I like em new-ish) P.S.: 50 or even 100 Bear boxes was still a small dent in the total BF box catalog, even at that time
I remember the first time I saw the track listing for a Bear Family box set. I guffawed at it, thinking "What kind of obsessive weirdo would want this much Roy Orbison?" That was seven or eight years ago. Speaking of which, who can remember their first Bear Family purchase? Mine was the single-disc Don Gibson Legend In My Time, while the first box was The Platters.
I go back to their vinyl only days, but my first CD boxset was Hank Snow, with just the four page LP sized pamphlet (no big books in those early sets, some had small-sized "paperbacks"). I still remember having all of their CD boxsets, when there were only about 4-6 sets. The vinyl boxsets were nicer in a way, the cases were much more rugged and each LP had a great cover.
I think the reason is cost to the consumer. I'm not familiar with John Stewart, but let's suppose the weakest two songs were dropped. Many people would rather pay $25 for 22 songs than $50 for 24 songs, especially if those last two songs were weak.
