Finally got Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's Rocks CD. I ordered it from one seller, didn't receive it after two months, got a refund, ordered it from elsewhere, and had it arrive after one month. Most of it is straight electric Texas blues, but on some of the later cuts he shakes up the formula by exchanging his guitar for a fiddle.
This the one? Various - History Box set: R&B in DC 1940-1960 - Rhythm & Blues, Doo Wop, Rockin’ Rhythm and more… (16-CD Deluxe Box Set) - Bear Family Records
Wow. Probably won't end up on my radar, but an impressive undertaking. I only recognize a handful of names (Billy Stewart, Clovers, Lloyd Price, Don Covay, Harvey Fuqua & The Moonglows, etc.), and none of those artists reached their commercial peak with this material.
A great release with Ed Bruce:Ed Bruce CD: See The Big Man Cry - The complete SUN and Wand recordings 1957 – 65, plus… (CD) - Bear Family Records (bear-family.com)
Nice, I was hoping his Sun recordings would eventually come to CD! Also announced is a slightly redundant Sonny Burgess comp. Most of it is Sun material we already have on the great old Classic Recordings set, but it also has some rarer latter-day work: Sonny Burgess CD: Rocks (CD) - Bear Family Records
Checking out songs on this Ed Bruce CD, very much looking forward to it. Aside from some of his Sun recordings, most of the material has eluded reissue until now. Good to have an old-fashioned "one artist's complete work from a given time period" release from BF again. One of my favourite tracks is this gospel/blues-tinged B-side from 1964 which will hopefully be presented in much better fidelity than heard on YouTube: Not sure if it's an E.B. original or a cover, but it would be just as suited to Charlie Rich, Bobby Bland, or even '68-era Elvis.
An instrumental not included in the big George Jones CD box: Birth of a legend. How could Bear Family Records miss this recording?? It would have been a great bonus track,here it is: George Jones' String Band - Opry Rag - YouTube
Catchy number! I guess it technically doesn't feature Jones, but it would have been a nice addition to the box. Did some Googling about it and learned the tune was recycled by another country legend's backing band under the title "Country Rag".
I wouldn't be surprised if it was the other way around. Carl Belew and Van Givens were notorious for selling songs to an artist, and then reselling the same song to another artist. See "Wine Me Up" by Faron Yong as an example...
I did the same about a year ago, ordered that disc from the seller on ebay. Disappointed to see a CD-R. Great sound though. Love all the Fuzz on that album.
There are 3 alternate takes of early Starday songs not in the Bear box, an alt. tk. of "Wrong About You" has been issued on a Jasmine compilation, Fantastic Voyage found an alt. tk. of "Let Him Know", and the original single version of "Still Hurtin" were missed, presumably because the Gusto tape archive was missing those takes. Starday & later Pappy Daily labels made several mistakes, issuing alternate takes when re-pressing singles or selecting songs for LPs. With the UK labels Jasmine & Fantastic Voyage issuing alternates, it suggests they worked from singles they found for their public domain CDs.
i got an 10 inch LP released by Bear Family records that includes unreleased takes not included in the box.When i search Bear Familys site i can not find any information on this 10 inch LP.
Which artist? Which box? If it's George Jones, maybe you mean the mini-album that was released by RWA (not Bear Family) which features live tracks from the Starday/Mercury era...
The old releases are available from Bear Family Mail Order (they recently did a "Spring Sale" on them). No new physical releases are planned, but lots of digital albums are in the pipeline (all with 12-20 page booklets). Like the recent Leon McAuliffe, and Johnny Taylor compilations they'll be available via and more bears.
I think this is the album Svein referred to, George Jones United Artists Rarities (Omnivore OVS10-33) George Jones – United Artists Rarities (2012, Vinyl)
If Bear announced that they will issue archival collections of, say, 100 or more tracks by single artists that they have not previosly issued but only as flac downloads, that would be better than the current situation, which is largely no such releases at all. But Bear collectors generally are archivists themselves who want generally want the physical box sets.