Definitely. With Dagmar Anita Binge out of the business, Bear Family remains one of the last labels capable of delivering the quality releases of music from this genre and period. It's very interesting, because the sound can vary drastically from one BACM title to another. They seem to rely on their own source material, which I've noticed from comparing the same song on one of their discs against a non-BACM title.
If you got the latest news e mail from Bear Family you can buy these cheap.It is in german but they look like the english site so you knows where to click to buy them.
It isn't Christmas without one of Bear Family's well-tendered compilations. I always pull one out as the season nears.
I have a few of their discs, Cowboy Copas, James O'Gwynn, Jimmie Rodgers Snow... I sent them an email last night to subscribe to their "buddy" program to get the 3 new releases every other month for $35.00. I figured 99% of who they are featuring would never have any chance of getting any cd's released by anyone else.
Just received: Carl Butler and the Webster Brothers - I Wouldn't Change You If I Could. The first 14 tracks featuring the Websters are phenomenal, the next dozen by Butler alone are very good, and the last four are decent but too syrupy. Recommended for Louvin Brothers fans. Welcome! Those are a couple good suggestions. It's honestly surprising they've never covered the Delmores. JSP has three boxes with what I would assume contains their complete released output, but they aren't consecutively chronological and thus would offer a Groundhog Day-esque listening experience. The Delmore Brothers - Classic Cuts 1933 - 41 Delmore Brothers* - Volume 2 - The Later Years 1933-1952 The Delmore Brothers - More From The 1930s Plus The 1940s And 1950s
Jason Wilburn , son of Doyle Wilburn, owns the Zero masters. When Loretta broke free from The Wlburn Brothers in the early 70's. The Wilburn's sued Loretta for breach of contract etc. The Wilburn's were the ones who brought Loretta to Decca/MCA, got her a lifetime contract etc. When the lawsuit was finally settled The Wilburn's ended up getting a percentage of the publishing of songs written by Loretta while she was under their management. Pretty ugly lawsuit. Loretta quit the Wilburn's because they wanted to quit touring which is how country stars of that era made money..
Greatly missed. Giant oaks among us saps. I was blessed to have seen both Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard in my lifetime. I was walking the streets in New Orleans with some friends and just happened across an advertisement on an alley wall that said Johnny would be playing at the Hard Rock. I had to convince my friends that this was important not to miss. One went with me. Fantastic show. Great memory. Sorry for the friends that blew it off thinking Johnny Cash was some sort of hick hillbilly. Forgive them, they knew not what they did. I saw Merle twice. The most memorable one was with Bob Dylan. He opened. Of course I went to see Bob and thought Merle as the bonus. We had front row seats. Out came Merle and he made some joke about Dylan. I was excited to see Merle, especially up close like that. But I really was wanting Bob on stage. Then Merle opened his mouth and started singing. I kind of forgot about Dylan. My gosh, I never knew just how resonant and strong his voice was. I always liked his voice, but to hear him live is another level. He truely had a gift in that singing voice. My friend and I just looked at each other in awe. After the show we both blurted out the same thing "I never knew he could sing like. That was awesome." Im thankful to have seen both Merle and Johnny. One day it will be like having seen Hank Williams Sr. Same level. Just a little story. Thanks.
So according to fellow forumites in this thread The Shangri-Las Appreciation Thread The Shangri-Las master tapes are floating around and probably available to license. This group is in dire need of definitive set.
As an aside Glen Campbell, like Loretta Lynn is another Country artist woefully under represented on CD. I gotta imagine both of them being huge sellers as legacy box sets.
Someone I always thought was due for a Bear Box is Judy Lynn. Like many, she is not represented on CD/digital. Had over a decade of recording, along with a very popular live show and probably the best person ever to slide into a Nudie suit. If they could find any video on her it could be a Bear CD/DVD combo:
She also had a couple of mid-70s country albums so she got to record under the "new" sound (Thankfully. So fans like me never had to wonder "what could've been?"):
Absolutely - there's an amazing box set just waiting to happen. Apparently $$ is the reason nothing has been done yet, but we can all live in hope. Purple Chick put together an unofficial collection which was pretty great - and teased some of the unreleased studio outtakes and stereo mixes.
That's great news! Between the questionable compilations of needledrops and those containing re-recordings, we need a definitive yet complete representation of this band's recorded output.
Judy Lynn released so many great recordings ( studio albums, live recordings and later some Gospel material as well), despite her relatively short career as a recording artist. I have a late-70s LP she released entitled "Judy Lynn Sings Her Most Requested Songs" and always wanted to have that album on CD format. Country legend Kenny Vernon was a fellow performer on the Las Vegas strip during the same time period and he might be able to share some interesting anecdotes or facts about Judy and her highly productive music career.
The common excuse we'll probably hear nowadays is that Loretta's masters were destroyed in the UMG fire, but you'd think most of her material from that output period would've been transferred to digital long before that tragedy.
Not necessarily pertaining to Loretta, but I once lamented to a label about Tanya Tucker's tapes perhaps being destroyed in the Universal fire, and he said, "Safety copies!"
She was on a couple of split album releases with Melba Montgomery and George Jones. She even put out some singe-only material, one of which was a 1968 single duet with her and then label-mate Montgomery (who is also in dire need of CD/digital representation):
