Bob Wills

Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound - Country Music Capital Of The West 1940-1974 (2019) {10CD Set Bear Family BCD16036}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.90 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.68 Gb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 83 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1940-74, 2019 Bear Family Records | BCD 16036
Country / Traditional Country / Bakersfield Sound / Honky Tonk

Buck Owens turned Bakersfield, California into the epicenter of hip country music in the mid-'60s. All it took was a remarkable streak of number one singles that steam rolled right through Nashville with their electrified twang, forever changing the notion of what constituted country music and codifying the Bakersfield sound as hard-driving rhythms, trebly Telecasters, and lean arrangements suited for honky tonks, beer joints, and jukeboxes all across America. Half-a-century later, these remain sonic signifiers of Bakersfield, so the term no longer conveys a specific sound, place, and era, a situation the weighty Bear Family box The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital of the West 1940-1974 intends to rectify.

Various Artists - The Hillbillies: They Tried To Rock, Vol. 2 (2014) {Bear Family BCD17406AH rec 1953-1958}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 286 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 162 Mb
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© 1953-58, 2014 Bear Family Records | BCD 17406 AH
Hillbillies / Rock & Roll / Country / Country Boogie / Rockabilly

The second volume of Bear Family's riotous 2014 series The Hillbillies: They Tried to Rock is every bit as good as its companion, possibly because it has many of the same players as the first disc. Marty Robbins, Patsy Cline, George Jones, Johnny Horton, Webb Pierce, and Marvin Rainwater didn't cut just one jumping rock & roll single, they cut several and the best of these appear on this 31-track delight. Although there are a few exceptions here, nearly everything on this collection dates from 1956 through 1958, when it was still possible that rock & roll was just another dance fad and not a cultural revolution.

Dreaming My Dreams was Waylon Jennings' first number one record, and deservedly so. He had created outlaw country with Honky Tonk Heroes, and then delivered two further albums that subtly developed its themes, even if they weren't quite as consistent. Dreaming My Dreams maintains the consistency, increasing the country quotient while subtly making it more sentimental than before. This is an unabashedly romantic album, not just in its love songs, but in its tributes to Waylon's heroes. "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" opens and "Bob Wills Is Still the King" closes the album – making Jennings an heir apparent to their legacies. Between those two extremes, Waylon appropriates Jimmie Rodgers ("Waymore's Blues"), covers Roger Miller ("I've Been a Long Time Leaving [But I'll Be a Long Time Gone]"), ups the outlaw ante ("Let's All Help the Cowboys [Sing the Blues]"), and writes and records as many sentimental tunes as possible without seeming like a sissy. At times, the emotional undertow may seem a bit much, yet the whole thing adds up as Waylon's best album since Honky Tonk Heroes, and one of the few of his prime outlaw period to deliver from beginning to end.