Hillbilly Blues

2008 ten CD boxset that contains nearly 160 of the biggest Country hits from the biggest stars of the genre including Jim Reeves, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and many others. If you want to immerse yourself into the musical world of classic Country music, then there's no better package than this collection.

The Kinks’, Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody’s In Show-Biz – Everybody’s a Star released through BMG in celebration of the 50th Anniversary. It combines two of the Kinks’ classic 1970’s albums - Muswell Hillbillies, the album the band toured in America; and helped define them as a rock band in the U.S.. And Everybody’s In Show-Biz – Everybody’s a Star; the album that was written in reflection of the tour.

Wayne Raney - That Real Hot Boogie Boy - The King Anthology (2002) {Ace Records CDCHD857 rec 1947-1953}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 227 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 163 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 22 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1947-53, 2002 King Records / Ace Records | CDCHD 857
Country / Country-Boogie / Traditional Country / Hillbilly

Wayne Raney's considerable legacy hadn't been well served by the CD era at the time of this 2002 release. This 25-track anthology is a good if imperfect start to correcting that imbalance. It's imperfect because it doesn't by any means have every significant King side waxed by this important country-boogie singer and harmonica player. In fact, it hardly renders the best prior CD compilation of Raney's work (Songs of the Hills) redundant, since about half of the songs on that budget-looking disc don't appear here.

Various Artists - The Golden Age Of American Popular Music - More Country Hits (2016) {Ace Records CDCHD 1469 rec 1955-63}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 347 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 167 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 91 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1955-63, 2016 Ace Records | CDCHD 1469
Country / Classic Country / Country Folk

Ace’s flagship “Golden Age” series continues to be among our best selling and most highly respected releases. After a short hiatus, we’re pleased to announce this new volume featuring 28 country recordings that made the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1963. As “More Country Hits” is in the “Golden Age Of American Popular Music” series, the content is more melodic overall than a “Golden Age Of American Rock’n’Roll” edition might be. Nevertheless, there’s a generous helping of up-tempo hillbilly and borderline rockabilly among the straight-ahead country to give listeners a bit of light and shade. As usual, the CD comes with a generously illustrated and copiously annotated booklet.

Ray Charles - The Complete Country & Western Recordings 1959-1986 {4CD Box Set Rhino R2 75328 rel 1998}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.80 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 704 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 44 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959-86, 1998 Rhino | R2 75328
Jazz / Country Soul / Jazz Blues / R'n'B / Soul

Ray Charles' explorations into country music were no mere dalliance. They have their genesis in "I'm Movin' On," the last record he made for Atlantic before moving on to ABC Paramount in 1960. But it was with the enormously successful Modern Sounds in Country & Western series of albums in 1962 (and the career making single "I Can't Stop Lovin' You") that made their mark, crossing over genre boundaries that were unthinkable at the time. An African-American doing hillbilly music was not a first, nor were uptown arrangements of hillbilly songs, but here was the Genius of Soul validating the music of the white working class, plain and simple.

There are some box sets that seem like overkill, beyond the pale for all but the very most hardcore fans, and others - a little more obvious in their justification - that never achieve much currency beyond the ranks of the serious fans and as easy Christmas ideas for their relatives. And then there are the ones that, based on the sheer credibility of the artists involved - Eric Clapton, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra - become practically standard-issue for any serious music listener; you expect to find at least one, and more likely two of them on a lot of shelves. The Classic Years 1927-1940 ought to fit into the latter category, despite the fact that Blind Willie McTell never had a hit record in a recording career lasting nearly 30 years - he also didn't make Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of the twentieth century, even though he could play circles about three-fourths of those who did…

Although one may think of the blues harp beginning with Little Walter, the first Sonny Boy Williamson, or Sonny Terry, a variety of harmonica players did record in the '20s. Some of their recordings were technical displays that featured them imitating everything from animals to trains, while other players were more blues-oriented. This valuable CD has two selections from the guitar-harmonica team of William Francis and Richard Sowell; Ollis Martin's "Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down"; six pieces by Eli Watson (including "El Watson's Fox Chase"); two cuts apiece by Palmer McAbee, Ellis Williams, Alfred Lewis, and the team of Smith & Harper (which is the only music on this CD recorded after 1930); plus four songs/displays from Blues Birdhead (including "Get up off That Jazzophone") and George "Bullet" Williams (highlighted by "Frisco Leaving Birmingham" and "The Escaped Convict"). Fascinating music.

John Fahey - Your Past Comes Back To Haunt You: The Fonotone Years 1958-1965 (2011) {5CD Set, Dust-to-Digital DTD-21}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.25 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 818 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1958-65, 2011 Dust-to-Digital / Revenant | DTD-21
Finger-Picked Guitar / Contemporary Folk / Folk Jazz / Folk-Blues / Progressive Folk

As with all histories, context and an appreciation for the times are essential. In 1958, when the earliest of these recordings were made there were probably no more than a handful of reissues of pre-war country blues 78s available on record in the United States. The long-playing 33 1/3 record was, itself, only a recent invention. Today, with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pre-war blues and hillbilly reissues available and in print, when it’s possible to walk into any halfway decent record store (to the extent record stores, halfway decent or otherwise, still exist) and find the complete recordings of Charley Patton or Blind Willie Johnson, it may be difficult to comprehend just how obscure and how otherworldly this music once was. — Glenn Jones, from the Introduction toYour Past Comes Back to Haunt You.

The primary impetus behind this ambitious 12-disc box set is to gather all nine of the Grateful Dead's Warner Brothers titles. However, the staggeringly high quotient of previously unissued bonus material rivals – and at times exceeds – the content of those original albums. The Golden Road (1965-1973) truly has something – and usually a lot of it – for every degree of Deadhead…