Hillbilly Blues

When record men first traveled from Chicago or invited musicians to studios in New York, these entrepreneurs had no conception how their technology would change the dynamics of what constituted a musical performance. 78 Blues: Folksongs and Phonographs in the American South covers a revolution in artist performance and audience perception through close examination of hundreds of key "hillbilly" and "race" records released between the 1920s and World War II.

Talking On The Telephone – Vol. 2: Hillbilly Music Renowned music expert RICHARD WEIZE presents a new series encompassing an extensive collection of songs celebrating two inventions that changed human life and civilization forever: The ability to transmit our speech over long distances and the ability to preserve that speech on recordings. And just as soon as people began to make recordings of their voices, they began to write and record songs about telephones. In the four volumes of this series, we look at the full range of telephone music (Hillbilly; Blues & Gospel; Rock & Roll and Pop).We examine over 60 years of recorded music, and could have gone on into the 21st century, where telephones (with their evolving features and apps) remain woven into the fabric of popular culture.

Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed". Perkins' songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music. Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.

This first Black Top release by honky tonker Bill Kirchen is an Americana roots-music vault of valuables. With plenty of traditional C&W riffs underscored by the brilliant pedal steel of one-time Ernest Tubb steel player Buddy Charleton and the powerful piano of Mitch Collins, this project is more than mere buried treasure that contemporary radio overlooked. Kirchen, a living legend of sorts, takes a very broad stance and combines the best elements of C&W, hillbilly, blues, rockabilly, and honky tonk music to come up with cuts like "Bottle Baby Boogie," a rip-it-up rockabilly tune that shows off Kirchen's guitar master skills, and "All Tore Up," another rocker.

This first Black Top release by honky tonker Bill Kirchen is an Americana roots-music vault of valuables. With plenty of traditional C&W riffs underscored by the brilliant pedal steel of one-time Ernest Tubb steel player Buddy Charleton and the powerful piano of Mitch Collins, this project is more than mere buried treasure that contemporary radio overlooked. Kirchen, a living legend of sorts, takes a very broad stance and combines the best elements of C&W, hillbilly, blues, rockabilly, and honky tonk music to come up with cuts like "Bottle Baby Boogie," a rip-it-up rockabilly tune that shows off Kirchen's guitar master skills, and "All Tore Up," another rocker. The Farrell-Preston song "Fool on a Stool" is given an outstanding retooling with plenty of steel that is true to the tenants of C&W music.

A couple in life as well as music, their newly released The Heart’s Swift Foot holds ten beautiful tracks of original material written over the last two years since two initial albums made in 2011; the all originals Middlewest Chant and a compilation of traditional tunes called Mountain Shout. Two songs recorded for the new record include covers of “My Heart’s Own Love” by Hazel Dickens and “St. James Hospital” by Doc Watson to honor both torchbearers who have passed on to the other side. “We crafted the recording to be as close to our live performance as possible,” Beauchamp says. “We feel we’re at our best when we’re playing together, listening and reacting as we go along.”