Curly Putman was, by most accounts, a songwriter and by no means was he a pike. He wrote several songs that are acknowledged standards, chief among them "Green Green Grass of Home," "He Stopped Loving Her Today," "My Elusive Dreams," "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," plus "Dumb Blonde," "Blood Red and Going Down," and "It's a Cheating Situation," songs that were big and defined eras for their respective artists. With this track record, it's no surprise that he was given a shot at his own recording career, and Omni's 2013 compilation, World of Country Music/Lonesome Country, combines his 1969 and 1967 albums for ABC Records, adding the 1968 single "Little Bitty Soldiers" for good measure.
There needs to be at least 5 more available stars for this cd set. Charley Pride's 3rd Album, "The Country Way" was the best album of his entire career! It could have been a Greatest Hits album - all of the songs are THAT good!! Charley is way over due for a boxed set on his entire RCA career, but - hopefully - that will happen soon. You cannot go wrong with this cd. In fact, buy 5 and give to your friends and neighbors. If there is a greater demand for these 60's country music super stars on cd, someone will put out more of all of the deserving artists.
A few months back, in the British magazine Country Music People, someone asked why RCA now Sony did not do a complete albums set for Waylon Jennings and Charley Pride, just as has been done for Johnny Cash and John Denver. Waylon and Charley each recorded some 3 dozen original albums for RCA but whereas Waylon has had all but a half dozen or so reissued on CD, exactly the opposite is true for Charley and of the handful of albums reissued 3 were on the now defunct Koch label and are generally unavailable. This release of his first two albums from 1966 and 1967 is therefore immensely welcome. These were fantastic mid 60s period country albums, yes quite a few covers but great renditions of songs from great writers: Harlan Howard, Cindy Walker and Mel Tillis wrote the first 3 tracks. Co-producers were Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson and Jack Clement who sadly passed away earlier this year. The latter wrote or co-wrote 7 of the songs.
Two years after the first installment comes Buck 'Em!: The Music of Buck Owens, Vol. 2, a double-disc set chronicling the eight years when Buck Owens was a crossover superstar thanks to his prominent role as a co-host of Hee Haw. Buck started to slide into a rut toward the end of this run – a process accelerated by the tragic death of his right-hand man Don Rich in 1974, a loss from which Owens never fully recovered – but producer Patrick Milligan slyly disguises this trend by nestling deep cuts, live tracks, and outtakes among the best of his hits, thereby painting a portrait of Buck Owens as a musician nearly as adventurous as he was during the purple patch of the '50s and early '60s.
Sony’s Legacy Recordings continues the long running Bob Dylan ‘Bootleg Series’ as they announce Travelin’ Thru 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series vol 15 which revisits Dylan’s musical journeys to Nashville from 1967-1969, focusing on previously unavailable recordings made with Johnny Cash and unreleased tracks from the John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, and Self Portrait sessions.