The 101 Ranch Boys "Melody Roundup With The 101 Ranch Boys" (Cattle/Binge Disc, 2004)
A nice, strong set of old-fashioned post-WWII country, with nods towards stars of the time such as Spade Cooley, Roy Acuff and Al Dexter. This lower-tier regional band originally came from Kansas City, and like many country artists of the time, they moved from town to town following gigs as radio show performers. These recordings are from a series of radio transcription discs they did for the military's Melody Roundup show in the late 1940s. The performances are uniformly good, with strong group vocals and solid instrumental backing (including the chug-chug-chugging accordion, borrowed from the sound of the day...) By the time these recordings were made, the 101 Ranch Boys had been a professional outfit for over a decade, and they are clearly seasoned, skillful showmen. Particularly noteworthy is steel guitarist Leonard Zinn, who was fresh from a stint in a Hawaiian-style band; he contributes several top-notch Hawaiian steel instrumentals, and sweet accompaniment on the country tunes, too. The repertoire includes hits of the day ("Old Shep," etc.) and some more obscure stuff as well; I had expected a bunch of cowboy songs, but this tilts more towards heartsongs and ballads... Which is just fine with me! Unfortunately, the sound quality isn't as good as on other Cattle CDs, but it's still great music.

Roy Acuff - see artist discography

Charlie Adams "Cattin' Around" (Bear Family, 2000)
For years, I've had a great old LP on the Binge Disc label of this guy's stuff, so imagine my delight to find a Bear Family CD with twice as many songs on it... Adams was a second-stringer who hailed from Waco, Texas and worked in several regional bands. Imperial Records, and then Decca, recorded him in the early 1950s, when honkytonk and hillbilly boogie were on the rise. This disc opens with a couple of bluesy cowboogie tunes that sounds like early Ernie Ford, and moves into bouncy, jaunty hard country that has echoes of the western swing Adams grew up with, as well as the hardnosed honkytonk of Hank Williams (who Adams toured with, before Williams died). Adams is best known for his novelty songs, particularly the goofball hillbilly hit "Hey, Liberace," which bemoaned Liberace's popularity with the women (If only they knew...!) There's much stronger material on here, though: the song that I used to play on the radio (more times than I'd care to admit) is the gleeful "If A Beer Bottle Had A Nipple On It (You'd Be A Baby All Your Life)" and when Adams dug into the real-deal broken heart songs, he was a force to be reckoned with. Not a great singer, but a solid hillbilly honkytonker, Adams is one of those little-know also-rans that it's a delight to stumble across. I dig it!

Kay Adams "Wheels And Tears" (Tower, 1966/Sundazed, 2004)
A great set of mid-1960s, West Coast-flavored trucker songs... Adams, a sassy singer who sounded a bit like Loretta Lynn, had a sizeable hit with the novelty song "Little Pink Mack," and they naturally tried to follow it up with similar material, like "Six Days Awaiting," an answer song to Dave Dudley's wildly popular "Six Days On The Road." That didn't work quite as well, but the rest of this album is still a lot of fun -- it's pure, glorious Bakersfield twang, and definitely worth checking out if you like the cool old stuff. Adams even pays homage to a West Coast foremother, Rose Maddox with a fine version of "Big, Big Day Tomorrow," a great old weeper that Rose recorded a few years earlier. Folks looking for lost gems in country's past would be well advised to snap this tasty reissue up now, while you still have the chance!

Kay Adams & Dick Curless "A Devil Like Me Needs An Angel Like You" (Tower, 1966)

Rex Allen "The Last Of The Great Singing Cowboys" (Bloodshot/Soundies, 1999)
The whole singing cowboy thing is kinda funny... I mean, when did the roundup-ridin' folk tradition end and the Hollywood myth-making begin? As with most of the best-known cowboy movie stars, Rex Allen had a whole bunch of Tin Pan Alley smoothie to him, and that's what makes these recordings so fun to begin with. It's hard not to compare his cornball crooning with Bing Crosby: Allen had a similarly appealling warmth and natural ease. Right after he made these late-'40s recordings, he landed a Hollywood film contract -- one of the last actors to make it in before tastes changed, and the cowboy movies took a back seat for a decade or two. One of the more unique discs in this series, and certainly worth checking out.

Rosalie Allen "The Hillbilly Yodel Star Of The 1940s" (Cattle Compact)
A great reissue record that fills in a major blank in the history of women in country music. Allen was a powerful, appealing singer whose material split between novelty numbers ("Take It Back And Change It For A Boy" being a highlight...) and sentimental weepers. She's a bit like a softer version of Rose Maddox - rural but heartfelt, and a compelling performer. She hung out with Elton Britt and Zeke Manners (which may explain the upbeat nature of many of these tunes...) and while she was billed as a yodeler, this collection only has a couple of full-on yodeling tunes. Apparently, Allen gave up recording around 1955, but this disc collects a fabulous sweep of material made from 1944-1949. Although her unvaried vocal style gets a little monotonous if you listen to the disc repeatedly, this is great in small doses, and highly recommended.

Shelley Lee Alley "Alley Stomp" (Krazy Kat, 2006)

Dave Alvin - see artist discography

John Anderson -- see artist discography

Liz Anderson -- see artist discography

Tom Anderson/Al Rogers "Two Short-Lived Hillbilly Careers" (Binge Discs, 2006)
Holy cow...! This is the kind of reissue record that makes me still feel in love with country music, like there's always new, fun stuff out there to discover, if you just keep looking. The real find here is Tom Anderson, a mystery figure who recorded some awesome, true-blue hillbilly country tunes for the MGM label. The dozen tracks on this disc date back to 1953-54; what happened to Anderson after that is anybody's guess -- even the normally informative folks at Binge disc drew a total blank on both of these artists. Anyway, Anderson had it all -- a great singer with plenty of twang (like early Ray Price, perhaps), he had a strong band (called the Deep Valley Boys), and was also a fine songwriter, penning winners such as "The Moon And I," "Sweet Love" and "If Your Heart Had A Window." Indeed, all of his tracks are good, twangy fun -- I'd play any of them on the radio, anytime. The second singer, Al Rogers, also recorded for MGM (and Capitol, and RCA...) but he's a bit less exciting... Rogers was a baritone crooner in the Red Foley/Ernie Ford mould, singing barrel-chested weepers like "It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You" and "All Alone, All Alone," which he wrote under his given name of Alex Phillip Rogers. His debt to Red Foley is made all too apparent on his early single, "Shuffle-Boogie Bellhop," which is practically a note-for-note swipe of "Chattanoogie Shoeshine Boy." Still, corny stuff can be fun, too, and even though the contrast between these two randomly-paired artists leaves Rogers at a disadvantage, his stuff is still a nice find. Another great collection -- easiest way to track it down is to contact Binge Discs directly, or try the same place I got it, Down Home Music, in the SF Bay Area.

Hick Music Index