Red Foley portrait

Hi, there! This page is part of an opinionated guide to what I call "hard country" music -- the real stuff -- with a bunch of record reviews and recommendations by me, Joe Sixpack. Naturally, it's a work in progress, and will hopefully be expanded on quite a bit, as time allows.


This is the first page covering the letter "M"




A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M / M-2 | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X, Y & Z | Comps | Hick Music Styles


Bill Mack "Play My Boogie" (Jasmine Records, 2010)


Lonnie Mack "Roadhouses And Dance Halls" (Sony/Lucky Dog Records, 2001)
This good-timing 1988 honky blues record is just the sort of thing that might fly under your radar if you didn't know to look for it. Mack is a former rockabilly-era hotshot who got the soul bug and started cranking out funky hick blues in the same vein as old Joe Ely and Delbert McClinton; this is one of his best later albums, narrowly skirting the cliched confines of the beer-ad blues set in favor of a funky New Orleans stroll. He paints a nice picture of his world as a hard-bitten, country/rock/soul-lovin' old-timer... Nice stuff - well worth checking out!



Warner Mack - see artist discography



Rose Maddox - see artist discography


Larry Mahan "King Of The Rodeo" (Warner Brothers, 1976) (LP)
A fine novelty offering by six-time National Rodeo champion Larry Mahan, who didn't have a tremendous voice or anything, but still had the charisma and affability to carry these tunes and make 'em work. Includes a few great half-recited novelty tunes that might fit well on a Dr. Demento show: "Stunt Man," which laments the hardships of the Hollywood life, "Ha Ha," which sings the praises of getting bloodied up in dumb-ass barroom brawls, and "Rosie's Palace Of Pure Love And Fingertip Massage," which tells the tale of two drunk cowboys getting scammed at a Los Angeles brothel. They don't make records like this anymore. Snuff Garrett co-produced this disc, and some of the songs bear the stamp of his orchestral cowboy approach. Yeeee-hawhawhaw.


J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers "The Golden Age Of J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers" (Binge Disc, 2000)
If you thought old Bill Monroe sounded rough and rowdy back when he started the bluegrass sound way back when, then you gotta check these guys out! Mainer and his family enjoyed a healthy career revival in the 1960s and '70s as the old-timey folk scene unearthed them... Their latter day recordings were all quite nice, but this collection of material from the 1930s and '40s is flat-out awesome. When they play fast, there's no one more clattersome and rambunctious, and when they play slow and sentimental, few folks are more heartfelt. For fans of squeeky, scraping fiddles and grizzled old-man vocals, this is the disc to check out.


J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "1935-1939" (BACM, 2005)


J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "1935-1939: Early Years..." (JSP Records, 2009)
A 4-CD set...


J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Classic Sides: 1937-41" (JSP Records, 2010)
And four more discs...



Lloyd Maines & The Maines Brothers Band - see artist profile


Zeke Manners "The Golden Age Of Zeke Manners" (Cattle Records)
While many of the stars of the late-40s country scene tempered their penchant for novelty songs with weepers and booze tunes, the late Zeke Manners just reveled in it. It took country music over a decade to come up with an act whose devotion to novelty material matched that of Manners. But while Homer & Jethro had the goofball schtick down pat, they were a little too slick -- Manners relentless fake-yokel nuttiness has a legitimate rustic quality. It's show-biz schtick, but it's also authentically hillbilly. Plus, it's really funny. Some songs, like "I Betcha My Heart I Love You" have such bizarre lyrics that they slide into pure doggerel. Others, such as "I'm A Tired Cowboy" are delicious lampoons of wild west iconography that bring to mind the best old stuff by Dan Hicks. This CD is pretty fab -- a real find for country collectors. Recommended!



Joe & Rose Lee Maphis - see artist discography


Marshall And The Shooting Stars "Airmail Special" (Vinyl Japan Records, 1994)
A good-natured retro-billy set featuring singer Marshall Lytle, an ebulient old coot who was once the bass player in rock pioneer Bill Haley's old band, both when Haley was a pop star and in the years before, when he was a for-real hillbilly artist, and his band was called The Saddlemen. Here, Lytle sings a bunch of great old hillbilly tunes, stuff like Merle Travis' "Fat Gal" and "I Love You So Much It Hurts," by Floyd Tillman. He's backed by an odd assortment of veteran British rock musicians, some with long commercial careers, and others who are more off the radar, as well as steel guitar whiz B.J. Cole, who has played with a lot of country heavyweights. This isn't a jaw-dropper of an album, but it is really nice. You have to be willing to get past Lytle's old-man vocals, but if that's not a hang-up for you, then this could be a really rewarding album.



"Country" Johnny Mathis - see artist discography


Grady Martin "Roughneck Blues: 1949-1956" (Cherry Red Records/Rev-Ola, 2008)
Session guitarist Grady Martin was a key player in the early 1940s' hillbilly scene and helped sculpt the sound of several hits, such as "Hillbilly Fever" by Little Jimmy Dickens, "I'm A One-Woman Man" by Johnny Horton, and Red Foley's "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" along with early vintage rock numbers from Johnny Burnette, Buddy Holly and Brenda Lee. This collection, which concentrates on his hillbilly side, also includes a slew of more obscure recordings, with artists such as Vernon Claude, Danny Dill, Autry Inman, Wayne Raney and Don Woody -- it's the rarities that drew my attention, particularly a number by honky tonk songwriter Wayne Walker (I sure wish someone would gather all of his solo stuff on one CD!) It's the obscuro stuff that drew me to this collection, and it's all pretty groovy. There are also a few tunes credited to Martin's solo band, the Slew Foot Five, and a rare single with West Coast blues star Cecil Gant. Nice stuff -- definitely worth checking out!


Grady Martin & His Slewfoot Five "Cornstalk Hop" (BACM, 2005)


Janis Martin "The Female Elvis - Complete Recordings: 1956-60" (Bear Family Records, 1987)
Being nicknamed "the female Elvis" sure would be a hard reputation to shake. Still, worse things could happen. And make no mistake, Martin was a hella ripsnorting gal, and if anything she may have outdone The King in the rocker department. This excellent retrospective of her old RCA material goes a long way to explain Martin's enduring legend in the rockabilly scene -- though it gets a little repetitious after a while, on the whole this is well worth checking out. (By the way, Martin came out of retirement a few years back, and cut a few duets with Rosie Flores, which got released on the Hightone label.)


Janis Martin "Here I Am" (Hydra Records, 2001)


Janis Martin "That Rockin' Gal Rocks On" (Bear Family Records, 1999)


Janis Martin "My Boy Elvis" (Jasmine Records, 2014)
The late Janis Martin was one of early rock'n'roll's most sizzling singers, male or female, and left a great legacy in the two-dozen-plus tracks she cut for RCA in the late 1950s and early '60s. This fab, generously-programmed collection reprises the same material as Bear Family's The Female Elvis best-of, although Jasmine one-ups the Bear Family folks with the inclusion of several live tracks taken from a radio appearance, with versions of three songs, "Crackerjack," "Love Me To Pieces" and "Two Long Years," which are also heard in the studio versions. A must-have for rockabilly fans, particularly if you didn't already own the original Bear Family disc.



Jimmy Martin -- see artist discography


Frankie Marvin "Early Recordings By Gene Autry's #1 Sideman" (BACM, 2002)
The Marvin Brothers, Frankie and Johnny, were early pals and benefactors of cowboy idol Gene Autry: when Autry moved from Oklahoma up to New York and into the limelight, the Marvins were already showbiz pros and showed him the ropes. They also helped Autry get work, and wound up playing guitar and steel on his first records, and Frankie Marvin eventually became a key player in Autry's band. Frankie was the steel player, and he developed a style that was both expressive and unobtrusive, with short, deft lines that flavored the music without overshadowing the vocalist. On these early solo recordings, from 1929-32, Marvin is in a bluesy mode, working in the template set down by white blues yodeler Jimmie Rodgers. He also sang sentimental weepers and rowdy novelty numbers, reflecting the broad range of material that was popular in the vaudevillian era that he came up in... It's a fun record, full of confidence, gusto and wit... Great stuff!


Johnny Marvin "I'm The Man Who's Been Forgotten" (BACM, 2005)


Country Johnny Mathis "Country Johnny Mathis" (Stampede Records, 1965) (LP)
Country Johnny Mathis "Country Johnny Mathis" (Hilltop Records, 1965) (LP)

I've known about "Country" Johnny Mathis for years, but hadn't put two and two together until just recently, when I realized that he was in fact one of the singer-guitarist-songwriters in the slambang '50s hillbilly duo, Jimmy & Johnny. Apparently after several years in Nashville's orbit, he dropped out of the commercial country scene and got religion, as evidenced by this all-gospel country record (listed here in two different editions). It's a great record -- heartfelt, hardrock, and full of plenty of true twang -- with Mathis still in fine voice, though obviously getting a little long in the tooth. It took a couple of minutes for me to place the similarity, but a light went off and I realized he sounded quite a bit like his old boss, Webb Pierce, who he wrote several songs for, back in the good old days. And that's a good thing: as Jesus-y country records go, this one's very, very satisfying.


Smiley Maxedon "A Hillbilly Voice Like Dynamite" (Binge Discs, 2006)
One of those great, gravel-voiced garglers from honkytonk music's dimly-remembered, ker-twangy past... Maxedon was a hardcore honkytonk singer who settled in California's San Joaquin Valley, with a base of operations near Fresno. He was also clearly tapped into the early West Coast/Bakersfield honkytonk scene, as several songs here by Fuzzy Owens and Tommy Collins will attest... This disc gathers twenty rare tracks, most of them recorded for Columbia between 1952-55, and all of them quite powerful and chunky-sounding (among his bandmembers was guitarist Roy Nichols, who crackling style helped define the proto-rockabilly sound of the Maddox Brothers & Rose...) Not a lot is known about Maxedon, but this collection is flat-out great, a much-welcome blast of booze-soaked novelty songs and mopey musical misery. Another plus is that almost all these songs are originals, giving us a whole new batch of honkytonk tunes to chew through... Job well done on tracking this stuff down and making it available to folks who like real-deal hard-country hick music! (Available through the Binge Discs label.)


Leon McAuliffe "World Masters: 1953" (Binge Disc/Bronco Buster)


Leon McAuliffe "Take It Away The Leon Way!" (Jasmine Records, 2001)


Leon McAuliffe "Take It Away, Leon!" (Harlequin Records, 2004)
Live recordings, and studio sessions from the late 1940s...


Leon McAuliffe "Everybody Dance! Everybody Swing!" (Vivid Sound Records, 2005)
A CD reissue of a 1960's album on the Capitol label...


Leon McAuliffe "Take Off & More" (Bear Family Records, 2007)


Leon McAuliffe "Tulsa Straight Ahead" (Bear Family Records, 2009)



Dale McBride - see artist discography


Dickie McBride "I Still Care For You" (BACM, 2005)
Rare solo recordings from one of western swing's best-respected vocalists... McBride sang with Cliff Bruner's powerhouse Texas Wanderers band, but after the band split apart in 1939, he got his own contract with Decca and set out as a solo artist. This disc also includes a few later tunes made with his wife, Texas fiddler Laura Lee. Generally speaking, these are softer hillbilly swing tunes, with McBride often in a Bing Crosby-ish crooner mode. But there's a lot of stylistic variety here as well, also including some mildly thumping hillbilly boogie and a few sweet, sparse acoustic demos. Might not knock your socks off right away, but there's a good chance it'll grown on you with repeat listens.



Janet McBride - see artist discography



Darrell McCall - see artist discography



Delbert McClinton - see artist discography


Red McCoy & The Sons Of The Soil "Country And Gospel" (MVM-Mount Vernon Music, 1963-?) (LP)
A budget-line album with an awful lot of kick... this one's a doozy! "Red McCoy" was the nom-du-cheapo of hillbilly singer Wayne Busbice (Busby), a Louisiana lad who recorded under his own name as well as in a band with his brother, bluegrass mandolinist Buzz Busby. These recordings date back to the late 1950s, when they were originally released as singles on a variety of smaller local labels. As far as musician quality goes, this stuff is the bomb as far as I'm concerned -- rollicking, uptempo, pure hillbilly twang. Busby mined deep into rockabilly riffs that echoed the chunka-chunka style of Johnny Cash as well as more teen-sounding tunes, but there is no mistaking his pure Southern roots. As advertised, the disc is evenly split between secular country and sentimental gospel material, all of it rough-cut but rock-solid and quite satisfying. Highlights here include the heartrendingly earnest religious number, "Be Careful Of Your Father's Name," as well as the super-kooky, super-awesome hillbilly novelty tune, "Rock and Roll Atom," which attempts a musical explication of pre-quantum atomic physics within the confines of a two-minute pop song. Fans of classic Louvin Brothers recordings will find a lot to enjoy here, as well. According to AMG, Busby apparently quit recording -- for the most part -- in the early 1960s, going first into the military and then into public life as an educator. Like his brother, he later tilted towards bluegrass music, though more as a behind-the-scenes kinda guy than as a musician, running the independent Webco label for about a decade during the 1980s. This is the only album under the Red McCoy monicker, though a couple of other LPs recorded as Wayne Busby (and a few random Busby Brothers tracks) await listeners who've had the luck to find this disc first.


Skeets McDonald "Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes" (The Hound Records, 1995)
An Arkie who moved out West in the early '50s to become part of the vibrant California country scene, McDonald is well known to aficianados in the retrobilly scene, mainly for his numerous uptempo hillbilly boogie/proto rockabilly numbers, especially kooky tunes such as "You Oughtta See Grandma Rock" and "I've Got A New Field To Plow." Like many of the hillbilly boogie artists, McDonald was ahead of his time, and by the time Elvis and his crowd gave Nashville a little kick in the fanny. McDonald had already been written off by the label bigwigs as yesterday's news. This is a fine disc (albeit one of dubious provenance) that collects his best Capitol recordings, a set that spans the 'Fifties, and still sounds as electrifying and rowdy today as it did way back then. Recommended!


Skeets McDonald "Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes" (Bear Family Records, 1999)
This massive, 5-CD box set is probably too much McDonald for anyone to handle in one sitting, but for the diehard fan on West Coast country, it's a treasure trove of fun, hickalicious, blues-laced, hard country fun. I haven't heard it myself, but I'm willing to wager it's worth every penny.


Skeets McDonald "Heart Breakin' Mama: Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight" (Bear Family Records, 2008)
One of the most plangent and nasal of the old-time hillbilly stars, Skeets McDonald flourished in the rough'n'rugged era of the early 1950s, recording innumerable twang tune and novelty songs... His voice is something of an acquired taste, but his band was always pretty hot, and the songs were fun, if not always immortal classics. This single-disc set is a great distillation of his work, concentrating on the peppier, more upbeat material... Bear Family also put out a massive, all-encompassing box set a few years back, but most listeners will find this more modest retrospective to be more satisfying and more to the point. It's McDonald's legacy, boiled down to its essence, and there are plenty of funny, freewheelin' old country gems here. Definitely worth checking out.


Skeets McDonald "Wheel Of Fortune" (BACM, 2005)


Skeets McDonald "Volume 2: You Gotta Be My Baby" (BACM, 2005)


Eddie Miller & His Oklahomans "Release Me" (BACM, 2005)


Frankie Miller "Sugar Coated Baby" (Bear Family Records, 1996)
There was no shortage of shameless Hank Williams imitators in the early 1950s, but few had the arresting originality of Frankie Miller. This CD brings together material from two old Bear Family LPs, and it is some of the best "unknown" country music you could ever hope to find. Yes, Miller apes Hank's tone and style, but his own songwriting flair and heartfelt delivery are stunning. One of the best single-disc Bear Family releases in recent memory. Recommended!


Frankie Miller "Blackland Farmer - The Complete Starday Recordings & More" (Bear Family Records, 2008)
A 3-CD set of rare stuff from one of the finest post-Hank Williams hillbilly singers of the 1950s, a fella who is also a favorite of rockabilly fans and other musical retroholics... This box set makes a nice companion to Bear Family's earlier single-disc set of Miller's earlier work (which was Grade-A killer country!)


Ned Miller "From A Jack To A King" (Bear Family Records, 1996)



Roger Miller - see artist discography


The Milo Twins "Swamp Woman Blues" (BACM, 2005)



Bill Monroe - see artist discography



Patsy Montana - see artist discography



Melba Montgomery - see artist discography


Clyde Moody "The Immortal" (Bronco Buster Records, 1996)
AWESOME. Late '40s/early '50s singles by a former member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys gone honkytonk. Moody's songs were covered by Hank Williams, among others, but his solo career never really took off. What a shame -- these old singles from the Decca, King and Bullet labels are really stellar. Bluesy, soulful, believable classic country that fans of Floyd Tillman, Ernest Tubb, Wynn Stewart, etc. should go ga-ga over. Highly recommended -- one of the best CDs in this series.


Clyde Moody "White House Blues" (Rebel Records, 1960)


Clyde Moody "Songs That Made Him Famous" (Starday Records, 1964) (LP)


Clyde Moody "A Country Tribute To Fred Rose" (Old Homestead Records, 1976) (LP)
A nice mellow set of songs from the catalog of Fred Rose, the guy who backed Hank Williams and one of he most powerful movers and shakers of the early Nashville scene. Moody's an older, middle-aged performer, less explosive and mellower than in his hillbilly heyday, but this is still a pleasant record. The backup band's rhythm section is kind of going through the motions, but the steel player and fiddles are pretty sweet.


Clyde Moody & Tommy Scott "We've Played Every Place More Than Once" (Starday-Gusto Records, 1978) (LP)


Clyde Moody "Six White Horses" (BACM, 2005)


Clyde Moody "Volume 2: If You Need Me I'll Be Around" (BACM, 2005)


Lattie Moore "I Ain't Broke But I'm Badly Bent" (West Side Records, 2000)
AWE. SOME. Although he's best known to rockabilly collectors, Kentucky-born Lattie Moore was a real-deal, hardcore honkytonker. Although he was born in bluegrass territory, Moore moved to Indianapolis in the early 1940s, and established himself as a Midwestern artist, recording for various labels, but mainly for the King label, in nearby Cincinnati. This disc collects twenty-nine songs recorded by Moore for the King and Starday labels, between 1953-1963, and there isn't a track on here that won't make a real country fan drool with delight. It doesn't include his 1952 proto-rockabilly classic, "Juke Joint Johnny," which was recorded before he was signed to King, but the tunes that are on here are all top-notch. For the most part, Moore bypasses novelty material, or at least novelty delivery: whenever possible, he digs as deep into the pathos and heartbreak as he can, eking out the sheer humanity of pain and sorrow. The music's pretty good, too -- these were the same kind of songs George Jones sang early in his career (probably a lot of the same backing musicians as well...) So if you like Jones classics like "Cup Of Loneliness" and "Hearts In My Dreams," you're gonna love Lattie Moore. Just take my word for it: do whatever you need to, but track this record down!



Lee Moore -- see artist profile


Merrill Moore "Boogie My Blues Away" (Bear Family Records, 1990)
A piano-pounding plunker along the lines of Moon Mullican, Merrill Moore had a bit of a Jerry Lee Lewis rockin' edge to him. This 2-CD set of old Capitol recordings captures Moore in his prime, from 1955-1958. At first, it seems a bit repetitious (plenty of songs with "boogie" in the title...) but it's hard not to get won over by all the shameless novelty tunes, and by Moore's musical chops, as well. They don't make 'em like this anymore!



George Morgan - see artist discography


Rod Morris "Bimbo" (Bear Family Records, 2000)
An amiable Midwesterner who is best remembered as the author of the old Jim Reeves hit, "Bimbo," songwriter led a sharp-sounding band based out of Grand Rapids, North Dakota -- of all places -- and recorded a couple of dozen tracks while under contract to Capitol Records in the early 1950s. This CD collects all of those tracks, and while none of it made a dent in the country charts at the time, it sure is nice to listen to now! Straightforward, uncomplicated hillbilly honkytonk, with a healthy hint of western swing, these are jovial songs about drinking and cattin' around, and paying for it in the morning, either with hangovers or court dates to come. There's a little bit of the expected Hank Williams-ish howling, but Morris also emerges as a distinctive performer, and he certainly had a knack for writing fun, catchy tunes... (All the songs on here are songs that he wrote, including the original version of "Bimbo.") It's fun stuff, filled with energetic steel guitar and cheerful vocal work, definitely an album you'll want to track down if you enjoy old, early 'Fifties hillbilly tunes!



Johnny & Jonie Mosby - see artist discography


Moon Mullican "The EP Collection" (See For Miles Records, 2000)
Piano plunker Aubrey "Moon" Mullican played in a variety of western swing bands through the 1930s, and inherited Cliff Bruner's band at the end of WWII, shifting direction in a bluesier, boogie-woogie style... This is a collection of tunes drawn from several EPs made for King Records from 1947-56, some of the material is pretty rough and raw -- ricketty, even -- but all of it is distinctively Mullican. His western swing roots are evident throughout, although Mullican didn't seem to pay as much attention to tight musicianship as many of his peers. Some of his best material came when he fully embraced R&B styles, as on "Cherokee Boogie," or his cover of Tiny Bradshaw's "Well Oh Well..." Also included here is his hit "New Jole Blon," a dopey parody version of the old cajun favorite -- personally I find the wordplay (and the music) a bit lame, but apparently it slayed them in the honkytonks back then... This is a nice collection that includes a lot of rare, seldom-reissued material. Not all of it is great, but it's certainly worth checking out.


Moon Mullican "Showboy Special" (Westside Records, 2000)
This collection highlights Mullican's earliest work on King, straight reissues of his 1946 and '47 sessions, digging even deeper into material that time has forgotten. As ever, this is craggy but curious music, with more than a couple of gems embedded within.


Moon Mullican "I Left My Heart In Texas" (Binge Disc/Bronco Buster)


Jimmy Murphy "Electricity" (Sugar Hill Records, 1978)
I really, really love this album -- it's a real gem. Guitarist Jimmy Murphy was always one of hick music's biggest square pegs... He was signed to RCA in the early '50s when hillbilly boogie was all the rage; later he recorded for Columbia, which was looking for new blood to match the fire of the rockabilly rebels on the Sun label -- Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and, of course, Elvis Presley. What they got in Murphy was an unreconstructed Jimmie Rodgers worshipper, a hillbilly-boogie tinged hick whose choppy style would have fit right in, about five years earlier, in, say, 1951 or '52. His "rockabilly" material sank like bricks in molasses, and Murphy mostly gave up music after that. That is, he did until the head of Sugar Hill Records "rediscovered" him, and sat him down with Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and other hotshot newgrass pickers to record this gorgeous, blues-drenched album. Pairing Murphy up with the bluegrass crowd made a lot of sense -- nobody else was really going to "get" his old-school vibe, and yet they also brought out a melodic sweetness that was lacking from his original '50s recordings. This album includes a dazzling remake of Murphy's hit song, "Electricity," as well as several heartfelt gospel numbers, a Hank Williams tribute that was more moving than most, and of course, the goofy, audacious "We Live A Long, Long Time To Get Old" (later covered by alt.country icon Robbie Fulks. This album has never sold well, but we should all be thankful that it made it back into print in the CD era, because it's really, really great. Murphy's 12-string lead runs should make your jaw drop to the floor, and the songs are all top-notch. Run, don't walk, to find this one. It's highly recommended.


Jimmy Murphy "16 Tons Rock & Roll" (Bear Family Records, 1989)
This disc collects Murphy's older recordings, from 1951-56, back when he was a high-power whippersnapper. These tracks have their charms, but to be honest they don't wow me the same way as his later recordings on the Electricity album, reviewed above. He just wasn't as richly textured, relaxed, or as accomplished a performer as he became in his later years. Rockabilly and '50s rock fans might wanna check this one out, but strange as it may sound, the re-recorded versions are way, way better.


Jimmy Murphy "The Legendary Starday-Rem Sessions" (Ace Records, 1999)
Almost all gospel material.. But considering how great a gospel song "Electricity" is (and that the original version is included here), maybe that ain't such a bad thing. If you like hillbilly gospel music, you might wanna check this out.


Red Murrell "Sittin' On Top Of The World" (Jasmine Records, 2004)
Hey, don't feel bad about it: I'd never heard of this guy before, either... But if you like that old-fashioned, West Coast, 'Forties-style honkytonk swing, then this guy'll rock your world. A member of both Cliffie Stone's and Jim Lewis's bands in the mid-'40s, Missouri native Joyce "Red" Murrell went it alone when he formed the Ozark Playboys, one of the many fine bands in the postwar California country scene. This disc collects his work on the Capitol, Acme, Atlas and Signature labels (and several other tiny indies), all of it fine, fine, for-real hick music with sarcastic lyrics and a peppy, swinging beat. If it sounds kinda familiar, you might not be surprised to find out that both Merle Travis and Cliffie Stone backed Murrell on various sessions... It's fun stuff; definitely recommended!



Heather Myles - see artist discography





Real Hick Music -- More Letter "M"



Hick Music Index



Copyright owned by Slipcue.Com.  All Rights Reserved.  
Unauthorized use, reproduction or translation is prohibited.