Shaking Out The Sheets: #61

Dirty Linen Classics

by Al Riess

Various Artists
Hillbilly Fever, Volumes 1-5
Legends of Western Swing (rec 1932-57)

Honky Tonk (rec 1936-66)
Nashville (rec 1945-56)
The West Coast (rec 1941-63)
Country Rock (rec 1966-75)
Rhino R2 71900 - R2 71904, respectively (compilation 1995)

Even if you're not familiar with the music presented, these five excellent compilations (18 tracks each) covering various aspects of vintage country music will give you a good feel for and increase your understanding of each genre. Two things that help create this "feel" are the explanatory notes (all by Rich Kienzle, one of the compilers of the sets), and the choice of tracks. Every album includes selections from some lesser-known performers and obscure tracks interspersed with big hits from big stars.

Famous for its deployment of fiddles, steel guitars and electric guitars, western swing is a rich mixture of jazz, big-band swing, blues, hoedown fiddling and much more, and Legends of Western Swing succeeds in its attempt to give what Kienzle's notes call "a fuller picture of western swing's diversity." Tracks like Tex Williams' "Artistry in Western Swing," a take-off on Stan Kenton's "Artistry in Rhythm," and Hank Thompson's version of the Woody Herman classic "Woodchopper's Ball" reside comfortably alongside cuts from western swing's big three (Bob Wills, Milton Brown, and Spade Cooley): "Milk Cow Blues" by Johnnie Lee Wills (Bob's brother), classic instrumentals from steel guitar icons Leon McAuliffe and Noel Boggs, and double entendre ditties like "Pussy Pussy Pussy." While the disc begins with the first western swing record, 1932's "Sunbonnet Sue" by the Fort Worth (aka Light Crust) Doughboys featuring Brown and Wills, and ends with two late 50s pieces, most selections are derived from western swing's late-30s to 1950 heyday.

The notes from Honky Tonk tell how this style rose to prominence in the southwest during the Depression, when many transplanted blue-collar southeasterners collected in small roadhouses (honky-tonks) to drink, party, and raise hell. Traditional Appalachian country tunes weren't relevant to honky-tonk patrons who wanted realistic songs that reflected their tough life: songs of joy, sorrow, love, lost love, cheatin' lovers, booze, and hell-raising. Honky-tonk's fiddle/steel/electric guitar instrumentation derived in part from western swing: electrified instruments were important if the music (usually provided via jukeboxes) was to be heard above the din of the roadhouse. In addition, two of honky tonk's top composers, Floyd Tillman and Ted Daffan, started their careers as sidemen with a western swing band. By World War II, honky tonk mushroomed and became extremely popular. This disc includes lots of classics, like Hank Williams' rip-roarin' "Honky Tonkin'" and country's first honky tonk song, "Honky Tonk Blues" by Al Dexter; cuts that crossed over to the pop charts like Ernest Tubb's "Walking the Floor Over You" and Daffan's ballad "Born to Lose;" and drinking songs such as Johnny Bond's "Sick Sober and Sorry" and one of the greatest lost-love tear-in-your-beer tunes of all time, Jim Ed Brown's "Pop a Top" from 1966. Other performers like Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, and the more obscure Hawkshaw Hawkins round-out what must be as near-representative a compilation as you can get in 18 tracks.

Legends of Nashville is not as all-encompassing as the title suggests, for all but one of the tunes are from 1947-1956. This was an important decade for Nashville: the opening of a few recording studios became the genesis of "Music Row," and Nashville's reputation as the important city for country music, not merely the home of the Grand Ole Opry, had begun. In addition, the "Nashville Sound" -- replacing fiddles and steel guitars "with neutral accompaniment and occasional vocal choruses" so songs could cross over to appeal to pop record buyers -- had not completely taken hold by 1956. This disc generally eschews Nashville Sound songs, so the specific focus is on music that made Nashville's foundation as Music City rock-solid. Most of the tunes here, replete with fiddle and steel, were big C&W chart hits like Webb Pierce's "Wondering," Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," Faron Young's "If You Ain't Lovin' You Ain't Livin'," and Little Jimmy Dickens' "Hillbilly Fever," honky tonk tunes all. Lots more charted high in the pop lists, like Red Foley's "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy," Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight," and crooner Eddy Arnold's "Bouquet of Roses."

Between the 1940s and the 1970s, a rivalry existed between the country music camps in Nashville and California. Things like the increasing popularity of Hollywood's western movies and singing cowboys of the 30s, plus the Depression and WW II era's emigration of Texans and Oklahomans to California to look for employment, helped create the Golden State's own country music industry. For a time right after the War, California-country records dominated the charts, and "California's style sounded different from Southeastern music, featuring more sophisticated accompaniment. West Coast hillbillies weren't afraid of horns or drums," say the notes. This compilation covers performers that exemplify many styles, like Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, and Jimmy Wakely (singing cowboy), Spade Cooley (western swing), the Maddox Brothers & Rose (hillbilly boogie), all the way to the Bakersfield sound of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.

Fast-forward to the era of hippies and progressive rock, the late 1960s. To many young Americans, country music was the sound of the redneck, America-love-it-or-leave-it crowd that yelled at long-locked kids to get a haircut. And the Nashville establishment "viewed progressive rock musicians and hippies with ridicule at best, open hostility at worst." But some young musicians (many California-based) had a love of and respect for country music. Their desire to mix rock and country together helped introduce country music to a new audience. Spanning 1966 to 1975, Legends of Country Rock shows that this style began not with the Eagles, but the likes of Gram Parsons (featured with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and Flying Burrito Bros.), Poco, Linda Ronstadt, even Bob Dylan ("Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You"), and spread to groups such as the progressive Seatrain (a dynamite, wild version of "Orange Blossom Special" with Richard Greene on fiddle and Peter Rowan on guitar) and the rockabilly/western swing of Commander Cody. A couple tracks here are real stretches and could have been omitted, like Delaney & Bonnie's "Never Ending Song of Love," but this album is still good enough to give the listener an adequate idea of what country rock was all about.