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Title Country Greats Artist Various Format: Triple CD Cat. No.: SOHOCD034 Barcode: 698458153425 Playing Time: Over 2 hours

Country has established itself as America's favourite music and on this collection we enjoy some of the classic originators of the 40's and 50's. See Reviews

Track List CD1 1 Flatt & Scruggs W. The Foggy Mountain Boys - Foggy Mountain Breakdown 2 Jim Reeves - Bimbo (intro. by Jimmy Dean) 3 The Stanley Brothers w. The Clinch Mountain Boys - Pretty Polly 4 Burl Ives – Makes No Different Now 5 Jimmy Wakely – Between The Lines 6 Rex Allen & His Arizona Wranglers with Bonnie Allen – Home On The Range 7 Porter Wagoner- I Love No One But You 8 Spade Cooley & Tex Williams – Do Ya Or Don’t Cha 9 Johnny Bond & His Red River Valley Boys – Red River Valley 10 Red Foley & His Crossroad Boys – Freight Train Boogie 11 Pee Wee King & His Golden West Cowboys – Flower Of Texas 12 Hank Penny & His California Cowhands – Crazy Rhythm 13 Hank Snow – Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain 14 June Carter: Juke Box Blues 15 Ernest Tubb – Walking The Floor Over You 16 Flatt & Scruggs W. The Foggy Mountain Boys - ‘Tis Sweet To Be Remembered 17 Mac Wiseman & The Country Boys - A Broken Heart To Mend 18 Charlie Monroe & His Kentucky Partners - My Saviour’s Train 19 Jimmy Wakely – Song Of The Sierras 20 Tennessee Ernie Ford - I’m Too Sad To Laugh, And I’m Too Mean To Cry CD2 1 Hank Snow – My Good Gal’s Gone 2 Hank Penny & His California Cowhands - The Wang Wang Blues 3 Flatt & Scruggs w. The Foggy Mountain Boys - My Cabin In Caroline 4 The Stanley Brothers w. The Clinch Mountain Boys - Hey! Hey! Hey! 5 Spade Cooley & Tex Williams – You’ll Rue The Day 6 Tennessee Ernie Ford - John Henry 7 Ferlin Husky - I Feel Better All Over (More Than Anywhere’s Else) 8 Jim Reeves – Oklahoma Hills 9 Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - Blue Grass Stomp 10 Kitty Wells - Death At The Bar 11 Johnny Bond & His Red River Valley Boys – Mexicali Rose 12 Ernest Tubb – Driftwood On The River ( & conversation with Carolina Cotton) 13 Patsy Montana & Her Buckaroos: Mama Never Said A Word About Love 14 Rex Allen & His Arizona Wranglers With Bonnie Allen – The Life Of A Cowboy 15 Spade Cooley & Tex Williams – You Can’t Break My Heart 16 Flatt & Scruggs W. The Foggy Mountain Boys - Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’ 17 The Stanley Brothers W. The Clinch Mountain Boys - The Old Home 18 Flatt & Scruggs W. The Foggy Mountain Boys - Cora Is Gone 19 Burl Ives – Thinking Tonight Of My Blues Eyes 20 Red Foley & His Crossroad Boys- Square Dance Tennessee CD3 1 Tennessee Ernie Ford – When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along 2 Jimmy Wakely – Moon Over Montana 3 Jim Reeves – If You Were Mine 4 Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - Lonesome Truck Driver’s Blues 5 Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper & The Clinch Mountain Clan - On The Banks Of The River 6 Johnnie & Jack & The Tennessee Mountain Boys - A Smile On My Lips (And An Ache In My Heart) 7 Tennessee Ernie Ford – Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine 8 Johnny Bond & His Red River Valley Boys – Ten Years 9 Pee Wee King & His Golden West Cowboys – Darling, Stop Playing With My Heart 10 Hank Snow – Too Many Tears 11 Hank Penny & His California Cowhands - I Want My Rib 12 Patsy Cline - When A House Is Not A Home 13 Rex Allen & His Arizona Wranglers With Bonnie Allen – Hold On Little Doggie 14 Flatt & Scruggs W. The Foggy Mountain Boys - Earl’s Breakdown 15 Jim Reeves - I Get The Blues When It Rains 16 Ferlin Husky - I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog Like You’re Treating Me 17 Jean Shepard: I Didn’t Know The Gun Was Loaded 18 Rex Allen & His Arizona Wranglers With Bonnie Allen – Headin’ For The Open Range 19 Jimmy Wakely – Birmingham Jail 20 Flat & Scruggs w. The Foggy Mountain Boys - Down The Road         Sleevenotes   Country has established itself as America's favourite music and on this collection we enjoy some of the classic originators of the 40's and 50's. It took Hollywood hunk George Clooney to put bluegrass back on the musical map with the 2001 success of the Coen Brothers' blockbuster movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, the unlikely story of three prisoners escaping from a chain gang who up their numbers to four and, while engaged on an Odyssey-like quest, end up performing on the radio as the Soggy Bottom Boys. Bluegrass music was at the heart of the film, the perfect complement to images of chain gangs, cotton fields, politicians, river baptisms, hobos riding freight trains, patent medicines and Ku Klux Klan rallies. And those who purchased the soundtrack found the music just as engaging without the visuals. Not that anyone should have been surprised. After all, it's now exactly half a century since a certain Elvis Aron Presley started mixing bluegrass with a black music sensibility to produce rock'n'roll. Yet, for the many for whom country was and remains the sometimes saccharine sound of Nashville, that bluegrass was an eye-opener. The music first flowered during the Depression, the era in which O Brother was set, and encompassed such influences as blues, gospel, string-band hoedowns, Appalachian balladry, work songs and vaudeville. Those who purveyed it were indeed itinerant entertainers who moved on from schoolhouse show to radio 'barn dance' and eventually a makeshift recording studio. Music from the likes of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb and the like offered an emotional truth that cut through the veneer of life and offered hope that the Depression days would soon be over. As scriptwriter Ethan Coen explained, this was 'a compelling music in its own right, harking back to a time when music was a part of everyday life and not something performed by celebrities. That folk aspect of the music both accounts for its vitality and makes it fold naturally into our story without feeling forced or theatrical.' And that spirit has continued through the 'alt.country' likes of Whiskeytown (featuring Ryan Adams), Wilco and Uncle Tupelo. But what we have here is a collection of the original and best. And some of the names featured are nothing less than legendary. Although she received later fame as the wife of Johnny Cash, June Carter was a member of musical pioneers the Carter Family. When the Family deservedly made the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970, the first group to be so honoured, the citation read: 'They are regarded by many as the epitome of country greatness and originators of a much copied style.' June Carter Cash, the last survivor, died in 2003, but the music lives on. Hank Snow can claim to have given Elvis Presley a helping hand to stardom, having formed a booking agency with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The wily Parker edged him out of the Presley picture, but slid the spotlight his way by having his charge cover Snow-related material such as 'Old Shep', 'A Fool Such As I' and 'I'm Movin' On'. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys were also a huge influence on Elvis, who souped up their 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky' to create a rock'n'roll classic from a bluegrass ballad: rumour has it that, when the King met Bill and apologised for his handiwork, Monroe confided that he now played the hit version himself! Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were Bluegrass Boys who left the Monroe ranks in 1948 to form their own FoggyMountain Boys - the name clearly inspired the Coen Brothers and their Clooney-led film clan. Their 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown', the opening cut on our first disc, was heavily featured in the 1967 film Bonnie And Clyde, another movie to make good use of bluegrass, while older TV viewers may recall 'The Ballad Of Jed Clampett' which announced each episode of 1960s series The Beverly Hillbillies. The career of Tennessee Ernie Ford could fill a (very entertaining) book, but in short he kicked off his career at the age of four in 1923 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990, the year before his death. In-between times he recorded a vast and varied body of work that encompassed country, bluegrass and gospel, as well as scoring pop hits with 'Davy Crockett' and 'Sixteen Tons'. We feature different sides of his output here in the likes of 'John Henry' and the irritatingly catchy 'When The Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along'. Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline went on to carve careers in mainstream country circles before meeting their maker all too soon, coincidentally in plane crashes within 15 months of each other. Reeves put a professional baseball career behind him when, while working as a disc jockey at a Texas radio station in 1952, he crossed the border to Shreveport to deputise for an unavailable Hank Williams on the famous Louisiana Hayride radio show. 'Bimbo' was an early recording from around that time before he polished up his act and became more widely acceptable. Cline came to fame on a prototype Pop Idolstyle TV talent contest and went on to become a classic country balladeer with some glossy, string-laden productions. But, even early on in her career, she could pack emotion a-plenty into less than two minutes as 'When A House Is Not A Home' effortlessly shows. Porter Wagoner is remembered for his long-time partnership with a later first lady of country, Dolly Parton, but his early solo career from 1954 gave birth to many a classic. His Nudie suits and coloured cowboy boots made little impression on radio listeners, but when Gram Parsons formed the Flying Burrito Brothers two decades later, he not only copped Porter's musical style but his fashion sense too. (Back in the 1950s one commentator had remarked he had never realised Christmas trees could sing!) And that, in a roundabout way, brings us back to George Clooney. Though his film character donned disguise and a false beard to avoid detection, the music continued to shine with or without the visuals. Our featured artists all share a down to earth approach which cuts through even today -indeed, maybe this is a film soundtrack in the making for a star in need of a career boost. Ben Affleck, Where Art Thou?