Track Listing
1. Wondering
2. I Just Can't Be True
3. Back Street Affair
4. Broken Engagement
5. It's Been So Long
6. There Stands The Glass
7. I'm Walking The Dog
8. Slowly
9. Even Tho'
10. Sparkling Brown Eyes
11. More And More
12. In The Jailhouse Now
13. I Don't Care
14. Why Baby Why
15. I'm Tired
16. Honky Tonk Song
17. Tupelo County Jail
18. I Ain't Never
| Details | | Number of CDs: | 1 | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Distributor: | Universal Music Operations | | SPAR Code: | AAD |
Album Notes
Full title: King Of The Honky-Tonk: From The Original Decca Masters, 1952-1959.Personnel includes: Webb Pierce (vocals, guitar); Mel Tillis (guitar, background vocals); Bud Isaacs (pedal steel guitar); Morris Palmer (drums); The Wilburn Brothers, The Jordanaires, Don Winters (background vocals); Owen Bradley, Harold Bradley, Hank Garland, Ray Edenton, Buddy Harman.Recorded between August 13, 1951 and May 15, 1959. Includes liner notes, with track-by-track annotations, by Ronnie Pugh. Contains 2 tracks previously unreleased in the U.S.: "I Just Can't Be True" and "Broken Engagement."Never was there a more appropriately named country singer than Pierce, whose bluegrass-informed tenor cuts through a song like a laser through tissue paper. As "piercing" as his voice was, it was inviting enough to ensure him hit after hit on the '50s country charts. In many ways, he was the true successor to Hank Williams; Pierce filled the position Williams vacated on the Opry, and after Williams' death became Nashville's preeminent male country singer. This definitive collection features his biggest hits from '51 to '59, his peak years. Like Williams, Pierce had no use for pop crossover, concentrating on hardcore honky-tonk songs about drinking and heartbreak supported by fiddle, steel guitar and a simple rhythm section. Instead of the mournful Williams wail, Pierce employed a hail-fellow-well-met approach, sounding cheerful even when singing about the depths of despair. He didn't dip into the jazz/Western swing pool like Williams occasionally would, but by the mid-'50s he injected a touch of rockabilly into his songs ("In The Jailhouse Now," "Why Baby Why." His pure, unfailing voice and captivating songs, the finest of which are included here, make him a bona fide country legend.
Editorial Reviews
...His pinched, nasal whine and whooping croon defined hardcore honky-tonk vocalizing, and the 18 songs here delineate as well as anything in the genre... - Rating: A+
Entertainment Weekly (09/09/1994)
| |
|
All rights reserved.
