Out of the ashes of World War II, post-war Corporate U.S.A would sully its hands with anything in search of a buck. Heck, even Hillbilly music. Here, for the first time, are 32 of the grimiest, most delicious slabs of Hillbilly misery and mayhem to grace the Columbia Records imprint. From the rhinestone noir of Rocky Porter’s The World Is A Monster and Johnny Bond’s All I Can Do Is Cry to the proto-feminist declaration of Polly Possum’s Don’t Talk To Me About Men and the proto-punk loser’s lament of The Maddox Brothers Ugly And Slouchy.
“Another fantastic compilation from the seemingly infallible Omni Recording Corporation, this one focusing on hillbilly music, specifically from the vaults of Columbia Records, between 1948 and 1959, and all focused around a Dallas recording studio run by a man named Jim Beck, and had the winds of fortune blown a little bit differently, and had Beck not died prematurely, then perhaps the recording industry in Nashville would have actually ended up based in Dallas. It’s an interesting story, told in great detail in the copious liner notes, as are the stories of all the artists and their songs, and oh, what an awesome collection of singers and players, most of which we’d never before heard or even heard of.
A selection of some of the best hillbilly sides recorded for Columbia in the forties and fifties, lots of songs about drinking, and about women, and of course drinking AND women: “Beer Bottle Momma”, “Drinking All My Troubles Away”, “Red Hot Momma And An Ice Cold Beer”, “There’s A Bottle Where She Used To Be”, “The Barroom Girl”, “I’m The Devil Who Made Her That Way”, and like all Omni comps, there’s plenty of weirdness, howsabout “Ugly And Slouchy”, a track about the joys of having a less than attractive lady friend cuz there’ll “never be no fear of her loving someone else”, or the darkly creepy cabaret of the title track, with it’s refrain “The world is a monster, its food is man’s heart”.
And then of course there’s just a stunning array of incredible unsung country classics, from heartfelt tales of loneliness, to bittersweet ballads, super rambunctious bluegrass hoedowns, rife with wild fiddling, earnest crooning, boasting and bragging, begging for forgiveness, wondering where it all went wrong, even some yodeling, fantastic stuff.”
More tears in your beer than you can count, more kick in your heels than a regiment of cavalry. Remastered with love and care from the original Columbia tapes in a deluxe collector’s edition with rare photos and memorabilia.
1. Rocky Porter – The World Is A Monster
2. Johnny Bond and His Red River Valley Boys – All I Can Do Is Cry
3. Andy Reynolds & His 101 Ranch Boys – Beer Bottle Mama
4. Neal Jones – I’m Playing It Cool
5. Johnny Hicks – Pick Up Blues
6. Freddie Hart – Blue
7. Billy Walker – The Record
8. Johnny Hicks – Rainy Night Blues
9. Bobby Lord – I’m The Devil Who Made Her That Way
10. Jimmy Johnson – Throwing My Life Away
11. Paul Howard & His Cotton Pickers – Drinking All My Troubles Away
12. Carl Story – What A Line
13. Little Jimmy Dickens – Me And My Big Loud Mouth
14. The Maddox Brothers – Ugly And Slouchy
15. Billy Walker – I Can’t Keep The Girls Away
16. George Morgan – A Shot In The Dark
17. Jimmy Littlejohn – No Parking Here
18. Jimmy Murphy – Here Kitty Kitty
19. Smiley Maxedon – Red Hot Mama and An Ice Cold Beer
20. The Tunesmiths – Oh Stop!
21. Frankie Miller – Hey! Where Ya Goin?
22. Charlie Adams – I’m A Railroad Daddy
23. Polly Possum and Joe Wolverton with The Dog Patch Boys – Don’t Talk To Me About Men
24. Charlie Adams – Pistol Packin’ Mama Laid Her Pistol Down
25. Ray Price – Much Too Young To Die
26. Carl Smith – There’s A Bottle Where She Used To Be
27. Chuck Wells – The Barroom Girl
28. Jimmy Johnson – I’ve Lived A Lot In My Time
29. The Country Boys – Bud’s Bounce
30. Jack Rhodes & His Lone Star Buddies – Eternity
31. Freddie Hart – The Wall
32. Rose Maddox – When The Sun Goes Down