“Hillbilly Classics”   Featuring Kenny Arnott   Planet Records (Australia)

(51 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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Spade Cooley “The King of Western Swing”   Straight outta Hollywood Babylon or True Crime – Spade made millions then flipped and killed his wife in a jealous rage in 1961.   Sentenced to life in prison, Govenor Reagan parolled him in 1969.   He died at 69, just days before his release.

(39 votes, average: 3.85 out of 5)

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“The JET Age”   Features the “speedpicking” of Julian E. Tharpe on Steel Guitar.   Midland Records.   This was recorded at the Johnny Cash Studio in Hendersonville, TN.   The Alabama Steel Guitar Association inducted Julian Tharpe into The Alabama Steel Guitar Association Hall Of Fame on February 26th, 2006 at The Hank Williams Museum, Montgomery Al.     But it’s the crazy, DIY art on this relic from the early Seventies that speaks to me.

(54 votes, average: 3.81 out of 5)

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“Blood on the Saddle” Tex Ritter   Capitol Records   Listen as Tex really slows down and stretches out the lyrics on this baby.   Nice pulp Western painting on the cover.

John Ritter’s pappy was well suited to the role of singing cowboy. He looked and acted the part and was singing the type of songs he loved best.   Although Ritter’s films never had the production values of films starring Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, he still enjoyed considerable success at the box office.

In 1942, after a decade of recording with little success, Ritter became one of the first artists signed by the newly formed Capitol Records. He soon began scoring major hits with records such as “Jealous Heart,” “ Rye Whiskey,” “I’m Wastin’ My Tears on You,” and “You Will Have to Pay.” Ritter would record for Capitol for the rest of his life.

In 1952, Ritter recorded the movie title-track song “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin’) which became a hit. He sang “High Noon” at the first Academy Awards ceremony to be televised in 1953, and it received an Oscar for Best Song that year.

He achieved significant success with “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle,” and in 1944, he scored another hit with “I’m Wastin’ My Tears On You,” which hit #1 on the country charts and #11 on the Pop charts. “There’s A New Moon Over My Shoulder” was a country charts #2 and Pop charts #21. In 1945, he had the #1, #2 and #3 songs on Billboard’s “Most Played Jukebox Folk Records” poll, a first in the industry. Between 1945 and 1946, he registered seven consecutive Top 5 hits, including “You Two Timed Me One Time Too Often,” a country #1 which spent eleven weeks on the charts.   In 1948, “Rye Whiskey” and his cover of “Deck Of Cards” both made the Top 10 and “Pecos Bill” reached #15. In 1950, “Daddy’s Last Letter (Private First Class John H. McCormick)” also became a hit.

Tex bit the dust in 1974.

(64 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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“Laugh Along With The Kirby Stone Four at the Playboy Club – In Person”   Columbia Records

(57 votes, average: 3.74 out of 5)

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“Soul of a Convict and other great prison Songs”   Porter Wagoner   RCA Victor   1966.   Living in Stereo has this nice post about Porter funeral service.

Listen and sing along:

(Will he take the soul of a convict could I be one of those he choosed)

I was taught the Bible from childhood at my mother’s knee I learned to pray

I was taught of God and all his goodness and the devil and his evil ways

There’s good in the bad and bad in the good and there’s none that’s free from sin

But there’s some questions I’ve wondered about

What happens to the men who die in the pen

Just imagine yourself the judge God Almighty as you gaze over all these men

When death takes its toll what becomes of the soul of the men who die in the pen

Do you think of God that’s true and just could look from his heavenly throne

And be pleased to see men placed in chains and stripes

And tucked from their loved ones at home

Worked until they’re completely exhuasted and your soul cries out in vain

Fed like a hog and treated like a dog and at night to the bed you’re chained

Worked from sunup to sundown through all kinds of weather

And if you don’t do the things just right you get introduced to the leather

Now you see it’s not the pain I mind so much as I’m stretched out on the floor

It’s just the thought that I can’t do my part that’s what breaks my heart

You see I’m just not man enough anymore

Oh there are a lotta other things I could tell you that you’d marvel at and say

Why I didn’t know in those modern times they treated men that way but they do

That’s why I ask you do you think that God could turn with a sneer and frown

At the men who die in the pen do you think he’ll turn us down

I believe there’s a heaven and a hell and in God I put my trust

That’s why I’m askin’ these questions I believe he’s true and just

And I just imagine he’ll tell me as we meet at the golden stairs

Hell’s not just meant for some of the men who die in the pen

But for some who have mistreated them there

You see we’re payin’ for the mistakes we made in our sins

As we’ve had our troubles in life

Because we’re the underdogs of humanity and surely God won’t make us pay twice

I believe on that Day of Judgement he’ll have this convict called in

And he’ll say it’s true hell’s not for you you had your hell in the pen

(52 votes, average: 3.19 out of 5)

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Joe and Bill   “No Time For Religion”   From lp cover lover, Kid Fez who wrote: “I really love your site and I end up checking it every day – here’s one I found while I was evacuated for Hurricane Gustave last week. This one’s on SSE ( ” Sermon & Song Evangelism ” ) Records, from 1979. The music on this record is absolutely awful, and not in a funny or interesting way either – these guys were trying out that faux-country Dukes Of Hazzard aesthetic that was so popular then. Anyway, keep up the good work!”

(63 votes, average: 3.22 out of 5)

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Sterling Blythe Sings   Crown Records

(52 votes, average: 2.90 out of 5)

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Conway Twitty   “To See My Angel Cry” Decca Records   1970

(48 votes, average: 3.71 out of 5)

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Bounding Billy Carlisle and his Little Carlisles   Mercury Records

(42 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

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