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Review: 'VARIOUS ARTISTS'
'Essential Pioneers Of Country Music Volumes 1 -3'   

-  Label: 'The Viper Label'
-  Genre: 'Alt/Country' -  Release Date: '27th April 2014'-  Catalogue No: 'VIPER DL106/107/108'

Our Rating:
Yes, they've done it again. Those nice chaps at The Viper Label have put out another classic three volume CD set that is an absolutely essential purchase.

This time, rather than concentrating on the blues, they have gone for country music. This is entirely appropriate, as I have always felt that the blues and country music are basically opposite sides of the same coin. My reasoning for this is as follows: the blues originated as a variety of African American folk music played and sung by working class tenant farmers, the dispossessed and the downtrodden. Country music originated as a variety of American folk music played and sung largely by white working class farmers, European migrants to the Appalachian Mountains, the dispossessed and the downtrodden.

Their lives are reflected in this music, their songs can be held up as a mirror to reality, accurately detailing their hopes and fears, their dreams and darkest nightmares.
Volume one opens with Vernon Dalhart's 'The Wreck of the Old Southern '97', a song that Johnny Cash amongst others has covered, which details a train crash in 1903 where the train was derailed and fifteen persons killed. Vernon's version of this ballad was released in 1924 and became an immediate smash hit, and was the first Southern song to be a national success in the US.

Also on this album is 'The Foggy Mountain Top' by The Carter Family, who in their first incarnation recorded between 1927 and 1956, and are giants within the country music genre. This was released on the Victor label as a single which had on the label “The Carter Family, singing and yodelling with guitars”! The guitar playing certainly has a bluesy feel to it and the vocal harmonies are excellent.

Volume two of the set carries on the good work with tracks by Jimmie Rodgers known as 'The Singing Brakeman', and who is seen as one of the founding fathers of country music. His track here 'Pistol Packin' Papa' dates from 1930, just three short years before his early death at the young age of 35 due to a pulmonary haemorrhage after contracting tuberculosis.

This volume also features tracks like 'Fiddle and Guitar Running Wild' from Walter Hurdt, who with his band The Singing Cowboys recorded extensively throughout the 1930s. The high energy up-tempo instrumental is an absolute delight, and it is sad that he remains all but forgotten now. The album closes with Oscar L Coffey's 'Six Feet of Earth Makes Us All One Size' this dates from 1928 and shows a degree of Celtic/Gaelic influence which was initially brought into country music by immigrants from the UK.

Volume three is equally as good as the first two and includes 'Sing Cowboy Sing' by Tex Ritter, who as well as having an extensive recording career, was also a popular actor, as this track comes from the 1937 film of the same name, in which he stars as a drifter, Tex Archer.

Also on this album is 'Steel Guitar Rag' by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. Bob is considered to be the 'King of Western Swing', and this track from 1936 incorporates that big band sound and with some jazz stylings this track easily shows why they were the first superstars of their genre, however they were overtaken by rock ' n' roll in the 1950s, which dealt a blow to Western Swing from which it would never recover, although Wills was quoted as saying at the time "Rock and Roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928!”

Overall, this is another excellent collection from The Viper Label, and it's a shame that it isn't yet available in CD format. However this is one collection that should definitely be downloaded, as tracks this good need to be heard.
  author: Nick Browne

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VARIOUS ARTISTS - Essential Pioneers Of Country Music Volumes 1 -3