Various A Girl Named Johnny Cash And Other Tribute Songs (CD)

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1-CD Digipak (4-plated) with 36-page booklet, 18 tracks. Playing time approx. 54 mns. Country... more

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Various: A Girl Named Johnny Cash And Other Tribute Songs (CD)

1-CD Digipak (4-plated) with 36-page booklet, 18 tracks. Playing time approx. 54 mns.

Country music's greatest artists pay tribute to each other! A must-have for Johnny Cash fans! Includes the cult tribute records by African American country artist Stoney Edwards! Unavailable until now! Plus Merle Haggard, Mac Wiseman, and more!

Although rare these days, tribute records had once regularly found a place in the recording schedules, in particular following the deaths of such iconic figures as Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. Now Bear Family has assembled 18 such recordings, remembering various artists across the decades. The greater number of tracks originate from African-American Stoney Edwards who enjoyed 1973 chart success with Hank And Lefty Raised My Country Soul and recorded several other fine tributes (spotlighting Carter Family, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Jimmie Rodgers , Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Red Foley and Bill Monroe) which have remained unissued until the arrival of this collection.

Johnny Cash is also remembered three other times, kicking off with the amusing The Ballad Of J.C., recorded by Gordon Terry, his close wild-partying friend. Equally amusing is Jane Morgan’s A Girl Named Johnny Cash (an obvious reference to Cash’s Sue) and Mac Wiseman’s version of Jack Clements’ cleverly penned Johnny’s Cash And Charley’s Pride, a song that related to friends as much as to artists whom Clement produced. Merle Haggard, besides being the subject of an Edwards tribute, also contributed a couple himself Leonard (to his old friend Leonard Sipes, better known as Tommy Collins) and Goodbye Lefty, a touching song to an artist who had greatly influenced Hag.

Charlie Rich, in somewhat unusual musical territory, gives acknowledgement to another of the music’s iconic figures, Gentleman Jim, and The Ballad Of Johnny Horton comes from this collection’s least known singer, Rudy Thacker, a staff musician on the Wheeling Jamboree. A now almost forgotten sub-genre of country music, this tribute collection is accompanied by a full colour, 34 page booklet with notes by Deke Dickerson accompanying the photographs and recording details.

Country music has always had its share of tribute songs. Much of the earliest country music songs were reworked folk ballads about historical events, places, or people. In fact, one of the reasons why country music and the blues have proved to be so popular with the 'common man' is the fact that so many real-life situations are told in the songs.

The first tribute songs about a country singer were undoubtedly the songs that proliferated after the death of Jimmie Rodgers, the 'Singing Brakeman' who, after a spectacularly successful string of records in the midst of the Great Depression, died of tuberculosis in 1933 at the age of thirty-five. Songs like The Passing Of Jimmie Rodgers by Ernest Tubb (Tubb's debut recording) were popular ways for the public to mourn Rodgers' death, as well as satiate the public's thirst for anything new about the fallen hero.

The same scenario repeated itself with the death of Hank Williams, and it was the era of the 1950s that brought about another trend that would continue through the 1970s and beyond—the tribute song by one country star about another country star. This odd sub-genre of a sub-genre is what comprises this 'Tributes' compilation, with performances that vary from fascinating to downright bizarre.

Most of these 'Tributes' were written and performed by people who were close friends, or musical acquaintances, of the artist being sung about. Such is the case with the artist who leads off the disc.

Gordon Terry was a champion fiddler, a good guitarist and singer, and a handsome chap with tons of talent, but one who never quite made it big under his own name in the country music business. Gordon Terry achieved great success, however, as a fiddle playing sideman for people like Faron Young, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash. Some of the stories of Gordon Terry and Johnny Cash's wild partying (often accompanied by like-minded friends like Merle Travis and Roger Miller) are legendary. Most of these stories can't be repeated here, but Terry's hilarious tribute to his boss and friend Johnny Cash sets the tone for the rest of this volume. The Ballad Of J.C., released in early 1970, was not Terry's first tribute record—that distinction went to a Charley Pride tribute, Charley's Pride, recorded a year earlier. The Ballad Of J.C., however, was Terry's only chart hit. Set to the tune of Battle Of New Orleans, The Ballad Of J.C. is a bizarre ditty—especially during the section of the song where Terry coughs and talks about giving up smoking, odd since Cash never suffered from lung cancer but Terry died of it. Nonetheless one can imagine Johnny Cash and Gordon Terry sitting around listening to the song and having a great laugh.

The next song is by country music legend Stoney Edwards, often remembered today as the 'other' famous African-American country singer alongside the better-known Charley Pride. Edwards had a string of records in the 1970s featuring tribute songs, and in fact over half of the songs on this compilation are from Edwards’ extensive tribute song oeuvre. Stoney Edwards had a long and winding path in life before he became a country music singer. Born in 1929 in Oklahoma to abject poverty, Edwards never advanced beyond the third grade in school, remaining illiterate throughout his career. Never having learned to read or write meant all of Edwards songs were learned by ear and by memory, which gave them a very real and primitive air. Edwards spent several years in a near-coma after carbon dioxide poisoning during a forklift accident in Richmond, California. His recuperation time was spent listening to and learning music. Edwards began singing country music at amateur events in California in the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in being discovered at a small Bob Wills benefit in the late 1960s, where Edwards sang Merle Haggard's Mama's Hungry Eyes and received three standing ovations. A lawyer named Ray Sweeney saw Edwards’ appeal and got him a meeting with Capitol Records brass, which ultimately led to a recording contract and Edwards first chart record, Two Dollar Toy. Edwards' first tribute record was the touching Hank And Lefty Raised My Country Soul from 1973. This record was quite successful and led Edwards to record a great many more tribute songs over the next couple years, most of which are found on this disc. An oft-repeated story tells of Stoney meeting Lefty Frizzell at a Nashville bar shortly before Lefty's death. Lefty was incredibly moved by the tribute, to the point of tears, and found it ironic that a black man was the only one who remembered him. The Night The Ernest Tubb Show Came To Town, The Carter Family, Cash, The Jimmie Rodgers Blues, Bob Wills, Hag, Red Foley, King Of Country Music (Roy Acuff) and Daddy Bluegrass (Bill Monroe) are all fairly self-explanatory and all found on this disc. Each song represents Stoney Edwards paying tribute to the country artists that he grew up with and was influenced by as an aspiring young country singer.

Merle Haggard, himself a subject for a great many tribute songs, was no stranger to the genre. Always mindful of his roots and the artists that influenced him, Haggard recorded several tributes that became classics of their own. We've included two of his best here, Leonard and Goodbye Lefty. Leonard was a song about his friend Leonard Sipes, better known as 'Tommy Collins,' who had a career as a successful singer and songwriter in country music before leaving the business to become a country preacher. Collins’ story is told with great effect in Haggard's song, with a crossover appeal even to those who had no idea who Leonard really was. Another of Haggard's heroes was Lefty Frizzell. Lefty had played a pivotal role in Haggard's career early in his life, letting an adolescent Haggard borrow his guitar and sing with his band during a break at Bakersfield's Rainbow Gardens nightspot. The incident inspired Haggard to pursue singing as a career. Later, when Haggard became wildly successful, Merle befriended the ailing Lefty, who had gone from being the top country singer in 1950 to virtually forgotten twenty years later. Lefty would record Haggard's song Life's Like Poetry as the last song at his last recording session before his untimely death due to alcoholism in 1975. Haggard repaid the favor by recording Goodbye Lefty following Frizzell's passing, a touching tribute to an artist who obviously meant a great deal to Merle.

Jane Morgan undoubtedly has the strangest resume of any artist on this compilation. Not really a country artist, Morgan (real name Florence Catherine Currier) was a Massachusetts opera singer born in 1920. Trained at the Juilliard School of Music, Currier nee Morgan became a nightclub singer in Paris, France, and later recorded easy listening albums with pianist Roger Williams. This unlikely country singer recorded the delightfully goofy tribute A Girl Named Johnny Cash in 1970, when Morgan was already fifty years old. The unlikely answer song to Cash's A Boy Named Sue became a minor hit, and there is currently a youtube video online of Jane Morgan and Johnny Cash singing together on the Johnny Cash television show.

As previously mentioned in these liner notes, Country Music Hall Of Famer Ernest Tubb released a Jimmie Rodgers tribute record as his very first release. Tubb would record several more tribute discs over the years, including the Hank Williams tribute found on this disc, Hank, It Will Never Be The Same Without You. After Tubb's passing, Junior Brown paid tribute to the Texas Troubadour with his 1993 recording My Baby Don't Dance To Nothing But Ernest Tubb.

The tragic death of Johnny Horton in a 1960 car accident inspired many tribute songs. One of the best is the one we've included here, The Ballad Of Johnny Horton, by Rudy Thacker. Thacker was a staff musician on the Wheeling, West Virginia Jamboree show, and also made one killer rockabilly record, Black Train, on the Lucky label in 1960...

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Interpret: Various
Album titlle: A Girl Named Johnny Cash And Other Tribute Songs (CD)
Genre Country
Label Bear Family Records
Preiscode AH
Artikelart CD
EAN: 4000127159458
weight in Kg 0.2

Various Artists - A Girl Named Johnny Cash And Other Tribute Songs (CD) CD 1
01	The Ballad Of J.C.	Terry, Gordon
02	The Night The Ernest Tubb Show Came To Town	Edwards, Stoney
03	Leonard	Haggard, Merle
04	The Carter Family	Edwards, Stoney
05	Cash	Edwards, Stoney
06	A Girl Named Johnny Cash	Morgan, Jane
07	Roy Acuff, The King Of Country Music	Edwards, Stoney
08	Hank It Will Never Be The Same Without You	Tubb, Ernest
09	The Jimmie Rodgers Blues	Edwards, Stoney
10	Goodbye Lefty	Haggard, Merle
11	Bob Wills, The Fiddlin' Man	Edwards, Stoney
12	Hag Sang Me A Song	Edwards, Stoney
13	The Ballad Of Johnny Horton	Thacker, Rudy
14	Red Foley	Edwards, Stoney
15	Gentleman Jim	Rich, Charlie
16	Bill Monroe û Daddy Bluegrass	Edwards, Stoney
17	Johnny's Cash And Charley's Pride	Wiseman, Mac
18	Hank And Lefty Raised My Country Soul	Edwards, Stoney