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        <name>Bear Family Records</name>
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    <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/?sRss=1</id>
    <updated>2026-05-21T18:32:15+02:00</updated>
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (ASRC) 2020</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/association-for-recorded-sound-collections-asrc-2020</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/association-for-recorded-sound-collections-asrc-2020"/>
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                                            ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (ASRC) BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED COUNTRY OR ROOTS MUSIC Scott B. Bomar, The Bakersfield Sound (Bear Family Records) John Broven, South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous (Pelican Publishing) Heath Carpenter, The Ph...
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                  ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (ASRC)  
 
 
    BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED COUNTRY OR ROOTS MUSIC &amp;nbsp; Scott B. Bomar, The Bakersfield Sound (Bear Family Records)  John Broven, South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous (Pelican Publishing)&amp;nbsp; Heath Carpenter, The Philosopher King: T Bone Burnett and the Ethic of a Southern Cultural Renaissance (University of Georgia Press)&amp;nbsp; Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns, Country Music: An Illustrated History (Knopf) &amp;nbsp;   
 &amp;nbsp; 
    ARSC_awards_finalists_press_2020.pdf   
 
 
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                            <updated>2020-12-09T00:00:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">THE LIN &amp; KLIFF STORY</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/the-lin-kliff-story</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/the-lin-kliff-story"/>
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                                            THE LIN &amp; KLIFF STORY &quot;It was something we had burning desire to do. We felt like we were right about the commercial potential of an artist. It turned out lots of times that we were wrong, but we kept on going.&quot; Joe Leonard Joe Leonard&#039;s Lin Records out of Gainesville, Texas a...
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                 THE LIN &amp;amp; KLIFF STORY 
 &quot;It was something we had burning desire to do. We felt like we were right about the commercial potential of an artist. It turned out lots of times that we were wrong, but we kept on going.&quot;  Joe Leonard 
 Joe Leonard&#039;s Lin Records out of Gainesville, Texas arrived relatively late among the independent labels that proliferated in the years following World War II, its first session taking place in the winter end of 1953-54. The labels that sprang up in this boom period ran the gamut from tiny, one or two-off locals to more ambitious companies that enjoyed lengthy and successful regional, and in a few cases national, identities. The smaller of these were sometimes merely a recording artist&#039;s vanity label, or sometimes short-lived because they were ill-timed or ill-financed, or simply unlucky despite big-eyed ambition, while the larger companies were often characterized by the forceful personalities and/or ruthless business operations of their owners, like Lew Chudd&#039;s Imperial or Bill McCall&#039;s Four Star Records -- though there were ruthless small timers, too, like Jimmy Mercer at Royalty in Paris, Texas, and honest big shots, like Starday&#039;s Pappy Daily in Houston. 
 The majority of independents that emerged from the mid-1940s through the 1950s may have been those short-lived failures with a handful of now rare releases, but there were a notable number that were prolific enough or hung around long enough to establish more permanent legacies. Some of these may have ultimately been victims of their own success. Jim Bulleit&#039;s Bullet label out of Nashville, for example, survived a half dozen years (and change in ownership) and produced well over a hundred issues, but was effectively sunk rather early in its existence by being too ambitious and incautious after landing the biggest pop hit of 1947. Others rose quickly with an impressive gush of releases, then collapsed under the weight of it all when too few of those releases sold sufficiently (and too few distibutors paid for those records that did sell); witness Herb Rippa&#039;s Bluebonnet label in Dallas, or Sol Kahal&#039;s Freedom Records or Macy Lela Henry&#039;s Macy&#039;s label, both of Houston, all three of which issued as many or more records in less than three years than Lin and its sister label Kliff did in fourteen. 
 Joe Leonard&#039;s relatively conservative volume of output over the years -- not only the fourteen years of Lin Records&#039; actual life, but involvement in publishing and side recording projects that continue to the present -- is indicative of a deliberately cautious approach to a usually unkind business. Leonard coupled business acumen (tellingly, he approached Lin as a sideline, always anchored by other more stable enterprises) and strong promotional skills with a good ear for the commercial and an astute willingness, not only to adapt to changing tastes, but also to take an occasional chance, which set Lin apart from, and allowed it to outlive most contemporaries. 
 Lin enjoyed one national hit, Pledge Of Love by Ken Copeland in 1957, and Joe Leonard placed several artists and a number of individual Lin sides with larger labels, including MGM, Imperial and Dot. It covered a wide spectrum of styles, beginning as a country label, then easing toward rockabilly, pop and rock &#039;n&#039; roll in time, with an odd R&amp;amp;B, comedy or children&#039;s record thrown in here and there. Its lasting impact and significance stems from its early exploration of rockabilly and its subsequent signing of a number of excellent Texas-Oklahoma area rock &#039;n&#039; roll performers, none of whom became household names but who produced dozens of prized and enduring sides. 
 The recordings of Andy Starr and Buck Griffin, Lin&#039;s most prolific artists (though many of their Lin-produced recordings were released on larger labels), have been collected on previous Bear Family CDs. Four sides by the Strikes, leased to Imperial have been reissued on &#039;That&#039;ll Flat Git It, Vol. 12&#039; (BCD 16102). These were singers who came to Joe Leonard as essentially country acts that veered toward rockabilly and rock &#039;n&#039; roll. They have been included here as well, in representative early sides, along with artists like the classic late-period rockabilly David Ray (Ray Smith), the elusive, Buddy Holly-struck West Texan Ray Ruff, and the fresh-faced, unassuming teen Ken Copeland, whose surprising stabs at rock &#039;n&#039; roll stand in stark contrast to his pop sides (and who is far better known today as televangelist Kenneth Copeland). Also getting his start at Lin and almost as squeaky-clean as Copeland was in 1957, was Jerry Fuller, who became a semi-successful recording artist after leaving Lin, then far more successful as a songwriter and producer. 
 Included among the more than 120 sides here are pop, country, R&amp;amp;B, and many stops in between -- how does one neatly categorize the niteclub quasi-rock &#039;n&#039; roll of the Chuck-A-Lucks&#039; Disc Jockey Fever ? --from Wayne Jetton&#039;s inaugural country sides from the winter of 1953-54 to Honee Welch&#039;s overlooked blue-eyed soul from 1968. In addition to the artists mentioned above, and many others -- The Four Mints, The Atmospheres, Steve Wright, and on -- this set features a impressive roll call of excellent backing musicians, from guitarists Thumbs Carllile and J.B. Brinkley, fiddlers Johnny Manson, Jimmy Belkin and Johnny Gimble, tenor banjoist Marvin &#039;Smokey&#039; Montgomery, pianist Bill Simmons, to multi-instrumentalist Paul Buskirk, Nashville session legends like saxophonist Boots Randolph and pianist Floyd Cramer, and even the soon-to-be country-pop singing star Sonny James when he was still working Dallas recording sessions as a decidedly country fiddler... 
 KEVIN COFFEY Fort Worth, Texas 
  © Bear Family Records®   read more   Various - Record Label Profiles   The LIN &amp;amp; KLIFF Story (4-CD Deluxe Box Set)  
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                            <updated>2020-10-22T00:15:00+02:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Sleepy LaBeef Obituary</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/sleepy-labeef-obituary</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/sleepy-labeef-obituary"/>
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                                            Sleepy LaBeef Obituary Rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef who began his career in the mid-’50s and whose concerts continued to be a draw for the rockabilly community well into this year, died on December 26, 2019 at age 84. No cause of death has been given. Although LaBeef never ...
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                 Sleepy LaBeef Obituary 
 Rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef&amp;nbsp;who began his career in the mid-’50s and whose concerts continued to be a draw for the rockabilly community well into this year, died on December 26, 2019 at age 84. No cause of death has been given. 
 Although LaBeef never had great chart success, his legend loomed almost as large as he did - the singer was around six-and-a-a-half feet tall - at festivals where he was often the lone remaining original 1950s rocker. He earned his own chapter in one of the essential books about rock’s pioneers, Peter Guralnick’s “Lost Highway: Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians.” 
 The death was confirmed by his family on his Facebook account. &#039;&#039;It is with deep, agonizing sadness that we inform you of the news that this morning, Sleepy LaBeef, born Thomas Paulsley LaBeff, passed on from this life to be with the Lord,” wrote his wife, Linda LaBeef. “He died at home, in his own bed, surrounded by his family who loved him, and whom he dearly loved. He lived a full and vibrant life, filled with the excitement of much travel and experience, the contentment that came from being able to spend his life doing what he loved best, and the fulfilling love of his wife, children, and grandchildren around him.&#039;&#039; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 LaBeef was gigging at least as recently as September, when he performed at the Swiss &#039;Blues to Bop&#039; festival in September 2019, a sign of his continuing popularity among roots music enthusiasts in Europe and America. 
 LaBeef released singles on labels like Starday/Mercury in the late ’50s, Columbia in the ’60s and the revived Sun imprint in the ’70s before finally catching fire with a new generation of rockabilly revivalists with a series of 1980s albums on Rounder. But nearly all his fans agreed that the live shows were really the thing - and there was no shortage of opportunities to catch him as he criss-crossed bar circuits across the country over the decades. He played about 300 shows a year. 
 In January 2012, LaBeef traveled to Nashville to record and film a live concert and record in historic RCA Studio B, all produced by noted bassist&amp;nbsp;Dave Pomeroy. The documentary was entitled “Sleepy LaBeef Rides Again,” released in 2013. 
 Deke Dickerson, one of the leading modern musicians in the genre, wrote on Facebook: “Sleepy was one of the original ’50s rockabillies. He made excellent records for Starday, Mercury, Dixie and Wayside. In a way he was one of the first ’50’s revivalists,’ cutting greasy rock and roll records all through the British Invasion years of the mid-’60s, but the truth was that Sleepy existed in a Gulf Coast world of rough bars and sleazy dives where the hard driving ’50s rock and roll mixed with classic country never went away. Sleepy was HUGE. I always referred to him as a ‘Man-Mountain,’ and I always found it comical when I loaned him a guitar or upright bass and it looked like a ukulele or a toothpick on his large frame. His girth enabled him to portray ‘The Swamp Thing’ (a large, semi-naked caveman/wildman character) in the 1968 exploitation film ‘The Exotic Ones,’ a memorable film moment, if you’ve ever had the good fortune to screen that particular gem.” 
 Added Dickerson, “He became known as ‘The Human Jukebox’ because he seemed to know every song ever written, and sometimes his shows would consist of him performing for three or four hours straight, no breaks, with short-and-long term band members holding on for dear life, often not knowing the songs as Sleepy plowed through them like a mule plowing through hard and rocky Arkansas farmland.” 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 LaBeef was born on July 25, 1931 in Smackover, Arkansas, as the youngest of 10 children growing up on a melon farm. He got his nickname as the result of a lazy eye, some said, or simply looking “half-awake.” He moved to Houston in his adolescence and became a regular on radio shows like “The Houston Jamboree” and “The Louisiana Hayride.” On his initial singles, he was credited as Sleepy LaBeff (or, in the case of “Tore Up,” Tommy LaBeff), but he finally became Sleepy LaBeef in 1965 . In his early years, he shared bills with stars like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Fats Domino. His own favorites, though, he told Sheree Homer in her book “Dig That Beat!,” were George Jones, Bill Monroe and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. 
 LaBeef had heart bypass surgery in 2003, which slowed his schedule only slightly. 
 “Success is nice,” he told Sheree Homer, “but if you have it in your heart, then you don’t get into [this] to make a bunch of money. You do it because you love the music. That love keeps me going, and I thank the Lord for the strength to do it. I never had a No. 1 record, but I am glad to be performing.” 
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                            <updated>2019-12-28T00:00:00+01:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Presse Archiv - Various - Season&#039;s Greetings The Shadow Knows (CD) - amazon</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/presse-archiv-various-season-s-greetings-the-shadow-knows-cd-amazon</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/presse-archiv-various-season-s-greetings-the-shadow-knows-cd-amazon"/>
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                                            Presse Archiv - Various - Season&#039;s Greetings The Shadow Knows (CD) - amazon A year or more abo they started compiling (mostly) seasonally-themed albums. I think the first I remember getting was the summer-related”Banana Splits” volume (which spawned a “Volume 2” this past summ...
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                 Customer Review  Steve RammTop Contributor: Classical Music TOP 500 REVIEWER 5.0 out of 5 starsA cleverly curated seasonal comp with so much variety, great notes and great price December 1, 2019 The German-based Bear Family Records label is one of the premier reissue labels in the world and they don’t skimp on quality and completeness in their box sets (with 200-page hardbound books included.) They are not inexpensive and often overlooked. But in recent years they have released some single-CD albums at very affordable prices and yet don’t skimp on the sound quality or the thoroughness of the liner notes. 
 A year or more abo they started compiling (mostly) seasonally-themed albums. I think the first I remember getting was the summer-related”Banana Splits” volume (which spawned a “Volume 2” this past summer. For Easter they did “Bunny Hop” and Halloween brought “The Shadow Knows”. Just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving comes this album (as well as “Yulesville”, which I’ll review separately. 
 Using the 80-minute-plus time that a CD will hold, “Autumn Leaves” contains 29 “Golden Season” recordings from the 40s, 50s and 60s whose titles or lyrics reflect the season when we prepare for winter. Most are from obscure 45 rpm records on small labels as well as a few songs you probably remember – if you are over 60 years old. But I doubt you have any of these in your music library (or could find them if you do) and there are some that I was thrilled I found. 
 The female singers include Etta James (“Stormy Weather”) and Dinah Washington (“ September in The Rain”) along with “big bands” like Les Brown and Lionel Hampton. But there’s also a Flatt&amp;amp; Scruggs instrumental (“Shuckin’ the Corn”) and the blues shouter Memphis Minnie (the risqué “What’s the Matter With the Mill?”), not to mention rock by Eddie Cochran (“no, not “Summertime Blues”), country swing by Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies” and even Ferrante &amp;amp; Teicher. The list goes on. 
 The jewel box holds a gorgeously-illustrated 24-page booklet with in-depth (really) track notes by Marc Mittelacher. I mentioned the list price being reasonable. Well, it’s under $12. So you get a lot of value for your money. What I love about this “curated” collection is that after playing the album a few times, I put it away only to bring it out again in nine months when the season rolls around. 
 I hope you found this review both informative and helpful. 
 Steve Ramm “Anything Phonographic” 
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                            <updated>2019-12-01T00:15:00+01:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">SKIFFLE, MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE: BRITAIN’S FIRST PUNK REVOLUTION</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/skiffle-music-for-the-people-britain-s-first-punk-revolution</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/skiffle-music-for-the-people-britain-s-first-punk-revolution"/>
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                                            http://theaudiophileman.com/skiffle/ An emotive word for anyone living in Britain in the ‘50s for it brings with it images of home-made instruments, church halls and home-grown heroes like Lonnie Donegan, Ken Colyer, The Vipers, Chas McDevitt, Johnny Duncan and many others. Ke...
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                 It&amp;nbsp;changed everything. It brought music down from the stars and handed it to ordinary people. It gave a true DIY ethic to music production that allowed new ideas to flourish and entire sub-genres to form and blossom. You think I&amp;rsquo;m talking about punk from the late 70s,&amp;nbsp;don&amp;rsquo;t you? I&amp;rsquo;m not. I&amp;rsquo;m talking about the punk principle that arose during the early 50s: it was called Skiffle. 
 Skiffle was important. In fact, along with rock&amp;rsquo;n&amp;rsquo;roll influences, Skiffle begat beat music. From beat sprang game-changing outfits such as The Beatles that helped to forge the cultural renaissance during the 60s. In fact, artists such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks were all directly influenced by the genre, for example. 
 For this column, I could have taken the clich&amp;eacute;d position and focused on a Lonnie Donegan album but, although Donegan was the king of Skiffle, he wasn&amp;rsquo;t Skiffle. The genre encompassed much more but is still small enough to be considered as a focused, relatively niche, entity, hence this Masterworks is devoted to a genre instead of an artist. Unlike pop, rock or soul, Skiffle is a splintered kaleidoscope of small, yet intense, colours that are best seen in the round. 
 Skiffle stems back to the early spasm bands of the early 20 th &amp;nbsp;Century and the later Depression era. I&amp;rsquo;m not making up that term, either. A spasm band was a real thing. &amp;lsquo;Spasm&amp;rsquo; referred to bands who couldn&amp;rsquo;t afford proper instruments and used &amp;lsquo;found&amp;rsquo; items instead: items that were not created for such tasks such as combs, tea chests, broom handles, washboards and the like. UK trad jazz groups discovered this music in the USA, tweaked and played it during their trad jazz gigs. 
 &amp;nbsp;To celebrate this wholly significant musical genre, Bear Family ( www.bear-family.com ) released The History Of Skiffle, a box set of classic Skiffle music featuring a superb, hard-back book plus a range of acts onto six CDs. From Ken Colyer (with Down By The Riverside and Midnight Special) to Lonnie Donegan (Cumberland Gap and Rock Island Line), Johnny Duncan&amp;rsquo;s Last Train To San Fernando, Chas McDevitt&amp;rsquo;s Freight Train and The Vipers Don&amp;rsquo;t You Rock Me Daddy-O plus European outfits such as the Roban&amp;rsquo;s Skiffle Group and the Mozam Skiffle Group and a range of previously unreleased tracks. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
  read more  
  http://theaudiophileman.com/skiffle/  
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                            <updated>2017-06-15T18:30:00+02:00</updated>
                    </entry>

    
    
        <entry>
            <title type="text">Skiffle Music on Bear Family Records</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/skiffle-music-on-bear-family-records</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/skiffle-music-on-bear-family-records"/>
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                                            Skiffle Music An emotive word for anyone living in Britain in the ‘50s for it brings with it images of home-made instruments, church halls and home-grown heroes like Lonnie Donegan, Ken Colyer, The Vipers, Chas McDevitt, Johnny Duncan and many others. Ken Colyer pioneered the ...
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                 SKIFFLE! 
 An emotive word for anyone living in Britain in the &amp;lsquo;50s for it brings with it images of home-made instruments, church halls and home-grown heroes like Lonnie Donegan, Ken Colyer, The Vipers, Chas McDevitt, Johnny Duncan and many others. 
 Ken Colyer pioneered the term in England by describing a small ensemble within his jazz band as a &#039;Skiffle Group&#039;, but it was Donegan&#039;s  Rock Island Line,  a surprise hit in 1955 that really started it all. 
 The realization that almost any group of teenagers could form their own skiffle group and produce a reasonable imitation of Donegan&#039;s effort soon resulted in a shortage of skiffle&#039;s component parts; guitars; washboards and tea-chests were soon being rationed by shopkeepers. Every record company rushed to sign their own skiffle groups and for a couple of years skiffle was the biggest thing since Johnnie Ray. 
 Skiffle is often forgotten, due to the success of its sister, rock &#039;n&#039; roll, but many big names from the &amp;lsquo;50s, &amp;lsquo;60s and beyond cut their musical teeth in skiffle groups, including Lennon and McCartney in Liverpool&#039;s Quarrymen, Cliff Richard in the Dick Teague Skiffle Group and the Who&#039;s Roger Daltry, who got started with the Sulgrave Rebels from West London.  John Beecher 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   THE CHAS McDEVITT SKIFFLE GROUP   
 feat.: NANCY WHISKEY &amp;amp; SHIRLEY DOUGLAS    Like its near-relation, Rock &#039;n&#039; Roll, Skiffle came like a breath of fresh air to the British pop music scene in the 1950s. Drawing inspiration mostly from folk, country and blues music, the commercial skiffle groups soon became role-models for every teenager in the country, and washboards, tea-chests and guitars were soon in short supply. Some skifflers were purists, like Ken Colyer, some, like the Vipers, were enthusiastic amateurs when they first stepped into a studio, but the Chas McDevitt group was popular in style, professional in approach and almost scholarly in their knowledge of the roots music that made up their repertoire. 
 This album is the Real Thing 
 Despite being signed to Oriole, one of the smallest labels in the business, the McDevitt group met with almost instant success in the UK and USA with their first outing,  Freight Train . They followed this hit with a succession (if not always successful) string of singles, which nearly always showed originality, even in their treatment of the old traditional songs. For the first time on one album here are all of the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group&#039;s recordings for Oriole, featuring both Nancy Whiskey and Shirley Douglas. Also included are several recordings made for the Oriole subsidiary, Embassy (which sold &#039;two hits for less than the price of one&#039; in Woolworths stores) on which you will hear Chas and the group &#039;cover&#039; their own hit record together with those by Lonnie Donegan and the Vipers. Whether you&#039;re planning a &#039;Skiffle Party&#039; or some serious musical research on the Roots of British Rock, this album is the Real Thing! &amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   LONNIE DONEGAN  MORE THAN PYE IN THE SKY (8 CDs)  
    Skiffle was a phenomenon; Lonnie Donegan was a phenomenon. Many thought the two were the same thing, until rock &amp;lsquo;n&amp;rsquo; roll killed off skiffle &amp;ndash; and Lonnie became a fixture in the British music scene. Here is the complete story of Lonnie on Decca and Pye, from 1954 to 1966. Demos from Lonnie&amp;rsquo;s personal collection and radio broadcasts round out the 209 songs on this set. 
 These were the records that changed the face of music in England. From the groundbreaking  Rock Island Line  to the bandwagon-jumping  World Cup Willie , all Donegan&#039;s hits and misses for Decca and Pye are here, together with rare and previously unissued tracks! Donegan may have been skiffle&#039;s great star but he graduated to make some fine pop and country recordings, all of which are included here. 
 The box also contains a detailed discography, biography, dozens of fine pictures and memorabilia and an indepth interview with the man himself. &amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   JOHNNY DUNCAN  LAST TRAIN TO SAN FERNANDO (4 CDs)  
    Despite having just a few chart entries in the &amp;lsquo;50s with  Last Train To San Fernando, Footprints In The Snow  and  Blue Blue Heartaches , Duncan built up a tremendous following. 
 His later work was more country than skiffle but he retained a style of his own and this set is a long-overdue salute to the man and his music. It contains all the original recordings from his sessions for UK Columbia, Pye, Lucky and Decca. 
 A detailed discography and biography with many previously unseen pictures is also included. &amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 &amp;nbsp; 
   THE VIPERS  10,000 YEARS AGO (3 CDs)  
    Here are all the Vipers&amp;rsquo; commercial recordings from their early hits for Parlophone,  Ain&#039;t You Glad, Worried Man, Don&#039;t You Rock Me Daddy-O,  through their &#039;Coffee Bar Session&#039; album to their later and lesser-known recordings for Pye. 
 &amp;nbsp; 
 Also included are solo performances from Wally Whyton and rarities from Hank Marvin and Jet Harris during their short spell with the Vipers. Rare pictures, a detailed biography and discography complete the set. 
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                            <updated>2017-03-14T18:30:00+01:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">Western Music on Bear Family Records Part 1</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/western-music-on-bear-family-records-part-1</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/western-music-on-bear-family-records-part-1"/>
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                                            Western Music on Bear Family Records The original High Noon is among our albums here. There had been plenty of songs in the B-Westerns of the 1930s and ‘40s, but it wasn’t until the marriage of song with story in &#039;High Noon&#039; that Western film and TV theme songs became a strong...
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                 The American West is a big place 
 , so it&amp;rsquo;s appropriate that the &#039;Western&#039; musical genre be more expansive and inclusive than most. There are the traditional songs of the cowboys, for example, though even cowboy traditionalists can be radical, like Peter La Farge the Native American activist and Greenwich Village rebel. Film composer Dimitri Tiomkin was no cowboy, but his music for the 1952 film &#039;High Noon&#039; spawned a whole new era of Western-inspired popular songs. 
 The original  High Noon  is among our albums here. There had been plenty of songs in the B-Westerns of the 1930s and &amp;lsquo;40s, but it wasn&amp;rsquo;t until the marriage of song with story in &#039;High Noon&#039; that Western film and TV theme songs became a strong feature of our popular culture. Western films of grander scope and higher purpose (so-called &#039;adult&#039; Westerns) loomed large in the 1950s and &amp;lsquo;60s, and great theme songs became nearly as important as big-name stars. Similarly, the small-screen&amp;rsquo;s move westward in the late 1950s brought Frankie Laine singing  Rawhide  into living rooms each week. 
 Such TV Western stars as Sheb Wooley and Robert Fuller made albums of Western material, as did the &#039;Tennessee Plowboy&#039; Eddy Arnold, no less unlikely a cowpoke than Frankie Laine. This West may have been fantasy enlarged by Hollywood sound stages and orchestras, but it became a part of our world&amp;rsquo;s soundtrack, the sound of a place big enough for Canadian yodelers, country singing stars and singing screen stars to all stake their claim on a genre that&amp;rsquo;s everything you imagine it to be. And it&amp;rsquo;s all here. Marc Humphrey &amp;nbsp; 
   SONS OF THE PIONEERS  THE STANDARD RADIO TRANSCRIPTIONS, VOL. 2. (4 CDs)  
    Back in the depth of the Depression, the Sons of the Pioneers began recording radio shows on transcription for Standard Radio in Los Angeles. Unheard for more than 60 years, these transcriptions show western music&#039;s preeminent harmony group in a fresh and different light. Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer and Hugh Farr began recording for Standard less than one year after they had organized their group, and the repertoire was comprised for the greater part of songs that they didn&#039;t record commercially. 
 The looseness and spontaneity are infectious, the harmonies are faultless, and the instrumentation features the jazzy fiddle and guitar of Hugh and Karl Farr. This second 4-CD volume of Standard transcriptions comprises 121 songs, including some that went on to become Sons of the Pioneers&#039; classics, such as  One More Ride  and  Cool Water . The core of the shows, though, was vintage pop and western songs, hymns, folk songs, and the Farrs&#039; improvisations. 
 These include Stephen Foster favorites like  Nelly Bly, Ring Ring De Banjo, Hard Times, Swanee River,  and  Old Kentucky Home ; traditional western ballads such as  When The Work&#039;s All Done This Fall, Jesse James, Old Paint, Darling Clementine , and  Billy The Kid ; hymns, including  Leaning On The Everlasting Arm, Climbing Jacob&#039;s Ladder , and  Old Time Religion ; and innovative arrangements of traditional folk songs like  Gambler&#039;s Blues, Rosewood Casket, Jack O&#039;Diamonds, Birmingham Jail , and  Rye Whiskey.  
 The box includes a 32-page booklet by Laurence J. Zwisohn that continues the story of the Sons of the Pioneers during their formative era, and includes rare photos, as well as a discography. &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; 
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   REX ALLEN  VOICE OF THE WEST  
    Astride Koko, &#039;Miracle Horse of the Movies&#039;, Arizona&#039;s Rex Allen blazed a trail through B-Westerns while recording for Mercury and Decca in the 1940s and &amp;lsquo;50s. 
 In 1972, Allen went to Nashville to record nine Western songs (and/or recitations) and a half dozen more contemporary country offerings (including Merle Haggard&#039;s  Today I Started Loving You Again ) for Jack Clement&amp;rsquo;s JMI label. 
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 Highlights of these recordings include a woolly Western toast , Braggin&#039; Drunk From Wilcox , and a wonderful  Fiddle Medley  from Johnny Gimble, one of the ace session players accompanying Allen&#039;s baritone. &amp;nbsp; 
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   EDDY ARNOLD  THEREBY HANGS A TALE / CATTLE CALL  
    In 1959, RCA Nashville producer-guitarist Chet Atkins brought Jimmie Driftwood&#039;s  Tennessee Stud  to Eddy Arnold and gave &#039;The Tennessee Plowboy&#039; his first major hit in three years. 
 That success, scored in the wake of the Kingston Trio&#039;s  Tom Dooley , prompted the Atkins-Arnold team to prepare an album of folk-based saga songs, &#039;Thereby Hangs A Tale.&#039; In 1963, a second &#039;folk&#039; album, this with an exclusively Western theme, reprised Arnold&#039;s 1955 hit,  Cattle Call . 
 This 25-song collection brings together all the 1959-1963 &#039;folk &amp;amp; Western&#039; recordings of country&#039;s Crosby, souvenirs of a time when saga songs became hit records. &amp;nbsp; 
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   BOBBY BARNETT  AMERICAN HEROES &amp;amp; WESTERN LEGENDS  
    Two of the most-requested LPs in our old mail order catalogues were &amp;lsquo;Heroes, History &amp;amp; Heritage of Oklahoma&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;Heroes, History &amp;amp; Heritage, Vol. 2.&amp;rsquo; Now we&amp;rsquo;ve reissued them complete on one CD. In these LPs, Bobby addresses Oklahoma legends and western legends. 
 Most of the songs are self-composed and take an entirely new slant on some of the most familiar and feared figures in American folklore and some of the events that shaped western history. 
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 The 27 titles include  The Hanging Of Judge Parker, Bill Doolin, Gunfight At The OK Corral, The Story Of The Dalton Gang, The Run Of &amp;lsquo;89, The Ballad Of Geronimo, The Lost Dutchman Mine, Salute To Will Rogers  and  The Ballad Of Pretty Boy Floyd.   &amp;nbsp;  
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   BONANZA  (4 CDs)  
    BCD15684 DI It&#039;s the television show that won&#039;t go away. The last epic TV western series is still in re-runs 30 years later and still has a huge following. 
 All &#039;Bonanza&#039; fans will need this It contains the two albums by the complete cast, Lorne Greene&#039;s four albums (including &#039;Welcome To The Ponderosa&#039;), an album by Dan Blocker with John Mitchem, an album by Pernell Roberts, and - finally - a gift to you from Hop Sing! &amp;nbsp; 
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    JOHNNY CASH   COME ALONG AND RIDE THIS TRAIN (4 CDs)  
    Johnny Cash was one of the first to explore the idea of the concept album in country music. 
 This set brings together all of his uniquely American albums, &#039;Ride This Train&#039;, &#039;Blood Sweat &amp;amp; Tears&#039;, &#039;Mean As Hell&#039;, &#039;Ballads Of The True West&#039;, &#039;Bitter Tears&#039;, &#039;America: A 200 Year Salute&#039;, &#039;From Sea To Shining Sea&#039;, and &#039;The Rambler.&#039; Bob Allen writes, 
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  &quot;This collection eloquently embodies one man&#039;s love, celebration, curiosity, anguish, and personal vision of his native land.&quot;   &amp;nbsp;  
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                            <updated>2017-03-12T12:00:00+01:00</updated>
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        <entry>
            <title type="text">The Velvet Lounge - Exotica Heroes and Easy Listening Troubadours</title>
            <id>https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/the-velvet-lounge-exotica-heroes-and-easy-listening-troubadours</id>
            <link href="https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family-features/the-velvet-lounge-exotica-heroes-and-easy-listening-troubadours"/>
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                                            Exotica Heroes and Easy Listening Troubadours The &#039;Velvet Lounge&#039; is a remarkable re-release series for all things elegant, entertaining, and sometimes even exotic. This addition presents itself as a comfortable and welcoming home for terrific treasures from the fabulous Fifti...
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                  The Velvet Lounge  
 Exotica Heroes and &amp;nbsp;Easy Listening Troubadours 
    The title says it all: The &#039;Velvet Lounge&#039; is a remarkable re-release series for all things elegant, entertaining, and sometimes even exotic. This addition presents itself as a comfortable and welcoming home for terrific treasures from the fabulous Fifties and the strange Sixties. A mark of quality for all kinds of audio-finds from long ago and far away. 
 From a time and place between Rock- and Beat- ecstasy and psychedelic populism. These signs of the times come to us straight from the archives of the record-companies. Larger as well as a small labels, re-mastered in excellent quality. Of course, most often as a direct digitalization of a master-tape. Sometimes as a recording from an acetate, always with the best possible sound. If what you hear is what you get, the artists&amp;rsquo; names alone make the series proud. 
 The Motto Was&amp;nbsp; &quot;Anything Goes&quot;  
 The listener is more than tempted to relax into these recordings, to just enjoy and savor them. While maybe putting up his and/or her feet, and slowly stirring a long-drink. When Earthy Kitt, for example,  &quot;the most exciting woman in the world&quot;  according to Orson Welles, does her purring &#039;thang&#039; on the album &#039;St. Louis Blues&#039;, alongside legendary West-Coast-trumpeter Milton &#039;Shorty&#039; Rogers with an extravagantly exciting (and highly entertaining) Blues-program. 
 Or when Shorty&amp;rsquo;s trumpeting colleague Al &#039;Jumbo&#039; Hirt dedicates himself to a sort of &#039;symbolization in sound&#039; of sex-bomb Ann Margaret, some twenty years his junior, on songs like  My Baby Just Cares For Me  or  Baby, It&amp;rsquo;s Cold Outside  on the album &#039;Personalities&#039;. Despite numerical evidence to the contrary, Jazz was not a four-letter-word back then, and even Entertainment did not smell funny, yet. The motto was  &quot;anything goes&quot;  rather than  &quot;is that allowed?&quot; . 
 Sam Butera,&amp;nbsp;Louis Prima and Keely Smith 
    This artistic free-for-all and its high-quality craftsmanship included songs that had every right to be called standards. As well as arrangements, which not only showcased the abilities of some of the best studio-musicians of their time. But also of their authors, artist-arrangers like Marty Paich or Juan Esquivel, for instance. 
 Some of the couples involved had legal ties and binds as well. Like Louis Prima and his wife Keely Smith from New Orleans, who make sense of the album-title &#039;Jump, Jive An&amp;rsquo; Wail!&#039; along with their trusted saxophonist Sam Butera. (It goes without saying, that this album includes the maniacal medley of  Just A Gigolo/ I Ain&amp;rsquo;t Got Nobody  that turned the &#039;Wild One&#039; into a chart-storming household name.) Apart from the ears, the &#039;Velvet Lounge&#039; also delights your stomach muscles, at least those you need for extensive laughter. 
 On &#039;What were they thinking?&#039;, an overdue compilation with all kinds of &#039;odd couples&#039;, pleasure becomes a principle and the absurd gets to be ordinary. &amp;nbsp; Country-Stars meet Exotica-heroes or Easy-Listening-troubadours, Pop-crooners like Perry Como are coupled with the Sons Of The Pioneers, and even Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill&amp;lsquo;s wife (and Bertolt Brecht&amp;lsquo;s favorite mime), gets to share some hilarious studio-time with the sensational Louis Armstrong. As the series and its releases are Bear-Family-members, it is a given that the graphic design is also perfectly fitting and fittingly perfect. Featuring rare original photographs, exact discographies, and extensive liner notes. Everything about this series has a tendency for exuberance, and more than a touch of audiophile luxury. 
 From the collecting specialist to the cultural crusader &amp;ndash; everyone feels most welcome and at home in this &#039;Velvet Lounge&#039;. 
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                            <updated>2017-03-10T00:00:00+01:00</updated>
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