Press Archiv - Ritchie Valens Rocks - Blues & Rhythm
W nter Dance Party 1959'. Writing this in February 2019, sixty years later, seems rather poignant. Much is made in the lavish and in-depth booklet of the wisdom of touring the mid-west in the middle of a fierce winter in busses with failing heating, so that Buddy Holly chartered a small plane to take some of the participants of the 'Winter Dance Party' package to the next gig after their show on 2nd February 1959: Ritch e Valens flipped a coin with guitarist Tommy Alisup for a place, and The Big Bopper cajoled Waylon Jennings out of his place. The CD contains music from around the time from all those on the tour, including Dion & The Belmonts, fellow New Yorker Frankie Sardo (his 'Class Room' is a Coasters-inflected number h s other, the far less interesting 'Fake Out', is misplaced on the track listing), and rocker Debbie Stevens who was one of the opening acts at the show in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There are also tribute songs by Eddie Cochran, Hershel Almond, with the track that gives the CD its main title (released on Ace), Ray Camp and Benny Barnes. The set even includes radio promos for the tour, an interview with Buddy Holly by Alan Freed (talking largely about flying and more newscasts on the tragedy. Musically of course th s s rock and roll all the way, and very much a snapshot of an era and both of these sets come highly recommended, of course.

Press Archives - The Great Tragedy - Winter Dance Party 1959 - - Blues & Rhythm
W nter Dance Party 1959'. Writing this in February 2019, sixty years later, seems rather poignant. Much is made in the lavish and in-depth booklet of the wisdom of touring the mid-west in the middle of a fierce winter in busses with failing heating, so that Buddy Holly chartered a small plane to take some of the participants of the 'Winter Dance Party' package to the next gig after their show on 2nd February 1959: Ritch e Valens flipped a coin with guitarist Tommy Alisup for a place, and The Big Bopper cajoled Waylon Jennings out of his place. The CD contains music from around the time from all those on the tour, including Dion & The Belmonts, fellow New Yorker Frankie Sardo (his 'Class Room' is a Coasters-inflected number h s other, the far less interesting 'Fake Out', is misplaced on the track listing), and rocker Debbie Stevens who was one of the opening acts at the show in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There are also tribute songs by Eddie Cochran, Hershel Almond, with the track that gives the CD its main title (released on Ace), Ray Camp and Benny Barnes. The set even includes radio promos for the tour, an interview with Buddy Holly by Alan Freed (talking largely about flying and more newscasts on the tragedy. Musically of course th s s rock and roll all the way, and very much a snapshot of an era and both of these sets come highly recommended, of course.

Presse Archive - The Petards - Pet Arts (2-LP) - Shindig, UK # 90
BEAR FAMILY PRESSE Magazin: SHINDIG, UK Ausgabe # 90
BAF 18049 PETARDS "Pet Arts"
THE PETARDS Pet Arts

The fourth and final alburn from the Denman rock stars, Pet Arts keeps with the then-current trends in music and ditches much of the psychedelic vibe of 1969's excellent ilitshock for something more "early 70s°. In this case, it's very much the post-psych, heavy-pop sound favoured by numerous other pop travellers, Ike The Tremeloes circa Master, with regular forays into the Sabbath-inspired Intones, The Petards just went with the flow. Never innovators, they did however make a cool sound, and this double-album has plenty of variety and sold performances that take in everything from the commercial sounding CCR-inspired single 'Don't You Feel Like Me' to the funky. jazzy psych-rock of 'Cowboy' replete with West Coast guitar, the Hendrix-ish Windy Nevermore' and the pastoral Traffic-esque 'Long Way Back Nome'. Seven-minute drum solo-laden Zep tribute 'Spectrum' perhaps shows how they were clutching at straws in search of an identity. Mn 14•W
BEAR FAMILY PRESSE Magazin: SHINDIG, UK Ausgabe # 90
BAF 18049 PETARDS "Pet Arts"
THE PETARDS Pet Arts

The fourth and final alburn from the Denman rock stars, Pet Arts keeps with the then-current trends in music and ditches much of the psychedelic vibe of 1969's excellent ilitshock for something more "early 70s°. In this case, it's very much the post-psych, heavy-pop sound favoured by numerous other pop travellers, Ike The Tremeloes circa Master, with regular forays into the Sabbath-inspired Intones, The Petards just went with the flow. Never innovators, they did however make a cool sound, and this double-album has plenty of variety and sold performances that take in everything from the commercial sounding CCR-inspired single 'Don't You Feel Like Me' to the funky. jazzy psych-rock of 'Cowboy' replete with West Coast guitar, the Hendrix-ish Windy Nevermore' and the pastoral Traffic-esque 'Long Way Back Nome'. Seven-minute drum solo-laden Zep tribute 'Spectrum' perhaps shows how they were clutching at straws in search of an identity.

Press Archives - Ritchie Valens Rocks - Jukebox, France
RITCHIE VALENS Rocks Bear Family 17525 Killed at the age of 17 in the air crash that killed Buddy Holly and Big Bopper on February 3, 1959, Ritchie Valens had only eight months to build his reputation in rock'n' roll. This he has done brilliantly, as this anthology highlights (36 tracks, booklet 40 p. by Bill Dahl). Born Richard Valenzuela on May 13, 1941 in Los Angeles, he attended the Junior High School in Pa-coima and then the High School in San Fernando (1956), he played the guitar (Harmony Stratotone verte) and joined the Silhouet-tes, the orchestra of vibraphonist Gil Rocha who let him sing songs including "La Bam-ba" in Spanish (although neither he nor his family spoke that language) and loans from Little Richard (his idol), Chuck Berry, Everly Brothers... Doug Macchia recorded the Silhouettes and gave a copy to Robert Kuhn alias Bob Keene then Bob Keane from Del-Fi who only retained Ritchie Valens for whom he organized two-track models with an Ampex 6012 and two Telefunken U-87 microphones.

Press Archive - Vince Taylor Le Rock C'est Ça (LP, 10inch, Ltd.) - Boppin Around NL
Bear Family's vinyl series releases rare old records again on 10-inch and this time it is Le Rock C'est Ca by Vince Taylor, originally released in 1961 on the French label Barclay Records, neatly recreated with respect for the original artwork, with two bonus tracks to increase the playing time from 10 to 12 songs, on quality vinyl and in a limited edition of 500 copies on this time lemon yellow vinyl!
Vince Taylor was a special case: an Englishman who emigrated with his parent

Press Archive - The Tielman Brothers Tielman On Stage - Boppin Around, Holland , Winter 18-19
Somehow it is awful that you have to cross the border for the best reissues of Dutch music and then you automatically end up with Bear Family which released excellent Tielman Brothers CDs twenty years ago. The German re-issue giant is now releasing their Tielman On Stage (contrary to what you might think from the title no live record) 25 cm LP on Imperial, NL (ILPT 103) from 1961 again in a limited edition of 500 copies on transparent white vinyl, a record of which you shouldn't hope to find them today as a mint copy on the flea market, even though they didn't sell for a meter at the time, that's how I got told. The band was in Germany and could not promote it in the Netherlands.

Press Archive - Various - Season's Greetings Have Yourself A Swingin' Little Christmas (CD) - Boppin' Around
Nach den in den Jahren 2016 und 2017 erschienenen Country und Crooner/Rock 'n' Roll Compilations Christmas On The Countryside (BCD 17508) und Big City Christmas (BCD 17509) enthält diese neue CD "27 Jazz, Swing, Vintage-Rhythmus 'n' Blues, Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Boogie, Jive und Easy Listening Rarities" aus den Jahren 1935-1959. Ein nostalgisches Weihnachtsfest ist garantiert, denn der Hauptteil ist stimmlicher Harmonie-Swing (außer den Instrumentalen wie Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow by Les Brown natürlich) aus Klassenkammern wie The Ames Brothers, The Mills Brothers, Perry Como,

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - relix.com
The renowned German archival imprint Bear Family Records has been keeping the name William Orville Frizzell— lovingly nicknamed Lefty Frizzell after winning a fight in his youth—in the country-music conversation since 1984 when they reintroduced the honky-tonk icon to fans with the 14-LP box set His Life, His Music. Now over a quarter-century after the label’s 12-CD box set Life’s Like Poetry, the 1992 set has been generously

Press Archive - Tony Crombie & The Rockets Rockin' With The Rockets - Twoj Blues, Poland
German label Bear Family specializes in restoring the memory of blues and roc-k'n'roll of the 50's and 60's. An additional flavour to these releases is added by the fact that they are also released in a vinyl version, often only in vinyl. That's how we have this album, released in the series "Vinyl Club Exclusives". One would like to write a "black" album, but that's not entirely true, because its colour is ...pink. On the other hand, the music is a mixture of rock'n'roll and hillbilly. Its author is British drummer Tony Crombie and his The Roc-kers. The band was formed in Portsmouth in 1956, but the leader came from London and already had several years of experience playing in jazz bands, including Ronnie Scott. However, after watching several American films showing new sounds born in the USA, called rock'n'roll, he decided to go in this direction.

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - theseconddisc.com
The music of William Orville “Lefty” Frizzell (1928-1975), one of the most influential honky-tonk singers of all time, has long been a cornerstone of the Bear Family catalogue. The German reissue specialists first compiled the Frizzell oeuvre in 1984 as a 14-LP box set, updating that in 1992 on 12 CDs. Now, more than 25 years later, the Bears have returned to the country-and-western troubadour’s career for the most definitive chronicle ever. An Article from Life: The Complete Recordings has every one of Frizzell’s original recordings presented on 20 CDs in a package also including a comprehensive hardcover book.

Inspired by his hero, “the singing brakeman” Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty (so named for his left hook in a schoolyard fight, not a Golden Gloves match as legend has sometimes had it) had sensed by age twelve that his destiny was in song. In his earliest performing gigs, he began to broaden his repertoire to tunes by Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. Born in Texas and raised in Arkansas, the local talent made waves on radio in New Mexico. While his theme song was Ernest Tubb’s “I Ain’t Going Honky-Tonking Any More,” he not only kept honky-tonking, but made the country-and-western style his own. His burgeoning career was almost derailed in 1947 when he was found guilty of statutory rape. He served six-months in the Roswell, NM county jail, and while there wrote the words that would later be fashioned into one of his most memorable songs. “I Love You, I’ll Prove It a Thousand Ways” was addressed to his wife Alice, who was left behind with their daughter Lois while he served his time.

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - Rolling Stone
William Orville Frizzell was a classic country contradiction: a teenage jailbird and chronic alcoholic who wrote thoroughly believable songs of heartbreak and redemption; a massive star in the early and mid-Fifties, in the wake of Hank Williams’ passing, who endured his own version of the latter’s downward spiral, bereft of hits in the Sixties and dead of a stroke in 1975, only 47. But even in free fall, Frizzell was a pivotal influence on singers across the country-rock divide, from George Jones and Willie Nelson to John Fogerty and Levon Helm, who covered Frizzell’s bleak 1959 masterpiece “Long Black Veil” to immortal effect 10 years later on the Band’s Music From Big Pink, with Rick Danko singing lead. At 20 CDs, An Article From Life is everything from Frizzell’s tumultuous life on record including 78’s, 45’s, LP cuts, outtakes, live material and an audio documentary by his younger brother David, also a country singer. “If you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time,” Lefty sang on his 1950 breakout hit. Both are well spent here.

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - mykindofcountry.
It wasn’t a great year for reissues but there were some bright spots. As always our British and European friends lead the way. Also, please note that these can take a while for foreign titles to become available from US suppliers, so it may be into 2019 before these are generally available.

In those cities that still have adequate recorded music stores (sadly, a rare commodity these days), it can be a real thrill finding a label you’ve not encountered before reissuing something you’ve spent decades seeking. It can be worthwhile to seek out the foreign affiliates of American labels for recordings that the American affiliate hasn’t reissued. For example, there are Capitol recordings not reissued in the US that are available on the UK or European EMI labels. For the rest of us, scanning the internet remains the best alternative.

Unfortunately as the sales of physical CDs continue to plummet, so does the willingness of labels, domestic and foreign, to invest in reissuing material by second and third tier artists. Still missing in action are the catalogues of such significant artists as Liz Anderson, Wilma Burgess, Johnny Darrell, Jack Greene, The Hager Twins, Freddie Hart, Warner Mack, Kenny Price and David Rogers. While there has been a slight uptick in vinyl sales and reissues, most of that has been of only the very top selling artists (and at $22 to $33 per title).
Anyway …

Press Archive - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War - LA Times
Various Artists, “Battleground Korea (Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War)” (Bear Family)
The obsessive Bear Family label in Germany earned a Grammy nomination earlier this month for best historical album for this intriguing and enlightening compilation, which brings together songs and excerpts of newscasts documenting the U.S.’ involvement in Korea in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The music here is less a collection of hits than songs that channeled the singers’ feelings about the conflict, many of them from African American blues musicians and white country singers from the South who disproportionately made up the ranks of the armed forces. Among the four-CD set’s 121 tracks, which retails for about $117, are recordings by Fats Domino, the Louvin Brothers, B.B. King, Gene Autry, Jean Shepard and many others who never achieved fame or fortune. (R.L.)

Press Archive - Various At The Louisiana Hayride Tonight (20-CD) - LA Times
Various Artists, “At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight” (Bear Family)
Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry has always been the best-known venue for live and broadcast performances by country, bluegrass, folk, gospel and other roots musicians, but the Louisiana Hayride was a rowdier, more adventurous younger sibling. Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, George Jones, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Webb Pierce and dozens of others complement their studio recordings with frequently revelatory live performances on this 20-CD, 559-track and $205 box. (R.L.)

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - LA Times
Lefty Frizzell, “An Article From Life — The Complete Recordings” (Bear Family)
This massive 20-CD, $230 set weighs in at close to 20 pounds and, as the title indicates, pulls together all the recordings by one of the three or four most influential country singers ever. Frizzell’s fluid vocals opened up new vistas for country music that can be heard in subsequent artists from George Jones and Merle Haggard to Dolly Parton and Keith Whitley on through to Miranda Lambert. (R.L.)

Press - The Knoxville Sessions 1929 - 1930, Knox Country Stomp - arsc Journal
The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-30: Knox County Stomp. Bear Family Records BCD16097 (4 CDs, with 156 page hardcover book).

Veteran old-time music scholars, writers, and producers Tony Russell and Ted Olson have teamed up again with the Bear Family label to present The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-30: Knox County Stomp, the complete recordings made at the St. James Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Brunswick/Vocalion Records. The sessions were an attempt by Vocalion, one of several record companies trying to capitalize on the new and developing market for country music, to record music on location in strategically chosen Southern cities, rather than to recruit artists to their studios in New York City, a much more challenging prospect.

Press Archive - Tex Harper Dig Me Little Mama (LP, 10inch) - Vintage Rock
Tex Harper Dig Me Little Mama BEAR FAMILY *****
Known variously as Tex Harper, Rudy Preston and Harry Head, singer Freddie Jean Harper got in on the ground floor of rockabilly as featured vocalist with Tommy Scott And His Ramblers. Bear Family's 12-song dip into Harper's limited but fascinating catalogue, a 10-incher with a gatefold cover and Martin Hawkins' notes, features both sides of his two killer 4 Star singles

Presse Archiv - Various - That'll Flat Git It! Vol.31 - Vive Le Rock
More amazing finds from the rockin' archive. 8/10 The series that keeps on giving gives again with volume 31, this time concen-trating on the rocking releases from the Colonial label from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It's a mixture of obscurities, novelty tracks and hits that were eclipsed over time, most notable in that category Johnny Dee's 'Sittin' In The Balcony' which hit #38 in the Billboard charts before being usurped by a new-comer Eddie Cochran covering it for Liberty records and leapfrogged to #18, such was the way in the 1950s.

Presse Archiv - Various - That'll Flat Git It! Vol.30 - rock times
Teil Dreißig und kein Ende in Sicht! Erneut, wie bereits bei der ersten Ausgabe dieser Serie, hat Bear Family Records noch einmal tief in die Schatzkiste von RCA Victor Records gegriffen:
"Rockabilly & Rock ’n' Roll From The Vaults Of RCA Victor Records", so lautet der Untertitel dieses Mal. Und wieder geht es um Rockabilly und Rock’n’Roll, sodass viel Power zu erwarten ist. Das, ja, es war nicht anders zu erwarten, dicke Booklet (52 Seiten) verwöhnt auch hier mit reichlichen Informationen, jeder Künstler wird mit seinen Songs vorgestellt. Und so erfahre ich, dass bei dem energisch rockenden Opener "Get On The Right Track" von Joe Clay der damals viel beschäftigte Mickey Baker das kraftvolle Gitarren-Solo spielt. Neben diesem nicht ganz so bekannt gewordenen Künstler sind es eigentlich nur Anita Carter und Roy Orbison, deren Namen geläufig sind. Denn wer hat schon jemals von Otto Bash, Sammy Salvo, Tam Duffill, Autrey Inman oder Georgia Gibbs gehört?

Presse Archiv - Various - Season's Greetings The Shadow Knows (CD) - UK Rock ' n Roll
VARIOUS ARTISTS `The Shadow Knows' (Bear Family)
Bear Family can be relied upon to not just come up with the goods but packaged in the quality they deserve too. This collection of horror tunes comes complete with a 23-page booklet to accompany the 33 tracks on offer. The info is handy too because besides the rock n roll and rockabilly most readers will be familiar with, there are also jazz, beat and instrumentals to complete the ambience, given the demographic of the majority, 50's & 60's Screaming Lord Sutch's 1982 `Murder In The Graveyard' a welcome surprise, all killers no coffin fillers.

Presse Archiv - Various - Season's Greetings The Shadow Knows (CD) - Musenblätter
Erst ein Donnerschlag, dann öffnet sich knarzend ein Sargdeckel - oder ist es die Tür zu einer Gruft? - und mit Grabesstimme ruft Tommy Bruce „Monster Gonzales“ zur Ordnung, eine augenzwinkernde Parodie (1966) auf den fürchterlichen, aber erfolgreichen Pat Boone Pop-Song „Speedy Gonzales“ (1962). Damit beginnt eine genußvolle Monster- und Horrorparade, eine vergnügliche Pop-Gruselparade zusammengestellt aus den schier unerschöpflichen Archiven von Bear Family. Pünktlich zum Beginn der dunklen Jahreszeit liegt wenige Wochen vor Halloween die passende Musik dazu im CD-Spieler.
30 Musiktitel von 1934 bis 1982 und vier kurze Radio-Filmtrailer der 50er Jahre („I Was A Teenage Werewolf“, „Horror Of Dracula“, „Black Sunday“ und Ed Woods „Plan 9 From Outer Space“) im fast schon grotesken O-Ton verursachen wohligen Schauer und halten neben fetziger Rock-Musik manchen ängstlichen Lacher bereit.

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - AllMusicargued that when they released this 14-LP Frizzell retrospective His Life, His Music in 1984, the label earned international recognition, and their 1992 sequel, Life's Like Poetry, inaugurated their golden era of releasing massive, comprehensive CD box sets, weighing in at a hefty 12 CDs. In the quarter-century since its release, Bear Family has compiled larger sets, many working from the template of Life's Like Poetry, so that the original 1992 set began to seem a little quaint. Bear Family remedied that situation with the 2018 release of An Article from Life, which expands the original 12-disc box to a whopping 20 CDs. This significant expansion is slightly misleading, however. Those extra eight CDs are devoted to the audiobook of I Love You a Thousand Ways: The Lefty Frizzell Story, a biography written and narrated by his brother David Frizzell.

Press Archive - Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings - New York Times
While streaming opened doors for many of 2018's most exciting new artists, retrospective boxed sets and photo books held the keys to gems from the past, from a revelatory 50th anniversary reissue of "The Beatles" (known best as the White Album) to "More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14," an expanded version of Bob Dylan's 1975 masterpiece, "Blood on the Tracks." Here, the pop music critics of The New York Times choose some of the most notable collections of 2018.

The Recording Acadamy has announced the 2019 GRAMMY nominees. The winners will be presented at a ceremony for the 61st Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019.

Once again, Bear Family releases have been nominated for the prestigious award – this year even two of our historic projects!

Press Archive - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War -STARS AND STRIPES
Overshadowed by World War II and Vietnam, the 1950-53 Korean War is often called the “Forgotten War.” The same could be said for much of the music it inspired.

Music historian Hugo Keesing and co-producer Bill Geerhart seek to change that with “Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War.” More than three years in the making, the anthology’s release in May was timely as nuclear talks with North Korea have renewed interest in the Cold War conflict.

The effort paid off Friday with a Grammy nomination for best historical record. The awards will be announced in February.

Press Archives - Hank Cochran Sally Was A Good Old Girl (CD) - Country Music People
Hank Cochran first recorded as part of a duo in Hollywood with Eddie Cochran, but he moved to Nashville in 1959 and quickly established himself as a 'go to' songwriter, often working with his bar buddy, Harlan Howard. I hesitate to say that this collection features his demo recordings of big hits like A Little Bitty Tear and Funny Way Of Laughin' as they were recorded after Burl Ives had taken them into the charts. It seems likely that Liberty were going to issue an album of his songwriting successes and then changed their mind. Around the same time, Liberty recorded And Then I Wrote with Willie Nelson so they could have been considering a series. This collection includes three songs that Hank had in the US country Top 30 in his own right

Press Archive - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War -Big City Rhythm & Blues
BATTLEGROUND KOREA: SONGS AND SOUNDS OF AMERICA'S FORGOTTEN WAR 4CDs with hardcover book Bear Family BCD 17518
As the dedication for this fascinating collection puts it: "This anthology is for all the men and women whose service and sacri-fice in the Korean War were barely acknowledged and quickly forgotten. We hope that by preserving this music and history we have honored, in some small measure, those who served! With talk of an actual peace settlement, that would replace the "armistice" enacted in 1953, currently in the air diplomatically this legacy project also couldn't be more timely. Presented on four CD's accompanying a 160 page hardcover book illustrated with a variety of black & white and color archival photos and images (including a great ten page spread on Marilyn Monroe's 1954 visit to the troops), the resultant effect is a power-ful indictment of war in general to these draft-dodging ears. Over 100 country, blues, pop and gospel titles cover all the aspects of the war featur-ing charting artists like B.B. King, Fats Domino,
Jean Shepherd, Cecil Gant and the Louvin Brothers along with dozens of other musicians. Interspersed throughout the music is rarely heard documentary material including patriotic Public Service Announcements,

Press Archive - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War - SZ
Kriegsnachrichten-Blues 4$ Eine neue CD-Box mit amerikanischen Propaganda-Songs aus dem Koreakrieg erinnert an weißen Antikommunismus, schwarze Melancholie und die Geburt des Protest
VON KLAUS WALTER
Am Sonntag, dem 25. Juni 1950 korea-nischer Zeit haben bewaffnete Trup-pen aus Nordkorea das Territorium der Republik Korea angegriffen," erklärt ein Sprecher der Vereinten Nationen, und so erfahren die meisten Amerikaner, was da los ist am anderen Ende der Welt. So beginnt der Koreakrieg und so be-ginnt „Battleground Korea", eine 4-CD-Box mit über 100 Songs und Tondokumen-ten. Das erste Lied zum Krieg lässt nicht lange auf sich warten. „Wir kämpfen bis wir sterben, Korea wir kommen", verkün-det im August 1950 ein gewisser Harry Choates aus dem texanischen Ort Corpus Cristi. Der Sänger wird nur 28 Jahre alt, er stirbt 1951, nicht im Krieg in Korea, son-dern im Gefängnis in Texas. Im Suff hatte der Alkoholiker seinen Kopf so lange gegen die Zellenwand geschlagen, bis er tot war.

Press Archive - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War - Living Blues
VARIOUS ARTISTS Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America's Forgotten War Bear Family Records - BCD1 751 8 The Korean War (1950-53) is often ad-dressed as the "forgotten war" (or "conflict"). largely because of its relatively indecisive end. Following closely after the war to end all wars." it concluded with an armistice that 65 years later remains fraught. demonstrated most recently through "denuclearization" efforts and insult battles that drew upon Elton John hits. Battleground Korea. which collects 121 tracks about the war, reveals that it was hardly "forgotten" during its time, and addresses a wide range of topics on the battlefield and the home front. The set is likewise catholic in drawing from multiple genres—about a quarter of the tracks here are blues/R&B/African American gospel. the majority are from a broad array of country styles, and these are complemented by mainstream pop songs.

Press Archiv - Modern Sound Quintet Otinku (LP, 180g Vinyl) - Mojo
Inspired by The Modern Jazz Quartet, they swapped vibes for steelpans.
The title track, written by I Ghanaian conga player Kofi Ayivor and Barbadian pianist John Roachford, introduces the Modern Sound Quintet's philosophy in just under four minutes of hypnotic percussive rhythm. Blending African tribal beats with calypso, reggae, high life and modern jazz, this is music as possibility and cultural unity.

Recorded in Stockholm in 1971 for EMI Finland, it's historically important, as one of the first records to introduce steelpan to Europe via the band's Trinidadian pannist Rudy Smith. He's behind the captivating originals Sugar Daddy, Ursia and Flamenco Groove. The remaining tracks include covers of Herbie Mann's Memphis Underground, here a furious furore of trap drums and pans, and Miles Davis's Bag's Groove, an experiment in jazz subversion and jarring pan dissonance. Lois Wilson

Press Archive - Various - The Bill Haley Connection (CD) - Mojo
29 Roots And Covers Of Bill Haley & His Comets BEAR FAMILY. CD Entertaining selection of tunes by people Bill covered and those who covered Bill. People sometimes forget, but in 1956 Bill Haley's songs were the sound of revolution. After showings of the film Rock Around The Clock, the Manchester Guardian sniffed that "a youth danced on the roof of a parked car, another performed a 'snake dance' in a dazed, hypnotised fashion." Who wouldn't? Bill had excellent taste in covers: vocal group sides (Burn That Candle by The Cues), R&B belters (Jimmy Preston's Rock The Joint) or Count Basie's 1938 big band workout Stop Beatin' Around The Mulberry Bush.

Press Archive - John Blair - Jon & The Nightriders Rumble At Waikiki – The John Blair Anthology (2-CD) - allaboutjazz.com
John Blair: Rumble at Waikiki. The John Blair Anthology There's something fundamentally life-affirming about surf music. Maybe it has something to do with the images the music conjures: swaying palms, hot sunshine, warm sand and blue waves. It's not a coincidence that the recordings sometimes include sounds of weather: piping wind and splashing waves.

Press Archiv - Champion Jack Dupree - Rocks - Ugly Things
CHAMPION JACK DUPREE–
Rocks (Bear Family) CD Bear Family has issued dozens of CDs in its Rocks series, dozens of a solid set of up tempo tracks from a variety of artists. Of course, with a Chuck Berry or a BM Haley or a Little Richard, you know what you are going to get rock-wise, so some of the most interesting entries in the Rocks series have been the surprising ones spotlighting blues or country artists one might not think of as "rocking" but who recorded enough rockers (whatever ugenre label might when they were in the recordings „-minute CD issued) have New compiled. pianist Orleans-born blues/R&B Champion Jack

Press Archive - Ray Anthony & His Orchestra- Rock Around The Rock Pile - AllMusic
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
As its title suggests, Rock Around the Rock Pile focuses on the rock & roll adjacent recordings swing trumpeter Ray Anthony made in the late '50s. Thanks to his success with the theme for Dragnet in 1953, Anthony was primed to leap into Hollywood's exploitation of rock & roll, which he did eagerly, contributing a good portion of the soundtrack to the 1956 comedy The Girl Can't Help It and recording an EP called Rock n Roll with Ray Anthony in 1957, where he covered Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson.

Press Archive - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War - allmusic
Battleground Korea, the weighty four-CD box from Bear Family, bears the subtitle "Songs and Sounds of America's Forgotten War," an assessment equal parts true and false. Compared to the wars that surrounded it -- it happened five years after World War II and ended two years prior to the escalation of military activities in Vietnam -- the Korean War doesn't occupy much space in the American popular consciousness, but it did generate two enduring works of art: The Manchurian Candidate and the 1970 feature film M*A*S*H, along with its accompanying television series. Both The Manchurian Candidate and M*A*S*H were written after the conclusion of the Korean War, but the recordings on Battleground Korea -- mainly music, but there is also a wealth of newsreel footage -- differ because they were produced during the war. These aren't reflections, they're documents of how the country felt as the battle raged.

Press Archive - Champion Jack Dupree - Rocks - AllMusic
The entries in Bear Family's ongoing Rocks series spotlight the hardest-rocking moments in an artist's catalog, sometimes offering a counter-narrative to an established narrative. In the case of Champion Jack Dupree, the hard-driving New Orleans blues and R&B pianist, his Rocks provides an introduction to his career that wasn't otherwise available when this was released in 2018.

Press Archive - Various - The Bill Haley Connection (CD) - AllMusic
Bill Haley is a pivotal figure in rock & roll and not only because he had one of the first rock & roll hits in "Rock Around the Clock," a jumping little number that went to number one in 1954. Haley didn't write the song, nor did anybody in his Comets. It was written by Max Freedman and Jimmy DeKnight, who shopped it around to a number of groups before Haley cut the song. Sonny Dae & His Knights, a jump blues band from Indianapolis, was the first to record "Rock Around the Clock," playing it as a standard jump blues, which was good enough to catch the ear of Haley, who cut it with a harder, swinging backbeat, and the rest is history.

Press Archive- Eddie Cochran - The Year 1957 - AllMusic
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
The title The Year 1957 carries an air of documentary to it, so it's no surprise that this 2018 Bear Family collection does play a bit like a history lesson, telling the story of a pivotal 12 months in Eddie Cochran's career. During this year, Cochran scored his first Top 40 hit with the sultry slow-burner "Sittin' in the Balcony" and cut the swinging rock & roll standard "Twenty Flight Rock," along with several other fine sides for Liberty, many of which were issued on the album Singing to My Baby. Nearly all of that album is featured on The Year 1957, with the notable exceptions of substituting alternate takes for "Completely Sweet" and "Twenty Flight Rock," along with the undubbed take of "Ah, Pretty Girl." Added to the mix are a host of radio interviews and promos, plus three live tracks, including a version of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." For most Cochran fanatics -- and it's hard not to argue that this is targeted at them -- it's this back section that will provide the most revelations, and for those who know the hits and want to dig a bit deeper, the interviews do push this collection of tremendously entertaining music toward the educational.

Press Archive- Eddie Cochran - The Year 1957 - AllMusic
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
The title The Year 1957 carries an air of documentary to it, so it's no surprise that this 2018 Bear Family collection does play a bit like a history lesson, telling the story of a pivotal 12 months in Eddie Cochran's career. During this year, Cochran scored his first Top 40 hit with the sultry slow-burner "Sittin' in the Balcony" and cut the swinging rock & roll standard "Twenty Flight Rock," along with several other fine sides for Liberty, many of which were issued on the album Singing to My Baby. Nearly all of that album is featured on The Year 1957, with the notable exceptions of substituting alternate takes for "Completely Sweet" and "Twenty Flight Rock," along with the undubbed take of "Ah, Pretty Girl." Added to the mix are a host of radio interviews and promos, plus three live tracks, including a version of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." For most Cochran fanatics -- and it's hard not to argue that this is targeted at them -- it's this back section that will provide the most revelations, and for those who know the hits and want to dig a bit deeper, the interviews do push this collection of tremendously entertaining music toward the educational.

Press Archive - Banana Split For My Baby - 33 Gems From The Good Old Summertime - AllMusic
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
The idea driving Bear Family's 2018 compilation Banana Split for My Baby is that it provides a soundtrack for a fantasy summer, arriving sometime between the birth of rock & roll and the arrival of the Beatles. Fantasy is the key here: the collection doesn't follow a strict chronology, nor is it rigid in its genre, which may come as a surprise to anybody who thought the American Graffiti homage of the album art indicated a strict allegiance to nostalgic sock hop. To be sure, there are some golden oldies here -- Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise," Bobby Darin's "Splish Splash" and "Beyond the Sea," Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," the Royal Teens' "Short Shorts," and Dean Martin's "Volare" -- but Elmore James also tears it up with "The Sun Is Shining" and Louis Prima is the man behind the swinging title track.

Press Archive - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - AllMusic
Strictly speaking, many of the 32 tracks on the 2018 compilation The Ballads of Fats Domino are not ballads. They're blues and slow-rolling R&B, songs that seem to define the Big Easy sound of Fats: "Blueberry Hill," "Blue Monday," "One Night," "Poor Me, "Before I Grow Too Old," "Natural Born Lover," and "I Hear You Knocking." They're surrounded by lots of songs that could conceivably be called ballads, but the feel of the comp isn't sweet and anodyne. Some of the tempos may be slow, but this is an R&B and rock & roll record through and through; it just happens to lean toward an easier roll. That sustained feel is appealing, as is the fact that this compilation is filled with songs that aren't hits but aren't slouches either. For some listeners, this may be a good way to launch an exploration of his classic Imperial period.

Press Archive - Fats Domino - Out Of New Orleans - AllMusic
Strictly speaking, many of the 32 tracks on the 2018 compilation The Ballads of Fats Domino are not ballads. They're blues and slow-rolling R&B, songs that seem to define the Big Easy sound of Fats: "Blueberry Hill," "Blue Monday," "One Night," "Poor Me, "Before I Grow Too Old," "Natural Born Lover," and "I Hear You Knocking." They're surrounded by lots of songs that could conceivably be called ballads, but the feel of the comp isn't sweet and anodyne. Some of the tempos may be slow, but this is an R&B and rock & roll record through and through; it just happens to lean toward an easier roll. That sustained feel is appealing, as is the fact that this compilation is filled with songs that aren't hits but aren't slouches either. For some listeners, this may be a good way to launch an exploration of his classic Imperial period.

Press Archive - Various - She's Selling What She Used To Give Away - AllMusic
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine [-]
Talk to record collectors at random and they'll be able to tell you that there were scads of ribald prewar blues and R&B, but those same collectors may not know that there's a rich tradition of smut lying within country, too. Bear Family's 2018 compilation She's Selling What She Used to Give Away shines a spotlight into these filthy back roads, collecting "28 Risque Hillbilly Songs from the '30s," as the subtitle says. Some of the featured artists are well known for their genial mainstream material --

Press Archive - Various - That'll Flat Git It! Vol.29 - AllMusic
The 29th installment of Bear Family's long-running rockabilly series That'll Flat Git It! shines a spotlight on Crest Records, a Hollywood-based imprint that opened its doors in 1954 and shuttered in 1963. Its lifespan ran the length of the big boom of rockabilly, but that didn't mean that Crest wound up scoring any big hits, but they did claim early recordings by Eddie Cochran and Glen Campbell. Cochran made his solo debut with "Skinny Jim," the best-known side here by a country mile, while Campbell plays lead guitar on "Rockin' and a Rollin'," a bit of a lark sung by his uncle Dick Bills.

Press Archive - Various - She's Selling What She Used To Give Away - Vive Le Rock

Presse Archiv - Battleground Korea - Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War - hifi & records
In the enclosed 168-page hard-cover book in LP format, all songs and artists are honoured in detail with their lyrics and bio-graphical facts. Countless photos of the war front in Korea document the dramatic deployment of the Allied troops. Posters and posters underline the patriotic madness of those days of war. Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe's late visit to the front in 1954 also enriches the visual component of this historically unique documentary by Bear Family. Willi Andresen

Press Archiv - Glen Glenn Pick 'Em Up And Lay 'Em Down - Oldie Markt
Glen Glenn Pick' em Up And Lay 'em Down (10") Bear Family BAF 14001 Der als Glen Troutman 1934 in Misouri geborene Mann war einer der gro-ßen Geheimtips des Rock-abilly und diese 10"-Vi-nylplatte, die 12 bislang unveröffentlichte Tracks des Mannes zusammen mit seinem Gitarristen Gary Lambert bringt, de-monstriert die Klasse des Mannes, der sowohl als Songschreiber wie als Sänger beweist, dass er ei-ner der herausragenden Stilisten der frühen Rock'n'Roll-Ära gewesen ist. So vital wie die Musik auf dieser 10" ist, lebt der Stil ewig weiter.

Press Archive - Joey Castle Rock & Roll Daddy-O (CD) - Jamboree IT
"That ain't nothing but right", the third piece of the CD, is none other than Joey's first record released on RCA (20/47-7283) in 1958 and earned him the fame of New King of R'n'R. Followed by "Please love me (slow rock sweet) and "Shake hands with a fool", two new songs that were to be released on Vik and that you can not understand why they were not published. After the two B-sides: "Come a little closer baby" (B-side of the first record on RCA) and "Wild love" comes like a bomb the main dish of this CD: the famous "Rock and Roll Daddy-O", wild song in pure rockabilly style embellished by the solos of guitarist James G. LIddle.

Press Archive- Eddie Cochran - The Year 1957 - Musenblätter
An extensive booklet (51 pages) with texts by Bill Dahl, many extremely rare photos, discography and detailed recording data completes the documentation about Eddie Cochran's successful year 1957.