Darrell McCall The Real McCall (5-CD)

5-CD box (LP-size) with 40-page book, 143 tracks. Playing time approx. 361 mns.

Darrell McCall was hard country when hard country wasn't fashionable. He's still hard country today, when it's even less fashionable. Darrell's best known as Faron Young's frontman during the early Sixties and as one of Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. He kept the Ray Price shuffle alive long after Price himself had abandoned it. These five CDs contain 143 songs, including everything that Darrell recorded between 1960 and 1981 for Starday, Capitol, Wayside, Philips, American Heritage, Columbia, RCA and other labels. It also includes some blues demos for the legendary Jimmy Reed as well as rare commercials and transcriptions. All of Darrell's hits are here, including Dear One, A Stranger Was Here, Dreams Of A Dreamer, and Lily Dale with Willie Nelson. Country music comes no more honest or straightforward than this. Like the sign says on his mailbox: Darrell, the real McCall.

Darrell McCall

New Yorker Larry Finneran wrote Dear One with his brother Vinnie, and sent the demo to Hy Weiss's Old Town Records, despite the fact that Old Town didn't really specialise in that sound. Weiss rush-released it under the name 'Larry Finnegan', though, and on the day that it charted, February 24, 1962, Shelby Singleton produced a cover version with his new signee, Darrell McCall. Finnegan's story is available on Bear Family ('Dear One', BCD 16275) as is the Darrell McCall story ('The Real McCall', BCD15846). Briefly, Darrell was born in New Jasper, Ohio on April 30, 1940, grew up loving country music and came to Nashville. He sung backup on sessions and on the road, and made his first recordings as a 'cover' artist for Starday. Manager Hubert Long landed a deal with Capitol in 1961, and another with Philips (the European company that had just bought Mercury). "Hubert was trying to put me in a pop singer vein," Darrell told Rich Kienzle. "This boy, Larry Finnegan, had 'Dear One' out. Hubert said, 'I think you can do this song and we'll ride it into the pop charts as well as taking it to the top in country.'" It didn't happen that way, of course. Finnegan won the day (he eventually moved to Sweden, started Svensk-American Records, and died in 1973) while Darrell became a journeyman honky tonker. His breakthrough hit, A Stranger Was Here, came in 1963.

Darrell McCall The Real McCall (5-CD)
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