Hank Thompson The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD)

Preview: The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD)

The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD)

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catalog number: CDRV300
weight in Kg 0.1

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(2009/RAVEN) 30 tracks, multi label collection (Capitol/Dot/MCA) with 12 page booklet. more

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Hank Thompson: The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD)

(2009/RAVEN) 30 tracks, multi label collection (Capitol/Dot/MCA) with 12 page booklet.

Article properties: Hank Thompson: The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD)

Interpret: Hank Thompson
Album titlle: The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD)
Genre Country
Label RAVEN
Artikelart CD
EAN: 0612657030028
weight in Kg 0.1

Thompson, Hank - The Quintessential Hank Thompson 1948-79 (CD) CD 1
01	Humpty Dumpty Heart	Hank Thompson
02	Whoa Sailor (1949)	Hank Thompson
03	The Wild Side Of Life	Hank Thompson
04	Waiting In The Lobby Of Your Heart	Hank Thompson
05	Rub-A-Dub-Dub	Hank Thompson
06	Wake Up Irene	Hank Thompson
07	A Fooler, A Faker (1953)	Hank Thompson
08	Breakin' The Rules	Hank Thompson
09	Honky-Tonk Girl	Hank Thompson
10	We've Gone Too Far	Hank Thompson
11	The New Green Light	Hank Thompson
12	Wildwood Flower	Hank Thompson
13	Breakin' In Another Heart	Hank Thompson
14	Most Of All	Hank Thompson
15	Don't Take It Out On Me	Hank Thompson
16	The Blackboard Of My Heart	Hank Thompson
17	Rockin' In The Congo	Hank Thompson
18	Squaws Along The Yukon	Hank Thompson
19	I've Run Out Of Tomorrows	Hank Thompson
20	Anybody's Girl	Hank Thompson
21	Cocaine Blues	Hank Thompson
22	A Six Pack To Go	Hank Thompson
23	Oklahoma Hills	Hank Thompson
24	Hangover Tavern	Hank Thompson
25	On Tap, In The Can, Or In The Bottle	Hank Thompson
26	Smoky The Bar	Hank Thompson
27	I've Come Awful Close	Hank Thompson
28	The Older The Violin, The Sweeter The Music	Hank Thompson
29	Who Left The Door To Heaven Open	Hank Thompson
30	I Hear The South Callin' Me	Hank Thompson

Hank Thompson HANK THOMPSON Everything about Hank Thompson was modern. He was... more

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"Hank Thompson"

Hank Thompson

HANK THOMPSON

Everything about Hank Thompson was modern. He was one of the first country singers to record on audio tape, the first to record a live album. For years, he flew his own plane to shows. Sick of dealing with crappy dancehall sound systems, he designed and built his own. Handed a coveted membership in the Grand Ole Opry in 1949, soured by the low pay and Nashville's musical conservatism, he quickly went back to his native Texas.

Actually, the Waco-born Thompson grew up favoring Gene Autry, the Carter Family, Vernon Dalhart, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb and the Opry over the locally generated Western Swing of the Light Crust Doughboys and Milton Brown. After he got his first guitar in 1935 at age ten, his singing won so many amateur shows at the Waco Theater that by the time he was in high school, WACO gave him a Monday-Friday morning radio show as 'Hank The Hired Hand.' He did the final broadcast in January, 1943, the morning he left for the Navy. Home in 1946, studying toward a degree (and career) in electronics, he began playing Tubb-influenced honky tonk with his new band, the Brazos Valley Boys. By fall, he had his first regional hit, Whoa Sailor, on the local Globe label. A year later, after opening for Tex Ritter in Waco, Ritter recommended Hank to Capitol where Humpty Dumpty Heart became his first national hit in 1948.

Quick to adapt to changing realities, and aiming at the dancehall circuit, Hank directed guitarist Billy Gray to reinvent the Brazos Valley Boys as a danceable Western Swing-influenced outfit, minus the jazzy instrumental solos he never cared for. Dissatisfied with the small crowds he drew performing around Dallas, he relocated to Oklahoma City in 1951, by then boasting a sound as identifiable as Lefty Frizzell's or Ray Price's. He was blending his jovial honky tonk vocals with swing-flavored accompaniment. The band's high standards earned them awards for over a decade. From 1953 on, his buddy Merle Travis played on nearly all Hank's sessions and on a good many tours.

Hank's way with a ballad was apparent on his biggest hit, his 1952 cover of Jimmie Heap's The Wild Side Of Life, which inspired the answer song, It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (Kitty Wells's first hit). He further demonstrated his ballad skills on I'll Sign My Heart Away and other numbers. Nonetheless, he made his reputation on upbeat bounces like Wake Up Irene, Rub-A-Dub-Dub, A Fooler A Faker, Honky Tonk Girl and A Six Pack To Go. His hits helped keep the Western Swing sound alive during the '50s and '60s when it was largely out of favor.

Jim Halsey, who became Hank's manager in 1952, brought new ideas to the table like Hank's longtime relationship with Falstaff Beer in a day when corporate sponsorship of country acts was rare. Halsey suggested Capitol record Hank onstage at the Golden Nugget in Vegas in 1961—making him the first country artist to record a live album. Hank parted ways with Capitol in 1964. After two years with Warner Bros., he spent 13 years with Dot/MCA, recording in Nashville. The Dot era brought a few major hits. Nonetheless, while reflecting on his recording career in the book accompanying Bear Family's Thompson box set, he concluded, "I’d play one of those Dot records then drop one of those old Capitols on, and it was all the difference in the world between the presence and quality of the Capitols and what Dot put out." The Country Music Hall Of Fame inducted him in 1989.

Hank, who settled in Keller, Texas, northwest of Dallas, remained on the road, performing with local bands after dissolving the Brazos Valley Boys. His later albums included 1997’s 'Hank Thompson And Friends,'an underpromoted all-star effort on Curb, and HighTone's far superior 'Seven Decades,' released in 2000. Like fellow Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner, he literally continued until the end. At times, he'd appear with the Brazos Valley Boys, who'd reformed as an independent band, and billed more recent shows as part of his 'Sunset Tour.' He headlined a show back in Waco on October 8, 2007, proclaimed by Texas' governor as 'Hank Thompson Day.' Late that month, doctors discovered fast-moving, terminal lung cancer. He announced his retirement November 4; two days later, he was gone. In lieu of a funeral, friends and fans assembled at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth on November 14 to celebrate his remarkable life and career. In 2008, Bear Family will release a 33 track Thompson collection as part of its 'Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight' series.

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