Various - Country & Western Hit Parade 1948 - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music

1-CD deluxe album with 72-page booklet, 28 tracks. Playing time approx. 78 mns.


After many, many requests, we're finally doing a definitive year-by-year country series! And it won't stop when the music is in copyright, either! The most luxuriously packaged single CDs we've ever done! The history of country music told year-by-year from 1945-1970. The first six volumes are complete, 1945-1950. The hits! The classic performances! The truly influential recordings! Painstakingly restored sound! The series is compiled an annotated by Grammy winning Colin Escott. The country series has been compiled with today's fans in mind. Yes, the big hits are there, but so are the classic performances that weren't necessarily big hits at the time, but became influential in the years ahead. Every volume has incredibly detailed behind-the-scenes stories, fabulously rare photos, and an ongoing history of country music set against the backdrop of the broader American music business. Definitive' You bet!

It was a tumultuous year in the music business. For almost the entire year, the Musicians Union was on strike against the record labels and new recordings could not be made… legitimately, at least. At the same time, there were dramatic innovations in recording technology: tape came into use and Columbia Records introduced the LP.

Toward the end of 1947, it became clear that the American Federation of Musicians would call a strike effective December 31 when agreements with the record companies expired. The problem was that AFM president James Caesar Petrillo was bitterly opposed to both records and to the increasing use of records on radio. The AFM's agreements with radio were good until 1949, but, with the recording agreements running out at the end of 1947, Petrillo wanted to send a message to the networks via the record companies (two of the three major labels, RCA and Columbia, were owned by NBC and CBS respectively). As a long-term goal, Petrillo wanted to shut down the record business, one of his oft-repeated lines was, "These records are destroying us" (Petrillo died in 1984...if he wanted to see the end of the record business, he should have lived another 25 years). In the short-term, he wanted to test the union's strength against the anti-union Taft-Hartley bill, wring a few financial concessions from the record companies, and fire a warning shot over the bows of the radio networks.

With the lessons learned from the 1942 strike, the record companies began stockpiling masters. Initially, the major labels viewed the ban as a blessing in disguise. They could work through their backlog of masters, press up catalog, squeeze out independent labels and, as one unnamed executive said, "there'll be no placating artists with expensive sessions." All of Petrillo's crusades were doomed. Fewer live broadcasts were being picked up every year, more dee-jays were being hired, and music was increasingly consumed at home. The strike lasted for virtually all of 1948, and ended with very minor concessions to the union. The majors adhered to the ban, but the independent labels carried on recording surreptitiously, so the majors’ position vis-à-vis the indies actually weakened. The strike came at a time when every label would have a version of a big hit, but this suddenly became impossible for the majors. Singers, who were represented by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, could still record but only with vocal groups or instruments that the AFM didn’t recognize like harmonicas and ukuleles (whose practitioners were represented by the American Guild of Variety Artists). The other beneficiaries were British companies. EMI began leasing masters to American labels and British Decca, which had sold its remaining stake in American Decca during the War, launched London Records in New York, initially as an outlet for its British recordings.

Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music

Country & Western Hit Parade

“Collecting an anarchic mix of sex and sentimentality, earnest paeans to family and fanciful tales of drinking and cheating, DIM LIGHTS… affords a fascinating glimpse into black-and-white ‘50s polemics… Established stars, inspired wannabes proffer an intoxicating brew of dancefloor honky tonk, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass, western swing, incipient rockabilly, goofball novelty, and sentimental country-pop.” (UNCUT magazine)

 

The reviews are in and everyone from Australia to Los Angeles to London is raving about Bear Family’s definitive year-by-year country series. Starting in 1945, DIM LIGHTS, THICK SMOKE, AND HILLBILLY MUSIC (COUNTRY & WESTERN HIT PARADE) tells the real story of country music record-by-record. The hits are here, but so are groundbreaking records that went nowhere at the time. This is the true and uncensored history of country music. Everything you need to hear, year-by-year. Stars like Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Eddy Arnold, Ray Price, and Hank Snow are here, but so are beerhall legends like Eddie Noack and Sonny Burns, and roots music mavens like Charlie Feathers and the Stanley Brothers, as well as overlooked giants like Carl Belew and Floyd Tillman. You’ll also hear the incredible original versions of songs like Duelin’ Banjos, Release Me, Lonely Street, and many more!  Every CD is full to the brim with great music, and they’re all individually packaged in hardcover 72-page books by Colin Escott that tell the story of every song as well as the broader music history of the time. Fabulous photos, original record labels, and period advertisements round out the packages.

Bear Family began its journey into year-by-year anthologies with its groundbreaking and award-winning BLOWIN’ THE FUSE/SWEET SOUL MUSIC series that tells the story of R&B from 1945-1970. Look for the series to continue into the Funk era. And look for a year-by-year Rock ‘n’ Roll anthology coming soon.

# After the volumes covering 1945-1955 were released, the word was out. This series is definitive, fabulously packaged, and faultlessly remastered! Everything you'd expect from Bear Family…and more!

# Jack Clement, who produced Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Don Williams, and many others, said, "This is the best country series of all time. No doubt. No question." Robert Hilburn in the 'Los Angeles Times'said, "An invaluable album project…enables fans to step back in time and listen to the radio just like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and Bob Dylan did."

# Now the story continues from 1956 until 1960. Every CD is generously full. Every booklet is extensive and chocked full of rare photos and illustrations, as well as complete stories behind the songs!

# In addition to the hits, the series contains rarities that went on to influence country music…and all music…in the years ahead, like Wanda Jackson's original version of Silver Threads And Golden Needles, Carl Belew's original Lonely Street, and Chet Atkins' influential Walk, Don't Run.

# This series is designed to introduce new listeners to the very best that country music has to offer… while keeping longtime fans entertained. Every volume is a fabulous time capsule.

 

Here's the story

For many years, we'd received requests to do a truly definitive country series, but it wasn't until the success of our year-by-year R&B/Soul series, 'Blowin' The Fuse' (now 'Sweet Soul Music' and soon to be continued into the Funk era) that we decided we needed to do something comparable for country music. The first volumes of 'Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music' took us from 1945-1955, and now the story continues into the era of the Nashville Sound.

The series has been compiled with today's fans in mind. Sure, the big hits are there, but so are the classic performances that weren't necessarily hits at the time, but became influential in the years ahead. Every volume has incredibly detailed behind-the-scenes stories, fabulously rare photos, and an ongoing history of country music set against the backdrop of the broader American music business. The booklets alone are 72 pages! Definitive? You bet!

Superlatives are often overused, but we feel that this series is part of our mission to bring this incredible music to new fans ... as well as entertaining older fans. We pick up the story in 1956....just as country music was coming to terms with the upset of rock 'n' roll!

And, keeping in the spirit of the releases, some of the artists' listings are as they originally appeared - like Jim Edward and Maxine Brown and Bonnie, Wayne Raney - Raney Family (Wayne, Wanda and Zyndall) and Marty Robbins with Ray Conniff -  while the cd in each set is stored in a reproduction of a 45 rpm record label bag appropriate to that year.

Country music author and historian Colin Escott is responsible for these remarkable releases, an obvious labour of love that has taken considerable research effort, offering a valuable insight into the development of country music over the years. Many of country music's foremost entertainers are included alongside others who may have only earned a place in the footnotes of country music history, but all present a variety of voices and differing musical styles that have virtually disappeared, over half a century later, in contemporary country music's conveyor belt output. The songs were also different back then: sometimes relating to current events, they also regularly centred upon themes like boozin', honky-tonking and slippin' around, now generally considered non-pc in these over sensitive times.

Country & Western Hitparade - CD-Album-Series by Bear Family

Read more at: https://www.bear-family.com/bear-family/country-series/country-und-western-hitparade/
Copyright © Bear Family Records