Various - Country & Western Hit Parade 1954 - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music

1-CD-Album deluxe with 72-page booklet, 28 tracks; playing time: 74:03 minutes.

'Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music 1954'
Country & Western Hit Parade 1954

Something was happening. In 1953, Bill Haley had cracked the pop charts with Crazy Man, Crazy. A mix of western swing, pop, and R&B, Haley's music heralded changes that would soon obliterate much of the music heard here. Down in Texas, white kids were playing R&B and calling it Cat Music. In April 1954, Atlantic Records wised up to the phrase and started Cat Records. The first hit on Cat, the Chords' Sh-Boom, was covered by western swing stars Leon McAuliffe and Bobby Williamson. So there was a two-way trade between black and white music. As if to underscore the point, Elvis Presley made his first record during the week that the Chords' record entered the charts. One month later, Bill Haley's cover of Big Joe Turner's Shake, Rattle And Roll became a pop smash. For now, very little of this was reflected in the country charts. Elvis cracked a few local country charts, and Haley, despite his roots in east coast country music, was confined to the pop charts.

Blind as they might have been to changes on the near horizon, the grandees who controlled country music were happy with what was happening. Country music was slicking itself up and sales were booming. Writing in 'Billboard' in May 1954, RCA's head of country A&R, Steve Sholes, mentioned that the musicians he dealt with before the Second World War were essentially "only fair amateurs" compared with the class of '54. And country music was attracting professional songsmiths who would have looked down their noses at country music ten years earlier.

Then he presciently added, "If the next ten years bring about developments in the country & western field as constructive and vital as in the last ten, I believe 1964 will find the country & western and pop fields so closely allied, it will be impossible to tell the difference without a score card." Sholes, of course, would sign Elvis Presley at the end of 1955, and would personally hasten some of those changes. In April 1954, he assembled an innovative package show, the RCA Country Caravan, with a good cross-section of his roster (the notable absence being Eddy Arnold). Starting in Asheville, North Carolina it headed south and west, emphasizing that the regionality of country music was fast disappearing. A source of regret for purists perhaps, but a good omen for Sholes.

And then, in December 1954, Fred Rose died. Perhaps more than anyone else, Rose had been the architect of the Nashville music business. He'd settled there when there were no record companies, music publishers, or recording studios, and he'd co-founded the first music publisher. Early in '54, he'd launched an indie label, Hickory Records. Along the way, he'd written hundreds of country songs and helped to polish hundreds more. Not least among his achievements was producing and mentoring country music's troubled king, Hank Williams.

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/
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