Various - Country & Western Hit Parade 1964 - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music (CD)

1-CD-Album deluxe with 72-page booklet, 31 tracks. Playing time approx. 81 mns.

Just as the folk boom triggered by Tom Dooley had exerted a brief impact upon country music in 1959, so contemporary folk music began to exert an influence upon country music in 1964. A few of those within country music…perhaps even Roger Miller… felt liberated by Bob Dylan's free associating wordplay. Bobby Bare and later George Hamilton and Waylon Jennings tried to embrace some of the less contentious new folk songs. Most, though, chose to ignore Dylan, the unwashed beatniks who followed him, and the causes they championed. Only Johnny Cash appeared to embrace the times that were apparently changing. The seeds of the great social divide that characterized the Sixties became apparent when Cash recorded The Ballad Of Ira Hayes. He pretended to be surprised when country radio shied away from it. He shouldn't have been. Within a year or so, though, Cash seemed to reject his activism, in fact lampooned it in The One On The Right Is On The Left. "Don't be mixing politics with the folksongs of our land," he sang, perhaps as much to himself as anyone else.

The tragedies that had clouded country music in 1963 continued. Jim Reeves' death on July 31 was a sad coda to the passing of Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and Jack Anglin in March the previous year. Few noted the fact, but Alton Delmore of the Delmore Brothers died on June 8, and their legatees, the Louvin Brothers, issued their last LP in 1964. They had already split, and any hope of a reunion was dashed by Ira Louvin's death the following year.

In November, 'Time' magazine sent a reporter to the annual dee jays' convention, now dubbed the Country Music Festival. The report was similar to other reports in other years and similar to David Dachs' brief and largely unflattering chapter about country music in his 1964 book covering all popular music, Anything Goes. Country music was big business worth $100 million a year, said 'Time.' Two thousand stations played country. Nashville accounted for thirty percent of the nation's hit singles, although that figure would soon fall. The musicians couldn't read music. "'It's something about the warmth of Nashville,' they explain, almost misty-eyed at the thought." At the 1964 festival, MGM Pictures premiered 'Your Cheatin' Heart,' the Hank Williams bio-pic. It starred George Hamilton as the unlikeliest ever Hank Williams. Rather than have Hamilton lip-sync to the original recordings, the soundtrack featured new recordings by Hank, Jr., thereby launching Junior's recording career. Two of those who'd known Hank, Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff, walked out halfway through the movie. And, as if to betoken country music's increasing popularity, 'Billboard' magazine increased the number of positions in its industry standard country chart from thirty to fifty.

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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