Various Dust My Rhythm & Blues - The Flair Records R&B Story 1953-55 (2-CD)

(Ace Records) 50 tracks


The Biharis started Flair as a hillbilly imprint, but changed its focus almost exclusively to R&B after 10 straight country releases found their way to nowhere in short order. No disrespect to the men in cowboy boots and western shirts, but for this 2CD collection we’ve ignored those – many of which are anyway featured on our “Swingbillies” CD - and kept it 100% rhythm and bluesy.

Every major name who recorded for Flair is featured here at least once and – wherever possible – with an alternate take, if the master take is already out on an Ace CD. Where an artist released a number of Flair 45s and 78s, tracks have been carefully chosen to represent the full spectrum of their repertoire (so Elmore’s tracks, for example, are not simply 1001 variations on the ‘Dust My Broom’ riff). We’ve also freshly re-dubbed and re-mastered any tracks that had to be taken from 78s due to the disappearance of the original tapes. And it will be a pleasant surprise to many to find that a healthy percentage of the tracks here have either never been reissued by Ace before or, in some cases, not in the CD era.

Now that I’ve “got round to it eventually”, this chronicling of the Flair label will be followed by 2CD sets on the Crown and RPM labels plus two separate 2CD sets on Kent to cover earlier and later years of the label.

by Tony Rounce