Format Details: Jewel Case
Release Date: 28 August 2001
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667181822
Genres: Rock 'N' Roll Rockabilly
Description
Just as the Louisiana Hayride played such a seminal part in the history of rock'n'roll, for bringing Elvis Presley to his first mass radio public (and hence the phenomenon of rockabilly), and for bringing the new beat-driven country music that the Grand Ole Opry refused to touch, so Mira Smith's little Ram label and her Shreveport studio should be almost as well known. But they're not. Even the other Louisiana studios, J D Miller's in Crowley, Cosimo's in New Orleans, Eddie Shuler's Goldband studio and label in Baton Rouge (may as well throw in Gold Star in Houston while we're in the Gulf) are all household names (if you live in a rockin' house!). But few know of Mira Smith's little set-up. Ace follow up the Ram Records Story Vol 1, Shreveport Stomp, with this second volume. This time around there's a lot of excitement for rockabilly/hillbilly fans with no less than ten cuts by the legendary Lonesome Drifter. We get all four of his released sides on the K subsidiary, including an alternative take of Eager Boy, plus six cuts that first saw the light of day on a Collector LP back in 1974. You'll hear pristine sound quality straight from the master tapes on all the Thomas Johnson favourites, like Teardrop Valley, Honey Do You Think Of Me and No Loving No Rocking Blues. Listen to Johnson's high keening and primitive vocal style influenced by Bill Monroe and go straight to hillbilly heaven. Mira Smith was also a top session guitarist in a town that spawned some of the finest in the field, including James Burton, Tillman Franks, Carl Adams and Jerry Kennedy. Most of these players appear somewhere on these selections, as does Mira herself. Perhaps Mira's own musicianship, and most of her artists' association with the Louisiana Hayride, was what attracted so many fine players to her studio. In the same way, it may be the fact of Mira Smith being a woman that attracted so many female singers and songwriters to her label, an unusual number for the world of rockabilly and rockin' blues. The first Ram release featured Carol Williams singing You Never Mention My Name. On this volume women are very much in attendance. There's the brother and sister act, Mack and Gwen-.-two tracks by Margaret Lewis, who later teamed up with Mira to forma successful Nashville song-writing team writing for the likes of Dolly Parton, Jeanni C Riley and Johnny Adams-.-Linda Brannon, whose Just Another Lie was leased to Chess (Chess 1720) and sold very well-.-and Charlotte Hunter, whose I'll Be True was originally recorded by Faye Adams, though Bill Haley covered it too. Her Wherever You Are was written by yet another female songwriter, Laura Nell Martin. Charlotte's sides feature Mira Smith at the piano and that prodigy, James Burton, on guitar. Other female writers here are Nolene Summit and Nadine Qualiss, writing for the Lonesome Drifter, and the aforementioned Lewis and Smith team, who wrote for Toby Johnson and a song by Margaret Lewis herself. By the way, the Lewis and H
Tracklisting
The Champs
Richard Thompson
Little Richard
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
