VA - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music 1950 torrent

The final volume in the Dim Lights, Thick Smoke series covers the year 1950. As reflected in the track choices here, hillbilly boogie is in its full maturity, and the serious roots of hard honky tonk music are entering the jukebox and radio eras. There are some killer holdovers from the prime of Western swing, such as Moon Mullican and Bob Wills (whose classic Faded Love is included). But more the norm are performers like Hank Penny (with Bloodshot Eyes), Little Jimmy Dickens (Hillbilly Fever), Lefty Frizzell (If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time) , Ernest Tubb (Letters Have No Arms), Jimmie Skinner(You Don't Know My Mind), Carl Smith (I Overlooked an Orchid While Looking for a Rose), Hank Williams (Long Gone Lonesome Blues), and Webb Pierce. The latter's killer Drifting Texas Sand is one of the real high points here. Floyd Tillman's I've Got the Craziest Feeling, and Red Foley's Sugarfoot Rag also lend to the overall wealth of this collection. But the true stellar moment is one of the earliest rock & roll tunes in Hardrock Gunter's Birmingham Bounce,(complete with a wah-wah sounding steel guitar!) that kicks the pants off Bill Haley's Shake, Rattle & Roll, and predates Chuck Berry by a few years - though to be fair, this sounds like a hillbilly version of the music played by Louis Jordan. In any case, this final volume is a fitting send-off to one of the most successfully curated of the bunch.
(Thom Jurek)

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VA - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Hillbilly Music 1950
(Bear Family Records 2008)


1. Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - Red Foley
2. Blue Canadian Rockies - Gene Autry
3. Sleepy Eyed John - Ole Rasmussen
4. If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time - Lefty Frizzell
5. Long Gone Lonesome Blues - Hank Williams
6. I Overlooked an Orchid (While Searching For a Rose) - Carl Smith
7. Hillbilly Fever - Little Jimmy Dickens
8. Faded Love - Bob Wills
9. Sugarfoot Rag - Red Foley
10. I've Got Five Dollars and It's Saturday Night - Ted Daffan
11. I'll Never Be Free - Kay Starr / Tennessee Ernie Ford
12. Bloodshot Eyes - Hank Penny
13. I Love You a Thousand Ways - Lefty Frizzell
14. Birmingham Bounce - Hardrock Gunter
15. Remember Me (I'm the One Who Loves You) - Stuart Hamblen
16. I'll Sail My Ship Alone - Moon Mullican
17. Rag Mop - Johnnie Lee Wills
18. Steppin' Out - Billy Starr
19. Tattooed Lady, The - Skeets McDonald
20. Letters Have No Arms - Ernest Tubb
21. Hot Rod Race - Arkie Shibley
22. You Don't Know My Mind - Jimmie Skinner
23. I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome - Bill Monroe
24. Drifting Texas Sand - Webb Pierce
25. I've Got the Craziest Feeling - Floyd Tillman
26. I'm Movin' On - Hank Snow
27. Fields Have Turned Brown, The - The Stanley Brothers
28. Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Flatt & Scruggs