Tennessee Ernie Ford Feat. Billy Strange & Glen Campbell – Classic Trio Albums, 1964 & 1975 – CDD

Band: Tennessee Ernie Ford Feat. Billy Strange & Glen Campbell

Label: Bear Family Records

Format: CDD

Description

1‐CD (Digipak) with 28‐page booklet, 22 tracks. Total playing time approx. 65 min.
Tennessee Ernie Ford’s acoustic albums: simple clarity… natural depth.
Tennessee Ernie Ford’s two trio albums: ‘Country Hits…Feelin’ Blue’ (1964) and ‘Ernie Sings & Glen Picks’ (1975) paired here by Bear Family Records® for the first time in any format.
An early template for the ‘unplugged’ album… decades before that recording technique became a trend in popular music.
Featured musicians: guitarist extraordinaire Billy Strange and upright bassist John Moshe (1964), and country and pop crossover superstar/guitarist/harmony singer Glen Campbell and double bassist Chuck Domanico (1975).
To many in the know these are the finest and rarest LP releases of secular music from the singer’s long career, with a voice that was well‐worn yet enduring.
Extensive liner notes by East Tennessean, Dr. Ted Olson, Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.
The full‐color booklet contains previously unseen photos from the recording sessions and a session discography.

In 2015 Bear Family Records® collected Ford’s 78 RPM releases along with his 1950s LPs of secular music in the 5‐CD boxed set ‘Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer, 1949‐1960’ (BCD17332). That set, though, did not incorporate any of Ford’s recordings released after 1960. Ford is most often remembered today for his early recordings. In 1955, the singer scored a massive national crossover hit with his finger‐snapped rendition of Sixteen Tons. He remained a prolific recording artist through the early 1980s. Bear Family’s release of this single‐CD featuring two trio albums presents recordings Ford himself would have wanted to be considered in any discussions about his legacy. ‘Country Hits…Feelin’ Blue’ and ‘Ernie Sings & Glen Picks’ document Ford at his best!

Released in 1964, ‘Country Hits…Feelin’ Blue’ was remarkably strippeddown and unassuming. Among the musicians were two masters on their own instruments: guitarist extraordinaire Billy Strange and upright bassist John Mosher. They entered the recording studio, and the resulting album sustained its formula of simple directness from start to finish: twelve country standards cut in six hours over two days with three guys. No overdubs, no re‐do’s… one take for each song, with Ford singing over Strange’s understated, nimble arrangements.

Eleven years later, the 1964 session served as a template for Ford’s last great album concept…. which was not a copycat project. Featuring ten country standards (with the inclusion of three progressive country songs by Kris Kristofferson), ‘Ernie Sings & Glen Picks’ matched Ford’s vocals to inspired accompaniment by country and pop crossover superstar and guitarist/harmony singer Glen Campbell as well as acoustic bassist Chuck Domanico. The recordings were rich and textured precisely because the coheadliners, Ford and Campbell brought to the studio radically different experiences and sensibilities. Simple clarity…natural depth…an elaboration of two artists in unison.

Ford’s two classic trio albums for Capitol, now properly recognized on a Bear Family Records® single‐CD pairing, provide compelling evidence to support critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s claim that Ford was an ‘American roots pop pioneer.’

Track listing:
01 Try Me One More Time
02 No Letter Today
03 Born To Lose
04 Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle
05 There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight
06 I Don’t Hurt Anymore
07 Worried Mind
08 No One Will Ever Know
09 Funny How Time Slips Away
10 Sweet Dreams
11 Tears On My Pillow
12 May You Never Be Alone
13 Trouble In Mind
14 (I’d Be) A Legend In Time
15 Here Comes My Baby Back Again
16 There Goes My Everything
17 She Called Me Baby
18 I Gotta Have My Baby Back
19 Nobody Wins
20 Loving Her Was Easier
21 I Really Don’t Want To Know
22 For The Good Times

GENRE: Original Country Music
BARCODE: 5397102175411