Dance Ranch/Songs for Rounders
Dance Ranch/Songs for Rounders
ASIN: B00000JWCF
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
If they're in print at all, recordings from honky-tonk's golden age have usually been presented as patchworks of greatest hits while original albums get consigned to oblivion. That trend has been reversed: witness these two platters from Hank Thompson's prime Capitol years. Dance Ranch, recorded in September 1957, features a lively (albeit Merle Travis-less) band, distinguished by Western swing fiddler Harold Hensley, takeoff guitarist Joe Maphis, and underappreciated steel-guitar savant Bobbie White. Stellar cuts include the 1940s classic "Drivin' Nails in My Coffin," the regretful weeper "Headin' Down the Wrong Highway," and four big-band-inspired instrumentals, all bubbling with spontaneity. Songs for Rounders, on the other hand, lingers in the seediest honky-tonk corners, a remorseless document of lying, killing, drinking, gambling, and all manner of ramblin' round. This 1959 album presents Thompson at his bluesiest--riveting yet still playful. With his affable, precisely tuned baritone, he lends "Drunkard's Blues" (a reworking of "St. James Infirmary") a dry gallows humor and turns traditionals like "Rovin' Gambler" and "Deep Elm" into wry jaunts. Both albums are welcome and essential--they rarely repeat material from available compilations--and together they neatly capture Thompson's dual personality: the spirited Western swinger and the masterful honky-tonk showman. --Roy Kasten
Dance Ranch/Songs for Rounders,Hank Thompson,Koch Records,Bakersfield Sound,Country,Country & Western,Honky Tonk,Pop,Traditional Country,Western Swing
Average customer rating: 
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Dance Ranch/Songs for Rounders
Hank Thompson Manufacturer: Koch Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
| Country
| Styles
| Music
Honky-Tonk
| Country
| Styles
| Music
Western Swing
| Country
| Styles
| Music
General
| Traditional Country
| Country
| Styles
| Music
ASIN: B00000JWCF Release Date: 1999-09-21 |
Tracks:
Amazon.com
If they're in print at all, recordings from honky-tonk's golden age have usually been presented as patchworks of greatest hits while original albums get consigned to oblivion. That trend has been reversed: witness these two platters from Hank Thompson's prime Capitol years. Dance Ranch, recorded in September 1957, features a lively (albeit Merle Travis-less) band, distinguished by Western swing fiddler Harold Hensley, takeoff guitarist Joe Maphis, and underappreciated steel-guitar savant Bobbie White. Stellar cuts include the 1940s classic "Drivin' Nails in My Coffin," the regretful weeper "Headin' Down the Wrong Highway," and four big-band-inspired instrumentals, all bubbling with spontaneity. Songs for Rounders, on the other hand, lingers in the seediest honky-tonk corners, a remorseless document of lying, killing, drinking, gambling, and all manner of ramblin' round. This 1959 album presents Thompson at his bluesiest--riveting yet still playful. With his affable, precisely tuned baritone, he lends "Drunkard's Blues" (a reworking of "St. James Infirmary") a dry gallows humor and turns traditionals like "Rovin' Gambler" and "Deep Elm" into wry jaunts. Both albums are welcome and essential--they rarely repeat material from available compilations--and together they neatly capture Thompson's dual personality: the spirited Western swinger and the masterful honky-tonk showman. --Roy KastenCustomer Reviews:
Einstien's student outswings Spade Cooley.......2004-02-10
Three instrumental tunes here are worth the whole price: Summit Ridge Drive and Woodchopper's Ball, two swing hits and the old time Texas fiddle tune, Beaumont Rag which the band turns into a great swing hit. The arrangements with the strong hard fiddles, the rocking drummer, and the tightness of the arrangments and the walls of swinging song with great solos coming through compare to anything anyone in Western Swing ever put together. They give you a feeling what could have happened with the ideas of the Spade Cooley (Hank's real teacher not Einstien) Orchestra if Sapde hadn't degenerated it off into businessman's beat pop irrelvancy but had been allowed to ferment the way the musicians wanted it.
Hanks voice is strong, deep, and powerful, full of humor and jive. There's no phoney country cowboy BS here, just straight strong Western pop singing. Of course, this cd is filled with Honky Tonk favorites like Bubbles in My Bear, Driving Nails in my Coffin, and Headin Down that Wrong Highway. He's got those sentimental folk songs like Can I sleep in your barn Tonight Mister, a gem from the turn of the century that was a revival tune when Charlie Poole recorded it in the twenties.
However, what really works is the strong hard core singing and swinging here. It isn't about the macho Honky Tonk image, a lot of it is about a very high standard of singing, a higher standard of musicianship, and a band that was meticulously arranged, and perfectly recorded.
Go get em Hank
Ultra Western Lounge.......2000-08-15
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