Songs for Rounders

Songs for Rounders

ASIN: B00005YOH9

Track Listings

1. Three Times Seven

2. I'll Be a Bachelor Till I Die

3. Drunkard's Blues

4. Teach 'Em How to Swim

5. Dry Bread

6. Cocaine Blues

7. Deep Elm

8. Bummin' Around

9. Little Blossom

10. Roving Gambler

11. Left My Gal in the Mountains

12. May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister

Tracks:

Beaumont Rag
Headin' Down The Wrong Highway
After All The Things I've Done
Woodchopper's Ball, The
Drivin' Nails In My Coffin
Kilshama Klingo
Bartender's Polka
Bubbles In My Beer
Make Room In Your Heart (For A Memory)
Summit Ridge Drive
I Wouldn't Miss It For The World
Lawdy, What A Gal
Three Times Seven
I'll Be A Bachelor Till I Die
Drunkard's Blues
Teach 'Em How To Swim
Dry Bread
Cocaine Blues
Deep Elm
Bummin' Around
Little Blossom
Rovin' Gambler
Left My Gal In The Mountains
May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister

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

Customer Reviews:

Einstien's student outswings Spade Cooley.......2004-02-10

Hank Thompson's web site boasts that Hank Thompson studied in Princeton's Physics Department when Albert Einstien department chair!!!!

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

Two great albums on one CD! Dance Ranch the first album is a definitive western swing album maybe a bit glossy in production at times but the pickin is superb. Songs for Rounders is just an amazing album if there was a western swing equal to Sinatra's Swingin Lovers this is it. Ii's as if Dean Martin had possesed Bob Wills, songs like "Teach em how to swim" Bachelor til I die and Cocaine Blues are awesome. Yes, alcohol gambling drugs and smoking are evil but if done with a western beat it can be cool.

Average customer rating:

So glad to have found this group...

Now-a-Day Songs

Manufacturer: The Rounders
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAECX4
Release Date: 2004-09-28

Customer Reviews:

So glad to have found this group..........2007-05-17

I found The Rounders by accident, while looking for another band, and am thrilled I did. I listen to them almost every day now. They have a unique sound that is quite difficult to detail accurately. If you love blues (any style) jazz & rock, then please give this band a listen, especially this CD Now-a-Day Songs. They blend an old classic style of blues, rock, and jazz with a modern twist.

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