circle of talented friends & family. Sentimental love songs, early gospel hymns, fiddle-breakdowns, and disaster songs are included in this set with over 20 never before reissued. Stoneman was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in early 2008. Deluxe package also contains a 44 page booklet with an introduction by Patsy Stoneman, which contains many rare & haunting images.  (less)

Home A Drinkin'" "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl," "Fist City," and "You're Looking at Country" show a vibrant, independent woman with her own strong beliefs and keen observations. In her songs, she (literally) fights for her man's loyalty, stands up to his abuse, and moves on when he leaves. Among these 16 cuts are duets with Ernest Tubb and Conway Twitty, the controversial "The Pill" (yes, that pill), and her autobiographical trademark, "Coal Miner's Daughter." Lynn's defiant outlook picks up where Kitty Wells left off. --Marc Greilsamer  (less)

southern gospel song "When Men Pray". Jacky Jack White has had songs on the charts as a singer/songwriter since 1985. Some of the artists who have recorded his songs include Ray Stevens, Charley Pride, Buddy Jewell, Steve Wariner, Neal McCoy and Mark Lowery.  (less)

music. His show launched the career of Dolly Parton and the two singers embarked on a series of Top 10 country duets, winning the ACM’s Vocal Duo Award three years running. Country Music Ambassador includes Porter’s chart-toppers "A Satisfied Mind" and "Misery Loves Company," plus eight more Top 10 country hits.  (less)

North Carolina fundamentalist preacher, hits those Piedmont consonants hard, and looks like a cross between a contemporary Christian singer and a devotee of Trace Adkins, whose speaker-rattling baritone is an obvious inspiration. With producer Don Gehman (John Mellencamp) mixing Carroll's sensitive originals with hearty commercial songs from proven Nashville hitmeisters (Craig Wiseman, Casey Beathard, Jeffrey Steele), it's hard to get a good fix on Carroll's persona, and he lives and dies by the material. One schizophrenic moment: "No Good in Goodbye," his duet with Nashville convert Jewel, who co-wrote the song with Carroll and Shaye Smith. The fading pop icon has no idea how to phrase a song like this, a...  (less)

remind listeners how a fusion of styles and influences from both black and white musicians defined American country music in its formative decades. Included here are gems, both familiar and obscure, by the likes of Jimmie Rodgers, the Delmore Brothers, Jimmie Davis, Cliff Carlisle, and other country musicians who were clearly inspired by their blues cousins. Backed by the Nashville All-Stars, a supersonic string band comprising bluegrass masters Sam Bush (mandolin), Jerry Douglas (Dobro), Béla Fleck (banjo), and Byron House (stand-up bass), all playing on vintage 1920s and '30s acoustic instruments, Kaukonen revives and vividly reinterprets these blues-drenched country classics for a new generation of listeners. --Bob Allen  (less)

song "Soft Lights and Hard Country Music," sums up his aesthetic quite nicely, but what it doesn't tell you is that Bandy seemed to be the only country singer who had that aesthetic in the 1970s and early 1980s. The Mississippi-born Bandy was raised in Texas and on the music of fellow Meridian native Jimmie Rodgers, honky-tonk master Hank Williams, and eventually his idol George Jones--hear how Bandy pronounces "woman" in "I Just Started Hatin' Cheatin' Songs Today" for proof of his reverence for Possum. Despite the country-pop trends of the day, he saw no reason to ever stray far from the hardcore honky-tonk that's as natural in Texas as cowboy hats. You might say he presaged the neotraditionalism of the late 1980s, except that he really wasn't "reviving" anything. He was mer...  (less)

crossed-over to the pop charts, but was also nominated for a Grammy.  (less)

one disc, including the hit songs,"How I Feel", "Anyway", "Concrete Angel", "Happy Girl" and "In My Daughter's Eyes".  (less)

country music's grand tradition & has the skill to give powerful vocal performances and draw all the emotion from his selected material effortlessly. In 1976, Watson released his second LP on the Capitol label, Because You Believed In Me, the title track of which was a Top 20 hit single. Beautiful Country, released the following year, included the hit singles 'The Old Man & His Horn', 'I Don't Need A Thing At All', and 'Cowboys Don't Get Lucky All The Time', which was a hit in 1978. This latter song also appeared on the soundtrack of the Sam Peckinpah movie 'Convoy’. The two albums on this CD are drawn from the most commercially successful period of his career and capture Watson in his prime. Both released here on CD for the first time. Hux. 2005.  (less)