Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music: 1958

Various Artists

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Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music: 1958 Review

by Thom Jurek

Bear Family continues its stellar series of hony tonk classics, Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music, with 1958 being the year in review this time out. The inestimable Colin Escott is the series' reissue producer, and he introduces the set with an excellent liner essay; painstakingly researched discographical information is painstakingly provided by Richard Weize and his staff. As always, the packaging, a single disc packed in a hardback bound digipack with 72 pages of text and photos with interviews, studio reminiscences, and more, is outdone only by the music itself. The '50s in general were great years for country music, but the mid- to late entries in the decade were stratospheric as traditional country gave way to hillbilly boogie, rockabilly, and hard-edged honky tonk. This collection boasts Ray Price's "Invitation to the Blues" and "City Lights"; Faron Young's "Alone with You"; Webb Pierce's "Tupelo County Jail"; Kitty Wells' "I Can't Stop Loving You"; the Louvin Brothers' "My Baby's Gone"; Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Blue Blue Day"; Lefty Frizell's "Cigarette and Coffee Blues;" Jerry Lee Lewis' reading of "You Win Again"; Johnny Cash's "Ballad of a Teenage Queen," and 19 more. There isn't a weak moment here, but there is a great surprise in the inclusion of "Country Music Is Here to Stay" by Simon Crum (better known as Ferlin Husky). While every volume in this series is well worth owning, those from 1955 on are indispensable.

Track Listing

Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1 Don Gibson 02:33 SpotifyAmazon
2 Kitty Wells 02:16 SpotifyAmazon
3 Johnny Cash 02:15 SpotifyAmazon
4 Jim Reeves 02:13 SpotifyAmazon
5 The Louvin Brothers 02:47 SpotifyAmazon
6 Roy Acuff / Roy Acuff & His Smokey Mountain Boys 02:35 SpotifyAmazon
7 Johnnie & Jack 02:08 SpotifyAmazon
8 George Jones 02:53 SpotifyAmazon
9 Eddie Noack 02:34 SpotifyAmazon
10 Hank Locklin 02:32 SpotifyAmazon
11 Marty Robbins 02:10 SpotifyAmazon
12 Lefty Frizzell 02:38 SpotifyAmazon
13 Ray Price 02:50 SpotifyAmazon
14 Ernest Tubb 02:31 SpotifyAmazon
15 Johnny Cash / Johnny Cash & the Tennessee Two 02:34 SpotifyAmazon
16 Stonewall Jackson 02:31 SpotifyAmazon
17 Don Gibson 01:58 SpotifyAmazon
18 George Jones 02:22 SpotifyAmazon
19 Hank Locklin 02:38 SpotifyAmazon
20 Jerry Lee Lewis 02:59 SpotifyAmazon
21 James O'Gwynn 02:35 SpotifyAmazon
22 Webb Pierce 02:07 SpotifyAmazon
23 Ray Price 02:59 SpotifyAmazon
24 Faron Young 02:00 SpotifyAmazon
25 Jim Reeves 02:08 SpotifyAmazon
26 Marty Robbins 02:18 SpotifyAmazon
27 Charlie Walker 02:28 SpotifyAmazon
28 Johnny Cash 01:53 SpotifyAmazon
29 Simon Crum 03:13 SpotifyAmazon
30 Raney Family / Wayne Raney 02:16 SpotifyAmazon
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