Routes of Rockabilly - Various Artists

Routes of Rockabilly – Various Artists
Fantastic Voyage FVTD026

DISC 1
1. Thats All Right (Arthur Big Boy Crudup)
2. Love My Baby (Little Juniors Blue Flames)
3. Freight Train Boogie (The Delmore Brothers)
4. Move It On Over (Hank Williams)
5. Thirty Days To Come Back Home (Ernest Tubb)
6. Drinking Wine Spoli Oli (The Five Strings)
7. Welcome To The Club (Charline Arthur)
8. Country Cattin (Jimmy Swan)
9. Dign And Datin (Gene Henslee)
10. Peepin Eyes (Charlie Feathers)
11. Split Personality (Bill Taylor and Smokey Jo)
12. Juke Box Help Me Find My Baby (The Rhythm Rockers)
13. Im A Little Red Caboose (Maddox Brothers and Rose)
14. Daddys Got The Deep Elem Blues (Jimmie Revard)
15. Who Shot Willie (Arthur Guitar Boogie Smith)
16. False Hearted Girl (Tennessee Ernie and Ella Mae Morse)
17. Jersey Rock (Zeb Turner)
18. Rocking Chair On The Moon (Bill Haley)
19. Thirteen Women And Only One Man In Town (Dickie Thompson)
20. Motor Head Baby (Chuck Higgins)
21. Right String But The Wrong Yo Yo (Piano Red)
22. The House Of Blue Lights (Merrill E Moore)
23. The Milk Cow Blues (Jimmie Rogers Snow)
24. Blue Moon Of Kentucky (Elvis Presley)
25. Baby Lets Play House (Arthur Gunter)

DISC 2
1. Cash On The Barrelhead (The Louvin Brothers)
2. Bear Cat (Rufus Hound Dog Thomas Jr)
3. Mystery Train (Little Juniors Blue Flames)
4. I Dont Care If The Sun Dont Shine (Elvis Presley)
5. Get Rhythm (Johnny Cash)
6. My Kind Of Carrying On (Doug Poindexter)
7. My Gal Gertie (Dub Dickerson)
8. Corrine Corrina 1947 Radio Transcription (Bob Wills)
9. Settin The Woods On Fire (Hank Williams)
10. Long Gone Daddy (Lou Graham)
11. Granpaws A Cat (Jimmy Murphy)
12. Catfish Boogie (Tennessee Ernie)
13. Rock A Bye Baby (Skeeter Bonn)
14. Kitty Kat (Bill Mack)
15. Alligator Come Across (Arlie Duff)
16. Rockin With My Baby (Malcolm Yelvington)
17. Movie Magg (Carl Perkins)
18. Feelin Low (Ernie Chaffin)
19. Lie To Me Baby (Johnny Tyler)
20. I Wont Be Rockin Tonight (Jean Chapel)
21. Choo Choo boogie (Kenny Roberts)
22. Fujiyama Mama (Annisteen Allen)
23. Forty Cups Of Coffee (Danny Overbea)
24. Im Coming Home (Johnny Horton)
25. The Rockaway Rock (The Collins Kids)

DISC 3
1. Hound Dog (Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton)
2. Red Hot (Billy The Kid Emerson)
3. Sittin On Top Of The World (Bob Wills)
4. Honky Tonk Blues (Hank Williams)
5. No No Baby (Al Ferrier)
6. Tom Catin Around (Jimmy Selph)
7. Rockin And Rollin With Grandmaw (Carson Robison)
8. Oakie Boogie (Ella Mae Morse)
9. Burning The Wind (Billy Wallace)
10. Dont Cry Baby (Cal Veale)
11. Dig Boy Dig (Freddie Hart)
12. Honky Tonk Man (Johnny Horton)
13. Tennessee RocknRoll (Bobby Helms)
14. Stop Look And Listen (Patsy Cline)
15. Mamas Little Baby (Junior Thompson)
16. Dont Go Baby Don t Go (Al Coker)
17. Take And Give (Slim Rhodes)
18. Crazy Arms (Jerry Lee Lewis)
19. Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On (Roy Hall)
20. Sag Drag And Fall (Sid King and The Five Strings)
21. Catty Town (Pee Wee King)
22. Party (The Collins Kids)
23. Just Because (Elvis Presley)
24. Trucker From Tennessee (Link Davis)
25. Down The Road A Piece (Chuck Miller)



The latest release from the emergent Fantastic Voyage label takes a look at the roads that led us to Rockabilly Central. The musical highways and bye-ways that gave us rockabilly are featured, from the Blues Highway to the Rural Route. Listen to Hank plead the Honky Tonk Blues for the perfect example of both styles in one magical two minute stroll. Not everything in life is black and white though, so we also get a few of the lesser trodden paths like western swing. To top it all we get a handful of songs from the town where all these routes converged, Memphis.

When I got into rockabilly/rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘80s I was soon digging out anything relating to its roots and quickly started to worship at the House of Hank. The likes Ernest Tubb and Tennessee Ernie Ford entered my conscience a little later and never quite thrilled me like the Drifting Cowboy. A big of digging to see what made Elvis tick led me to Arthur Crudup and Arthur Gunter and the jigsaw was starting to come together. There were some brilliant compilations in the ‘80s that shaped the rst of my lifes musical taste. And while that took a lot of collecting and searching, this 3CD set gives it to you in one fell swoop.

Why buy it then? Well, as well as the well known artists mentioned above, there’s a whole host of less obvious singers. Oklahoma deejay Gene Henslee’s 1954 Imperial single Dig’n And Datin’ is a rural rocker with honky tonk piano and a hypnotic shuffle beat. I’ve always loved the great Arthur Smith boogie, Who Shot Willie and there may be some out there unfamiliar with the early Bill Haley gem Rocking Chair On The Moon. I love his Thirteen Women, but here we get the Dickie Thompson original which I can’t recall hearing before. It’s bluesy and Thompson plays a mean guitar.
The second CD has a trio of numbers that might not be known to everyone but will definitely appeal to your taste buds -You’ll love Skeeter Bonn’s RCA Rock A Bye Baby, Bill Mack’s Kitty Kat and Arlie Duff’s superb Alligator Come Across. Johnny Tyler’s Lie To Me Baby is raw, country bopper shows that the Starday label was as hot as any label in 1956.


The only tracks that didn’t hit the spot for me were the two gals Jean Chapel and Charline Arthur and Bob Wills’ Corrine, Corrina. Three poor tracks, perhaps that’s why it sells for £9.99 not a tenner! These three are more than made up for by the stupendously brilliant, Burning The Wind by Billy Wallace. I’ve been saying “ah, play it Mr Gibson” to every acoustic guitar break since I first bought the Mercury Rockabillies album many moons ago.

Released this week and retailing at under a tenner for a triple set, this 75 song set is an absolute steal and will please new fans and seasoned collectors alike. This is the type of set that will stay in the car for years. The road between Pontrhydfendigaid and Aberystwyth might not be one of the Routes of Rockabilly, but it’s certainly heard a bit of it over the years, and with this set in the glove compartment it's going to hear a bit more for some time yet.