Good review of "Hello, I`m Red Simpson"

It's inc redibl et h a t t h e c l a s s i c ' ld a h o Re d ' b y
Wade Ray was never a hit; in fact Wade Ray
never ever troubled the chart comoilers. Rich
Kienzle comments at the start of his notes that
Ray "deserved better". l'll say he deserved
be tter. T his n e w v o l u m e i n Be a r F a m ily' s
' Go nna S hak e T h i s S h a c k T o n i gh t'se r ie s is a
real belter. ldaho Red (BCD 17219) features 30
tracks with scarcely a wrong note in sight! In the
oe ri o d 1951 - ' 5 7 . R C A c u t 5 0 t i tle s o n Wa d e
Ray so he must have been a steady seller even
if he did not c h a r t . T h i s C D a l s o
includesa fine 1957singlefrom
the Dot / Abbottdeal; 'Two Red,
Red Lips' c/w 'BurningDesire'
are absolutelysuperb.Bothsides
rock.
A previouslyunissuedversion
of CharlieAdams''Cattin'Around'
is a great find. From 1953, it
displaysa similaritywith Ernie
Thisis not
Ford'sclassicboogies.
reallyas the piano
thatsurprising
pl aye r is B illy L i e b e r t w h o a l s o p la ye d o n th e
F ord rec ordin g s . T h i s s e r i e s s e e m s to g o
o n.".a ndon! T h i s v o l u m e b y W a d e Ra y is o n e o f
the best that I have heard.
Red Simpson may not be a household name
in country music circles in the same way that
Bu ck O wens a n d M e r l e H a g g a r d a r e , b u t h e
came out of t h e s a m e m e l t i n g p ot. L ike Bu ck,
Merle also Wynn Stewart and Tommy Collins,
Red was a Bakersfield, California creation.
Bakersfield was the country music centre for
California and the majority of the great names
from the area recorded for Capitol Records.
Be ar Family h a s r e c o g n i s e d t h e ta le n t o f a ll
those others named, now it's the turn of Red
wi th the Sx CD b o x s e t , H e l l o , I ' m Re d Sim p so n
( BC D 16944).
Bet ween 19 6 6 a n d 1 9 7 9 , S i m p so n ch a r te d
e i g ht times wit h t h e N o . 4 h i t , ' l ' m A T r u ck' b e in g
his most significant contribution to the truckd ri vi n g genre th a t w a s a l s o c e l e bra ted by Da v e D u d l e y , R e d
So vi ne, Dic k C u r l e s s a n d T h e
Wi l l i s Brot hers.
Born in Marc h 1 9 3 4 a n d s t i l lw i t h
us, Red Simpson is acknowledged
as one of the forefathers of that
Bakersfield sound. As recently as
2009, Merle Haggard told stories
and sang with Red at Buck Owens'
Crystal Palac e . B a c k i n 1 9 9 0,
Merle oaid tribute to Red with the
' n h is
song 'A B ar I n B a k e r s f i e l d o
' Bl ue J ungle' a l b u m o n C u r b . A s
you would expect,the themesof most of the
songson thisfine box-setare centredon lifeon
the road and the resultsof spendingso many
hourswithyourfooton the throttle,staringoutof
a grubbywindshield,
haulingfreightand the
pressuresthat these put on your life and your
relationshios.
He producedseven albumsfor Capitoland
these, togetherwith additionalvolumeson
Portland,Frontlineand 51-Westplus various
non-albumsinglesgoing back to 1957 and
demos from 1970, make up this stalwart
package.'Roll, Truck, Roll', 'The Highway
Patrol','Diesel
Smoke,Dangerous
Curves'and,
of course,'l'm A Truck' are some of his best
knowntitlesbut the qualityof the materialand
vocalsindicatethat Simosonshouldhavebeen
a much biggerstar than he was. Althoughhe
appearsto have been kept busy throughthe
yearswith performing,
writingand recording,he
in no way achievedthe heightsof the other
Bakersfield
and truckingcommunityof singers.
I particularlyenjoyedthe 'TruckDrivin'Fool'
album,originallyissuedin 1967 with 'Diesel
Smoke...'beingthe majortltle but aidedand
H OW A RDC OC K B U R N ' S
side as he played for Porter Wagoner for so
many years. Jerry Chesnut wrote this great
song; some of hi s other successesi ncl ude ' l t' s
Four In The Morni ng'for Faron Y oung, 'A G ood
Year For The Roses' for George Jones and a
tri o for E l vi s i n 'l t's Mi dni ght', 'Love C o mi n'
D ow n' and 'T.R .O.U -B .L.E .'.'P i ctures F rom
Li fe'sOther S i de',an ol d H ank Wi l l i amsnumber,
recorded i n Luke the D ri ftergui se, i s uncanny .
H ank Wi l l i ams l l l , the grandson of the g reat
man, adds hi s vocal and has the s ame
inflections of his grandfather. lt's quite eeriel
Kenny Lovelace is the guest picker on the
bl uesy 'A Matter Of Ti me', another fi ne
performance.
A really great CD it is but it's a tragedy that it
won't be anywhere near as successful as the
latest albums from Lady Antebellum, Lionel
Richie, Taylor Swift or Sugadand who have all
had N o.1 al bums recentl yi n the countrych arts .
And rounding off proceedings,we have a new
vol ume from Jasmi ne i n thei r H i l l bi l l y B op,
B oogi e & H onky Tonk B l ues (JA S M C D
3610/1) series. lt's another 2xCD set with 48
titles, all of which, apart from a brace, are
unknown to me or if I have heard of them, their
names have not made a huge i mpressi onon
me. That i n no w ay di mi ni s hes
the quality the music on offer
here- In actual fact, the bulk of
these tracks are excel l ent
exampl es of '50s hi l l bi l l ymus i c .
The problem for these hopeful
hitmakers,was the time that that
their discs were released. When
'1958 and 1959 came aro und,
the N ashvi l l e S ound w as
becoming very popular. Like it
or not, producers l i ke C het
Country
Comnteilt
abettedby Red'sverslonof the Dick Curless'
1965charter,'A TombstoneEveryMile','Truck
Daddy'(a co-writewith Buck Owens)and Billy
Mize's'SleeperFive-By-Two'.
In fact this entire
with very few
set boastsstrongperformances
that reguirethe use of the skip
button.
T he accompanyi ng hardback
b o o k runs to 108 pages w i th the
fu ll R ed S i mpson story w hi ch
b a sical l y came from the man
himself through five interviews
conducted between 2005 and
2 0 1 1. Others i ntervi ew edi ncl ude
Merle Haggard, Billy Mize, Fuzzy
Owen, Ken Nelson, Steve Stone
a n d B obby D urham. These hel p
to give the full Bakersfield
/ Simpsonpictureto
enhancethe musicfound on the discs.A very
thoroughtextfromScottB. Bomar,photographs
from Red himselfand the usual extensive
providethe listenerwithevefihing
discography
he or she needs to enjoy the
m u sic o f Jo se p h Ceci l S i mpson,
th a t' s ' Re d ' to yo u and me!
Marty Stuart, the Keeper of the
F la m e , h a s a n e w al bum out now
o n Su g a r Hill Re cords, N ashvi l l e,
Vo lu m e 1 : T e a r The Woodpi l e
Down (SUG-CD-4082), and it's so
refreshing to hear recently reco r d e d m u sic fr o m N ashvi l l esoundin g like th e co u n try musi c I have
loved for fifty years. Stuad and his
b a n d , T h e F a b u lo us S uperl ati ves,
h a ve th e a b ility to perform musi c that i s
a u th e n tic wh ilst a t the same ti me appeari ng
contemporary: a neat trick. This
n e w col l ecti on featuri ng ten
tracks, only two of which are
"o ldi es", bri stl es w i th enthusiasm, wonderful musicianship
a n d excel l ent vocal s and
harmonies. Stuart has written
six of the new songs by himself,
Stuartand the band combi neon
an instrumental. Dwayne Warwick provi des a corker i n
' Sundow n l n N ashvi l l e'and the
balance are the tlvo revivals,
'Holdin'On To Nothin"and 'PicturesFromLife's
OtherSide'.I mustsay thatthis albumis very
strong,not a weak performance
/ trackin sight.
The Stuartoriginalsall work well with 'A Song
Of Sadness'beingthe trumpcardin the pack;a
great song and a sensitiveperformance.
The
sound is reminiscentof the early sounds of
Merle Haggard and as Marty
Stuartis a hugefan, I suspectthis
is his influencehere. lt's a fine
'GoingGoingGone'is fast
tribute.
becominga favouriteand 'Truck
Driver's Blues' moves along
forcefully.Greatband!The instruBoogie'is a fine
mental'Hollywood
so a roundof
rockin'performance
applausepleasefor the superlative
Suoerlatives!
lf 'Song Of Sadness' is a nod to
M e r le Ha g g a r d ,th en 'S undow n In
Na sh ville ' is su r e ly a nod to the
great Buck Owens. I can certainlyhear him
singingit. And the two oldiesdo not disappoint.
'Holdin'On To Nothin",a songI firstheardfrom
PorterandDollybackaround1969,worksreally
well.lt's a nicetouchto haveBuckTrenton this
23
Atkins and Owen Bradleyhad
noti ced the i ncreasi ng sal e s of
arti sts w ho "popped" up thei r sound. J i m
Reeves, Don Gibson and many more would
ditch the steel and fiddles and garner big sales
as their music appealed to a wider range of
record buyers. That's not to say that authentic
i nstrumentati on w as out the w i ndow . The
shufflers, Ray Price and Charlie Walker among
them, conti nuedto chart heavi l yw i th thei r mus i c
which was not directed at a "pop" audience.
On this collection,fiddles, steel, upright bass,
echo (and a general lack of drums) are evident.
I love them but I suspect that even the staunchest of '50s country fans will find it a little too
much to take in one sitting. These collections
are fine to dip into or select a few to put on your
own comoilations. The sound on the discs is
also excellent.The matedal comes from a raft of
smal l l abel s, some of them custom deal s , but
the quality of the sound is never less than
acceptable. lt would appear that some time has
gone into processing these recordings to make
them sound this good. So we get solid material
andwell recordedbut,of course,
not a hit in sight! We are now
nearly sixty years on so this
does not matter in the least
today. No doubt it was much
moreimportantat the timel
here
I spottedmanyinfluences
with Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams,Red Foleyand KittyWells
appearingto be majorforcesat
the time. So now, take a bow
Kermit Phillips, Riley Crabtree,
Houston Barks, Dayton Harp,
Roy New,CharlieKellogg,Fiddlin'Sisk,Harry
Peppeland a coupleI did know,ChesterSmith
and JerryArnold.Goodto dip intoand at around
a tennerto own,it justcan'tbe bad.
That'sit for now.See v'allsoon!
L