The Essential Carl Smith (1950-1956)

Amazon.com
The "gentleman honky-tonker" pulls off a rather difficult feat on these 20 tunes: he polishes up the primitive honky-tonk style of Hank Williams and mentor Ernest Tubb without completely pulling up the roots. He achieves a refined and graceful sound without resorting to overblown arrangements, oceans of strings, or sappy material; he handles delicate ballads with sensitivity, not sentimentality. Much of his success results from his tight-knit, subtly charming band, which includes electric guitarist Sammy Pruett and pedal-steel man Johnny Sibert. Tubb gave Smith his first chart-topper, "Don't Just Stand There," while the expressive "Are You Teasing Me" comes from the Louvin Brothers. Little-known Freddie Hart provided Smith's biggest hit, "Loose Talk," and Boudleaux Bryant, Nashville's original full-time songwriter, penned five of these gems. Rather than ignore tradition, Smith infuses it with elegance. --Marc Greilsamer

Tracks:

Guilty Conscience
I Just Dropped In To Say Goodbye
I Overlooked An Orchid
If Teardrops Were Pennies
Let's Live A Little
(When You Feel Like You're In Love) Don't Just Stand There
Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way
It's A Lovely Lovely World
Are You Teasing Me
This Orchid Means Goodbye
Hey Joe!
Trademark
Just Wait Till I Get You Alone
Dog-Gone It Baby, I'm In Love
Back Up Buddy
Go Boy Go
Loose Talk
Kisses Don't Lie
There She Goes
You Are The One

Amazon.com

The "gentleman honky-tonker" pulls off a rather difficult feat on these 20 tunes: he polishes up the primitive honky-tonk style of Hank Williams and mentor Ernest Tubb without completely pulling up the roots. He achieves a refined and graceful sound without resorting to overblown arrangements, oceans of strings, or sappy material; he handles delicate ballads with sensitivity, not sentimentality. Much of his success results from his tight-knit, subtly charming band, which includes electric guitarist Sammy Pruett and pedal-steel man Johnny Sibert. Tubb gave Smith his first chart-topper, "Don't Just Stand There," while the expressive "Are You Teasing Me" comes from the Louvin Brothers. Little-known Freddie Hart provided Smith's biggest hit, "Loose Talk," and Boudleaux Bryant, Nashville's original full-time songwriter, penned five of these gems. Rather than ignore tradition, Smith infuses it with elegance. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

PLEASED.......2006-08-25

VERY WELL PLEASED WITH THE ITEM I PURCHASED AND THE PURCHASE TRANSACTION. ALL WENT AS EXPECTED.

Real country music!.......2006-07-25

I bought this for my husband who is a die-hard country music fan, but only from the good old days. He says the music passing for country today is not country music. His collection includes, of course, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, and other classic country artists. I knew he would love this Carl Smith CD, and he does! It's classic country, back in the days when country was country!

My favorite song on this CD is I Overlooked an Orchid. That song always brings tears to my eyes. It's just an all around great collection of songs from one of the great country artists.

Genuine Country.......2006-02-21

Love it! Genuine Country music from one of the greatest artists in the industry.

Country the way country SHOULD be!.......2004-06-29

Next to Hank Williams, this is THE man! Carl Smith!! I've been a real fan of his since I was about 7 or 8. He was a big favorite with my dad. It rubbed off.
Believe it or not, we only had one Carl Smith album the whole time I was growing up. We had "The Carl Smith Special" which as near as I can tell by using Columbia's numbering system was released in late '67 or early '68. It was a superb record. I still have it! So when I heard this disc for the first time, even though it was a bit different due to the changes in style and recording and so on, I didn't need any time to settle in to its sound. Man, he was gooood!
I really hope that eventually some day some company will release some of the 60's country albums in their original form. Country music was phenomenal during that decade! Carl Smith's albums (I've since acquired more) were among the cream of the crop at that time. Their release is long over due.
As for this disc, FANTASTIC!!!

The title is accurate this time.......2004-02-12

Record companies use titles like Essential, Best of and Greatest hits out of habit, even where the contents do not fit the title. On this occasion, they got it right. Carl Smith was hugely successful at the time but he has now faded into obscurity, leaving a vast legacy of recorded music and a magnificent daughter, Carlene Carter, who had some notable successes in her own singing career and who eventually covered You are the one (the last song on this collection). Yes, Carl was married to June Carter, better remembered as the wife of Johnny Cash, for a time.

Time plays strange tricks in popular music and less successful (at the time) artists like the Louvin Brothers are better recognized. Of course, the Louvin brothers deserve their recognition, which owes a lot to excellent cover versions of their songs by Emmylou and others. Actually, one of their songs is included here (Are you teasing me) so Carl is also grateful for their songwriting skills. Carl has been less lucky in having his legacy immortalized via cover versions, although Porter and Dolly did a great cover of If teardrops were pennies, while Mickey Gilley was more successful with I overlooked an orchid than Carl had been.

One of the other interesting aspects of this collection is that several of the songs were written or co-written by Boudleaux Bryant - this was before the Everly brothers came along to enchant the world with the classic Bryant songs like Bye bye love and All I have to do is dream. Among the Bryant songs here are Hey Joe (revived in the eighties by Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley with a modified title, Hey Moe Hey Joe) and It's a lovely lovely world (also revived in the eighties, this time by Gail Davies).

This is a collection of fifties country music at its most traditional. Perhaps the appeal of this type of music is limited these days but Carl was one of the best country singers of his generation. If you enjoy the music of Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb, you will surely enjoy this collection.

Music Album:

Music Album