Customer Reviews

Country Legends

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Well-focused and more thorough than other Gibson collections. A real effort was made here, both in the song selection, and the extensive liner notes, to emphasize the collaboration between Don Gibson and his producer/guitarist Chet Atkins. These two exceptional artists truly created in the artistic, not merely commercial sense, a new, more urban style of country music. Gibson's "Big Four" compositions are here:"Oh Lonesome Me", "Legend In My Time", "Can't Stop Lovin' You", and "Sweet Dreams". It's nice to find "Who Cares" and "Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" together on a single disc collection, as these two songs are usually buried in multi-disc sets. They are, deservedly, highlighted better in this album. One can listen to this album, and like a collection of mid-40's Bill Monroe, or Elvis mid-50's Sun sessions, get an appreciation of something going on that was actually taking a genre somewhere new-- in this case, the development of the Nashville Sound. The liner notes do a very good job of detailing just what Gibson and Atkins set out to do. My personal favorite 'throw-in' cut is Camptown Races', the Stephan Foster piece of Americana that gets tender loving care from vocalist and producer. Putting the new sound to work here is like restoring an antique to new luster. If I had my 'druthers' here, I'd have picked a couple of Gibson self-penned tunes... maybe "Times Were Good", or "Far, Far, Away", instead of "Funny, Familiar, Forgotten Feelings" and "Did'nt Work Out". The former, a Mickey Newberry tune, is good, but is a little heavy on the 'doo-wop' for me. But, that's just me playin' favorites, and nitpicking, in light of the overall quality of this album. Don Gibson was one of country music's true originals, and his artistry is wonderfully portrayed here.

It doesn't look like there's heavy traffic here to see this compilation by The Sad Poet. The Amazon info is dated also for Don Gibson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, two years before he passed away in Nashville. This is a pretty good package of Big Don's music, some really solid hits. Don had a roller coaster career what with drug and alcohol problems but he left us with some fine music much of which is in this compilation. Too bad it doesn't include his later (1972) country hit, "Woman, Sensuous Woman" but that could have been for another label. This one is worth the price and I recommend it.

This is one of the great country singers of all time. These are the original RCA recordings. Watch out for the ones that were re-recorded under another label. They don't sound as good as the original RCA recordings, and, in my opinion, shouldn't be sold without a disclaimer.

These songs were originally produced by Chet Atkins, and you will hear his unmistakably great sounding guitar on many of the recordings. Floyd Cramer also provides accompaniment on the piano and Charlie McCoy on the harmonica.

I don't know of any singers today who can compare with the likes of Don Gibson, Connie Smith, and David Houston. Do yourself a favor and buy this album. You will have countless hours of listening pleasure.

Listening to Don Gibson is always soo great! I really enjoy this CD, including all the good songs I remember!

Contains all the great Don Gibson hits plus some I heard for the for time.
Well worth the price!

Purchased this CD to obtain the original recording of "Oh Lonesome Me", covered by many others since. And, I now have some of his other work to study and compare. An excellent example of the time(s) western swing was melding with R & B to form the short lived Rockabilly genre, which then evolved into Rock n' Roll. There'a an excellent YouTube video of Bob Luman (of the same era) performing "Oh Lonesome Me", I believe on the Louisana Hayride (with Joe Maphis).

Don Gibson matured with this CD. His voice has that silky smooth sound we know from music on the radio. He may be called a "Country Legend", but the songs on this CD go beyond country. This is a good CD.