Customer Reviews

Essential Price: 1951-1962

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don't buy this collection if you're looking for "For the Good Times" and the other "Nashville Sound" productions Ray Price put out in the late sixties and early seventies. However, if you like hard-core honky tonk out of the 1950's, this is a must. The collection takes you from Ray's earliest work (in which he sounds remarkably like Hank Williams) to the string of hits he had after quickly developing his own unique brand. His voice was clear, the arrangments and harmonies oustanding, and the songwriting top-knotch, coming from the likes of Mel Tillis, Roger Miller, Harlan Howard, Lefty Frizzel, Bob Wills, and Bill Anderson. Fear not, these are not re-records but the originals of "Heartaches by the Number", "Please Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "City Lights", and many others. Outstanding!

The first half of this album reminds me of more classic honky-tonk, Hank Williams-ish voice and musical vibe. It's good, notably "I'll Be There" and "Release Me". To my taste, though, from "Wasted Words" on to the end of the record there isn't a bad note on this album; this is chronologically later material, with a more evolved sound, stellar pedal steel guitar playing (some, if not all of which is probably the great Buddy Emmons), Ray's voice is fantastic, the cuts are beautifully put together, not overdone, and it'll have you screaming, singing, and crying. This is music for whoopin' it up, or for bourbon and heartbreak. One of my desert-island discs, truly. Night Life, also Ray Price, is another absolutely fantastic record.

if you want a disk that defines honky tonk after hank williams, this is a great place to start. every tune is outstanding. i guess ray price in these years is about as good as it gets. the steel doesn't just whine, it bleeds. and the fiddles cut in just the way they ought to. then there's ray's really superior voice, and then there are those HARMONIES. the best.

Yeah, I'd give this one 6 stars if I could. Ray Price invented the honky tonk sound, and this album clearly documents the development in wonderful progression. Tracks 1-5 are development, 6 through 20 are the best old, hard edge, wintage Texas honky tonk ever recorded. This takes me back to small Texas bars, my fake ID, and Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys singing for hours after the bar normally closed, everyone drunk and loving it. The album wisely ends before Ray went weird, singing such pop junk as "Danny Boy" and "For The good Times", and traveling with a frikkin orchestra. This is Ray in that short window of greatness, the true heart of the Texas honky tonk.

As a youngster growing up in Tennessee with all sorts of music around me, country, soul, blues, etc., I was not particularly a fan of country music. It always seemed that Ray Price songs all started with the same guy(s) on fiddle from the top and went into the song from there. I guess a formula works as one worked for the 1930s Inkspots in a different genre of music. Once into the song though, as done by Mr. Price, it grabbed you and for me made me feel involved in what he was singing about. He made me understand. Songs like "City Lights", "Heartaches By The Number" and "Crazy Arms" (all recorded by other artists as well) are classic country and can easily translate from honky tonk to the man's later efforts in a lounge singer style which predicted and preceded Charlie Rich's success-at-last in the "countrypolitan" style. I heartily recommend this package of solid country music. I still wonder why it took the Country Music Hall of Fame until 1996 to induct this man with the rich voice that pleased decades of fans.

This is easily one of the greatest honky tonk CDs available. Why we can't we hear this fanatastic music today? If you want twangy, moaning honky tonk, this is it. This IS country music.

How can you ever attempt a collection of only 20 songs from such a legend as Ray Price???? Well, this CD does just that, and although there will always be other songs that maybe should've been included, it is impossible to argue with the selection of hits included here. This is classic Ray Price; the days of Ray and the Cherokee Cowboys....not the later, tired-old Nashville Sound Ray of the early-'70's. Absolute, true, honky tonk music with songs written by none other than Don Gibson and Mel Tillis, sang by one of the most recognizable voices of Country Music. While I obviously feel that the Bear Family collection is the Gold Standard for early Ray Price, this collection by Columbia will provide a good start. Original Recordings here.

This cd is one of the cornerstones of my country music collection that features over 1500 selections.

This to me is the music that defined what country music is and was.

All of these songs are original recordings, and the booklet is worth the price of the cd itself!

Although a lot of big hits were left off in favor of other non hit songs, this cd is a must for any music fan. If you don't like this, you don't like country.

Highlights from Ray Price's early years before Cherokee Cowboys, 1956 introduction of "Ray Price shuffle beat" on "Crazy Arms", With Roger Miller on "Invitation To The Blues", and "Heartaches By The Number" are all here. Simply PRICE-less!

THIS C.D. IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST COPY I BOUGHT. IT ERASED ITSELF IN LESS THAN A YEAR...GO FIGURE. THIS C.D. HAS MUCH BETTER SOUND AND LESS BACKGROUND STATIC.