Customer Reviews

Freight Train Boogie

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Several years ago The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website included a list entitled 500 Songs That Shaped Rock And Roll. The Delmore Brothers' "Hillbilly Boogie" made that list. After picking up this CD it's easy to see why. Though they were a country act, they incorporated blues, boogie and rockabilly elements into their sound. Rabon and Alton Delmore recorded for King from 1946 until 1952, when Rabon died of lung cancer. [Alton died in 1964.] The twenty tracks included here (half of which are originals) provide a terrific overview of two musicians who--as the liner notes point out--"were too modern for the determined traditionalism of bluegrass, (but) too oldtime for the hip-swivelling of rock 'n' roll." Every track is a delight. This is important listening. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

What a superb album. Taken from the Brothers' years with Cincinnati based King Records (1945 - 1952), the album features classics such as 'Blues Stay Away From Me', with its highly distinctive guitar work, and my own favorite, 'Hillbilly Blues', as well as the title track. The album is a nice mixture of blues and boogie-woogie, with the Brothers' sweet harmonies backed up by some great musicians. Apart from Wayne Raney's superb harmonica, check out Zeke Turner's electric guitar work on 'Boogie Woogie Baby'. And is that Merle Travis backing up on 'Hillbilly Blues'? And then there's Roy Lanham's electric guitar on 'Peach Tree Street Boogie'. But every track on this album has something to commend it. So don't mess around. Buy it! You won't regret it.

Ace Records should be given a big pat on the back for releasing these Delmore Brothers classics cut for King Records between 1946 - 1952 . If you like bluesy , hillbilly , country boogie in its rawest form , this cd is a must . Fantastic vocal harmonies , great blues harp , great guitar picking and twenty tracks that are the equal to anything that you will find in American Roots music . These recordings are as earthy as the soil of the Elkmont farm that the brothers grew up on , and so influential in that they played a major part in laying down the blueprint for the Rock&Roll that was to change the 20th Century for ever . I can't think of higher praise than that !

Wayne Rainey and the Delmore Brothers are two of my favorite artists. This CD is an excellent example of their work. Also like the tribute to the Demore Brothers by the Lovin Brothers. As a collector of this type of music, I highly recommend this CD.

I played this record to a few friends of mine who are really into roots rock 'n' roll and rockabilly and they couldn't believe it that they never heard about the Delmore Brothers and Wayne Raney! This is the music that paved the way for Sun Records and all the new rockabilly styles in the 1950's. There is so much power and energy in this music! It is so good to have this compilation available, it should be in every collection of music lovers, no matter if you are into Country, Blues or Rockabilly/Rock 'N' Roll!

This is like a Jimmie Rogers album or a Robert Johnson Album, or Decca Basie, it is soooooooooo good that when you play it, it stays on the player for days, sometimes weeks. This is the last part of the Delmore Brother's career. It contains stuff that is typical of their old stuff, but suffused with the new approach to country music that came after World War II. Probably Arthur Guitar Boogie Smith (as opposed to Fiddlin' Arthur Smith) ushered it in with his Guitar Boogie. However, the Delmore Brothers here joined by Wayne Rayney, and Jethro Burns (the great electric mandolinist of Homer and Jethro) who ad some great electric guitar playing on a lot of the cuts, get the thing going with great guitar boogie music.
there is something sweet and real and at the same time modern--despite the cynicsm of the liner notes that come with the CD that don't understand it--and really working class about it. I keep thinking of the used car blues, and the Sand Mountain Blues. "I am just a poor boy and work's my middle name."
Like I say, discount the cynicism of the liner notes. Steamboat Bill the last song is a great rhythm tune.
It's good to remember that the guitar boogie music along with folks who came this way via a Western Swing direction like Moon Mullican were part of what inspired rockabilly along with rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

Rock and Roll begins as a phase of R & B starting around 1950-1953 before any Sun records were made of rockabilly, although in the late 40s there had been a R & B craze of songs on the topic and using the words "Rock and Roll." As for Sun, one of the first Rock and Roll records, Ike Turner/Jackie Brenson's historic "Rocket 88," (in 1952 or 53 I believe) was recorded by Sun. Sun began primarily as a blues and R & B operation that sold or leased recordings to national distributors like Chess and King. The young, barely out of high school Ike Turner, functioned like an A & R man for sun bringing some of the greatest blues stars like Howling Wolf into the studios for the first time and cuting some fine records himself.

The Delmore brothers are one of those names that you no longer hear. And that's a real shame. Not only were they the frist true "power" duet, but introduced the world to the finest musicians ever to grace the music world, including none other than Merle Travis and Wayne Raney. The 20 songs contained here are not your usual traditional country....in fact, at the time of their recordings, the Delmore Bros could probably be better characterized as Rock and Roll (had it been "invented" at the time!) or Bop. This album is well worth your money, and definately, worth a listen.