9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A 'Sixties country classic, September 21, 2004
This review is from: Tombstone Every Mile (Audio CD)
A regional success up in New England, Maine's country croaker Dick Curless hit the Top 5 back in '65 with "Tombstone Every Mile," a classic tune that remains one of the best trucker songs ever recorded. Whether he really had what it takes to sustain a national career after that is debatable... As this album shows, he certainly had his limitations as a singer, and yet he also had a certain gravitas that could pull you in. On the sparser, more folk-oriented songs, he often ran out of juice, but with a good, solid, thumping backup behind him, he sounded pretty darn good. This disc is certainly worth checking out... and Curless's fans will be quite pleased to see this back in print as a reissue. (It's certainly easier to pick up than Bear Family's mega-box set, which has all the same material... and several CDs more! This one disc might be enough to get your feet wet...)
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Signature truckin' tune and country-folk, November 30, 2004
This review is from: Tombstone Every Mile (Audio CD)
The baritone-voiced, Maine-bred Curless had a broader range than his trucking themed hits might suggest. Though he could sing country inflected folk songs (similar, in many ways, to the early works of Waylon Jennings), he could also sing Western favorites, and croon straight-ahead pop songs. His signature, though, was this album's title cut, a harrowing tale of an icy Maine road - one of the genre's best.
Additional trucking hits would turn up on later albums, but this time out Curless turned to classics with a superb, funereal-paced "Streets of Laredo," a wonderfully laid-back cover of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," and a lightly Westernized cover of The Sons of the Pioneers' (by way of Jim Reeves') "Teardrops in My Heart." Some of the album's best tracks are its least produced, such as the acoustic guitar led bluegrass standard, "The Sunny Side of the Mountain" and Curless' superb waltz-time "Down by the Old River." Curless' dramatic baritone is also a fine match for the drama of Merle Travis' "Nine Pound Hammer" and the comedy of Wynn Stewart's "Uncle Tom."
Those who only know Curless from his trucking hits will enjoy this broader look at his folk-country and pop crooning.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
will not, December 26, 2011
This review is from: Tombstone Every Mile (Audio CD)
Ever pay these rediculous prices for this mediocre CD at best ther are 2 good songs on here get a grip amazon 70 + dollars ha ha ha ha ha ha good luck with that one Curless was never that good........
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