Customer Reviews

Tombstone Every Mile

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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...)

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.

The album Tombstone Every Mile released in 1965 on Tower Records was a turning point for "the baron" hitting the Country Billboard Charts in the top twenty. A different sound than the usual mainstream country we're used to hearing, almost a slight folk touch,Dick Curless has that deep rich baritone voice, accompanies himself with guitar on these fine recordings,Curless is an excellent guitar player singing these songs with definite authority,the title song,"Tombstone Every Mile",the man from Maine gives a warning to all truckers about a dangerous road in Maine. The Japanese written "China Nights",Curless was known as the "rice paddy ranger" and featured this tune on his radio show while stationed in Korea. - other notable songs: "Teardrop's In My Heart", the Curless originals - "Heart Talk",and "Down By The Old River". Tombstone Every Mile is a good one.

"Tombstone Every Mile" was a big hit when I was a grad student at UConn in 1965--not on campus, but at a country bar about ten miles away and about a mile beyond East Nowhere (eastern Connecticut is very country). We'd go to that bar to drink beer and play that song endlessly--Curless's baritone made it even more poignant and, if you've every lived through a bad New England winter, spot on. This is one of the great tragic songs of country music.

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........

i bought this CD especially for the song "Six Times a Day" which I downloaded to Ipod. I love it, The song is both sad and has a happy
ending. The singer has a nice masculine voice with a good range. This
CD is a good example of old-fanhioned country music.