Customer Reviews

Truck Driver's Boogie: Big Rig Hits, 1939-1969

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As I listened to this superb collection, it occurred to me that the truck-drivin' songs that once were a staple of country music amounted to a continuation of the tradition of occupational folk songs. People used to sing about their jobs, whether they were cowboys, farmers, millworkers, chain-gang prisoners, coal miners, railroaders, moonshiners, lumberjacks, buffalo skinners, or sailors. In his otherwise excellent liner notes, compiler Jeremy Tepper doesn't make this connection, and of course it isn't necessary for one to be aware of it to appreciate what a rich genre truck-drivin' songs were in their heyday.

It all started with "Truck Driver's Blues," written by Ted Daffan (who also composed the classic "Born to Lose") and recorded by Cliff Bruner's Western-swing band in 1939. From then on, following this disc's chronologically arranged selections, the attentive listener gets an incidental education in the evolution of country music, from Karl and Harty's sentimental old-timey "Truck Driver's Sweetheart" through tougher honkytonk fare (Doye O'Dell's "Diesel Smoke [Dangerous Curves]") and rockabilly sounds (Johnny Horton's "I'm Coming Home"). There's also Jimmy Martin's immortal bluegrass ballad "Widow Maker" which touches the heart even with its more than faintly ludicrous storyline. Dick Curless's "A Tombstone Every Mile" evokes the spirit of an earlier kind of occupational-hazard song, the train-wreck ballad. Perfectly written and wonderfully performed, Del Reeves's "Girl on the Billboard" -- surely among the most underrated songs in all of country music -- tells the delirious tale of a driver driven to distraction by lust- and amphetamine-fueled fantasies. There's also Terry Feller's original (1954) "Truck Driving Man," perhaps the most covered song in the genre, and the king of them all, Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road." The good-humored, feisty "Little Pink Mack," by Kay Adams, is one of the rare period (1965) truck-drivin' songs about a truck-drivin' woman. The set ends on a perfect note, with Red Simpson's melancholy, folkish recitation "Roll, Truck, Roll."

This collection documents the time -- which now seems like history as ancient as the era that produced "I Ride an Old Paint" and "Wreck of the Old 97" -- when country music and truck drivers were rolling down a highway in hillbilly heaven.

Country music and truck driving reached an intersection several decades before the crossover popularity of C.W. McCall's "Convoy." The regional itinerancy of country musicians, touring the signal range of radio giants like WSM, WWVA and KWKH, found them pounding the same pavement as America's truckers, subjecting themselves to the same hardships of life on the road and writing about it in their songs.

As early as 1939, "Truck Driver's Blues," featuring vocals and piano from Moon Mullican, provided a lyrical template of the road ahead: weary, lonely days relieved by a cup of coffee, a honky-tonk gal and a couple of drinks before saddling up for the next day's ride. Many of these juke-box hits were aimed at gear-jammers themselves, celebrating the trucker as the last of the American cowboys, navigating the frontier of commerce as they raced home to their loved-ones. Art Gibson's "I'm a Truck Driving Man" recalls the romance of early cross-country travel, and Johnny Horton's "I'm Coming Home" barrels down the road with a rockabilly beat.

By the 1960's Dave Dudley, Dick Curless and Red Simpson were scoring frequent trucking-themed hits. Curless' "A Tombstone Every Mile," written about a tragically dangerous section of Route 2A in Maine, may be the only song ever to help get a U.S. Interstate built. Kay Adams' "Little Pink Mack" provides a proto-feminist view, and Bobby Braddock's "Gear Bustin' Sort of a Feller" takes a run fully fueled on coffee, pills and sheer adrenaline.

These twenty tracks mix classics ("Six Days on the Road" "Roll Truck Roll"), early rarities and original versions made popular as covers. Liner notes from Diesel Only's Jeremy Tepper and vintage publicity shots round out a full load.

4-1/2 stars, if Amazon allowed fractional ratings.

I like this collection of Truck Driver's song a lot. Especially "Truck Drivers Boogie" since it was recorded by my Dad Edwin and Uncle Edward the Milo Twins. I appreciate the favorable reviews. Thanks. Winston Edwin Miolen/Plyler

This is with no doubt the best compilation of real trucking song's ever put together. They don't make them like they use too, that's a fact. You do have to like this genre to understand the depth of how important these song's really are. If you care for this type of country at all,(or this profession), crack a beer, sit back, and take a great journey down the old highway. Five star's for this one!