Very Best of

Wynn Stewart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 10, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B0002KQOJ4
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,862 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Wrong Company

2. We’ll Never Love Again

3. Wishful Thinking - Wynn Stewart

4. A World I Can’t Live In - Jan Howard

5. The One You Slip Around With - Jan Howard

6. Faded Love - Jan Howard

7. Above And Beyond (The Call Of Love) - Wynn Stewart

8. How The Other Half Lives

9. Make An Honest Woman Out Of Me - Jan Howard

10. Too Many Teardrops Too Late - Jan Howard

11. Playboy - Wynn Stewart

12. Big, Big Love - Wynn Stewart

13. Yankee Go Home

14. Let Me Know - Jan Howard

15. Ages and Ages Ago - Jan Howard

16. Uncle Tom Got Caught - Wynn Stewart

17. Bring It On Back To Me - Jan Howard

18. Heartaches For A Dime - Wynn Stewart

Editorial Reviews

Features the complete duets of Wynn Stewart and Jan Howard

Wynn Stewart was one of the leading figures of West Coast country music, developing in the early ‘50s the style that would later become known as the Bakersfield sound. Jan Howard was one of the hottest female vocalists in country music, often referred to as one of the "Grand Ladies" of the Grand Ole Opry.

Together and separately, they cut a string of hits in the early ’60s that is the basis for this unique collection of hits and rarities.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar selection of early-60s California hard country, August 30, 2004

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

Varese continues to fruitfully mine the masters of Challenge and Jackpot records, augmenting their previous Wynn Stewart collection with this volume of work by Stewart and Jan Howard. Although the track list duplicates several cuts from the earlier collection, the addition of three more Stewart-Howard duets and Howard's solo sides really fleshes out their work from this seminal period of California country music.

Stewart and Howard were introduced through Stewart's friend, and Howard's husband, songwriter Harlan Howard. Jan Howard's work singing demos for her husband and his songwriting pals (Buck Owens, Hank Cochran, and others) quickly blossomed into a career that included several fine duets with Stewart, as well as numerous charting solo singles. The four duets balance Stewart's dramatic delivery with Howard's more level-headed accompaniment, creating the sort of dynamic a real-life husband and wife might share. The call-and-response of "Wrong Company" plays Stewart's sad-sack sorrow against Howard's scolding reminder, and the harmonious singing of "We'll Never Love Again" and "How the Other Half Lives" provide cruel contrasts to the lyrics of broken love.

Like their duets, both artists' solo sides hung tight to the fiddle and steel sound that Nashville was smoothing over in the early '60s. Stewart waxed some of the finest hard-country singles of the era, including icons like "Wishful Thinking," "Playboy," "Big, Big Love" and "Heartaches for a Dime." Howard could sing to a twangy honky-tonk backing too, with singles like "The One You Slip Around With" and "Too Many Teardrops Too Late" being prime examples. More often though, Howard sang ballads, including steel-lined weepers like "Ages and Ages Ago" and piano-backed heartbreak like "A World I Can't Live In" and "Make an Honest Woman Out of Me." Both Stewart and Howard picked up the beat to near rock 'n' roll once in awhile, with the former's "Uncle Tom Got Caught" featuring a fine Bo Diddley beat, and the latter's "Bring it on Back to Me" set to a superb blues-rockin' sound.

Deeper helpings of Stewart and Howard are available separately, but one could barely ask for a better introduction to their charms, and the power of California country music's rebuttal to the Nashville Sound. (Collector's note, tracks 6, 10, 14, and 15 are in true stereo.)