America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band

Maddox Brothers & Rose

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 2, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 1961
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arhoolie Records
• ASIN: B0000001JB
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #28,373 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Maddox Brothers & Rose were America's most colorful hillbilly band all right, and not just because they wore snazzy sequined Western suits that screamed louder than a blast of TNT. Everything they did was at the top of their lungs, from sister Rose's effectively braying twang and tittering, high-pitched asides to the brothers' nuclear-charged postwar fusion of boogie-woogie, Western swing, and California honky-tonk. Most colorful of all was the group's aesthetic--unabashed emotionalism on a poignant gospel ballad such as "When I Lay My Burden Down" alternating with broad comedy displayed on covers of "Milk Cow Blues" and "Honky Tonkin'." "Got a hillbilly band called Maddox and Rose ... [and] they play a boogie-woogie that'll wiggle your toes," Rose guffaws on "George's Playhouse Boogie." Never has such a colorful self-description been so accurate. --David Cantwell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too many mistakes for 5 stars., October 6, 2003

By	Cory L. Schwent (Bloomsdale, MO United States) - See all my reviews

First off, I must say the music included here is some of the craziest, most outlandish honky tonk music ever recorded. I have never heard music performed that was so good.

But the problem here doesn't lay with the music. The problem lies with the cd itself. Music this important deserves better treatment.

The biggest problem is the fact that the song "I Want to Live and Love" is here twice, once under it's name and once under the name "New Mule Skinner Blues." That is an almost unexcusable error in a collection this important. (Their version of "New Mule Skinner Blues" is on Volume 2).

Next, no where in the booklet is there any recording dates or even a simple explanation of what label the music was recorded for. It says they were signed to Columbia records in 1951, but it also says the recordings included here were recorded between 1946 and 1951.

The sound quality is alright for recordings this old.

A release this important deserves better.

I still recommend this collection, but I wish it was taken more seriously by Arhoolie Records.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the wildest music of its day, January 13, 2000

By	Jon E Johnson (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

Though the Maddoxes began recording long before the emergence of rock 'n' roll and rockabilly in the early '50s, the numbers included on this generous 27-song collection - lifted from the group's sessions for the 4-Star label in the late '40s and early '50s - pointed the way for others to follow. One can easily hear the enormous influence that bassist/vocalist Fred Maddox had on the rockabilly bassists who followed him, including Bill Black and Dorsey Burnette. And lead guitarist Roy Nichols displays the ample chops that he would later employ to great effect with the likes of Lefty Frizzell, Wynn Stewart, and Merle Haggard. The most impressive thing about the Maddoxes, though, is that their records were Fun with a capital "F." Sure they never enjoyed much popularity outside of their west coast base, but their records have stood the test of time far better than some others of the era and you're a better person than I am if you can stifle a smile while listening to the almighty racket that the group made. Most of the songs are punctuated by the kinds of whoops and hollers and laughing that would be commonplace on rockabilly records made nearly a decade later, and more than a few sound like someone is building a house in the studio while the group was recording. If you're a musician who's getting a little too full of the "art" of playing music, give a listen to the Maddoxes for a reminder of what music sounds like when it's played for fun...and sounds like it.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hillbillys gone wild!!!, July 9, 1999

By A Customer

This is it man. If you haven't got this,stop, don't go any further.Rock and Roll from the 40's!!! A crazed mix of baudy shoutouts, spirituals,early honky tonk,ballads, miner work songs, everything they had ever heard thrown into the pot and turned up to FULL BOIL!!! If your girl says she doesn't like country except for Patsy Cline (uhhhh, country, yeahhh...), turn her on to this and she'll be sportin' cuffed jeans and kicker boots in no time flat,brother!!! This is everything right about music, everything that those snooty alterna-rock snobs will never understand. Absolutely,positively,utterly essential.