Carl Smith - The Essential Carl Smith (1950-1956)

The "gentleman honky-tonker" pulls off a rather difficult feat on these 20 tunes: he polishes up the primitive honky-tonk style of Hank Williams and mentor Ernest Tubb without completely pulling up the roots. He achieves a refined and graceful sound without resorting to overblown arrangements, oceans of strings, or sappy material; he handles delicate ballads with sensitivity, not sentimentality. Much of his success results from his tight-knit, subtly charming band, which includes electric guitarist Sammy Pruett and pedal-steel man Johnny Sibert. Tubb gave Smith his first chart-topper, "Don't Just Stand There," while the expressive "Are You Teasing Me" comes from the Louvin Brothers. Little-known Freddie Hart provided Smith's biggest hit, "Loose Talk," and Boudleaux Bryant, Nashville's original full-time songwriter, penned five of these gems. Rather than ignore tradition, Smith infuses it with elegance. --Marc Greilsamer Amazon.com

Not forgotten

A very nice collection and overview of a sometime forgotten great.
Lots of good stuff and the sound is good too March 21, 2008

Closer To Being "Essential" Than Most

While I am in complete agreement with fellow reviewer P D Harris when it comes to the impact Carl Smith had on Country music during his long career (he had 93 Country hits from 1951 to 1978), I don't quite agree that it is the perfect essential album (of his output from 1950 to 1956). As with the Essential Ray Price release in the same series, the producer opted to include three tracks that were never regarded as being among his finer performances, and while I can see, perhaps, throwing in one cut that preceded his first hit (Let's Live A Little - # 2 Country in summer 1951), why three? (tracks 1, 2 and 3).

The remainder are all bona fide entries in an essential album, especially his five # 1 hits: Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way and [When You Feel Like You're In Love] Don't Just Stand There (both of them EIGHT weeks at # 1 in late 1951 spring 1952 respectively); Are You Teasing Me? (June/July 1952); Hey Joe! (again EIGHT weeks at # 1 in late summer 1953); and Loose Talk (SEVEN weeks at # 1 in late 1954/early 1955).

There are also two more # 2 hits, in addition to the one mentioned above, as Trademark hit that pinnacle in August 1953, and was kept from being another # 1 only by his own Hey Joe! and A Dear John Letter by Jean Shepard & Ferlin Huskey. In June 1954 Bak-Up Buddy was held back from # 1 only by one of the all-time greatest Country hits, Hank Snow's I Don't Hurt Anymore.

So, all in all, this is a fairly decent compilation of his greatest performances on record. I Just wish they had dropped two of those early non-hits and, instead, had given us Mr. Moon (his second hit, a # 4 in late summer 1951) to go along with the B-side (If Teardrops Were Pennies - # 8) which IS here. Another they could have slipped in was the B-side of Loose Talk - More Than ANything Else In The World - which reached # 5 on its own - no mean feat being the flip of such a monster hit.

For the record, in the period covered by this release Carl had 33 hit singles and in this you get just over 50%. Does this suggest a Volume 2? I Hope so.

In the meantime, the insert contains six pages of fascinating background notes written in July 1991 by music journalist Chet Flippo, together with several more nice photos of Carl, including one with the group from the Philip Morris Country Music Show, posing in front of their tour bus, and which includes Slim Sutberry, Sonny Curtis, Johnny Sibert, Mimi Roman, Goldie Hill. Red Sovine, Ronnie Self, M.C. Bun Wilson, Biff Collie, and Sammy Pruett.

The sound quality is excellent. September 30, 2007

PLEASED

VERY WELL PLEASED WITH THE ITEM I PURCHASED AND THE PURCHASE TRANSACTION. ALL WENT AS EXPECTED. August 25, 2006

Real country music!

I bought this for my husband who is a die-hard country music fan, but only from the good old days. He says the music passing for country today is not country music. His collection includes, of course, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, and other classic country artists. I knew he would love this Carl Smith CD, and he does! It's classic country, back in the days when country was country!

My favorite song on this CD is I Overlooked an Orchid. That song always brings tears to my eyes. It's just an all around great collection of songs from one of the great country artists. July 25, 2006

Genuine Country

Love it! Genuine Country music from one of the greatest artists in the industry. February 20, 2006

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