Search - Roy Drusky, Skeeter Davis, Carl Butler and Pearl :: Classic Country: Early 60's

A Heartbreaking Lushness

Thomas A. Holmes | Johnson City, TN USA | 09/13/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This entry in the Time-Life series Classic Country offers a remarkable selection. The titles include Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces," Faron Young's "Hello Walls," Jim Reeves' "Welcome to My World," Don Gibson's "Sea of Heartbreak," George Hamilton IV's "Abilene," Bobby Bare's "Detroit City," Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road," Buck Owens' "My Heart Skips a Beat," George Jones' "She Thinks I Still Care," Roy Druskey's "Three Hearts in a Tangle," Skeeter Davis' "The End of the World," Connie Smith's "Once a Day," Carl Butler's "Don't Let Me Cross Over," Marty Robbins' "El Paso," and the Everly Brothers' "Let It Be Me." Like the other albums in this series, this disc contains remastered original recordings from a variety of labels; we get a true representation of country's best music of the time. However, as good as many of these songs sound, they do not all fit together. The contrast between the saccharine/adolescent Skeeter Davis and the mature Connie Smith is jarring. Thematically, the disc is a mess. I enjoy the trucking song, the cowboy song, and the two city songs, but the majority of this album offers lush productions of fine love songs--as much as I like Buck Owens, hearing "My Heart Skips a Beat" in the midst of Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers, and Faron Young (among others) casts the Buckaroo in a bad light.I value this disc and almost all the songs on it; I just wish that the series took more care in packaging songs thematically as well as chronologically."