The Birth of Country Steel Guitar
A. Herrmann | New Jersey, USA | 04/18/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The discovery of this duo was a bit of a revelation to me. I always thought that the first country steel player was Bob Dunn of Milt Brown and His Musical Brownies. Unless I am off on my dates, Tarlton had him beat by a few years as well as Cliff Carlisle, the subject of another JSP box set. Darby and Tarlton are reminiscent of the Delmore Brothers (who have two JSP box sets chronicling their career)with the addition of Tarlton's very Hawaiian influenced lap steel leads. Really beautiful material resurrected nicely by JSP. Fans of prewar jazz, blues and country music should get to know this label. Their numerous four and five disc box sets all under $30 are amazing bargains and a good way to build a library of early roots music. I already own one of the Delmore Bros. box sets and have their Mountain Blues collection on order. I have the Cliff Carlisile and Louis Armstrong sets on my to do list. Hats off to this British label for bringing so much of our musical heritage into affordable well restored packages."