Search - Eddie Dean :: The Very Best of Eddie Dean

Fine latter-day recordings of cowboy/country singer

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 07/04/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Jimmy Wakely's Shasta label, from whose vaults these recordings were mined, gave several singers exposure after their mainstream popularity had faded. Dean found his first flush of fame as a singing film cowboy in the '30s and '40s, and minor success as a country singer in the '40s and '50s. His career spanned the separation of Country & Western into Country and Western, and though his crooning baritone never really caught on in the twangier country world, he remained a steady concert draw through the '80s.These recordings, waxed in the '70s, find the 60-something Dean in fine voice. His repertoire covers the various facets of his career, including several of his best known original compositions ("(I Dreamed Of a) Hillbilly Heaven" "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)," western standards ("Cool Water" "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"), and country hits ("I Fall to Pieces" "The Green Grass of Home" "Four Walls" "Born to Lose"). As a bonus, a 1956 radio recording of his own cowboy film composition "On the Banks of the Sunny San Juan" is included.Sound quality is top-notch and Jon Guyot Smith's liner notes provide excellent background on Dean's career."