Search - Homer & Jethro :: Best Of: Hall of Fame 2001

Not their very best but the best example of the early years.

Thomas Ferranti | Southern California, USA | 08/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well - lets say it's the 1930s or 40s and you own a record company named King Records, and you sign Homer & Jethro to their first recording contract, produced countless 78rpm 10" discs, and sold a fair amount of them when all of a sudden, modern technology develops the 33rpm 12" disc, and no one wants to buy 78s anymore, Homer and Jethro move on to RCA records, and manage to get quiet a lot of attention so you repackage their back catalog via several 12" album collections.



Now it's many many years later. H&J have all but been forgotten. Except now - someone releases a couple of CDs of their RCA sides - and you get an offer from someone to license some of the old 78s recordings - and, well, to call it as such, maybe you won't sell as many, as if you billed it, instead, as some kind of "best-of" - and that's exactly what has occurred here. Well, for shame for shame. (Tho for all I know, maybe these WERE the most played 78s - could be.)



The material on this disc IS a must-have peek into those early days, when they werent as much into the country hillbilly humor then, and played alot of generally straightforward folk type stuff, albeit the humor IS still there - in fact - some of these early tracks are what got me hooked in the first place.



A good dip into the well of 78s, otherwise collecting dust. "Groundhog" is still a classic - their 'ad-libbing' is great - you can tell they were young, but really enjoying themselves!



Just a warning, though - back in the 70s, some idiot decided to take a batch of these 78s and record a new layer of wurlitzer organ or some such thing over the top - (as if it needed anything!)- especially not the sound of one of those cheesy keyboards with the silly synthesized drums and bassline!



So - I can't tell you if this is the one with or without that overdub or not. I was so excited to see I could write this review I didnt stop to see if there were any sound samples to hear! :(



Here's to you, and Homer and Jethro! Enjoy!"

A good addition to your Homer & Jethro collection

Jan-Mark Zentler | Califormia | 01/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"An entertaining album of Homer & Jetho's early work. If this is to be your first Home & Jethro album, though, I'd reccommend "America's Song Butchers, The Weird World of Homer and Jethro" instead. This "Hall of Fame" album obviously takes from old 78's and is pre hi-fi. Not a lot was done to clean the sound up; listening with headphones can be painful. But the lyrics are amusing and the talent is there. (Please also read Thomas Ferranti's review. I listened to the album and it does not contain the Wurlitzer overdub, thankfully)



Now if they'd just re-release "Barefoot Ballads", their excellent hillbilly album that introduced me to Homer and Jethro in the first place."

The Best of Homer and Jethro (Hall of Fame 2001)

Diane E. Hoeksta | Howell MI | 06/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"WAY COOL. If you are a fan of these two nuts and then you will want to add this to your collection. It is truely them at their all time best. I have several cassettes with thier works they are funny. But this CD is my all time best collection of their crazy parody music. A most excellent find and would recommend it to all."