Search - Tommy Duncan :: Beneath Neon Star in Honky Tonk

A western swing legend hits the lean years

Roger Jönsson | Lund, Sweden | 03/12/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Tommy Duncan is one of my all-time favourite singers. His cool and laid-back crooning perfectly balanced the wild and crazy music created by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in the 30s and 40s. But by the times when these solo-recordings were made, in the early fifties, the former star vocalist hit some very lean years indeed. The honky tonk-wave and then the rock-n-roll-craze brought the great western swing age to a sad end. On this record it is painfully clear that Duncan makes some feeble attempts to catch up with the times. Bear Family should be given credit for not trying to hide the fact that many of these recordings are mediocre, and sometimes downright awful (like "Tomato Can" or the flat novelty number "Who Drank My Beer"), instead they make this quite clear in the text of the booklet. But for die-hard Duncan-fans this collection can still be worth the money since there are some real gems like the beautiful "Stars Over San Antone" or the bluesy version of "Hound Dog". I would however strongly recommend that you start with the far more consistent "Texas Moon"-cd, which is volume one in this collection of Duncan's post Playboy-recordings."