Search - Darby & Tarlton :: Complete Recordings

The Brilliance of Jimmie Tarlton

D. B Pepper | Plainview, NY United States | 12/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a wonderful box set which features the words, voices, and music of Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton. While Darby possessed some talent and mastered the rudiments of being an Old-Timey singer and musician, Jimmie Tarlton is the true star here. Tarlton is a brilliant, first-rate musician, who belongs up there with Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, Bessie Smith, Clarence Tom Ashley etc. Tarlton has a beautiful, soothing, dramatic, lovely, birdlike call of a voice, a strange yet intriguing style of guitar playing (which mixes Negro Blues playing and Hawaiian guitar stylings), and a knowledge of many songs in the Old-Timey, Blues and Folk traditions. Songs like "By The Old Oaken Bucket, Louise," "My Father Died A Drunkard," "Roy Dixon," "All Bound Down In Texas," and "Lowe Bonnie" are breathtaking. The entire box set is a must have, and there are no songs which leave you feeling unsatisfied. Also, Tarlton's work in the 1960s can be found on his "Steel Guitar Rag" cd, which finds him in excellent form, despite his advanced age. Simply indispensable!"