Much needed collection
Cory L. Schwent | Bloomsdale, MO United States | 09/26/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Bear Family's mammoth boxed sets are not for everybody. Hence when they released like a 200 cd boxed set on these guys, I thought to myself, "Self, I sure don't need that, why don't they just make a single disc set of their songs." Then years went by, and nothing. Then that big boxed set went out of print. Then nothing. Then King records released a 10 song sampling with nasty overdubbs and just blah. Now what we have here is what I have been praying for. A single disc set of Johnnie and Jacks' greatest hits. And I bet it has already sold more copies than that boxed set. The booklet is once again worth the price of the cd itself, with all the recording infor and a biograhphy with rare pictures.All the songs are original. All the songs sound like they were recorded yesterday!!! Some of the best duet vocals ever put to record are featured singing 32 great songs. Including their Decca Records hits they recorded in the latter days of their career.Go ahead an get this, it will stay in your cd player for weeks on end.Now start praying for a similar disc on Kitty Wells that will put all the current disc's available on her to shame."
Classic hillbilly music!
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 04/15/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Johnnie & Jack -- Jack Anglin and Johnnie Wright, that is -- represented perhaps the commercial apex of old-fashioned hillbilly music -- an harmony sound with modest picking that remained largely unchanged over the decades, and still sounds ever-so-sweet today. Their partnership lasted from the early 1940s through 1963, when Anglin passed away, and Johnnie Wright pursued a successful solo career, as well as a lot of duo work with his wife, Kitty Wells.
This generously programmed disc replaces a larger Johnnie & Jack box set that's been out of print for some time now, boiling their best material down into a trim single-disc set that's accessible to fans of old-style country music... This disc passes chronologically through their hits, from 1949 to 1962, and gives a wonderful sense of how their style progressed. The one omission is of the disc full of country gospel that was included in the old box set... Since all the Johnnie & Jack material is hard to find, most country fans will probably be happy to hear more of their secular material... Still, it might be nice for the Bear Family folks to put the religious material out as a separate disc sometime... In the meantime, this is a wonderful album, well worth checking out!
(PS - I just wanted to correct a mistake in another customer review: Johnnie & Jack were not brothers... they met in the 1930s, and formed a full-time partnership in 1941. Before that Johnnie Wright had been singing in a group with Kitty Wells and her sisters...)"
Track Listings (32) - Disc #1
