This CD is gear-jammin'
Skinnerboy | 12/10/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Some may think Red Simpson is Junior Brown Sr. (which would make Junior Brown Junior Brown Jr.), but this comp shows who is boss when it come to big guitar and rumbling vocals. Don't confuse this Red with Red "Teddy Bear" Sovine -- this Red shakes the earth like a big ol' GMC and ends up nosing out Dave Dudley when it comes to truck-driving music. This is good stuff for people who like the Bakersfield Sound and appreciate truck-stop cooking."
Hammer down, Red Simpson on the radio
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 02/07/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Long before C.W. McCall's "Convoy" launched truck driving songs as a Top-40 phenomenon in the mid-70s, numerous artists had driven the theme up the country charts. Simpson, perhaps the Bakersfield hitmaker least identified with the city's famous sound, had a trio of hits as early as 1966: Tommy Collins' oft-covered "Roll, Truck, Roll," Cal Martin's "Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves," and Simpson's own "The Highway Patrol," the latter covered recently by Junior Brown.In the early 70s Simpson struck again with "I'm a Truck" (in which fellow Bakersfield residents Buck Owens and Merle Haggard appear in the lyrics!) and "Awful Lot to Learn About Truck Drivin'." In addition to the hits, he recorded excellent originals and fine covers of classic truckin' tunes like "Truck Drivin' Man" and "Six Days on the Road."Simpson's early years gigging as a weekend replacement for Owens, not to mention the co-writing they did (including Owens' hit, "Sam's Place"), lent a Telecaster-inspired sting to his music. His voice has a deeper resonance than Owens', and given no Don Rich to harmonize with (not to mention a songbook derived from the perspective of a lone trucker), he mostly sings solo. His style has its obvious descendents in Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen and Dale Watson (anyone who likes Simpson's work would do well to check out Watson's "Truckin' Session").The only in-print alternative to this collection is EMI's pairing of "Roll, Truck, Roll" and "Man Behind the Badge." The 24-tracks on this two-fer cover some of the same material presented here, and add a dozen police-related titles. Missing from the EMI release are "Truck Drivin' Fool" "I'm a Truck" "Motivatin' Man" "Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves" "Born To Be a Trucker" "Jeannie With the Light Brown Cadillac" "Mini-Skirt Minnie" "Country Western Truck Drivin' Singer" "Awful Lot to Learn About Truck Drivin'" and the seasonal "Truckin' Trees for Christmas."For maximum truckin' fun, this is the rig to drive."
A must have anthology for Red Simpson and truck driving fans
Bradley Olson | Bemidji, MN United States | 07/27/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This 20 song anthology features songs from each of his 1960's-1970's albums released on Capitol and does include his only top 5 hit, "I'm a Truck." All of the songs, except for 2 tracks which are "Johnny Law" and the top 40 hit which Junior Brown would later cover entitled "Highway Patrol," are about truck driving. As a matter of fact, this anthology does have all of the Roll Truck Roll album minus 3 songs, but those 3 songs can be bought on the essential import twofer of his "Man Behind The Badge" album in its entirety which will give you more of his police songs, and the "Roll Truck Roll" album in its entirety with the original artwork and liner notes for both albums. The classic trucker's Christmas song "Truckin' Trees For Christmas" is on this CD, "Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves" is another classic on this CD, the title song, Mini-Skirt Minnie are other classics. In other words, this is a classic CD. What we need someone to do is reissue the rest of Red Simpson's catalog on CD, with the exception of "I'm a Truck" which is a compilation of his trucker's songs that was released to cash in on the popularity of the single for "I'm a Truck" which many of the tracks from that album are on this compilation anyway."
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1