Search - Red Sovine :: Best of

Even before his first hits (including two duets with Webb Pierce) in the mid-'50s on Decca, Red Sovine, who later discovered Charley Pride, was a master honky-tonker and one of the last remaining exponents of the dying art of spoken recitation. After hitting his stride with Nashville-based Starday Records in 1965 with "Giddyup Go," he joined Dave Dudley and Dick Curless at the top of the then-vibrant trucker-music market. He applied his storytelling skills to the trucker tunes "Phantom 309" and the sentimental, million-selling 1976 CB-themed recitation "Teddy Bear." But Sovine also had a powerful baritone he applied to a variety of other songs, among them Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally" and Dudley's "Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun." The value of his cover of Walter Brennan's insipid hit recitation "Old Rivers" may be debatable. This collection also omits a few lesser-known Sovine trucker gems like "Freight Liner Fever" and "Hitch Hiking Girl." It nonetheless stands as a respectable overview of his Starday years. --Rich Kienzle