Acuff, Roy & His Smoky Mountain Boys - The Godfather Of Country - Selected Singles 1936-61 2CD

Roy Acuff was a hugely important personality in the development of modern country, a singer and fiddle-player who became an influential music publisher with songwriter Fred Rose as owners of the the Acuff-Rose company in Nashville, helping to move the industry from its hillbilly origins towards the singer-based styles of the post-war era. He was so popular in his day that hank Williams said: "He's the biggest singer this music ever knew. ... For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God." Born in Tennessee in 1903, he started performing in the 1930s on the medicine show circuit before forming his first bands, which eventually became The Smoky Mountain Boys. He recorded prolifically through the years and this 54-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A & B sides of his releases on the Vocalion/Conqueror, Okeh, Columbia, Capitol, Decca and Hickory labels from the quarter-century period it covers. It features all his US pop and country hits from these years, including the Top 10 hits, "The Prodigal Son", "I'll Forgive You But I Can't Forget", "Write Me Sweetheart", "(Our Own) Jole Blon", "Waltz Of The Wind", "Once More", and other classics like "The Great Speckled Bird", "Wabash Cannonball" and "Tennessee Waltz". He was a highly distinctive talent, and addressing as it does a dynamic and varied era in the genre, this collection showcases Roy's music across the years.

Disc 1:

New Greenback Dollar
Steamboat Whistle Blues
Great Speckled Bird
Wabash Cannon Ball
Blue Ridge Sweetheart
That Beautiful Picture
An Old Three Room Shack
The Rising Sun
Answer To Sparkling Blue Eyes
Living On The Mountain, Baby Mine
Old Age Pension Check
Ida Red
Would You Care
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Streamlined Cannonball
Mule Skinner Blues
Weary River
Just To Ease My Worried Mind
The Precious Jewel
Be Honest With Me
Are You Thinking Of Me Darling?
Things That Might Have Been
Fire Ball Mail
Night Train To Memphis
The Prodigal Son
Write Me Sweetheart
I'll Forgive You But I Can't Forget

Disc 2:

We Live In Two Different Worlds
That Glory Bound Train
(Our Own) Jole Blon
I Talk To Myself About You
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
Waltz Of The Wind
Unloved And Unclaimed
This World Can't Stand Long
I'm Dying A Sinner's Death
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord
Tennessee Waltz
Lonesome Indian
The Day They Laid Mary Away
If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again
Pliney Jane
Advice To Joe
What Will I Do?
Sixteen Chickens And A Tambourine
Whoa, Mule
That's What Makes The Jukebox Play
Crazy Worried Mind
Goodbye, Mr. Brown
Once More
So Many Times
Come And Knock On The Door Of My Heart
Mountain Guitar
Lost John, He's Gone