Tennessee Ernie Ford - 6000 Sunset Boulevard (2009/2019)

Years before bottomless baritone Tennessee Ernie Ford delivered his signature 1955 smash "Sixteen Tons" he was already hard at work on laying the tracks for the coming country-pop crossover waves--tracks that would later be traveled by Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and other immortals. Part of this joyous trailblazing involved Ford's syndicated The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show radio program, which found him backed by the Billy Liebert Band, a stellar outfit that included pedal steel man extraordinaire Speedy West, singer-guitarist Billy Strange, and bassist-trombonist George Bruns. With Ford crooning away out front, the band madly romped through not only country and western swing material but also jazz, pop, and classics of the Great American Songbook. Mastered directly from the show's 1953 aircheck transcriptions, the gorgeous-sounding 6000 Sunset Boulevard features swinging renditions of gems like "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself a Letter)," "Paper Doll," and "Up a Lazy River"; revealing between-song studio banter and announcements; and exhaustive liner notes by country music authority Rich Kienzle.