Red Sovine - Simply Red - The Solo Singles 1954 - 1959 plus! (2023)

The general public knows him chiefly for his sentimental, posthumous 1980 UK chart topper 'Teddy Bear' - but Red Sovine had a long career in country music stretching back to the early 1950s, recording dozens of sides for many labels and scoring more than 30 US country chart hits between 1955 and 1980.

His earliest recordings are about as far away from 'Teddy Bear' as it's possible to get - driving, hardcore honky tonk hillbilly classics that are greatly favoured by vintage country and indeed, many rockabilly collectors. Almost all of them are gathered here in this new Jasmine collection that features every one of Red's solo sides from the 1950s, including classics like 'Juke Joint Johnny', 'Don't Drop It' and 'You Used To Be My Baby' (the latter featuring its writer Roger Miller on harmony vocals).

These high-quality recordings were made in Nashville with a crack team of 'A' list studio musicians of the calibre of Chet Atkins, Grady Martin, Hank Garland, Ernie Newton, Floyd Cramer and Buddy Harman. Collectively they epitomise just how great country music sounded in the years before 'The Nashville Sound' became the norm in Music City - simply great songs, sung with feeling by one of the most underrated artists of their era.

There have been previous Sovine compilations showcasing his work from 1960 onwards, but this is the first time that so many of Red's trailblazing 50s records, across all the labels he recorded for in that decade, have been presented in the same place and in the same collection.