hickory's cajun hillbilly

A much-loved and collected 1950s hillbilly hero finally makes his legal CD debut, with a handsome collection of his Hickory recordings and a few nice bonuses besides.

Like Rusty and Doug Kershaw and Wiley Barkdull (already anthologised by Ace), Cajun Louisianan Al Terry was an early signing to Hickory. His 'career song', 'Good Deal Lucille' was the label's first hit and enough of a success for Hickory and Terry to remake the song just three years later. (Both versions are included here).

Between 1955 and 1958, Terry recorded exemplary hillbilly and country, and even flirted with rockabilly, with uniformly excellent results. Besides 'Lucille', he's also remembered for gems like 'Watch Dog' and the Johnny Cash-like 'Roughneck Blue', both of which can be heard here in premium sound quality.

Also hear here are musicians of the calibre of the Kershaw brothers, Barkdull, Chet Atkins, Hank Garland, Floyd Cramer, Tommy Jackson and Al's steel guitar-playing brother Bob, who also composed many of the featured tracks under his real name of Charles Theriot.

There hasn't been an Al Terry anthology since Bear Family's vinyl album, released almost 25 years ago. We're delighted to put that right and to welcome yet another important hillbilly voice into the Ace fold.

Track listing:

1. GOOD DEAL, LUCILLE (Version 1)
2. SAY A PRAYER FOR ME
3. GOODBYE MR. SUNSHINE (HELLO MR RAIN)
4. PROMISE MADE, PROMISE BROKEN
5. SHOOT ME A LINE
6. SHOW ME THAT YOU LOVE ME
7. LET'S POSTPONE OUR WEDDING
8. HEY, WHATTA YA SAY
9. HOUSE OF GLASS
10. NO SHRIMP TODAY
11. GONE AGAIN
12. IF I WIN, I WIN
13. DEAR GOD (I LOVE HER SO)
14. FOLLOW ME
15. NO NO JOHN
16. THEN YOU'RE LIVING JUST LIKE ME
17. THE WALL AROUND YOUR HEART
18. HATE ME NOT
19. WITHOUT YOU (Version 2)
20. ROUGHNECK BLUES
21. IT'S BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
22. AM I SEEING THINGS
23. PASSING THE BLUES AROUND
24. WATCH DOG
25. BECAUSE I'M YOURS (BUT YOU'RE NOT MINE)
26. GOOD DEAL, LUCILLE (Version 2)