Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Compilation producers: Daniel Cooper, Michael Gray. Recorded between 1945 & 1970. Includes liner notes by Michael Gray. Issued to coincide with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's historic exhibit of the same name, this two-CD set is a treasure-trove of hits, misses, rarities, and smoking grooves. Certainly Nash Vegas is the capital of country music, but in its day it also boasted a wealth of stomping rhythm and blues music that flourished in the city for the better part of three decades, until the bulldozers of "urban renewal" destroyed much of its cultural base and forced it from its terrain. With 35 tracks, plus a pair of bonus tracks that are commercials, this set is an affordable, indispensable introduction to a nearly forgotten part of American musical history. The labels represented here are a cross-section of the great regional independents that were so numerous n the '40s, '50s and '60s. Imprints such as Do-Ra-Mi, who recorded Audrey Bryant, Excello, Champion, Sun, Hickory, Bullet, Dial, A-Bet, Elf, and Sound Stage recorded both luminaries and nobodies. Here are early sides by Hank Crawford when he was in a jump band, the wild and wooly Esquerita, Joe Tex, Arthur Alexander, Roscoe Shelton, Joe Simon, Etta James, Johnny Adams, and Christine Kittrell. And there are cuts by cats like Johnny Jones, Nashville's premier blues guitar slinger, Audrey Bryant, the city's Sarah Vaughan, and others who scored big on Nashville radio and jukeboxes, such as Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson, Clifford Curry, and Robert Knight. While some of these names might not mean much to causal listeners of old rhythm and blues and soul, connoisseurs will be delighted to find these sides, many of them on CD for the first time. However, the appeal of this collection should not be limited to aficionados, as virtually every track is crackling with energy, verve, and raw immediate soul. Sound is better than decent, the selection is impeccable, and the track notes by Michael Gray are top-notch. ~ Thom Jurek Though R&B is hardly the first thing that comes to mind when Nashville, Tennessee is mentioned, the town known worldwide as the cradle of country music does indeed have a long, rich tradition of blues, soul, and more. The revelatory two-disc collection NIGHT TRAIN TO NASHVILLE makes Nashville's R&B legacy clear by tracing it across four decades. The first disc abounds with delightful obscurities like Cecil Gant's jump-blues tune "Nashville Jumps" and convict vocal group the Prisonaires' haunting ballad "Just Walkin' in the Rain." The second disc contains more familiar fare, such as Joe Simon's soul gem "The Chokin' Kind" and Arthur Alexander's legendary Brill Building-goes-South lament "Anna (Go to Him)" (later covered by the Beatles). The context provided by NIGHT TRAIN's theme also serves to underscore the not-so-subtle connections that have always existed between country music and R&B; it's easy to imagine a great country singer sinking his teeth into virtually any of the soulful gems on offer here.

Rolling Stone (p.92) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "[I]nteresting on this collection are lesser-known artists such as Christine Kittrell, who shines on the depressive blues number 'Sittin' Here Drinking'..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 - "The tunes here speak for themselves....NIGHT TRAIN TO NASHVILLE proves indispensable and irresistible."

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