This 1998 Bear Family reissue of a CD originally issued in 1990 on Colin Escott's Zu-Zazz imprint gathers together the absolute cream of Charlie Feathers' unreleased and alternate recordings. Usually an album of outtakes would infer a compilation of less than releasable material. But Charlie Feathers' unreleased demos and outtakes are every bit as illuminating and wonderful as his better-known singles, making this just as good as any Feathers collection out there, save for the two-disc Revenant anthology, which contains all ...
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This 1998 Bear Family reissue of a CD originally issued in 1990 on Colin Escott's Zu-Zazz imprint gathers together the absolute cream of Charlie Feathers' unreleased and alternate recordings. Usually an album of outtakes would infer a compilation of less than releasable material. But Charlie Feathers' unreleased demos and outtakes are every bit as illuminating and wonderful as his better-known singles, making this just as good as any Feathers collection out there, save for the two-disc Revenant anthology, which contains all of his '50s recordings intact. Here are 1954 living room rehearsals for his first Sun session ("Defrost Your Heart," "Runnin' Around," "I've Been Deceived"), outtakes from his second ("Wedding Gown of White," "Defrost Your Heart"), the 1956 Sun demo session ("Corrine, Corrina," "Frankie & Johnny," "So Ashamed," "Honky Tonk Kind," and an early stab at "Bottle to the Baby" with different lyrics), rowdier and looser King outtakes ("Bottle to the Baby," "One Hand Loose," "Everybody's Lovin' My Baby," and "I Can't Hardly Stand It"), and rare singles for local labels like Wal-May, Memphis, and Kay ("Dinky John," "Today and Tomorrow," and "Wild, Wild Party"), rounded out by some great '60s and early-'70s sides cut at the Sun and Select-O-Hits studios (a recut of "Tongue Tied Jill," "Gone! Gone! Gone!," "Where's She at Tonight," and "Wild Side of Life"). Some -- but not all -- of this also appears on Revenant's The Essential Recordings two-disc set. This particular edition, however, sports superior sound and mastering. ~ Cub Koda, Rovi
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