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

Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. Nashville Jumps - Cecil Gant
2. Buzzard Pie
3. Skip's Boogie - Kid King's Combo
4. L&N Special - Christine Kittrell
5. Sittin' Here Drinking - Christine Kittrell
6. Just Walkin' in the Rain - The Prisonaires
7. If You and I Could Be Sweethearts
8. Baby Let's Play House - Arthur Gunter
9. Christene
10. It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day) - Louis Brooks, Earl Gaines
See all 19 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2
1. John R Theme/Ernie's Record Mart Commercial/Monkey Doin' Woman [*] - Shy Guy Douglas, John Richbourg
2. Monkey Doin' Woman
3. What'd I Say [Live] - Etta James
4. Really, Pt. 1
5. Just Like Him - Frank Howard & The Commanders
6. Anna (Go to Him) - Arthur Alexander
7. Snap Your Fingers - Joe Henderson
8. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean - Ruth Brown
9. Something Tells Me - Sam Baker
10. Sunny - Bobby Hebb
See all 19 tracks on this disc

Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970,Various Artists,Lost Highway,Jump Blues,Modern Electric Blues,Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan,Pop,R&B,Soul,Soul-Blues,Swamp Blues,Traditional Country,V/A Compilations

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

Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970
Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • A mixed blessing
  • More than COUNTRY music?
  • The Best Music You Never Heard
  • Amazonic Regression . . .
  • Mixed bag, but overall pretty good
 Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970)
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Lost Highway
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Blues | Styles | Music
Traditional BluesTraditional Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Compilations | Blues | Styles | Music
Electric Blues GuitarElectric Blues Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music
Modern BluesModern Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
Jump BluesJump Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Country | Styles | Music
Nashville SoundNashville Sound | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | R&B | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music
SoulSoul | Compilations | R&B | Styles | Music
Similar Items:
  1. Night Train to Nashville, Vol. 2
  2. Roots of Rock N Roll: 1946-1954
  3. Ollabelle
  4. The Black and White Roots of Rock and Roll
  5. One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found

ASIN: B0001DMWFW
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Tracks:

  1. Nashville Jumps
  2. Buzzard Pie
  3. Skip's Boogie
  4. L & N Special
  5. Sittin' Here Drinking
  6. Just Walkin In The Rain
  7. If You And I Could Be Sweethearts
  8. Baby Let's Play House
  9. Christene
  10. It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day)
  11. Rollin' Stone
  12. You Can Make It If You Try
  13. Rockin' The Joint
  14. Let's Trade A Little
  15. Say You Really Care
  16. Somebody, Somewhere
  17. Pipe Dreams
  18. WLAC commercial
  19. White Rose

Tracks:

  1. WLAC Air Check/Monkey Doin' Woman
  2. What'd I Say
  3. Really Part 1
  4. Just Like Him
  5. Anna (Go To Him)
  6. Snap Your Fingers
  7. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean
  8. Something Tells Me
  9. Sunny
  10. I Want To Do Everything For You
  11. Bigger And Better
  12. Since I Met You Baby
  13. The Chokin' Kind
  14. She Shot A Hole In My Soul
  15. Gotta Get Yourself Together
  16. Soul Shake
  17. Reconsider Me
  18. Everlasting Love
  19. Everlasting Love - Robert Knight

Amazon.com

The most startling revelation contained on this two-CD compilation is how rich, varied, and deep Nashville's R&B scene was during a 25-year period in which the city solidified its reputation as the undisputed capital of country music. Arranged chronologically, Night Train to Nashville also traces the steady progression of African-American music beginning with the end of WWII--from jump blues, lusty R&B, and smooth-groove vocal groups to proto rock & roll, Southern soul, and Top 40 pop that drew blacks and whites together even as the Vietnam War nearly ripped the country apart. Although this collection contains well-known hits (Bobby Hebb's "Sunny", Robert Knight's "Everlasting Love") and widely acknowledged stars (Etta James and Ruth Brown, both of whom recorded some of their best work in Nashville), many of its most satisfying pleasures come courtesy of lesser-known artists, such as R&B belter Christine Kittrell, swamp bluesman Shy Guy Douglas, and balladeer Sam Baker. In the midst of many ear-opening discoveries, add one more: When listening to the countrified soul of Arthur Alexander, Joe Simon, and Johnny Adams, it's apparent that Nashville in its '60s heyday wasn't two separate but equal towns but one glorious Southern-music Mecca. --Keith Moerer

Album Description

Coinciding with the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum's 2004-05 exhibit, Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970, this collection illustrates the quality and breadth of R&B that emerged from a city more famous for country music. Nashville's 50,000-watt clear channel WLAC reached over half the nation with its late night programming. "To young blacks growing up in East Tennessee the city[Nashville] was our version of Harlem, Chicago, Fifty-second Street, Central Avenue and Beale Street combined..." (excerpted from liner notes by Ron Wynn). Culled from more than twenty record labels, these recordings range from the obvious to the obscure, featuring the best songs of the era. Seventeen of these tracks have been unavailable domestically since release, with seven of them making their CD debut here.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars A mixed blessing.......2006-08-26

I found the first record to be wonderful but the second was not to my taste. Perhaps this is because I am firmly embedded in the 50s when I was 13.

4 out of 5 stars More than COUNTRY music?.......2005-08-23

The Country Music Hall of Fame is behind this collection, but they're hoping to remind folks that Nashville is "MUSIC City U.S.A.", not necessarily "Country Music City U.S.A." What you get is 35 cuts ranging from doo-wop to smooth vocals to gritty R&B shouters. Many of the cuts were taken from original 45 and 78 records but the audio restoration has been done well...they don't SOUND like vinyl transfers. Is the thesis of Nashville as R&B focal point realized here? Fairly well: I'm not about to replace Detroit, Memphis or Chicago in my mind as great locations for R&B but this set is fairly solid.

HIGHLIGHTS:
You'll probably already know Arthur `Hardrock' Gunter's "Baby Let's Play House",Arthur Alexander's "Anna (Go to Him)",Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" and Robert Knight's "Everlasting Love". Outside of those, there are plenty of lesser-knowns that make the grade: The Marigolds' rollicking doo-wop number "Rollin' Stone", Rudy Green's "Buzzard Pie" (reminiscent of `Straighten Up and Fly Right' but edgier, with the buzzard goading his intended victim to just die and get it over with), the call and response of Audrey Bryant's "Let's Trade a Little", and Larry Birdsong's ebullient "Somebody, Somewhere" on disc 1. The latter disc's high points include Joe Henderson's Nat King Cole smooth vocal on "Snap Your Fingers", a sassy "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" from Ruth Brown, Joe Tex's near Temptations sound on "I Want To", The Avons sound like long lost Shirelles on "Since I Met You Baby", and the Hytones are defiantly moving on to "Bigger and Better" things since baby's been gone.

BOTTOM LINE:
There's nothing really poor here and quite a few of these are outstanding, even outside of the hit charters. Not the best collection for soul novices but if you're already an R&B fan, you'll probably enjoy this.

3 1/2 stars

5 out of 5 stars The Best Music You Never Heard.......2004-07-29

This is a a wonderful compilation. The title of my review is stolen from a NY Times review of the Night Train to Nashville that made me go out and buy it. It isn't totally true since I recognized some of the later songs but it was an eye opener. It is pretty sad that most of the country missed out on some of the greatest music of their time; especially when pap like How Much is that Doggie in the Window was being shoved down people throats.

My husband and I enjoyed listening to the CDs on a 5 hour long road trip and thoroughly enjoyed them. There was enough style changes and diverstity to keep you interested and a lot of solid artistry. The White Rose petroleum jelly ad and the Little Richard commercial are a hoot!

5 out of 5 stars Amazonic Regression . . ........2004-06-29

I read all the other reviews and realized that this album is many things to many people. I was impressed by how many people took the effort to review this great collector's item. For myself, it was a bolt out of the blue thanks to being featured on the SUNDAY MORNING TV show. When I was 14 years old (1954) I built a HEATHKIT short-wave radio. I strung 100' of copper wire from our TV antenna tower to the top of the basketball pole. All I had hoped for was to get the BBC or Radio Free Europe. What I got [instead] was Radio Free Nashville ! WLAC, Bill Allen and music I had only heard rumors of. "That kind of music" was not played on mainstream radio in those days. Word got around school that I was listening to Little Richard, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, and Jimmy Reed. I didn't get any more chicks because of it, but it put me in a very elite group of R&B listeners. Once again, AMAZON DOT COM makes regression to our childhoods possible! Thanks, you guys . . . Harrison T.

4 out of 5 stars Mixed bag, but overall pretty good.......2004-06-06

As to be expected, there is some really good stuff on these discs. Unfortunately, some mediocre tunes that are not that impressive crop up here and there.

While I love sixties soul on a personal note, disc one is overall the better side. The early barrellhouse boogie-woogie tunes are quite appealing and hard to sit still to. (The Louis Jordanesqe "Buzzard Pie," obviously inspired by the King Cole Trio's "Straighten Up and Fly Right" is lots of fun). The Prisonaires track is quite beautiful and Little Richard's mentor Esquirita really rocks the house, as well as the tunes by Larry Birdsong and Jimmy Peck's Orchestra.

On disc 2, Etta James rocks out with her version of "What I Say" and "Shy Guy" Douglas does some fine harmonica work. The Vocal Groups like the Avons, Valentines, Hytones, and Frank Howard are okay (as well as Arthur Alexander's original "Anna Go To Him" remembered well by Beatles fans and the lovely original version of "Everlasting Love"). But the rest of this stuff is nothing special.

R&B Music:

  1. No Luck Involved [Explicit Lyrics]
  2. No More, No Less [Explicit Lyrics]
  3. Norman Jay Presents Philadelphia [Import]
  4. On My Knees, Pt. 1 [CD-single] [Import]
  5. On My Knees, Pt. 2 [CD-single] [Import]
  6. On & on [Import]
  7. Oopdeewopdee [CD-single]
  8. Oopdeewopdee [CD-single]
  9. Out to Kill [Explicit Lyrics]
  10. Season Opener [Explicit Lyrics]

R&B Music

r&b music

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