Tragic Songs Of Life
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Tragic Songs Of Life
''Tragic Songs of Life'' is the debut album by American country music duo The Louvin Brothers, released in 1956. "Knoxville Girl" was released as a single three years later and reached number 19 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. History Having previously recorded one single for Apollo Records and a series of sides for Decca, the Louvins signed with Capitol Records in 1952. They recorded over ten singles for Capitol, with the earliest all Gospel songs, before "When I Stop Dreaming" became their first secular release in 1955. ''Tragic Songs of Life'' was their Capitol debut, and served as somewhat of a concept album, drawing heavily on artists they admired such as Bill Monroe, The Monroe Brothers, The Blue Sky Boys, and The Callahan Brothers. The majority of the songs are tragic heartbreak and misfortune songs and classic murder ballads. Reception Mark Deming stated in his Allmusic review "...this is a landmark of traditional country music that remains powerful more t ...
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Studio Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at  revolutions per minute, rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the populari ...
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Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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The Louvin Brothers Albums
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ...
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1956 Debut Albums
Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Huaorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them. * January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to reconquer Palestine (region), Palestine. * January 25–January 26, 26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet Union, Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4. * January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. February * February 11 – British Espionage, spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean (spy), Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years. * February 14–February 25, 25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Mosc ...
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Paul Yandell
Paul Yandell (September 6, 1935 – November 21, 2011) was an American guitar player from Mayfield, Kentucky. Yandell played fingerstyle, a style he learned to play from his neighbors, influenced by Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. In 1955 he was hired by The Louvin Brothers and performed and recorded with them. From 1959 to 1961 he served in the US Army and on his return was a touring musician with Kitty Wells, Johnnie Wright, George Hamilton IV, and Jerry Reed. From 1975 until the late 1990s, Yandell worked with Chet Atkins doing shows, recordings, and TV appearances, and produced an instructional video called ''Fingerstyle Legacy''. After Atkins died in 2001, Yandell recorded seven CDs and was a consultant for guitars for Gretsch, most notably the limited edition stereo version of the Gretsch 6120, a model used by Atkins in the 1950s. He died in Hendersonville, Tennessee Hendersonville is the largest city in Sumner County, Tennessee, on Old Hickory Lake. The population was 61 ...
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Ira Louvin
Ira Lonnie Loudermilk (April 21, 1924 – June 20, 1965), known professionally as Ira Louvin, was an American country music singer, mandolinist and songwriter. He was a cousin of songwriter John D. Loudermilk. Biography Ira Louvin was born in Section, Alabama and played together with his brother, Charlie, in the close harmony tradition as the Louvin Brothers. They were heavily influenced by the Delmore Brothers and Monroe Brothers. Ira played mandolin with Charlie Monroe, guitar player of the Monroe Brothers in the early 1940s. The Louvin Brothers' songs were heavily influenced by their Baptist faith and warned against sin. Ira was notorious for his drinking and short temper. He married four times, his third wife having shot him multiple times in the chest and hand after he allegedly beat her. He died on June 20, 1965 when a drunken driver struck his car in Williamsburg, Missouri Williamsburg is an unincorporated community in eastern Callaway County, Missouri, United States. ...
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Charlie Louvin
Charles Elzer Loudermilk (July 7, 1927 – January 26, 2011), known professionally as Charlie Louvin, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955. Biography Born in Section, Alabama, Louvin was one of seven children and grew up working on the family farm in nearby Henagar. He started singing when he was eight years old. Louvin began singing professionally with his brother Ira as a teenager on local radio programs in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The boys sang traditional and gospel music in the harmony style they had learned while performing in their church's choir. After Charlie left the act briefly in 1945 to serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II, the brothers moved first to Knoxville and later to Memphis, working as postal clerks by day, while making appearances in the evening. Another brief disbandment due to Charlie's service in the Korean War led to the br ...
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Silver Dagger (song)
"Silver Dagger", with variants such as "Katy Dear", "Molly Dear", "The Green Fields and Meadows", "Awake, Awake, Ye Drowsy Sleepers" and others (Laws M4 & G21, Roud 2260 & 2261), is an American folk ballad, whose origins lie possibly in Britain. These songs of different titles are closely related, and two strands in particular became popular in commercial Country music and Folk music recordings of the twentieth century: the "Silver Dagger" version popularised by Joan Baez, and the "Katy Dear" versions popularised by close harmony brother duets such as The Callahan Brothers, The Blue Sky Boys and The Louvin Brothers. In "Silver Dagger", the female narrator turns away a potential suitor, as her mother has warned her to avoid the advances of men in an attempt to spare her daughter the heartbreak that she herself has endured. The 1960 recording by Joan Baez features only a fragment of the full ballad. "Katy Dear" uses the same melody but different lyrics, telling a similar story fr ...
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In The Pines
"In the Pines", also known as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", "My Girl" and "Black Girl", is a traditional American folk song originating from two songs, "In the Pines" and "The Longest Train", both of whose authorship is unknown and date back to at least the 1870s. The songs originated in the Southern Appalachian area of the United States in the contiguous areas of Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia.Cohen, Norm (2000), Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folk Song'. ChicagoUniversity of Illinois Press pp. 491–496. . Accessed September 30, 2017.In the Pines
,
Second Hand Songs
'. Accessed September 30, 2017.
Versions of the song have been recorded by many artists in numerous ...
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Satan Is Real
''Satan Is Real'' is a gospel bluegrass album by American country music duo The Louvin Brothers, released in 1959. History Producer Ken Nelson set up recording sessions in August 1958 to record enough tracks for two albums. The first was to become ''Country Love Ballads'', the second the gospel music for ''Satan is Real''. Over 20 songs were recorded in a seven-day span. The 3-minute title-track, with only two sung choruses, is largely taken up by a personal narrative monologue describing the dangers of Satan. Cover Designed by Ira Louvin, the cover features the brothers standing in a rock quarry, dressed in matching spotless white suits and black ties, in front of a plywood rendition of the Devil, as several hidden tires soaked in kerosene burn behind them as fire and brimstone. Reception While reviewers have generally commented on the distinctive album cover, they have also highly praised the song writing and performances. Mark Deming stated in his AllMusic review: "You ...
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Bear Family Records
Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label, that specializes in reissues of archival material, ranging from country music to 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks. History The label has been in existence since 1975, founded by collector Richard Weize, started with the double LP ''Going Back to Dixie'' by Bill Clifton. It has become known for its extravagant (and expensive) box sets. The company describes itself as "a collector's record label" due to its primary business, which is reissuing rare recordings in CD format in small amounts. Historically, their material has had only limited availability in the U.S, stocked at Ernest Tubb Record Shop, and through mail order sources. Many of their box sets are available through Amazon Marketplace. Artists Among the many artists who have been the subject of extensive box set releases by Bear Family are Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Willie ...
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Close Harmony (Louvin Brothers Album)
''Close Harmony'' is a box set of The Louvin Brothers recordings. It is an eight-CD box set and was released in 1992. History ''Close Harmony'' contains 219 songs from the duo's years with Capitol, Decca, MGM, and Apollo, presented in chronological order along with session notes. The recordings include such artists as Chet Atkins, Grandpa Jones, The Jordanaires, Jerry Byrd, Pete Drake, Floyd Cramer, Hank Garland and many others. The annotations for the songs that accompanied the box set were expanded into a book titled ''In Close Harmony: The Story of the Louvin Brothers'' by Charles K. Wolfe. Reception In his Allmusic review, Thom Jurek describes the release, concluding " Charlie and Ira took harmony singing to a new level and the creation of full-length albums far out of the sphere of one or two singles and filler. It's true that this is mainly for the fanatics, but it's also for libraries and historians of the music... This set is a treasure. Period." Personnel *Charlie Lou ...
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