Seminal work by one of the first big figures in country music – the great Roy Acuff, whose early material was the second force putting the sound on the map after the work of Jimmie Rodgers! Roy was one of the greatest stars of the early years – a hell of a singer, an important composer ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
The first-ever package to ever do justice to the influential talents of Bill Anderson – one of the more important songwriters of the 50s country scene – and a budding singer who helped introduce whole new modes of expression to the music! Bill's tunes were sung by many – and had ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A huge tribute to one of the most important partnerships in country music during the 70s – the vocal talents of Bobby Bare and the offbeat songwriting skills of Shel Silverstein – one that helped both artists really hit their heights during the decade! Bare had cut some great work for ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Clarence Gatemouth Brown —
Clarence Gatemouth Brown Rocks ... CD Bear Family (Germany), Late 40s/1950s. New Copy ...
About January 15, 2021 (delayed)
A really wonderful collection of work from the legendary Ruth Brown – one of the strongest female singers of the 50s R&B generation, and an undeniable influence on 60s rock and soul! The package brings together loads of gems from Ruth's years on Atlantic Records – a really well-chos ... (Soul) read moreCD
Joe Clay —
Ducktail ... CD Vik/Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s. New Copy ...
Out Of Stock
Raw early rockers from Joe Clay – most cut in the year of 1956, issued on RCA's Vik subsidiary, and as hard and heavy as the best sounds coming from Sun at the time! Joe Clay's a hell of a singer and a guitarist – playing here with a raw twang that really gives these tunes a heck of a ... (Rock) read moreCD
A fantastic collection of early material by Patsy Cline – one that offers up a nice change from the usual greatest hits package, and really digs deep into some of the harder work of her early years! The set's heavy on original recordings done for the Four Star label before Patsy rose to fame ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A really cool package of work from the legendary Eddie Cochran – one of the first great rockers to emerge in the 50s, and an artist who left this planet way too soon! The LP looks like a vintage 10" record – with great graphics, and a run of Cochran gems that include "Teenage ... (Rock) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
The lasting testament of the mighty Geater Davis – a really incredible southern singer with a deep soul sound that few others can match! Although Davis didn't record nearly as much as his contemporaries, he's got a sound that matches or beats them – a raw, raspy quality that's a bit ... (Soul) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
The famous Winter Dance Party tour of 1959 cost the world the young talents of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper – but after those three giants died in a legendary plane crash, it was up to the rest of the cast to carry on! This second volume in the excellent Bear Family series ... (Rock) read moreCD
A heck of a great record from Jim Ford – an early 70s country outsider whose early work hardly got any circulation at the time – but who's managed to go on to become the stuff of legend over the years! This set's got Jim at his best – maybe sounding even more country than on his ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
The never-issued follow-up to Jim Ford's classic Capitol album Harlan County – the kind of set that could have made him another Kris Kristofferson, or at least a Billy Joe Shaver – had the record company thought to release this gem at the time! The music is very different than standard ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
With a look like that on the cover, and a title like that on the front, you can bet that Kinky Friedman was out to ruffle the mainstream world of country music in the 70s – which he maybe did at a level that was even more powerful than Kris Kristofferson or Willie Nelson with recordings like ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Buck Griffin —
Let's Elope Baby ... CD MGM/Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s/Early 60s. New Copy ...
$13.9924.99
Overlooked Texas genius from Buck Griffin – a singer who first recorded for the famous Lin label, then got a shot at the bigtime on MGM! Buck's maybe the epitome of a local vocal star – a singer who was on the radio daily, and who was able to absorb the best of the bigger early 50s ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A nicely-honed collection of work from country singer George Hamilton IV – one with more than enough upbeat tracks to fit into the spirit of this excellent series! In truth, the young George was as much of a rocker as a country singer – and both sides of that spirit come through ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A really cool package of work from one of the most obscure rockers to ever record for Imperial Records in the late 50s – the enigmatic Dennis Herrold, who only issued one single for the label at the time – presented here with the full work from his debut session, plus other material too! ... (Rock) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
Country music talent Eddie Hill is maybe best known to the world as the guy who gave the Louvin Brothers their first work, or as a big force on the Grand Old Opry – but he's also a hell of a guitarist who cut some fantastic sides during the postwar years – records that ring out with all ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Jamaica Johnny & His Milagro Boys —
Trinidad – The Land Of Calypso ... CD Philips/Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s/Early 60s. New Copy 2CD ...
Just Sold Out!
Spoiler alert – Jamaica Johnny isn't from a Caribbean island, but instead was born in Suriname, and adopted his catchy moniker for a set of calypso recordings done in Amsterdam at the end of the 50s! That doesn't stop the work from being great, though – really lively numbers done as ... (Global Grooves) read moreCD
The early years of a great-voiced singer with many talents – the mighty Sonny James, an artist who started in the world of hillbilly music, then rose to fame as a crossover singer – before returning to country again in the 60s! This set follows Sonny on the first two sides of that ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Wicked early work from Roy Lee Johnson – a hell of a guitarist, and a soulful singer as well! The package brings together a whopping 30 tracks from Johnson's years at Okeh Records, and runs up to some sweet sides for Philips as well – tracing a great evolution from the late R&B ... (Soul) read moreCD
A great set of work from Jerry Lee Lewis – material that really shows off the many-faceted levels of his genius, in a way that's different than some of the bigger hits of his early days! Sure, Jerry could be a rocker who could burn up the piano when he wanted – but he was also a ... (Rock) read moreCD
Scotty McKay —
Scotty McKay Rocks ... CD Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s/Early 60s. New Copy ...
$19.9922.99
Maybe the first-ever look at Scotty McKay – and definitely the first to give this rare rocker his full due – thanks to the beautiful Bear Family presentation, which includes copious notes, great sound, and a number of rare tracks that were unissued at the time! We'd put Scotty right up ... (Rock) read moreCD
Mickey & Sylvia —
Love Is Strange ... CD RCA/Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s/Early 60s. New Copy 2CD ...
Out Of Stock
A fantastic set of tracks from one of the coolest soul music duos of all time – guitarist Mickey Baker and sweet-voiced Sylvia Vanderpool – who'd later rise to fame as Sylvia Robinson, the guiding force behind New Jersey soul in the 70s, and Sugarhill Records during the early years of ... (Soul) read moreCD
Very nice late 40s female country vocals from Molly O' Day! Molly only recorded for a handful of years for Columbia Records, and most of that output is collected on this fine 2 CD set from Bear Family featuring close to 40 tracks. Molly had the way down home twang and soulful wail of the first ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Roy Orbison & Sonny James —
RCA Sessions ... CD Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s/1960s. Used ...
Temporarily Out Of Stock
The last years of Buck Owens on Capitol Records – and some pretty great years at that! The set brings together a huge amount of material from a time when Buck was still going strong – getting completely on-fire backing from The Buckaroos, really reaching for some great fresh material, ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Dan Penn —
Nobody's Fool ... LP Bell/Bear Family (Germany), 1973. New Copy Gatefold (reissue)...
$23.9931.99
A fantastic set from the legendary Dan Penn – an artist who's maybe known more as a songwriter, but who's finally been given his due as a singer over the years! Back in the day, Dan recorded this gem, but it quickly fell between the cracks of the too-wide music business – yet since ... (Rock) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
Very early work from Carl Perkins – so early, in fact, that these tracks not only predate his important rockabilly classics at Sun Records, they also predate the rise of Elvis Presley as well! The music is raw and rocking right from the start, and the emergence of these sides may well have ... (Rock) read moreLP, Vinyl record album
(First 1000 copies on colored vinyl – and limited and numbered!)
The complete recordings of The Petards – a legendary German group who are maybe best-known for a few freewheeling albums on Liberty at the end of the 60s and start of the 70s – but who also have a not more music here to offer! The set begins before most of the work we've ever heard ... (Rock) read moreCD
Maybe one of the most hard-hitting in this great "rocks" series from Bear Family Records – and maybe one that features one of the artists most deserving the title, too – as the legendary Billy Lee Riley steps out here on a host of classic singles for Sun Records, unissued ... (Rock) read moreCD
An incredible slice of work from the great Connie Smith – a country singer who rose to fame in the same generation that gave the world Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, but who may well be better than both of them combined! We're not sure why Connie never full gets her due, as the work here is ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A wealth of rare rockers from King Size Taylor – an overlooked figure on the British scene of the early 60s, and one who borrows some of the best influences from the American singers and guitarists of the decade before! Taylor's got a strong presence and a nicely bold voice – a style ... (Rock) read moreCD
A real classic from blues giant Joe Turner – a singer who burst back to the mainstream on 50s Atlantic Records, thanks to a host of R&B singles that burned up the charts – but who here returns to his roots, and lays down a great set of jazzy tunes that get back to his roots in the ... (Blues) read moreCD
Leroy Van Dyke —
Auctioneer ... CD Dot/Bear Family (Germany), Late 50s. New Copy ...
$13.9919.99
A nice collection of work from Leroy Van Dyke – a singer who may not have been the purest country talent of his time, but who did a really great job bridging both the worlds of hillbilly and postwar pop! Leroy's got a great voice – warm and fluid, but never too mellow – and on ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Rare early rock from the Philly scene – a variety of tracks from Frank Virtue – aka Frank Virtuoso, and a musician who definitely deserves that name! Virtue's a heck of a guitarist, one who clearly borrowed plenty from the rising school of country pickers, but brought it to the world ... (Rock) read moreCD
The best side of the overlooked Billy Walker – his more rocking, hard-twanging numbers recorded for Columbia Records – all done at a time when the label was hitting big with other artists, even though Walker never fully got his due! Billy's maybe best known for a few western-themed ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
You may know Dinah Washington as a jazz singer – but at her start, she was also a hell of an R&B vocalist too – a side of her talents that's focused on very strongly in this set! If you love the jazz side of Dinah, don't worry – there's plenty of that here too – but the ... (Vocalists) read moreCD
A great set of tracks to celebrate the summer – mostly music that predates the big wave of beach and surf rockers of the 60s, and which show that there was still plenty of joy about the warmer months of the year during previous scenes in the postwar years! As with the earlier volume, the ... (Rock) read moreCD
An amazing tribute to the Bakersfield scene – one that finally gives the California city the same sort of attention that we usually see in sets dedicated to Nashville! Bakersfield is well-known as the home of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, but the city's got a long legacy of influencing ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
The sounds of summer in the years before the Beach Boys and surf music – songs that proclaim the glory of the warmest months of the year, but in raunchy styles from the early years of rock and roll! Artists run the gamut from rockabilly singers, to R&B groups, to some surprisingly strong ... (Rock) read moreCD
A very cool collection of Holiday tunes from the postwar years – lots of special, unusual tracks that go way past the hits – served up in a mixture of styles that includes work in the vocal group, early rock, jazz, and pop modes! The package definitely lives up to the standard we ... read moreCD
Maybe one of the coolest country Christmas collections we've ever heard – but then again, we'd expect no less from the folks at Bear Family! There's a lot of great original tunes here – which are mixed with country-fied takes on more popular Holiday songs from the midcentury years ... read moreCD
A really cool collection of vintage country music Christmas tunes – not just hits, but some excellent obscure material – all pulled together in a way that really lives up to the high standards we expect from the Bear Family label! These tracks are pulled together from a variety of ... read moreCD
Here's a way to keep yourself healthy – pandemic or otherwise – a set of searing rockers and sweet postwar pop numbers – all with a theme of medicine or wellness in the mix! The set's a wonderfully playful take on the theme – and is filled with cool and groovy tracks we ... (Rock) read moreCD
A lusty set of tracks from the postwar years – music that doesn't just hint at sex, but which often seems to provide it, in the form of slinky female vocals, groans of pleasure, or other surprising elements that make these tunes a fair bit sexier than we might have guessed! The styles are a ... (Rock) read moreCD
A heady helping of trashy tunes from the glory day of the b-movie and pulp paperback – songs about love and sex from the postwar years of American culture – served up with a vibe that's very much in keeping with the title and the cover! Some of the tunes are instrumental, and mix a ... (Rock) read moreCD
Rocket to the moon on a whole host of vintage tunes with a lunar theme – a great mix of music that runs the gamut from rocking instrumentals, to jazzy vocals, to some very cool space age pop numbers! The package is one of the most inventive we've ever seen in this nature – way ... (Funky Compilations) read moreCD
A great look at the Elvis Presley universe – not sounds by the King himself, but music that first inspired his creations – and other songs that have contemporary artists inspired by the records that Presley was releasing during the early years of his career! The collection is fantastic ... (Rock) read moreCD
A great look at the Elvis Presley universe – not sounds by the King himself, but music that first inspired his creations – and other songs that have contemporary artists inspired by the records that Presley was releasing during the early years of his career! The collection is fantastic ... (Rock) read moreCD
Rare hillbilly grooves from Decca Records – the kind of killer pre-country material that was not only a huge influence on rock and roll, but which will also show you that Elvis and Sun Records weren't the only people who'd figured out this kind of groove back in the 50s! The tracks are all ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A cool little set to keep the summer going long after Labor Day – and the kind of package of sunny classics from the postwar years that will provide plenty of summer listening even when you're locked indoors! As with other entries in this cool series from Bear Family, the mix of music is ... (Rock) read moreCD
A nice collection of work from Alabama – a state that sometimes gets short shrift in song, next to bigger neighbors Tennessee and Mississippi – but which has a surprisingly big legacy in this collection of songs! Like other excellent titles in this Bear Family postcard series, the work ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Georgia-themed tunes from a variety of generations – and nary a Ray Charles recording in the bunch! The tracks here open up a surprisingly strong legacy of songs about the Peachtree State – more music than we might have guessed, especially given the legacy of songs that other states ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Here's a state-based legacy we never really knew about – save maybe for the odd Bob Wills' song or two – a huge batch of postwar material laid out in tribute to the Sooner State – the nearby cousin of Texas that often gets short shrift in American pop culture! Turns out, there's ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A great collection of Texas-themed tunes – tracks that run from the big boom of postwar music in the Lone Star state, through the strong underground country work of the Austin scene in the 70s! Most tracks have some sort of Texas-based theme or story in the lyrics – and the set does a ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
The ghost of Christmas past comes back to haunt us – but in the grooviest way possible, thanks to a fab selection of old school Holiday tunes from the folks at Bear Family! The music here is mostly from the 40s and 50s – and is mostly vocal overall, sung by artists who move through ... read moreLP, Vinyl record album
The ghost of Christmas past comes back to haunt us – but in the grooviest way possible, thanks to a fab selection of old school Holiday tunes from the folks at Bear Family! The music here is mostly from the 40s and 50s – and is mostly vocal overall, sung by artists who move through ... read moreCD
Sweet cuts for the Christmas season – a great batch of jazz, vocal, and R&B numbers pulled from the postwar years – excellent songs and singles from a time when the best sort of Holiday music was coming out on record, year after year! The set's a great addition to the ever-growing ... read moreLP, Vinyl record album
Sweet cuts for the Christmas season – a great batch of jazz, vocal, and R&B numbers pulled from the postwar years – excellent songs and singles from a time when the best sort of Holiday music was coming out on record, year after year! The set's a great addition to the ever-growing ... read moreCD
A massive overview of the best years of Krautrock – that fresh wave of new music that emerged on the West German scene at the end of the 60s, and carried the nation forward strongly all through the 70s! The set definitely begins at the beginning – as early cuts almost echo some of the ... (Rock) read moreCD
A massive overview of the best years of Krautrock – that fresh wave of new music that emerged on the West German scene at the end of the 60s, and carried the nation forward strongly all through the 70s! The set definitely begins at the beginning – as early cuts almost echo some of the ... (Rock) read moreCD
A continuing dip into the deep underground of German prog sounds from the start of the 70s – that fantastic world that mixed together all the best experiments that were taking place in jazz, electronic, and rock music modes – all to come up with something so fresh, it would continue to ... (Rock) read moreCD
A specially focused set of this excellent series – one that deals with the surprisingly large amount of important work that was coming out of West Berlin during the 70s – music that was maybe even more significant, given that it was created behind the walls that encircled the scene at ... (Rock) read moreCD
The kids on the cover might look pretty mainstream, but the sounds on the record are in the best tradition of rockabilly and hillbilly styles of the Bear Family label! The set's overflowing with romping little gems that work equally well far from a dancefloor filled with gals in skirts and guys in ... (Rock) read moreCD
One of the coolest overviews of early Chicano rock we've ever seen – a set that really lays the groundwork for some of the bigger music to come – but with the sort of deep-digging style we love on other compilations from the Bear Family label! Most of this work was recorded in LA ... (Rock) read moreCD
Totally great sounds for the Halloween season – a mad mix of instrumentals, vocals, and offbeat singles from the late 50s and early 60s – exactly the kind of music that keeps things weird and wild on the last day of October! Some of these gems are in the best novelty mode of the time, ... read moreCD
A wonderful tribute to the role of the telephone in postwar culture – not just as a means of communication, but as a theme for some mighty groovy music as well! You'll recognize a few of these tunes – classics that have a phone call or operator at the center of the lyrics – but ... (Rock) read moreCD
Seminal sounds in the birth of country music – and equally important to other American folk styles as well! The music in this set all came from two special stretches of recording by Columbia Records – sessions done in Johnson City, Tennessee – in October of 1928 and 1929 – ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
A tight batch of rare rockers from a tiny North Carolina label from the end of the 50s – a set that's a nice contrast to some of the other volumes in this excellent series, which usually focus on lost rockabilly nuggets in the vaults of major labels! Here, there's a vibe that's much more ... (Rock) read moreCD
Rare rockers from a very obscure source – material pulled from two different California labels of the 50s – both companies that grew up in the recording boom of the big move west from all points south at midcentury – and which were close to the ground, and very well poised to ... (Rock) read moreCD
Hard-rocking gems from the second decade of Mercury Records – a label that first broke big in the postwar years with a strong ear for up-and-coming R&B – and one who continued that close to the ground success during the early years of rock and country music as well! Mercury wasn't ... (Rock) read moreCD
A fantastic look at the legendary Bristol recording sessions from the late 20s – a set of recordings that are often billed as the "big bang" of country music – given that they helped discover Jimmie Rogers and the Carter Family – and began a huge wave of old time ... (Folk/Country) read moreCD
Yulesville is coolsville – especially when it comes in the form of a killer collection of rare Christmas singles from the folks at Bear Family! The package is awash in the kind of groovy, sometimes goofy Holiday singles that broke big in the early years of rock and soul – a nice ... read moreCD