Frank Ifield - The Best Of Frank Ifield

I can't even remember where or when I got this record. I can say I got it within the last year and that it has been sitting in a stack of records to listen to for quite some time. I finally got around to the record and was soooooo happy that I had bought it whenever that was. I love this record. I love it because it is like nothing else I own or have ever heard. Without even reading the album liner notes or my subsequent research on the internet I knew Frank Ifield was different. What I came to learn is that differentness is because he is a British singer who loved country western music. So the songs are all country and cowboy songs, but they really aren't. They are filtered through a British artist which pretty much takes out any authenticity. Sure he keeps the yodeling voice, but he never really sounds like a cowboy on the trail. The closest thing I have to compare this too are some of the "country" songs Burt Bacharach did and I use that term "country" very loosely in that sentence.

A perfect example of what I'm talking about is on "Lovesick Blues" a classic country song. The lyrics are there, the melody is there, the voice yodeling effect is there, but it all seems just a little milk toasted out. There is also a funny orchestration behind it that is closer to some easy listening go-go music than it is too country. It kind of reminds me of some incidental music on "The Beverly Hillbillies" and I mean that not in any good sense when talking about it being country. On the other hand sounding like something from the "Beverly Hillbillies" is good if you are looking for something quirky and different. That is how I judge all this music by Frank Ifield.

So give it a listen and imagine yourself in sort of a country music twilight zone where things are the same, but different.

Enjoy!

01 Hey Joe.m4a
02 I Remember You.m4a
03 Lovesick Blues.m4a
04 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.m4a
05 Hoebe Snow.m4a
06 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold.m4a
07 Love Song Of The Waterfall.m4a
08 Cattle Call.m4a
09 Half As Much.m4a
10 On, Lonesome Me.m4a
11 Wolverton Mountain.m4a
12 Long Gone Lonesome Blues.m4a

Here's the whole thing.