Bear Family - Gonna Shake This Shack
Little Jimmy Dickens - I'm Little But I'm Loud
Bear Family BCD 16198
Buddy's Boogie - Salty Boogie - You All Come - Stinky Passed The Hat Around - I'm Gettin' Nowhere Fast - A Hole In My Pocket - Love Must Be Catching - Country Boy Bounce - Happy Heartaches - Wabash Cannon Ball - Blackeyed Joe's - Slow Suicide - I Never Had The Blues - Raisin' The Dickens - Big Sandy - Country Ways And City Ideas - You Don't Have Love At All - Hannah - Me And My Big Loud Mouth - Hey Worm! - Hey Ma! - Walk Chicken Walk - Out Behind The Barn - Red Wing - I'm Coming Over Tonight - Rockin' With Red - Hillbilly Fever - I Feel For You - I Wish You Didn't Love Me So Much - Jambalaya - Goodbye.

Like the other releases of this serie, this collection of 31 tracks focuses on Little Jimmy Dickens uptempo numbers he recorded in the 50's.
You have to search to find a weak track in Dickens' career, and for this collection Bear has choosen the best sides, which means they didn't include the good ones but only the excellent!
It's full of hillbilly, some with a western swing flavor (Hey Worm, Me and My Big Mouth), country boogie (Salty Boogie), proto rockabilly (Blackeyed Joe's) and frantic rockabilly (Hole In My Pocket). On all this recordings, Dickens leaves plenty of room for his musicians to shine, most notably a young Buddy Emmons on steel and the incredible pair of Howard Rhoton and James Wilson both on electric lead guitar. They are also featured on four amazing instrumentals. This great piece of cowboy jazz equal the recordings made by Speedy West and Jimmie Bryant and are worth the price of this cd alone.
It comes with a 32 page booklet with an interesting song by song analysis.

Fred "Virgil" Turgis
  Ernest Tubb - Thirty Days
Bear Family BCD 16866
Thirty Days / I'm A Long Gone Daddy / Mean Mama Blues / Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel / Walking The Floor Over You / I Ain't Goin' Honky Tonkin' Anymore / Filipino Baby / So Round So Firm So Fully Packed / My Tennessee Baby / You Nearly Lose Your Mind / Tomorrow Never Comes / Tennessee Border #2 / Drivin' Nails In My Coffin / So Doggone Lonesome / Let's Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello / Don't Forbid Me / Don't Brush Them On Me / The Same Thing As Me / Counterfeit Kisses / Two Glasses Joe / Kansas City Blues / Have You Seen My Boogie Woogie Baby / This Troubled Mind O'Mine / My Hillbilly Baby / I'll Get Along Somehow / Do It Now / Mister Blues / White Silver Sands / Crazy Arms / Tennessee Saturday Night.

Bear Family has released numerous boxed sets covering the whole career of the Texas Troubadour and I dream about them at least once a month but it may be a bit too much or too pricey (or both) for the casual listener. Fortunately, they have launched the "Gonna Shake This Shack" serie which is more affordable. This release gives a good overview on Tubb's recording from the early 40's to the early 60's and focuses on his uptempo sides.
The selection is very well done and you won't find any filler here. This album includes some Jimmie Rodgers (his first idol) inspired songs (Mean Mama Blues), his early hits (Walking the Floor Over You; You Nearly Loose Your Mind), honky tonk classics and succesfull attempst at mixing rock'n'roll to his own style (Chuck Berry's Thirty Days). Listening to this side you realize the major role of Tubb in setting the standard for post-war country, instrumentation (electric guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, bass, rhythm guitar) that'll pave the way to Hank Williams to name the most famous.
Needless to say that as usual with the German label it comes with a superbly designed and fully illustrated 32 page booklet that tells you all the details you want to know (and even more). A nice addition to your collection.

Fred "Virgil" Turgis