Tennessee Ernie Ford

6000 Sunset Boulevard: His Legendary 1953 Hollywood Radio Shows CD

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Years before bottomless baritone Tennessee Ernie Ford delivered his signature 1955 smash “Sixteen Tons” he was already hard at work on laying the tracks for the coming country-pop crossover waves—tracks that would later be traveled by Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and other immortals. Part of this joyous trailblazing involved Ford’s syndicated The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show radio program, which found him backed by the Billy Liebert Band, a stellar outfit that included pedal steel man extraordinaire Speedy West, singer-guitarist Billy Strange, and bassist-trombonist George Bruns. With Ford crooning away out front, the band madly romped through not only country and western swing material but also jazz, pop, and classics of the Great American Songbook.

Mastered directly from the show’s 1953 aircheck transcriptions, the gorgeous-sounding 6000 Sunset Boulevard features swinging renditions of gems like “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself a Letter),” “Paper Doll,” and “Up a Lazy River”; revealing between-song studio banter and announcements; and exhaustive liner notes by country music authority Rich Kienzle.

TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO SAMPLES:
1. Full Time Job
2. It’s My Lazy Day
3. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down (And Write Myself a Letter)
4. Everybody’s Got a Girl But Me
5. Sweet Mama, Treetop Tall
6. In a Little Red Barn–Back Home Again in Indiana
7. Lover
8. She’s Funny That Way
9. Million Dollar Baby
10. Paper Doll
11. I’m Sitting on Top of the World
12. Sophisticated Swing
13. Up a Lazy River
14. Nobody
15. Hot Toddy
16. Steam Heat
17. Try a Little Tenderness
18. Blue Skies
19. Little Red Wagon
20. Georgia on My Mind
21. I Can’t Get Started
22. There’ll Be Some Changes Made
23. Side by Side

Rev up the MP3 players! This entire album is available to download from your favorite digital retailer by the buttons below.