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| "Not quite as greasy as the Memphis sound or as polished as Motown, it's the cool precision of Nashville's Music Row mixed with the sweat-slick passion of Jefferson Street. The best songs on Night Train are freighted with it - soul engines running on their own track." NEW YORK OBSERVER "... the appeal of this collection should not be limited to aficionados, as virtually every track is crackling with energy, verve, and raw immediate soul. Sound is better than decent, the selection is impeccable, and the track notes by Michael Gray are top-notch." ALLMUSIC.COM NIGHT TRAIN TO NASHVILLE WINS GRAMMY AWARD! VOLUME II OF VINTAGE "MUSIC CITY"‚ R&B SET FOR LATE SUMMER ‚05 RELEASE Nashville, TN (February 14, 2005) - Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm Blues, 1945-1970 -- a remarkable two-disc collection of otherworldly rhythm blues sides recorded in the home of country music during the 25 years following World War II -- was honored with a Grammy in the 'Best Historical Album'‚ category at last night's Grammy Awards. 'This goes to all the Nashville R artists from the '40s, '50s and '60s who have not gotten any recognition or due until now,'' stated compilation co-producer Michael Gray, accepting the award. Co-produced by Gray and Daniel Cooper and released on CMF/Lost Highway Records, "Night Train to Nashville" had some serious and eclectic competition for the coveted award, going up against the Johnny Cash box Unearthed, the Lenny Bruce compilation Let The Buyer Beware, The Complete Columbia Recordings of Woody Herman and Goodbye Babylon. The historical collection dovetails with the Museum's same-titled exhibit (running through December 2005), accompanied by related exhibit publications and a schedule of interpretive public programs, including concerts, panel discussions, lectures and films. Together, the recordings, exhibit, publications and programs serve as an overview of Nashville's rich R&B heritage and demonstrate the fluid borders and frequent collaborations that connect R&B and country -- the music and the musicians. Given Nashville's global association as something approaching a "brand name" for country music, the initial response to the release of Night Train surely raised a few eyebrows -- its very title inviting a skeptical response from the uninitiated. Yet any notion that this was some kind of off-beat, second-tier novelty set is blown away from the rollicking opener (Cecil Gant's swinging "Nashville Jumps") right on through to the inspiring closer (Robert Knight's classic "Everlasting Love"). In between those high-voltage bookends are 33 more groove-laden tracks, with choice entries by such R&B stalwarts as Arthur Alexander, Ruth Brown, Etta James, Joe Tex, Bobby Hebb, Joe Simon and Johnny Adams interspersed among equally riveting performances by such lesser-known wonders as The Prisonaires, Shy Guy Douglas, The Avons, Johnny Jones, The Imperial 7, The Marigolds and Roscoe Shelton (to name but a few). In fact, the overall quality of artists, songs and recordings collected on Night Train is so consistently, breathtakingly high that one can't help but wonder just how many more overlooked gems have been hiding in dust-covered Nashville vaults. Well, good news, folks--it turns out Night Train to Nashville is just the tip of the iceberg! Encouraged and validated by the compilation's universal critical acclaim (and blown away by the wealth of treasures discovered in the making of the first set), co-producers Gray and Cooper are busy planning Night Train to Nashville, Vol. 2, yet another two-disc trove due to hit the racks in late summer 2005. As with the first set, Night Train Vol. 2 will keep the major focus on Nashville-based artists, adding selected Nashville recordings made by celebrated out-of-towners like Ivory Joe Hunter, Esther Phillips and Clyde McPhatter. Drawing its material from more than 20 independent labels (including Excello, Republic, Champion and Sound Stage 7), Night Train Vol.2 will present some original sides which subsequently found greater success in the hands of mega-stars, among them Bernard Hardison's "Too Much" (Elvis Presley), Christine Kittrell's "I'm a Woman" (Peggy Lee) and Freddie North's "She‚s All I Got" (Johnny Paycheck). Key contributors to the first volume -- including Kittrell, Jimmy Sweeney, Arthur Alexander, Earl Gaines, Roscoe Shelton, Frank Howard and Johnny Bragg -- reprise on Vol. 2, while key Nashville R shakers and movers NOT found on the first set -- Charles Walker, Jimmy Church, Freddie North, Herbert Hunter, Marion James, The Spidells and many more -- are set to join the party. Dr. Reavis Mitchell, who was raised near Jefferson Street, and is the chair of Fisk University's history department, will contribute an essay for the liner notes. Also among the many treats promised is a rare 1952 Nashville recording by Gay Crosse that features a great R saxophone solo by a young, feisty John Coltrane. For more information: Kay Clary / Commmotion PR 615.467.6677 kay@commotionpr.com Jim Flammia / Lost Highway 615.524.7507 Liz Thiels, Tina Wright / Country Music Hall of Fame Museum 615-416-2084 |
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For more information: Kay Clary / Commmotion PR 615.467.6677 kay@commotionpr.com COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME® AND MUSEUM JOINS FORCES WITH LOST HIGHWAY TO RELEASE NIGHT TRAIN TO NASHVILLE: MUSIC CITY RHYTHM & BLUES, 1945-1970 TWO-CD HISTORICAL COMPILATION IN STORES FEBRUARY 24, 2004 While Nashville’s contributions to country music are vast and extraordinary, the city’s equally magnificent blues, rhythm & blues, and soul legacy, to say nothing of jazz and gospel, is less well-known. Now, music from Nashville’s post-World War II R&B heyday is being revived and revisited at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum. With the February 24, 2004 release of Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970, a two-CD set on CMF Records (distributed by Lost Highway/ Universal, list price $19.98), the museum begins an examination of a time when Middle Tennessee was a mecca for R&B musicians and their fans. "To young blacks growing up in East Tennessee, the city [Nashville] was our version of Harlem, Chicago, Fifty-second Street, Central Avenue and Beale Street combined," reports arts columnist/music critic Ron Wynn in a personal memoir of the period included in the Night Train to Nashville liner notes. The historical collection dovetails with the Museum’s same-titled exhibit, on track to open in March 2004, accompanied by related exhibit publications and an 18-month schedule of interpretive public programs, including concerts, panel discussions, lectures and films. Together, the recordings, exhibit, publications and programs will serve as an overview of Nashville’s rich R&B heritage and demonstrate the fluid borders and frequent collaborations that connect R&B and country music and musicians. The Night Train to Nashville discs are a collection of pivotal sounds made mostly in Nashville studios for local labels like Bullet, Nashville’s first notable independent record company, and Excello, now recognized as Music City’s most important R&B label. All the titles were chosen based on a strong association with Nashville, and most were recorded there. Some – the Prisonaires’ "Just Walkin’ in the Rain" and Bobby Hebb’s "Sunny," for example – come from artists who lived in Nashville for a significant period, but who recorded these cuts elsewhere. A few – such as Etta James’ "What’d I Say" and Esquerita’s "Rockin’ the Joint" – are the serendipitous result of recording location choices made by gifted artists based in other locales. The musical evolution from country-flavored homilies and blues-dominated lyrics to rhythmically robust arrangements and a hybrid mix of country and soul is chronologically documented via the twin CDs. The collection also offers some wonderful period-piece slices, most notably a great jive commercial from Little Richard that masterfully blends a carnival huckster’s patter with a barrelhouse piano belter’s furor. Night Train To Nashville is equal parts historical reflection, cultural preservation, and celebratory ardor. These songs distinctly reveal how black Nashville sounded before powerhouse AM station WLAC abandoned midnight soul for what would eventually become today’s right-wing talk, and before the interstate highway system plowed through the city’s African-American community, devastating its vibrant night life in the process. Though those times are gone, these songs will live forever. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 educational organization chartered by the State of Tennessee in 1964. The Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, RCA’s Historic Studio B, and Hatch Show Print. The Ford Division of the Ford Motor Co. is a Founding Partner of the new $37 million Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, which opened on May 17, 2001. More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com or by calling (615) 416-2096. • Tentative Track Listings CD One 01. Cecil Gant "Nashville Jumps" 02. Rudy Green & His Orchestra "Buzzard Pie" 03. Kid King’s Combo "Skip’s Boogie" 04. Christine Kittrell "L&N Special" 05. Christine Kittrell "Sittin’ Here Drinking" 06. The Prisonaires "Just Walkin’ in the Rain" 07. The Varieteers "If You and I Could Be Sweethearts" 08. Arthur Gunter "Baby Let’s Play House" 09. Little Hank [Crawford] & the Rhythm Kings "Christene" 10. Louis Brooks & His Hi-Toppers with Earl Gaines "It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)" 11. The Marigolds "Rollin’ Stone" 12. Gene Allison "You Can Make It If You Try" 13. Esquerita "Rockin’ the Joint" 14. Audrey Bryant "Let’s Trade a Little" 15. Roscoe Shelton "Say You Really Care" 16. Larry Birdsong "Somebody, Somewhere" 17. Jimmy Beck & His Orchestra "Pipe Dreams" (Bonus Track) Little Richard: WLAC commercial (Bonus Track) Earl Gaines "White Rose" CD Two (Bonus Track) John Richbourg: WLAC air check 01. Shy Guy Douglas "Monkey Doin’ Woman" 02. Etta James "What’d I Say" (live) 03. Johnny Jones & the Imperial 7 "Really (Part 1)" 04. Frank Howard & the Commanders "Just Like Him" 05. Arthur Alexander "Anna (Go To Him)" 06. Joe Henderson "Snap Your Fingers" 07. Ruth Brown "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (Nashville version) 08. Sam Baker "Something Tells Me" 09. Bobby Hebb "Sunny" 10. Joe Tex "I Want To (Do Everything for You)" 11. The Hytones "Bigger and Better" 12. The Avons "Since I Met You Baby" 13. Joe Simon "The Chokin’ Kind" 14. Clifford Curry "She Shot a Hole in My Soul" 15. The Valentines "Gotta Get Yourself Together" 16. Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson "Soul Shake" 17. Johnny Adams "Reconsider Me" 18. Robert Knight "Everlasting Love" |
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