The Very Best of Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper & the Clinch Mountain Clan (2002)

As a 19-track CD that covers the duo's most commercially successful period, this should be considered the best compilation of Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper's work as a duo. Devoted to their Hickory material from 1956-1963, it features seven Top 20 hits: "Come Walk With Me," "Cheated Too," "Big Midnight Special," "The Wreck on the Highway," "There's a Big Wheel," "Johnny, My Love (Grandma's Diary)," and "This Ole House." That's less than half of the anthology; more importantly, it captures them in their artistic prime too, at a ... Read More

As a 19-track CD that covers the duo's most commercially successful period, this should be considered the best compilation of Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper's work as a duo. Devoted to their Hickory material from 1956-1963, it features seven Top 20 hits: "Come Walk With Me," "Cheated Too," "Big Midnight Special," "The Wreck on the Highway," "There's a Big Wheel," "Johnny, My Love (Grandma's Diary)," and "This Ole House." That's less than half of the anthology; more importantly, it captures them in their artistic prime too, at a good midpoint between their Appalachian old-time country music and the more modern commercial Nashville sound (including some drums and electric instruments). Wilma Lee Cooper's vocals still jump out with an exuberance that marks her as one of the most emotional, expressive, and downright extroverted country singers of the time. The material selected for this comp is a good and diverse mix, including the near-gospel boogie of the Louvin Brothers' "There's a Higher Power," Woody Guthrie's "Philadelphia Lawyer," "The Tramp on the Street" (Wilma Lee Cooper's singing reaches sublime heights of yearning on that cut), some originals from the pen of Wilma Lee Cooper, and a reworking of the folk standard "Midnight Special" into "Big Midnight Special." "Johnny, My Love (Grandma's Diary)," one of their best hits, was written by Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Bryant, the same team responsible for many early Everly Brothers classics. There's some real hot country and rockabilly picking, too, on songs like "Cheated Too," the rollicking "I Tell My Heart," and "There's a Higher Power." ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi Read Less

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2002, Varese Vintage UPC: 030206632323 CD See All