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:: Track list & details
HighTone Records is a fiercely independent label, so when they decided to celebrate the music they've released over the past two decades, they didn't make it a Best Of set—or even release it on an important anniversary. "We've been putting out albums for 23 years," says Larry Sloven, who founded the label along with his partner, well known blues producer Bruce Bromberg, in 1983. "I thought we'd put out enough good music that we should document it and show people the scope of what we're doing."
Over the years, HighTone (named after a lyric in Hank Williams' "Mind Your Own Business:" "Mindin' other people's business seems to be high-toned/I got all that I can do just to mind my own.") has given maverick artists like Tom Russell and Dave Alvin the artistic freedom to grow their own indefinable style, and revived the careers of people like Joe Ely, Geoff Muldaur, Latino country superstar Johnny Rodriguez and honky tonk singer Gary Stewart.
The label hit pay dirt with its first album, Robert Cray's Bad Influence. Cray's third album, Strong Persuader, was a joint venture between HighTone and Universal music, and that deal made the label enough money to bankroll their operation. Because of their success with Cray, many people pegged HighTone as a blues label, but it was roots music and country rock, particularly the work of Merle Haggard, that sparked the partnership between Sloven and Bromberg. In its early days, the label carved out a niche in the style that's now known as Americana. In fact, when the Americana chart finally debuted, HighTone had the first and longest running #1 Americana record (Tulare Dust, a compilation of artists singing Merle Haggard songs).
In keeping with their no-frills philosophy, The HighTone Records Story doesn't include any unreleased tracks, outtakes or "collector's only" do-dads. The set's 79 songs are on four CDs broken down by genre: Blues, Country, Rock and "Singing Songwriters And Other Folk."
Highlights: Robert Cray's "Smoking Gun" (the tune that put Cray and HighTone into the national spotlight); "American Music" by The Blasters, (taken from their album of the same name, originally on Ronnie Weiser's Rollin' Rock label); "Fast Food Slow Death" a smokin' blues shuffle by Springfield Missouri's Clarence Brewer (a blues rocker who should be better known); a shredding version of "Warm California Sun" by surf guitar master Dick Dale; "Blue Collar Blues" by Sun Records rockabilly vet Billy Lee Riley; "Jug Hustler Blues" by the lo-fi multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Seth Kauffman; "The Greatest Story Ever Told," a genre-busting love song combiningTexas swing and '50s R&B by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys; "Wine Don't Lie," a downbeat drinking song by Dale Watson (a honky tonk singer who owes a stylistic debt to Merle Haggard).
Chris Smither, a highly underrated singer/songwriter who's been around as long as Dylan and Prine, and turns in consistently fine work, gets two tracks: "Link Of Chain" and "No Love Today." And Aztex, a Norteño fusion group led by accordion ace Joel Guzman (Sloven reckons Guzman is the greatest, most accomplished musician HighTone has ever recorded), delivers "Padre Prays For Rain" a bleak border blues. The box also includes work by Buddy and Julie Miller, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Rosie Flores, Joe Lewis Walker, former Merle Haggard lead guitarist Redd Volkaert, Hank Thompson, R. L. Burnside, Billy Joe Shaver, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and many more, a veritable who's who of American roots music.
The music videos on the box set's DVD show us HighTone's foray into the world of promotional video at the dawn of the MTV era. At that time, every artist thought they needed a video clip to be credible. "HighTone's videos were spectacularly unsuccessful," Sloven said. "Many of them were done in formats that don't exist anymore, but we tried to do right by our artists." Documenting the beginning of the Americana movement, clips include Dave Alvin "Why Did She Stay With Him?," The Lonesome Strangers "Just Can't Cry No More," Heater Miles "Lovin' The Bottle," Marty Brown "You Can't Wrap Your Arms Around A Memory" and Joe Ely "My Baby Thinks She's French." They're all fairly straightforward performances, charmingly low budget, as interesting today for the artists' unfortunate choice of hairstyles and clothing as they are for the music.
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