...still the best plunderers of the Beeb's vaults...
    (Michael Heatley, Record Buyer and Music Collector magazine)

  CAL SMITH My Kind Of Country/ I Just Came Home To Count The Memories (2 on 1) HUX120 Release date: 25 October 2010 (HUX120)

Country singer Cal Smith originally emerged from Ernest Tubbs' band and later went on to enjoy several hits of his own from the late 1960s and on into the 1970s.

Cal Smith's warm, comforting baritone ensured he had a significant presence in the US country music market, especially during the 1970s.

Now reissued for the first time on CD, this '2on1' features two of his greatest LPs, which were originally released on the MCA label in 1975 & 1977.

Cal Smith's last hit on the US country chart was 'I Just Come Home To Count The Memories', in 1977, which is the title track of the second album featured here.

This Hux compilation has been digitally remastered by Ron Geesin. The booklet includes extensive liner notes, photographs and full lyrics to every track.

Track Listing

MARTIN CARTHY The January Man - Live In Belfast 1978
Release date: 25 October 2010 (HUX119)

As the father figure and guiding spirit of the English folk revival of the 1960s, Martin Carthy was involved in the formation of at least three major English folk-rock bands; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band.

Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson all cite Carthy as a direct influence.

In June 1998 Martin Carthy was appointed an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. He was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2002, and again in 2005.

Despite a solo career spanning several decades, 'The January Man' is the first ever official release of a Martin Carthy live solo album, and is released with Carthy's full approval.

This towering performance, recorded in FM quality in 1978, shows an artist who was a legend even then and whose brilliance is merely underlined with the passing of time.

Limited edition digipack includes booklet with extensive liner notes featuring reminiscences from Carthy himself.

Recorded at the Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast, 20th October 1978

Track Listing

In the 1970s, Johnny Rodriguez brought a sudden and unexpected exotic Hispanic dash and sexiness to country music. Rodriguez would introduce whole verses sung completely in Spanish to his records, to a completely unprepared yet delighted country music audience.

Rodriguez was discovered by Tom T Hall in 1971. Hall was looking for a replacement guitarist for his road band The Storytellers, and gave Rodriguez the job, as well as his own solo spot. Eventually Rodriguez' success began to eclipse that of Tom T Hall's.

In 1972 Johnny Rodriguez debuted on the country chart with the superlative 'Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)' (featured here), making him the first Hispanic artist to make Billboard's top 40 country listings. The single climbed into the Top Ten and turned out to be the first of 14 consecutive Rodriguez singles to do so. His next two (both included on this Hux CD), 'Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico' and 'You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)', both hit number one.

'You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)' - also his first foray on to the Billboard pop charts - was a Rodriguez co-write with his boss and mentor Tom T Hall.

Rodriguez' debut album, 'Introducing Johnny Rodriguez', was released in 1973. This was quickly followed in the same year by 'All I Ever Meant To Do Was Sing'. Both titles have now been digitally re-mastered and are reissued on CD now for the first time.

The accompanying 12 page booklet includes extensive liner notes, photographs, and full lyrics to every featured track.

Track Listing

In a recent article for Country Music People magazine, the editor Craig Baguley called Johnny Paycheck 'the greatest singer country music has ever produced', and went on to opine that George Jones owes his vocal syling to Paycheck.

Born in 1938, Paycheck showed an early interest in country music and took up the guitar at the age of age of six. As a teenager, he hitchhiked around the country, singing in bars. Eventually he enlisted in the navy where, after a fight with a senior officer, he landed up two years in the brig.

This was typical of Paycheck's anti-authority attitude which stayed with him throughout a notorious roller-coaster lifetime of highs and lows involving drink, drugs, barroom brawls and prison sentences (in 1977, Paycheck's career single and blue collar anthem, 'Take This Job and Shove It', inspired one-man wildcat strikes all over America).

After travelling to Nashville in 1958, Paycheck performed in the bands of Porter Wagoner, Faron Young, Ray Price, and George Jones, before launching his own solo career.

In 1972, at the height of his success, Epic Records released two Paycheck albums - 'Someone To Give My Love To' and 'Somebody Loves Me'. Both titles have now been digitally re-mastered and are reissued on CD now for the first time.

The accompanying 12 page booklet includes extensive liner notes, photographs, and full lyrics to every featured track.

Track Listing
 

Marty Robbins was a consummate all-round entertainer. Cowboy singer, rock'n'roller, pop balladeer; he featured elements of bluegrass, Mexican, Hawaiian, Caribbean, jazzy pop standards and country tearjerkers into his varied repertoire. A prolific songwriter, he was one of country music's first successful album artists and maintained a prolific presence in this area.

In 1959, he became the first country music star to be awarded a Grammy, for his classic country hit ‘El Paso', and the success of this song established Robbins once and for all.

In 1970, The Academy Of Country Music voted him their ‘Man Of The Decade'.

In 1982, just two months before he died, Marty Robbins was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was a huge favourite of rockers from the Grateful Dead to the Clash, and Elvis Presley made Marty's You Gave Me A Mountain a 1970s standard. In 2006 The Who's Endless Wire album included the song, God Speaks, of Marty Robbins. Merle Haggard has often talked of his wish to record his own tribute album to Marty Robbins.

The two LPs featured here were originally released on the Columbia label in 1968 & 1969. The title song, I Walk Alone became Marty's 13th number one country hit and led to him recording his follow up album in the same style, and again featuring him playing piano.

These two original LPs have now been digitally re-mastered from the original production tapes and are reissued on CD here for the first time. The accompanying 12 page booklet includes extensive liner notes by Maverick magazine editor Alan Cackett, plus full lyrics to all of the featured tracks.

Track Listing

During the period spanning late 1969 - 1972 Quintessence were one of Britain's most powerful and most popular live acts.

Immediately after leaving Quintessence, vocalist Phil 'Shiva' Jones and guitarist Dave 'Maha Dev' Codling had formed Kala.

Beset by bizarre personnel issues, and in the hands of a record label which somehow found defeat in the jaws of what should have been a victory for all concerned, Kala nevertheless managed to release one overlooked gem of an album and a couple of blistering live tracks during its brief existence.

The album featured some titles which were in a similar vein to Quintessence, with others nodding towards the popular boogie and country-rock of contemporaries like the Faces.

Now exquisitely remastered by Ron Geesin, with two previously unreleased live tracks and two brand new vocal takes, this CD debut of Kala's complete works has been compiled with the full co-operation of Phil and Dave.

The accompanying 16 page full colour booklet includes extensive liner notes by Colin Harper, an interview with the band, and recollections on each track by Shiva Jones.

In June this year, Shiva and Dave's reformed Quintessence will be performing at the 40th Glastonbury Festival - 40 years after storming the very first. At the time of writing, it seems they may well perform 'Still Got Time' and 'Thirsty Generation' from the Kala LP.

Track listing
 

Bridget St. John was one of the first artists to be signed to John Peel's Dandelion label in 1969.

She recorded 3 albums there before she was signed to Chrysalis Records in 1974. All of those original records have recently been reissued on CD, to wide acclaim.

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bridget made many unique recordings for BBC Radio, mostly for John Peel. None of those recordings have ever been released on CD until now.

Compiled by Bridget herself, this double CD features the best of her BBC radio concerts and sessions, including her very first Peel session, recorded in 1968. Several of these songs are released here for the first time.

This double CD set is packaged in a lavish full colour digipack with an accompanying 20 page colour booklet featuring extensive liner notes, an interview with Bridget, plus several rare photographs from Bridget's own archive.

The tracks are a mixture of solo and band recordings, and three songs (disc 2, 14-16) are duets with Kevin Ayers. These CDs have been digitally re-mastered by Ron Geesin (who also produced Bridget's second Dandelion LP in 1971).

Track listing

DAVY GRAHAM From Monkhouse To Medway 1963-1973
Release date: 26th April 2010 (HUX113)

Davy Graham was one of the most eclectic guitarists of the 1960s and, with his eclectic mixture of folk, blues and jazz, was considered to be the catalyst of the British folk scene.

His legendary 'Angi' single was released in 1962 and would prove hugely influential on a generation of British folk-blues guitar heroes. But Britain was still in the pre-Beatles world of ‘Light Entertainment' and Davy Graham, ahead of his time, couldn't get arrested. So closet guitar buff and radio/TV star Bob Monkhouse stepped in and funded a demo acetate which resulted in Davy's first album deal.

Now restored from a sole surviving copy, those tracks are heard here for the first time, along with a folk club set recorded in stereo from Davy's 'wilderness years' in the early '70s. The release of this CD now adds numerous otherwise unrecorded titles to Davy's unique legacy.

The accompanying booklet include extensive liner notes by renowned folk journalist Colin Harper, and an interview with Bob Monkhouse.

Track listing

MARTY ROBBINS Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? / I've Got A Woman's Love ‘2on1' Release date: 9 March 2010 (HUX112)

In the history of Country music, no artist has ever had a more stylistically diverse career than Marty Robbins. Robbins was never content to remain just a country singer, and performed successfully in a dazzling array of styles during more than 30 years in the business.

In 1959, he became the first country music star to be awarded a Grammy, for his classic country hit 'El Paso', and the success of this song established Robbins once and for all. In 1970, The Academy Of Country Music voted him their 'Man Of The Decade'.

This CD features two of Marty's LPs which were originally released on Columbia Records in 1972 & 1974. They are now reissued on CD for the first time. Included here are several Robbins' originals, as well as some of his exquisite interpretations of standards.

The accompanying booklet includes extensive liner notes, rare photographs and full lyrics to every featured track.

 

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