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Roy Acuff was a hugely important personality in the development of modern country, a singer and fiddle-player who became an influential music publisher with songwriter Fred Rose as owners of the the Acuff-Rose company in Nashville, helping to move the industry from its hillbilly origins towards the singer-based styles of the post-war era. He was so popular in his day that hank Williams said: “He's the biggest singer this music ever knew. … For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God.” Born in Tennessee in 1903, he started performing in the 1930s on the medicine show circuit before forming his first bands, which eventually became The Smoky Mountain Boys. He recorded prolifically through the years and this 54-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A & B sides of his releases on the Vocalion/Conqueror, Okeh, Columbia, Capitol, Decca and Hickory labels from the quarter-century period it covers. It features all his US pop and country hits from these years, including the Top 10 hits, “The Prodigal Son”, “I’ll Forgive You But I Can’t Forget”, “Write Me Sweetheart”, “(Our Own) Jole Blon”, “Waltz Of The Wind”, “Once More”, and other classics like “The Great Speckled Bird”, “Wabash Cannonball” and “Tennessee Waltz”. He was a highly distinctive talent, and addressing as it does a dynamic and varied era in the genre, this collection showcases Roy’s music across the years.
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