VA - Shreveport Stomp & Shreveport High Steppers RAM Rockabilly and Hillbilly (1994/2001)

Ram Records was the creation of the late Mira Smith. A multi-talented musician, studio engineer and songwriter, Mira made many fine recordings both of blues and hillbilly artists. Most of them came from her home town of Shreveport, Louisiana but, occasionally, she would record musicians and singers from places further afield. Many of the performances she recorded have remained unissued until today, not because of any deficiency in the recordings or performances, many of which are very fine indeed, simply because Mira worked on an indie label shoestring and had insufficient capital to promote more than a handful of singles a year. An awful lot of good music just stayed in the vaults. With her limited budget, Mira recorded such talent as bluesman Oscar Wills, better known as TV Slim, and his Flat Foot Sam and a young rock'n'roll star Linda Brannon, whose band included a very young guitarist James Burton (later to record and tour with Elvis in the late 60s and 70s). Linda later married country supersession player Jerry Kennedy, who also features on some of the Ram recording sessions. White blues piano player Roy 'Boogie Boy' Perkins was another find - his Drop Top (here in a previously unreleased first take) was Billboard's Pick Of The Week in February 1958 while his rocking Ba-Da gets a general release for the first time (it was only previously available in the 70s as a hard-to-find mail-order item). Sonny Boy Williamson is here with Mailman, Mailman, though this Sonny Boy is neither No.1 nor No.2 but a guy named Jeff Williamson, a tall, thin man with golden hair who found his disc strangely credited to Sonny Boy Williamson. Capturing the melting pot of sounds that were transforming the South of the 50s and early 60s, the music on Ram features the blues as they met country music, rockabilly and western swing and they collided with R&B and cajun as it started to mutate into swamp pop. Heady music from vintage times and volume one is only the beginning! --Ace Records

The Shreveport, LA-based Ram label put out a cartload of rock, blues, and country records in the 1950s without ever establishing itself as a major indie. This 26-track compilation of, as the title promises, rockabilly and hillbilly sides from the decade is definitely for the "let's clean out the vault 'cause it's there'" kind of enthusiasts. That's not to say that it's terrible, just that it's a pretty unremarkable collection of minor leaguers, the biggest name -- and she's hardly a big one -- being Margaret Lewis. A couple of guys not primarily known for work under their own name make early appearances. Joe Osborne, one of the top Los Angeles rock session bassists of the 1960s, is represented by the previously unreleased instrumental "Rovin'," one of the better cuts with its tough blues-rock swagger. James Burton, meanwhile, contributes guitar to Leon Post's unreleased instrumental "Dollie in the Dirt Boogie." For the most part, the CD has run-of-the-mill rockabilly that's a little more subdued than the manic performances that tend to fill compilations such as these, sometimes with a pronounced country flavor. The Lonesome Drifter (who has nine songs), for instance, sounds a little like a rockabillied Hank Williams, sometimes smothered in a ridiculous amount of echo. Most of these acts would have been fine as warmups for Shreveport's famous Louisiana Hayride radio show, but it can't be said that their Ram sides (seven of which are previously unreleased) on this disc are worth much attention. --Richie Unterberger, AllMusicGuide