New CDs by Bonnie Guitar and Eddie Noack

Bonnie Guitar’s earliest
singles

Eddie Noack’s 1950s recordings (3 cd
set)
BONNIE
GUITAR   Only The Moon Man Knows  (Bear Family  BCD 16744
AH)
Hello, Hello, Please Answer The
Phone • If You See My Love Dancing • Two Loves Have I • Clinging Vine (&
LEE GOTCH) • Dream
Dreamers • Lover Oh Lover • Open
The Door To Your Heart • My Heart Turned Gypsy • In The Heart Of A Song
If You Don’t
Care
TOM TALL) • Only The Moon Man Knows
• I Feel A Heartache Comin’ On
Fool Around • Lover Oh Lover
Heart’s Desire • Shanty Boat •
Please, My Love • Frantic Party • You Gave Her Your Kisses • Where Are The Words
• Heart’s Desire • Innocent
Lies • Everybody Knew But Me •
Don’t Keep Me Waitin’ • Don’t Bring Me Roses Red • I Couldn’t Believe It Was
True • Ain’t You
‘Shamed • Midget Auto Blues •
Robin In The Pine • The Cherry Tree
Cowboy Serenade • Sailing Thru’
The Sunny San Juan Isles
• I Lost My Turkey (In The Depot
In Albuquerque) • Bronco Buster’s Rag
(instrumental)
                                                                       
After two cds spotlighting previously unreleased, easy
listening recordings from 1959 and 1961 – available as part of Bear
Family
’s Velvet Lounge series – now here’s the chance
to gather Bonnie Guitar’s earliest singles, the material that
led on to a Dot Records deal and chart debut Dark
Moon
, the title for which she’s best known. But success didn’t come easy
for the Ashburn, Washington singer who was born into a musical
family, worked the round of talent contests (winning her first with a
version of Jimmie Rodgers’ Mississippi Moon), local clubs and concerts, leading
on to performing with her husband Paul Tutmarc as the
K-6 Wrangers on radio and at country music venues. She
commenced writing songs and recording on the local Morrison
label as Bonnie Tutmarc in 1951, followed by a handful of sides
for Rainer where she was credited as the vocalist with
Paul Tutmarc & The Wranglers. Based in Seattle she also
worked as a radio dj and recorded demos, one coming to the attention of
Fabor Robinson who signed her up as a session player and
recording artist as well as convincing to adopt the name ‘Guitar’ (as she played
guitar so much).
Her first release on the Fabor label, recorded in
late 1956, was Hello, Hello, Please
Answer The Phone
c/w If You See My
Love Dancing
, the production emphasizing her distinctive mellow voice which
bridged pop and country realms. Subsequent releases included a couple of duets –
Clinging Vine (with Lee Gotch) and If You Don’t
Care
(with Tom Tall) – while this cd also includes several
hitherto unreleased items. It was while with Fabor that she
recorded Dark Moon, the song eventually being released on Dot
Records
and commenced a run 0f a dozen hits on the label. Todd
Everett
provides the notes, combined with interviews, in the
accompanying 50 page booklet which also features photographs, record label
displays and discography. 
                           
   

EDDIE NOACK   Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes (Bear Family BCD 17142 CH)
DISC
ONE: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes • Triflin’ Mama
Blues • Pyramid Club • Simulated Diamonds • Hungry But Happy • Raindrops in
The River Frown On The Moon 
Unlucky Me • Green Back 
Dollar Tragic Love • I
Can’t Run Away I’d Still Want You
Music Makin’ Mama From Memphis •
Please Mr. Postman • There’s A Place In My Heart I’m Going To See My Baby • Too Hot To
Handle
• How Does It Feel To Be A Winner Nothing • First And Last Thing • (As The Band Played) Paul Jones
Pride • Spoken Message to Don Pierce Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me Baby As Long As You Call • Forlorn, Forgotten, and Forsaken • Walking
The Street

Simulated
 Diamonds
Moonlight On The Water Hungry But Happy • Raindrops In The River

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Un­lucky
Me
DISC TWO:
 Fair Today, Cold Tomorrow
Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes
     Take It Away Lucky •
Don’tTrade
Left Over
Lovin’
Don’t Worry
‘Bout Me Baby
It’ll Be so
good to You
Think Of Her
Now
Wind Me Up

If It Ain’t
On The
Menu

Me And My
New Baby
• The Life
you Lived • You Done Got Me • The Life you Lived • If Hearts Could Talk • When
The Bright Lights Grow Dim •  Think
of Her Now • It Ain’t Much But It’s Home • For You I Weep • You Done Got Me •
The Worm Has Turned • She Can’t stand The Light Of Day •
Think Of Her
Now • Scarecrow
• Dust On The River • What’s The
Matter Joe
Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes (alt)
• For You I Weep (alt) • Can You answer To God? • Lucky In Cards
• Mr. Nice Guy • Six Feet Down • Relief Is Just A Swallow Away • Are You Really
Here • It’s Hard To Tell an Old Love Goodbye • That Certain You Know
What
DISC THREE: Can’t Play
Hookey • My Steady Dream • Have Blues – Will Travel • The Price of Love •  Relief Is Just A Swallow Away • It’s
Hard to Tell An Old Love Goodbye • Love’s Other Face • Don’t Live There Anymore
• Walk ‘Em Off • The Man On The Wall • Shake Hands With The Blues (1) • A
Million Friends But No Sweetheart • Don’t Look Behind • A Think’ Man’s Woman (A
Lovin’ Man’s Gift) • Shake Hands With The Blues (2) • Sunflower Song • To Weak
To Go •
Firewater
Luke
The Price
Of Love
(alt) • The Same Old Mistake • Invisible Stripes • So Funny I
Could Cry • Shotgun House • I Slipped Out Of Heaven • Firewater Luke • Invisible
Stripes • The Same Old Mistakes • Shotgun House • Where Do You Go (When You say
Goodnight) • Love Is For Fools • The Life You Lived • I Speak Your Name • The
Same Old Mistakes • You Got A Woman

To country music fans a few decades back, Eddie
Noack
enjoyed a very dedicated following. In fact the opening notes
that accompany this three cd set confirms the fact by reflecting upon his UK
tour in 1976, a tour in which a very ill artist hardly gave his best but,
nevertheless, attracted the crowds. Two years later he was
dead.
Now Bear Family Records commences its retrospective
of the Noack career with the first of two releases, Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes
spotlighting the years 1948-61 with recordings that appeared on
the Gold Star, 4-Star, TNT, Starday, Faith, D, Dixie and
Mercury labels, together with a mass of material that never
previously saw the commercial light of day.
A
native of
Houston,
Texas,
Eddie Noack grew up with sounds of string bands and hillbilly
music surrounding him and, by the late 1940s, the city had become a haven for
country music. He made his first step up the entertainment ladder in 1945 when
he won an amateur talent contest and worked for a week in a vaudeville show
at  five dollars a day. Around the
same time he started writing songs and, a couple of years later, made his radio
debut on radio station KREL.
With
his celebrity status established locally, he made contact with
Bill Quinn’s Gold Star label, suggested that
he cut some tracks and walked away with a recording contract and a single,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes b/w Trifflin’ Mama Blues. Although
this, and subsequent singles, hardly stood out from a surfeit of records
originating out of the Houston area, the releases enabled him to move on to
better paid gigs – among them playing as member of the Western Jamboree
Cowboys
, although it meant putting up with the argumentative band
leader and club owner, R. D. Hendon who lacked any musical or
singing ability. But it did lead to recording I Can’t Run Away which
brought Noack in contact with Harold W. (“Pappy”) Daily, the
largest jukebox owner in
Texas and
a link to 4-Star
Records
. Daily, who was soon to become actively involved in
George Jones‘ career, with was the man who would have the
biggest impact on Noack’s life and produced the remainder of his
material in this collection as well as having ownership interests in most of the
labels.
Unlike many other artists who briefly recorded rockabilly, Noack
firmly resisted the temptation stating that he was “pure country” and
proved the point with his original songs, among them here with the re-recorded
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (4
versions). Too Hot To Handle and Blues – Will Travel, all helping to
build his country music fan base. Another original song, These Hands, wound up a Top 5 hit for
Hank Snow, causing him to be remembered more as a songwriter
than singer in later years. Among other artists who recorded one of his songs
were George Jones (No Blues Is Good News and For Better Or For Worse),
Curtis Gordon and Ernest Tubb (Don’t Trade) and Hawkshaw
Hawkins
(If It Ain’t On The
Menu
).
Comprising all of his 1950s singles, plus 13 unissued masters and
alternative takes, along with 27 acoustic demos, this 104 track set gives the
fullest overview ever fir an artist completely overlooked by any major label
reissues.
The 102 page booklet accompanying Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
 penned by Andrew Brown and drawing upon
interviews Eddie Noack gave to Bill Millar and
Ray Topping at the time of the ill fated 1976 UK tour
 provides a revealing insight into the artist’s career and
music, alongside equally informative notes on the Houston country music scene,
“Pappy” Daily, the various record labels (in particular,
Starday, and its subsequent development) and Noack’s time in
the US military serving in Germany. Besides photographs and reproduction of
record labels, there’s the extensive discography that’s always a part of
any Bear Family
release.

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