Roy Acuff
The Good News According to Mr. Roy Acuff
Audium Records


by William Michael Smith

It all happened so long ago few people who aren't country music buffs or historians are aware that Roy Acuff, for decades the upright poster boy symbol of country music, Nashville, and the Grand Ole Opry, had a wild streak in his younger days. Before suffering a sun stroke in 1932, Acuff was known as a fighter and a hell-raiser. He had several brushes with the law and the courts around Knoxville. His early band was known as The Crazy Tennesseeans and was only changed to The Smoky Mountain Boys after the Opry showed serious interest in Acuff.

But following the stroke which knocked him out of a possible career with the New York Yankees, a year-long recovery saw Acuff discover the fiddle and begin to settle down. He eventually became a dedicated Christian and began to both write and record gospel songs. A co-founder of Acuff-Rose, the first publishing company specializing in country music, Acuff wrote dozens of gospel numbers in his 50+ year career. He became closely identified with several of his compositions as well as with Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light" and Fred Rose's "Wait For The Light To Shine." Acuff's "Precious Memories," "Dust on the Bible," "When I Lay My Burden Down," and "The Precious Jewel" were widely recorded and have become an integral part of the core body of Americana music. They are all included in this compilation.

The Good News According To Mr. Roy Acuff is the first release to specifically segregate Acuff's gospel work from his secular tracks. While no specific credits are given concerning the recordings or the musicians, the 18 tracks appear to span Acuff's career. Some of the takes are with a typical Acuff ensemble: fiddle, banjo, mandolin, dobro, bass. But there are also glossier, more modern takes that include the likes of Nashville studio harmonica wizard Charlie McCoy and muted drums in the mix. Acuff was never a fan of ornate productions and the only flourishes included here are the occasional backing vocals by a "choir" most likely made up of Nashville/Opry regulars (I swear I can hear Grandpa Jones's voice in there!).

Acuff's was the first ensemble to play a dobro on the Opry stage (Clell Summey, 1938) and, as with any Acuff album, his longtime sideman Pete (Brother Oswald) Kirby stands out on tracks like "The Automobile of Life." Never one for abstraction, this is a typical Acuff lyric written in the kinds of plainspoken, practical metaphors that needed no translation for common folk.

Get plenty of water and plenty of oil
And the best gasoline you can find
Have your engine tuned up and look out for your brakes
You'll have some hard places to climb
Look out for the tires for the blowouts will come
On a dangerous curve deep and high
But if you'll let Jesus take hold of the wheel
You'll make it to Heaven on high

Despite having been a hit for Hank Williams, "I Saw The Light" became one of Acuff's signatures and it is absolutely fitting that this compilation begins with an energized roof-raising version that is good-timey and spirit lifting the way gospel country music ought to be. The widely known "When I Lay My Burden Down" is another gospel shout track done in the old way of the country church house. There is a sincerity and heartfelt intensity to Acuff's rendition of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" that many artists with far greater raw talent could never approximate.

For fans of Roy Acuff, this compilation will be a must. For lovers of country gospel music, Acuff's direct, unflowery, old-time presentation and the obvious reverence he conveys make this a satisfying addition to any collection. If Acuff's versions of "Precious Memories" and "The Precious Jewel" (with its famous signature opening "Way back in the hills/when a boy I once wondered" and Oswald's masterful dobro work) don't get you where you live, you either haven't heard them or you aren't a fan of country music. These are timeless classics whether you are a fan of gospel music or not.

*The Good News According to Mr. Roy Acuff is available at the usual Internet outlets.


Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
Read Rockzilla's Guestbook
Sign Rockzilla's Guestbook