LP 1010 Ked Killen-Country Music Is Here To Stay

ONE LITTLE ROSE/CRYIN' BLUES (# 1)/HEY! PRETTY MAMA/ WORRIED BLUES/LITTLE BLIND BOY/THE CLOUDS ARE RAINING TEARDROPS/WILL THE PARDON ARRIVE TOO LATE?/ANOTHER LOVE/STREET OF DREAMS/HELLO MISTER SANTA/DOLL UPON THE SHELF/LONESOME BLUES/THE PICTURE/FORBIDDEN KISSES/SHADOWS ON THE LONESOME TRAIL/THEY CALL HIM A BUM/SCARLET TEARDROPS/BABY FLEETFOOT/TOO LATE/CRYIN' BLUES (# 2).

Ked Killen and his Western All Stars is a relatively unknown but great group from Kentucky. It seems, Ked loved his music and his private life more than a great career with all its ups and downs. Not too many seem to know that he passed away in 1968. At that time he was in the middle of his work for a series of new recordings when tragedy struck. The recordings on this fine album have been originally issued on Norm Kelly's Western Ranch label. Ked never tried to be a "copy cat", but his voice can be described as a mix of voices of Porter Wagoner, Jimmy Work and Luke Simmons, just to give you an idea what he sounds like. There's is a blue sound in his voice that you all know from ole Hank Williams. His style could be identified as early 50s recordings rather than masters that were done from 1966 to 1968. The instrumentation reminds me of the mid 50s to early 60s, and sometimes he even tries his hand on rockabilly-flavored items. The instruments that were used are guitar, played by himself, steel guitar, fiddle and bass. The rest of the musicians is unknown. Before he recorded these 20 songs for this album he did at least a 78 RPM single for Rich-R-Tone, but a talented guy like him certainly had more irons in the fire.