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Posted by Stein Heidal Stein PS: Joyce, Ray, Julie and Larry: Thank you so very much for your prayers and your comforting e-mails! I will answer one of these days!
on 30/4/2007, 3:17 pm
85.19.140.137
Dear friends,
Good to be back on the forum, if only briefly. A lot of things have happened since last time, but I’ll come back to that in a while.
I have with great interest read the latest postings about how Jim’s recordings are being issued bye RCA/BMG/Sony and others over many years. To be honest: It’s really a sad story. The same songs over and over again. Not to speak of the live recordings from the Opry or somewhere else, usually on budget CD’s, and with a sound quality worse than anything I ever listened to on my childhood transistor radio. I have really lost interest in “The best of”, “The essential”, “The Complete” or whatever they are labelled. The same songs (although great) keep repeating themselves to the point that I some day might not want to listen to them again for some time… And that really is sad.
I have had all these songs on albums and singles since the mid 60’s, and I really do love them. But there are so MANY more of Jim’s songs that are worth listening to. And I can not understand why his many new fans are being withheld from listening to them, and get the chance to know so many more sides of Jim, unless they buy the fairly expensive 16-CD set from Bear Records.
Why not make a compilation from some of the “lesser” known albums? Well, we old-timers know them by heart, but there’s so many who have never had the joy of listening to them.
Except for a few songs, when was the last time you heard or found in the record store “Jim Reeves”, “Girls I have Known”, “Songs to Warm the Heart” (At this time I’ll avoid the discussion about mono/stereo etc.), “God be with You”, “Talkin’ to Your Heart”, “The Intimate”, “Tall Tales and Short Tempers” (one of my favourites, just listen to that wonderful voice, not “drowned” by heavy arrangements/instruments/back-up vocals), “Gentleman Jim”, “The Country Side of Jim Reeves”, “Good ‘n’ Country” (great!), “Moonlight and Roses”, and last not lest “The Jim Reeves Way” (another of my favourites, but some of the songs quite “over-arranged” by Anita Kerr…).
Well, that was just some of the albums. Just imagine what could have been done to promote Jim’s legacy and music by releasing just some of the songs from each album….
But luckily we have Voice Masters, Julie and Larry, who have done more than anyone else to promote Jim and his music for the last decade or so. They have indeed brought us a “new” Jim unheard till now! Really amazing! Thanks!
Then my absence from the forum: My oldest son was diagnosed with a serious heart failure just two months ago, and just over a week ago he went through open heart surgery. He was recovering fine, but yesterday he had to have another surgery because of a leak in the heart. All is well now, though! And that is why I finally can have the pleasure of sharing my thoughts with you all here once more. Won’t be long till the next time!
Take care!
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