Sam Phillips started his Sun Records label in 1952 and recorded seemingly all comers in the Memphis area, tracking gospel, blues, country, boogie, and Western swing performers and as luck would have it, a fair amount of what were termed "hillbilly" artists, who recorded all sorts of variations on the above genres.
Phillips and Sun hit it big in 1954, of course, with
Elvis Presley, as well as
Johnny Cash,
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Roy Orbison, and
Carl Perkins, but this knack for cutting sides by obscure local eccentrics also produced little known records by the likes of
Hardrock Gunter and
Slim Rhodes, both of whom have interesting selections included on this collection. The biggest name here is probably
Charlie Feathers, although only hardcore rockabilly fans are likely to know who he is, so this set is a fine history lesson in the roots of rockabilly and in the open-minded, fortunate expansiveness of
Phillips' taste in recording projects. Rockabilly, and in turn that next logical step, rock & roll, didn't come out of nowhere, and the proof is here.