Johnny Paycheck's recordings for
Aubrey Mayhew's Little Darlin' Records were compiled on CD on the tremendous 1996 Country Music Foundation release
The Real Mr. Heartache, but that 24-track disc was only the tip of the iceberg with regard to his recordings for the label. Due to various legal reasons, recordings on Little Darlin' remained out of print for decades -- with the notable exception of
The Real Mr. Heartache, that is -- but what was little known is that the LPs released during the '60s didn't cover all the material
Paycheck recorded for the label. There were hundreds of sides that were never released, and they were tucked away in the vaults until Koch launched an ambitious reissue program in 2004, planning to release all of his recordings for the label in chronological order, beginning with the release of
The Little Darlin' Sounds of Johnny Paycheck: The Beginning in May. To call this an important release is a bit of an understatement.
Paycheck is one of the great figures of country music, a strong songwriter and a vocalist who influenced
George Jones. He recorded the hardest of honky tonk, never straying from hardcore country even when he crossed over into the pop charts in the '70s, yet his music was varied and vibrant, never bound by the dogged conventions on conservatism.