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Country Legacy on CD

Cliff Carlisle is often compared to Jimmie Rodgers - both men were 'blues' yodelers - but there were differences. Carlisle was not averse to using risqué material, which Rodgers would never have done. Carlisle's recording career opened in 1930, with Gennett. He recorded prolifically in the 1930s, initially with Wilbur Ball and then later his brother Bill Carlisle. He made records for many labels including Bluebird, Decca, Vocalion and ARC. After WW2 he recorded for Mercury and King. Although his early recordings have not been completely ignored, this collection aims to provide an overview of his work. Cliff Carlisle was born in Kentucky, near Mount Eden. He was the third of eight children in a musical family. Apart from outside influences, their father was a singing teacher at a local church. Cliff bought a $4.95 guitar from Sears-Roebuck. He adapted his playing to a Hawaiian style after hearing the recordings of Frank Ferera. Cliff adapted his Sears guitar to create a 'slide' effect. At sixteen, Cliff and a cousin Lillian Truax played socials and school dates as a duo. They won a number of talent contests, but Lillian married. In 1924 he met up with Wilbur Ball, an acoustic/Spanish guitar picker who was a very capable tenor harmony vocalist. Carlisle and Ball joined a tent show troupe where Cliff made his true professional debut. They would continue to play travelling shows for the next ten years. In 1930 they made their recording debut, for Gennett, who at the time recorded 'rural' musicians, both black and white. Their roster in the otm/country field included Fiddlin' Doc Roberts and Gene Autry. Autry records were released on the company's budget label, Champion. The 'nonsense' song Desert Blues, a Jimmie Rodgers composition, was recorded for Gennett in 1930 or 1931. Other items cut for the label can be heard elsewhere on this set. Also heard here are sides by Cliff with his brother Tommy