Tennessee -Ernie Ford—Best of the Best

Put aside the voice, the Pea-Pickin, the Bombardier, the hits, the membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame and all the other honors and accomplishments in Tennessee Ernie Ford's past. That's not easily done, but under all of it are his greatest achievements in his role as ambassador. His early country boogie records helped point the way toward rock and roll in America. In England, they were so popular that John Lennon identified them as an early influence on the mid-fifties British "skiffle" music craze that inspired the Quarrymen, the teenage Liverpool band that evolved into the Beatles. To America in the fifties Ernie epitomized Southern music, bringing country and gospel to a white picket fence, gray flannel suit America who wouldn't have crossed their suburban streets to see a Grand Ole Opry artist. He did much the same thing 20 years later in 1974 when he became the first American country singer to headline a tour of pre-Glasnost Russia. On his TV variety shows, particularly his prime-time NBC Ford Show from 1956 through 1961, Ernie proved that a country singer could be as down-home as collard greens and still project polish and sophistication. His success in that field opened the door for every other country singer who found success on the tube, setting the stage for the rise of larger cable entities like the Nashville Network. Born when primitive phonographs and radio were cutting-edge technology, he ended his career with TV appearances bounced off satellites and records on digital CD’s. His recorded work is vast. This set focuses on some of Ernie’s Gospel music and his folks about war. When The Rebel Soldier alternates with A Beautiful Life, Virginia's Bloody Soil with Lord, I' M Coming Home; it’s not about a voice singing anymore, you can hear the soul’s heavist accusement upon War and his strongest longing for peace. That’s Tennessee Ernie Ford, a half-century legacy, and a man who had lived up to his Medal of Freedom.