John D. Loudermilk was one of the best and most interesting songwriters of the '50s and '60s. He was endlessly creative in coming up with unusual and intriguing topics for his songs, as It's My Time shows. Bear Family broke from their usual M.O. of offering complete and/or chronological packages, and assembled two dozen message-oriented songs Loudermilk recorded for RCA Victor from 1961-68, sequenced in no particular order. Although it isn't entirely thematically consistent, many of the song...   [ read more ]

CD $21.83

When Frank Zappa parodies doo wop, or when Lee Hazlewood makes odd amalgams of country and pop, it's funny because there are indications that these guys are aware that they're deconstructing established idioms. Loudermilk is like Zappa and Hazlewood. What to make of a line like "since Dad's been laid off work, Mary's no longer mine," in a song ("Mary's No Longer Mine") bemoaning the narrator's lack of access to his Dad's car to take Mary out, delivered with minimal emotion? Hardly the usu...   [ read more ]

CD $13.28

23-song collection of his earliest material from 1957-60. Includes both sides of all five singles he recorded for Colonial (when he was known as Johnny Dee), and early Columbia singles, as well as three previously unreleased songs from the early Columbia era. "Sittin' in the Balcony" and the original, stark version of "Tobacco Road" are the clear highlights here. Most of the rest is timid rockabilly/pop, with songwriting that's riddled with goody-goody teen cliches; the novelty "Asiatic Flu" and "The Ha...   [ read more ]

CD $21.83