V.A. Birth Work Death: Work, Money and Status in Country Music 1950-1970

18 timeless tales of clanging Hammers and pounding Shovels - from wry, dry working-stiff diatribes to bare- chested exclamations - Birth / Work / Death maps the human work experience from anger to joy, poverty to riches. From the muck-crusted mines to late-night jukeboxes - backwoods outsiders and Nashville icons alike waxed odes to the entwined necessities of Work and Money, Status and Competition, Survival and Servitude. Harrowing laments of dank deaths underground, fevered hymns to Mammon, snide ripostes to debt-bondage and exuberant celebrations of family and sustenance. Most originally waxed on private press labels and distributed in tiny amounts, these town criers and tavern-bound troubadours sing of golden highways, slothful byways, factory-floor drudgery and fallow, heartbreaking fields. Years in the making – ‘Birth / Work / Death‘ presents calloused anthems and bloody ballads from dusty LPs and long forgotten 45s. All for your lunch hour listening pleasure. It features Bill Carter, Tex Ritter, Dave Dudley, Tex Williams, Doc Williams, Sunshine Boys Quartet etc.

LP - Strictly Limited Edition of 500 copies: 250 ‘Blood Sweat Red’ / 250 ‘Coal Mine Black’ (randomly inserted)! Deluxe Gatefold LP with exclusive scholarly liner notes by Alvin Lucia! Full dynamic range 2018 remasters direct from the first generation analogue master tapes!