Dagmar Binge's excellent CD releases

[wildeb...@my-deja.com]

Dagmar Binge has produced and released albums which no one else would
ever have contemplated. "Frank Luther & Zora Layman: Pioneers of
Country Music" is an especiaklly important release, for their roles in
the history of early recorded country music have been completely
overlooked by scholars and fans alike. Between 1928 and 1933, Frank
Luther was among the most prolific and best-selling artists in the
country field. Although he was born on a Kansas farm and actually
worked as a cowboy at one time, his magnificent tenor voice and the
fact that he sang and recorded everything from light classics to
nursery rhymes have caused students of country music history to view
him as less-than-authentic. The songs he popularized, with Carson
Robison and with his own trio, have become country standards. Frank's
wife, Zora Layman, had the first hit record by a female country artist
("Seven Years With the Wrong Man") and yet she, too, has been
overlooked. Dagmar Binge's wonderful CD fills a void - and is extremely
pleasant to listen to.
All the Dagmar Binge products are of a very high order. Albums by
Red Foley, Roy Rogers, Johnny Bond, Jimmy Wakely, Bob Atcher &Bonnie
Blue Eyes and other pioneers of the genre are well-produced and so very
entertaining. Dagmar appears to be a splendid artist, too, as both
jackets and labels are highly attractive.
Most of the recordings on the Cattle and Bronco Buster labels were
made in the '30s, '40s and '50s. One of Dagmar's interesting
productions, released last year, is a newer album (in stereo), but in
the style of the older material. It is "Classics of the Purple Sage,"
by Jon Guyot Smith, and contains 20 cowboy or western songs, all done
in a simple and unassuming manner. Well-known pieces like "Cool Water,"
"Streets of Laredo," "The End of the Trail" and "Cowboy's Heaven" are
included, along with lesser-known prairie ballads like "The Shadow
Trail," "Let's Go Roamin' Around the Range," "The Cowboy's Best Friend"
and "Ridin' the Skyline." Along with the superb vintage recordings on
Dagmar Binge's labels, it might be interesting to pick up a copy of
"Classics of the Purple Sage."
Thank goodness for Dagmar Binge, in Germany. If fans of classic
western and country music had to wait for labels in the United States
to release some of the aforementioned material, we would never have
access to any of it.

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