Don't Let Me Cross over - Carl Butler

 

Wonder Drug

Don't Let Me Cross Over

Carl Butler

Produced by Don Laws and Frank Jones

Columbia STEREO CS 8802

1963 (as indicated on the back cover)

From the back cover: One of Country and Western music's brightest stinging strs is Carl Butler. Big, rugged-looking, personable and fitted with a voice to match, Carl is a major name on Nashville's – and the nation's  – roster of Country artists. Now, here is Carl Butler's first album, a collection of ballads brimming over with his spirited, sincere interpretations.

Carl begins hi program with the album's title ballad, Don't Let Me Cross Over, in which he is joined by his wife Pearl, a former childhood sweetheart who co-authored Side Tow's I Know Why I Cry, and Gerald Rivers. I Know What It Means to Be Lonesome is an affecting tune Carl uses as his theme song in personal appearances. a particular highlight of the collection is Robert Cocur's humorous ballad, Wonder Drug. It's about a search for a wonder drug to heal an ailment of the spirit, a broken heart. The striking background accompanying Carl's rendition is composed of driving rhythmical figures – and strange, appealing sounds produced by a steel guitar-and-organ duet!

A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, near the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains, Carl came under the influence of Country singing and guitar playing in his early years, and at the age of twelve his music making was in great demand at local square dances. His first radio appearance, over Station WROL, Knoxville, came after he won first place in an amateur contest at a theatre near his home. Only sixteen at the time, Carl had no thoughts of a musical career and played informally only for his and others' enjoyment on a seven-and-a-half dollar guitar that his mother had bought him as a Christmas gift.

Butler's guiding future in the world of music was interrupted by the war. For three years, he served with the 35th Field Hospital in Africa, Italy and Germany. Upon returning, he began to take na more serious view of music. He soon organized his own group, the Lonesome Pine Boys, and launched into the folk music field wholeheartedly. Today, he is a starring member of Nashville's Grand Ole Op'ry, and appears all over the United States in public appearances.

Carl says that his first inspiration came from listening to records of the late Jimmie Rodgers. (In fact, it was with one of Jimmie's numbers that Carl won the amateur show!) It is in the spirit of Jimmie's great example that Carl sings, plays and composes. And Carl expresses the spirit of Country music at its best when he says, "There's no use singin' it unless you live it!"

From Billboard - March 23, 1960: Carl Butler, an established country chart-maker, has broken solidly into the pop field recently, with the title tune here. Also included are a flock of solid, traditional-styled country ballads taken at a slow and a medium clip. Lots of fine Nashville backings are also spotlighted on such tunes as "River Of Tears," "I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome" and "Grief In My Heart."

Don't Let Me Cross Over

I Know What I Means To Be Lonesome

River Of Tears

I'll Cry Again Tomorrow

I Like To Pretend

For The First Time

I Know Whey I Cry

Grief In My Heart

I Know You Don't Love Me

Wonder Drug

Honke Tonkitis

I'm A Prisoner Of Love