While the history books have usually listed as a blues label (and rightly so, with their plethora of excellent "swamp blues" releases), these 30 tracks bearing the , and imprints show that the label had a wide spate of rockabilly and rock & roll sides in the catalog as well. Everything is from a time span of 1954 to 1960, prime years for the label's commitment to the big beat. With the exception of four excellent uptempo hillbilly/proto-rockabilly sides, everything collected up is firmly in either the Louisiana wild men or Nashville renegade rocker category. Since label owner was no when it came to producing, he relied on producers like or the team of songwriters (the team that wrote and produced by the ) to provide him with masters. Both sides of -produced single is here kicking things off, and you don't get many examples of Louisiana rockabilly much better than the title track while its flip, (an answer record to hit ) is one of the best knock-offs ever. regular session drummer clocks in with four solid tracks in the mold, with the closer being a particular standout. Another session of note is the one that produced the two-sided rockin' blast of and its bluesy flip, productions were cut at the ultra-primitive above Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, the famous liquor haunt around the corner from the . The procession of artists who recorded there -- (the wooden ), the (the crudest version of ever recorded and a sleazy instrumental in ), and ( ) -- are merely a faded stain of discographical research about whom little, if anything, is known, and the crudity of their efforts is palpable, bathed in a sea of tape echo, school band percussion, misplaced mikes and lopsided one-track mixes. The only previously unissued track aboard is also one of the best things on here, an unknown group called doing a totally delightful light harmony rocker called that truly captures the style in fine 'hey, we wrote a song' teen band fashion. There's a pile of great music aboard here and even though a handful of these tracks appear on other best-of retrospectives, there's just so many great things making their first CD appearance here, one needn't justify adding this one to the collection at all. ~ Cub Koda