Tennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of An American Singer CD Box Set

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Explore Ford’s first dozen years (1949-1960) as a recording act with this boxed set, complete with a 120-page hardcover book and 154 tracks over 5 CDs.

2016 Grammy Nominee

This is a CD boxed set (LP-size) complete with a 120-page hardcover book and 154 tracks over 5 CDs.

• All the secular-themed studio recordings from the first dozen years in the career of one of the most important crossover acts in the history of American popular music.
• Five CDs containing 154 tracks and a 120-page book with newly written essays, track-by-track album notes, a discography, label scans, and many rare photographs and illustrations.
• Early country hits including the chart-topping Mule Train (1949) and Ford’s pioneering ‘hillbilly boogie’ smash The Shotgun Boogie (1950), as well as Ford’s first major crossover hit, the 1950 duet (with Kay Starr) I’ll Never Be Free.
• It also includes classics such as Rock City Boogie (with the Dinning Sisters, 1951) and Blackberry Boogie (1952) as well as overlooked delights as the train song Tennessee Local (1952), his 1952 interpretation of Willie Mabon’s rhythm and blues hit I Don’t Know.
• This boxed set includes two never-before-released songs (Slow Down and Small World), numerous Ford singles and album tracks not previously reissued on CD, and several rarities, including Ford’s 1955 recitations of Davy Crockett tales, as well as Ford’s 1958 public service jingles to promote the U.S. Marine Corps ‘Toys for Tots’ charitable program.

This boxed set explores Ford’s first dozen years (1949-1960) as a recording act, and listeners today can marvel at the range of his repertoire and (considering that for much of that period he was a musician part-time and a television host full-time) at the extent of his productivity.

Ford made innovative, influential recordings, all of which can be heard in ‘Portrait Of An American Singer.’

Total playing time approx. 397 minutes.