Review:

The third and fourth volume of this excellent serie gather stuff from the collection of Dave Penny.
Like volume one and two, the material compiled is mostly rare and comes from obscure artists though the names of Ernie Chaffin, Lonzo and Oscar, Gatemouth Brown and Jean Chapel are surely familiar to our readers. But once again this is lesser known recordings that appear here.
"Firecracker Stomp" focuses on the hillbilly side of things.
It kicks off with a Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith kind of instrumental from Jimmie Lane. The rest of the selection is made of classic honky tonk, country duets (I'm Your Man by Myrna Lorrie and Buddy De Val will make the pleasure of Ginny Wright/Tom Tall fans), hillbilly comedy act (Lonzo & Oscar), muscled hillbily that just demands to mutate into rockabilly (I'm Movin' On), hillbilly bop (Pete Lane)...
The influence of Hank Williams van be vividly heard on Bobby Roberts' I'm Gonna Comb You Outta My Hair and Eddy Star Love Me, Love Me. Also included is Carolyn Bradshaw, who's in addition of being talented, shows that Chess record actually release some country flavored tunes too.
Another of my fave here is Jimmy Dean's rockin' hillbilly blues version of Freight Train Blues. This song is sure to appeal fans of Ray Condo and His Hardrock Goners.
The closer is a great cowboy jazz instrumental from the Rhythm Rockers, actually Nashville session musicians led by Chet Atkins.
"What A Night" is about Rock 'n' roll under its different forms: instros (the strange "Ponytail" and the jazz blues of Gatemouth Brown), Rockabilly (Ernie Chaffin with a non Sun single not available on the Bear cd), Hillbilly Boogie (Eskimo Rock), Blues and Rhythm'n'Blues.
Both records come with detailed liner notes and photos.
Fred "Virgil" Turgis - Jumpin from 6 to 6

Evaluation: