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Jim Reeves
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Jim Reeves was a true anomaly. He grew up in Texas in the 1920s and '30s, but didn't sing western swing or Texas beer joint music. Instead, he sang smooth and sweet country music and country-flavored pop music, thereby pioneering the Nashville Sound. When nearly all his contemporaries were trying to rock 'n' roll, Jim Reeves had the courage to go low and slow. His big hit, Four Walls, was not only a great record, but a groundbreaking one. Most of what happened in country music in the late '50s and '60s took its cue from that one record.
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Although he no longer features in the singles charts, Jim Reeves compilation albums containing well-known standards continue to sell well. "The Definitive Collection" reached #21 in the UK album charts in July 2003 and "Memories are made of this" #35 in July 2004. Bear Family Records in Germany and some smaller outlets in USA continue to release "new" and rare material on a fairly regular basis. Reeves fans have urged BMG to re-release some of the songs overdubbed in the years after Jim's death which have never appeared on CD.
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By virtue of his athletic abilities, Jim Reeves won a scholarship to the University of Texas. However, he was shy, largely because of a stammer, which he managed to correct while at university. His first singing work was with Moon Mullican 's band in Beaumont, Texas, and he worked as an announcer and singing disc jockey at KGRI in Henderson for several years. He recorded two singles for a chain store's label in 1949.
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Jim Reeves was actually interested in a professional baseball career and was in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system, when an injury cut his baseball career short. He worked as an announcer on a radio station in Shreveport, Louisiana. When another singer couldn’t make it on time for a performance, Jim filled in. His singing career took off.
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Chet Atkins considered 'Four Walls' a 'girl's song', but Jim Reeves persisted and used the song to change his approach to singing. He pitched his voice lower and sang close to the microphone... creating a warm ballad style which was far removed from his hillbilly recordings. 'Four Walls' became an enormous US success in 1957, crossing over to the pop market and becoming a template for his future work. From then on, Atkins recorded Reeves as a mellow balladeer, giving him some pop standards and replacing fiddles and steel guitar with piano and strings.
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This wonderful CD concludes with "He Will," a reverential selection which, as far as is known, was the last religious song Jim Reeves ever recorded, in the summer of 1964. Through the combined talents of Milton Smith and Wesley Pritchard, the song has been transformed into something very different than what you've heard before. A fantastic male chorus sings with Jim on this number, too.
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Jim Reeves