The Best of the Vetco Years cover

The Best of the Vetco Years

Various Artists

Compilation · 2008 · Rebel REB-CD 7519

The Best of the Vetco Years was released on 6 May 2008 as part of Rebel Records’ Master Vault Series (REB-CD 7519). Its fifteen tracks come from the two albums Dave Evans & River Bend made around 1980 for Vetco, a Cincinnati, Ohio, label run by Lou Ukelson: the self-titled first album, every song of which is included (eleven tracks), and four songs from the second, Call Me Long Gone. The two albums had been reissued on Crosscut Records about five years earlier, and Rebel bought the rights in 2007. David Freeman produced the compilation, and David Glasser mastered it at Airshow Mastering in Boulder, Colorado.

Evans sings throughout and plays banjo on most tracks, guitar on a few; he had earlier played banjo with Red Allen, Earl Taylor, Larry Sparks and the Boys From Indiana. Several tracks, including “Highway 52,” add Mike Hamilton on guitar and tenor vocals, Danny Cade on fiddle and Art Wydner on bass; others feature Buddy Griffin on fiddle, Josh Graves on dobro and Jim Rigsby on bass and vocals. Four songs are Evans originals: “Highway 52,” “When the Snow Falls on My Foggy Mountain Home,” “Carry Me Back to the Bluegrass” and “From Life’s Other Side.” The rest of the program mixes traditional songs such as “Barbara Allen” and “Short Life of Trouble” (credited as arranged by Evans, as is “99 Years Is Almost for Life”) with Bill Monroe’s “Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day” and A. P. Carter’s “Sun’s Gonna Shine in My Back Door Someday.”

Tracklist

  1. 1 Highway 52 2:59
  2. 2 99 Years Is Almost For Life 4:11
  3. 3 Legend Of The Johnson Boys 3:06
  4. 4 Train that Carried My Girl From Town alt version 3:45
  5. 5 Soldier's Return 2:34
  6. 6 Barbara Allen 4:59
  7. 7 When The Snow Falls On My Foggy Mountain Home 2:56
  8. 8 White House Blues alt version 2:12
  9. 9 Short Life of Trouble alt version 2:21
  10. 10 Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass 2:15
  11. 11 Sweeter Than The Flowers 3:29
  12. 12 Call Me On Home Too 2:35
  13. 13 Dark as the Night Blue as the Day alt version 2:38
  14. 14 From Life's Other Side 5:22
  15. 15 Sun’s Gonna Shine in My Back Door Someday alt version 2:19

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