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A classic in Nashville Country Music history! Destined to become one of Bear Family-s instant classic CDs! The first and only compilation of music by a Nashville country radio legend! Big Jeff Bess band The Radio Playboys included nearly every top session man in Nashville at one time or another! More than 90% of these titles are new to CD! Includes Step It Up And Go, one of the greatest country rock records of all time, and a candidate for first rock 'n' roll record! Big Jeff Bess starred in two classic movies, 'A Face In The Crowd' and 'Wild River'! Big Jeff Bess and his wife founded Tootsie's world-famous Orchid Lounge!This generously full collection of painstakingly restored original masters includes all 18 songs issued by Big Jeff Bess between 1947 and 1952, eight songs from live WLAC radio broadcasts in the mid-1950s, three unissued demos, and more!
Plus an 88-page booklet by Martin Hawkins telling the fascinating story of Big Jeff Bess for the very first time, featuring unpublished interviews with seven of The Radio Playboys, and many rare photographs from the 1940s and '50s.

Back before Nashville was Nashville, Big Jeff Bess was a Nashville legend. He sold beer, cure-all tonics, and baby chicks on local radio and made some of the purest hillbilly, swingin'est honky tonk, rockin'est country music of all time. Now the story is told in words and fabulously rare music. Big Jeff Bess also owned a number of clubs, the most famous of which was Tootsie-s Orchid Lounge. A legendary musicians' hangout, Tootsie-s is still in business and still a Nashville landmark!

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