A1. Ramblin' Ed Bailey - 8 Weeks In A Barroom
A2. Arkey Blue & The Blue Cowboys - Too Many Pills
A3. Billy Ray - The Story Of Susie
A4. Chuck Wells - Down And Out
A5. Harry Johnson - It's Nothing To Me
A6. Horace Heller - Ed's Place
A7. Pierce Brothers - Death Row
A8. Country Johnny Mathis - Caryl Chessman
B1. Troy Hess - Please Don't Go Topless Mother
B2. Hi Fi Guys - Rock&Roll Killed My Mother
B3. Mohawk & The Rednecks - Enchanted Forest
B4. Cal Veale - Paralyzed
B5. Paul Barton - My Neighbor The Firefighter
B6. Granpa Joe - The Drunken Driver
B7. Eddie Noack - Dolores
B8. Lum Hatcher - Behind The Fear
'Hats off to the bent folks at Crypt for unearthing some of the most primal and hilariously horrifying country & western songs recorded between 1955 and 1966. God Less America is not for the faint of heart and can only be compared to the weirder tunes from Porter Wagoner. Listening to these 16 tracks, you have to ask yourself why Horace Heller went to the trouble of releasing a song like "Ed's Place," which opens with the sound of a gun blast, revealing a jealous man who has just shot his wife at the local waterin' hole. What follows is a monologue taking the listener through his ensuing confusion and realization of the murder he has just committed. Or, in the case of "Please Don't Go Topless Mother" by youngster Troy Hess, a boy despairs over his single mother's topless go-go dancing occupation in order to support her son. It's hard to suppress a guilty laugh when he whines the lines, "Please don't go topless mother/My friends won't come to see me anymore/But their daddies do." This earnestly warbled plea by the young'un features the kind of syrupy country & western instrumental sludge one might expect to hear played between just those types of shows where mom bares it all. Did these would-be country crooners really think these tales of American debauchery could have made it into the jukeboxes of honky-tonks throughout this great land? The probable answer is yes, and that's what makes God Less America so fascinating and somewhat scary.' - Al Campbell
several supearlative slices of amerikana that reflect the alienation & growing pains small townies must have felt as the conservative 1950's transmogrified into the beatnik age & 'revolutionary' ideas started to infiltrate the backwoods. the still relevant themes tackle tragic everyday issues like addiction, capitol punishment, moral corruption, drinkin n' drivin, peer pressure, drug experimentation & fear of the unknown, just to name a few. this is what the best country songs have owlwaze been about, the common thread of human experience & now fuggin sad it all is. the tunes are totally psychedelique in their own rite, just listen to the lap steel & echo drenched vocals. even some primitive electronics poppin off. 320 shots of methadrine in yer ovaltine
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