12 March 2019

Tex Ritter "Songs of the Golden West" (1961)

Songs of the Golden West
release date: 1961
format: vinyl (SREG 1001) (1966 reissue)
[album rate: 2 / 5] [2,18]
producer: Lee Gillette
label: Regal - nationality: USA

Studio album by Tex Ritter originally titled Hillbilly Heaven and released in 1961 by Capitol Records. Already in '61, the album was issued with the title Songs of the Golden West in New Zealand, also with the same cover as this UK reissue. This version was again reissued in '69 in Australia and in the UK, now with a new cover, and another issue with the title Deck of Cards was also reissued in the UK. All of these different issues, however, has the same tracklisting as the original album from 1961.
The album was part of my parents' record collection, and I only got this after my dad's passing in 2016. I don't recall this from my childhood, and I think my dad purchased this at some point during the 1990s at a time when he had begun listening to country music and especially the music by Willie Nelson and Jim Reeves.