Search - Jim Ed Brown :: Essential

Sings like an angel

brenda duckworth | Nashville, Tennessee | 11/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have seen and heard him sing so many times.
He has a voice like an angel, when he starts to sing you have to listen, his smooth soft voice steals your soul.
It is a know fact that Jim Ed will stay to the end when he is greeting fans until he has talked with the last one, I have seen this many many times.
His voice will always be the same ( great)
I have many of his albums and cd's.
I never get tired of listing to him sing."

Take the Chance!

Mcgivern Owen L | NY, NY USA | 05/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jim Ed Brown from Sparkman, Arkansas had 52 Billboard hits from 1954 to 1981. The 27 year sequence is unique: 16 were performed as `The Browns' with his sisters Bonnie and Maxine, 10 were duets with Helen Cornelius (of Hanibal, Missouri) and the balance were his own singles. "The Essential Jim Ed Brown" has none of his duets with Helen. Those are available on their "Anthology" CD. Keep scrolling down! Some of my amazon friends may be unaware. This particular 20 track CD does feature a good solid sampling of Jim Ed's solos as well as his duets with his siblings. The latter are the strongest tracks, especially "I Take the Chance (1956), "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow" (1955), and their first chart hit, "Looking back to See" (1954). There is also a wonderful 1960 rendition of "Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On", which also made the charts via Hank Locklin and Johnny Tillotson. Jim Ed does quite well on his own with "Sometime Sunshine" (1974) and "Gently Comes Love" which somehow failed to make the charts. There are two classic country drinking songs "Pop A Top" (1967) and "Bottle, Bottle" (also '67). Jim Ed was a versatile guy but this reviewer prefers his more mellow "Nashville Sound" releases and not the more upbeat tracks like "Southern Lovin'. Other amazon friends have written that Jim Ed is very similar to the great Jim Reeves. This reviewer disagrees. Both are country greats from the old school. Listeners can enjoy Gentleman Jim, Jim Ed -and his talented sisters-without comparisons. The "Essential" group appears to have done it again. This series does a consistently good job of providing solid compilations of country music from the good old days long since gone. Pardon the pun but one may safely "take a chance' on the "Essential Jim Ed Brown" or most compilations from the "Essentials" series."

In the shadow of Jim Reeves

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 05/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jim Ed Brown's recording career spanned a quarter of a century, during which time he had plenty of success. Even after his recording career was over, he remained an active performer for many years after - indeed, he may still be performing. His early recordings were made with one or both of his sisters. He then spent some years as a solo singer before teaming up with Helen Cornelius for some duets in the seventies.The early recordings with his sisters include The three bells (a translated version of a French song), which provided the Browns with an international pop hit - by far the biggest success of Jim Ed's career.Jim was an excellent singer, but he sounded a lot like Jim Reeves, an even better singer, so while Jim Ed Brown could (and did) sing love songs superbly, it is difficult to avoid thinking of Jim Reeves when listening to him sing those songs. For that reason alone, I prefer (when he's on his own) listening to him singing more upbeat songs, like Pop a top (revived by Alan Jackson on his covers album, Under the influence), You can have her, Southern loving and (best of all) Barroom pals and goodtime gals.When he teamed up with Helen, the comparison with Jim Reeves (who rarely recorded any duets) is forgotten, but those recordings are outside the scope of this collection. To me, those recordings (including the brilliant Christmas song Fall softly snow, mentioned by earlier reviewers) are the most enjoyable of Jim Ed's career, but as I write this, they are all out of print.If you enjoy the music of Jim Reeves, you will probably enjoy this collection. If you don't like Jim Reeves, pass this by."