A 'Sixties country classic
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 09/21/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"A regional success up in New England, Maine's country croaker Dick Curless hit the Top 5 back in '65 with "Tombstone Every Mile," a classic tune that remains one of the best trucker songs ever recorded. Whether he really had what it takes to sustain a national career after that is debatable... As this album shows, he certainly had his limitations as a singer, and yet he also had a certain gravitas that could pull you in. On the sparser, more folk-oriented songs, he often ran out of juice, but with a good, solid, thumping backup behind him, he sounded pretty darn good. This disc is certainly worth checking out... and Curless's fans will be quite pleased to see this back in print as a reissue. (It's certainly easier to pick up than Bear Family's mega-box set, which has all the same material... and several CDs more! This one disc might be enough to get your feet wet...)"
Signature truckin' tune and country-folk
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 11/30/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The baritone-voiced, Maine-bred Curless had a broader range than his trucking themed hits might suggest. Though he could sing country inflected folk songs (similar, in many ways, to the early works of Waylon Jennings), he could also sing Western favorites, and croon straight-ahead pop songs. His signature, though, was this album's title cut, a harrowing tale of an icy Maine road - one of the genre's best.
Additional trucking hits would turn up on later albums, but this time out Curless turned to classics with a superb, funereal-paced "Streets of Laredo," a wonderfully laid-back cover of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," and a lightly Westernized cover of The Sons of the Pioneers' (by way of Jim Reeves') "Teardrops in My Heart." Some of the album's best tracks are its least produced, such as the acoustic guitar led bluegrass standard, "The Sunny Side of the Mountain" and Curless' superb waltz-time "Down by the Old River." Curless' dramatic baritone is also a fine match for the drama of Merle Travis' "Nine Pound Hammer" and the comedy of Wynn Stewart's "Uncle Tom."
Those who only know Curless from his trucking hits will enjoy this broader look at his folk-country and pop crooning."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1