February 4, 2010

Goin' on a Vinyl Hayride

I recently treated myself to a book that I know I'll turn to for inspiration again and again. Vinyl Hayride, by Paul Kingsbury, is a fantastic collection of country music album covers spanning the years 1947 through 1989.


How could a book featuring Webb Pierce and all this Nudie goodness on the front cover exist in the world without my owning a copy? Nonsense.

Here's my old pal Hank Thompson in 1953.


Doesn't Carl Smith look fine in his Nudie shirt? The world just lost him a few weeks ago.


The classic "Blood on the Saddle" by Tex Ritter has some fetching cover art, if I do say so.


The Great Jim Flora didn't just do big band and jazz album covers. Here he lends his signature style to Jimmie Driftwood's "The Battle of New Orleans". I'm still keeping an eye out for Flora record covers, but I haven't had much luck.


If I get my hands on whoever made Dolly cry here, I'll kick his ass all the way back to the Blue Ridge Mountains! Dolly's much too beautiful to be sad.


I honestly have no idea who Cliffie Stone is, but I would kill for his boots.


This last one gets me all choked up. When you combine classic country music, big hair, vintage aqua kitchenware, and crafty homemade lettering, well, you might as well just slap my mouth and take my checkbook.*


*I have no idea what this phrase means.

3 comments:

Jitterbugdoll said...

Oh, this looks like a book I need to have in my collection!

I hadn't realized Carl Smith recently died; he is one of my favorite singers :-(

Heather said...

Oh! I love! These album covers are so amazing. They should do more like these. And poor Dolly....but she looks good being sad! I wonder what I would look like with dolly hair....

50sme said...

The first album cover with the car...WOW, what a car! I like all of the covers but that one, the Dolly one and the Blood on the saddle one are the coolest. This stuff is art!