Various Artists - From Boppin Hillbilly to Red Hot Rockabilly

Without duplicating any tracks from Properbox 100 (We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll) this equally bumper 4CD set might be considered an expansion of one aspect of that across-the-genres look at the evolution of Rock 'n' Roll. This 120 track compilation concentrates on how the livelier examples of roots country music, traditionally sidelined by the establishment as 'Hillbilly', influenced younger performers, and so attracted an expanding youth market, with a brasher form of delivery that would become known as 'Rockabilly'. Few (if any!) of these recordings were Pop chart hits but there is an aggressive intensity in many, and a joyous flippancy about others, that retrospectively shows them all to have been an integral part of the 1950s frisson (in music, the other arts, and western society as a whole) between old values and new perspectives. From the likes of Hardrock Gunter and Johnny Hicks in 1951 it's a roller-coaster ride to Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins in 1955. Another fat 68-page booklet is your tour guide.