Jack Guthrie, a cousin of renowned folk singer Woody Guthrie, was born in Oklahoma in 1915, but like his cousin and thousands of others “Okies” his family moved to California in the 1930s when the Dust Bowl disasters and Great Depression made life unbearably hard there.

He developed a style of singing and yodelling influenced by his idol, Jimmie Rodgers and, in the mid-1930s, competed in rodeo as a bucking-horse rider. Later he adapted his music to fit the cowboy image. He travelled with Woody to Los Angeles in 1937, where the pair got a regular radio spot with their Oke & Woody Show on KFVD radio in Hollywood.

He was still serving in World War Two in the U.S. Army and stationed in the Pacific Theater when he recorded Oklahoma Hills which became a country No.1. Recording more sessions after his discharge he had two more hits, but in 1947 he was hospitalised with tuberculosis, and died in early 1948 aged just 32. This collection comprises the A- and B-sides of every single he recorded for the Capitol label, with some of the material released posthumously. Although the labels listed ‘Jack Guthrie & His Oklahomans’ as the artist, in reality Guthrie had no working band.

The studio brought in some of its best session musicians to back Guthrie. Many of them, like Porky Freeman, Red Murrell, Cliffie Stone, and Billy Hughes were recording artists in their own right. It features his No.1 country hit  Oklahoma Hills, and his other Top 5 entries I’m A Brandin’ My Darlin’ With My Heart and Oakie Boogie. His career as a recording artist was tragically short, and this set offers a complete collection of his commercial output.

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