Rose Maddox was a country singer, songwriter and fiddle player from Alabama, whose family migrated to California in the 1930s. On the west coast she started singing on radio and formed a band with her brothers, who performed and recorded for a decade after the Second World War as the Maddox Brothers & Rose.

The group began to be successful in the late 1940s, and she and her brothers  toured widely, and appeared regularly on the Louisiana Hayride radio show. Rose became noted for her colourful performances, once shocking a Grand Ole Opry audience by appearing with a bare midriff and, when the group broke up in 1957, she started a solo career and enjoyed a string of chart entries. Her reputation as an extrovert, dynamic performer, blending hillbilly, rockabilly and gospel in a highly distinctive musical mix made her a headline act on the country circuit.

This 58-track collection features most of the A&B sides of her singles on Columbia and Capitol during these years, plus bonus tracks from her Capitol album One Rose. It includes her No.3 country hit Sing A Little Song Of Heartache and her other solo country hits from this era Gambler’s Love, Kissing My Pillow, I Want To Live Again and Conscience I’m Guilty, along with her Top 10 duet hits with Buck Owens Mental Cruelty and Loose Talk. She was an artist who had an impact far beyond the degree of her success, with Emmylou Harris saying she has not has the attention she deserves and Dolly Parton citing her as an early influence.

This collection offers a substantial overview of a key era of her solo career and is an entertaining showcase for her particular style of country.

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