Month: April 2025

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New Editions to the Database 4/27/25

Posted on by Frank The Drifter

This past month I’ve been focusing on trying to input a few things every day to the database. It takes a while because my process keeps getting more complicated. At first it was just the record and pics, and then it was the record with *all* the information on it (runout etchings, pressing plants, publishers…), and now it’s the record with all the info with pictures *and* audio. It takes a while, but I think it’s worth it to be able to browse the database, find a cool record, and listen to it right there!

First up is a great double instrumental single out of Concord Arkansas on Rimrock Records. As far as I can tell the Shack Creek Bluegrass Boys didn’t release anything else. There’s another version of this 45 with a black label and picture sleeve, but the same music.

Listen to it here: https://dollarcountry.org/items/show/28075

Next I have three singles from sister and brother Olabelle Reed and Alex Campbell featuring Deacon Brumfield and the New River Boys. Olabelle and Alex released a ton of material together on their own label as well as two LPs on Starday and some other things on random labels. They were based in Oxford PA where they played regularly and released a ton of music together. I labelled it as bluegrass but I’d really call it either old time music or appalachian music.

Check those out here: Aloha / White Flower, Deacons Boogie / Uncloud Day, When My Time Comes / Just Over In The Glory Land

Last but not least is this odd instrumental from David Beeler. It’s not straight country, more like classical or flamenco inspired country instrumentals. I’m not sure if I could really describe it any better, I’d suggest you just give it a listen.

Do that here: https://dollarcountry.org/items/show/28076

Cheers
Franklin

Australia Country Vinyl Special

Posted on by Frank The Drifter

At some point I started to get some fans in Australia, I’m not sure if I ever tracked down exactly why, but I think it stemmed from a shop in Melbourne called Lulu’s. Either way some people got word down there and some of them joined the patreon and yadda yadda yadda I had some friends in Australia through Dollar Country.

A few years back one of them was in the states and visited me in Cleveland. At the time he (Willie) brought some records for me that I played on episode 200. There was also another buddy (Nic) who sent me some stuff and ever since I’ve been really interested in Australian country music. It’s a lot like American country music but it has it’s own style and flavor.

Willie sent me two packages of records last month that arrived here last week and it came at the perfect time. I was getting ready to test out two portable turntables I’ve been working on and I decided to get two birds with one stone and have a live stream to test the turntables and play some Aussie country.

You can view the video here: youtube // patreon

The stream was one of those things that was very affirming. The nature of what I do is niche at best, so sometimes when I’ve tried live streaming in the past it hasn’t really worked, but this one went great. In my mind Dollar Country is the internet equivalent of having some friends over and getting to say “hey check out this cool record I found.” Ideally that’s how it would be, but we don’t all live in the same town, so I do what I can. On stream there were 8-12 people in the chat and they seemed genuinely interested in the music and were very excited to hear it. It made me feel great, and it seemed like everyone had a great time.

I just put up the audio on my podcast distributor, so you can view the video online if you want to see the records and turntables, or you can listen via apple podcasts (or wherever you get those) and on mixcloud.

Hope you dig it and if you have any Australian Country, or country from any country besides the USA, and want to get it to me, just drop me a line!

Tracklist:
Jack Munting – The First Man On The Moon
Shirley Thomas – Yodelling In The Moonlight
The Trailblazers – A Pub With MORE Beer
Dick Parry – Little Old Log Shack
Slim Newton – The Redback On The Toilet Seat
Hickey Sisters – Call Of The Bellbird
Singing Kettles – An Old Log Cabin For Sale
Reg Lindsay – When My Truckin’ Days Are Done
Buddy Williams – The Nightmare
Rick and Thel Carey – You Can Say That Again
Slim Dusty – Gumtrees By The Roadway
Reg Lindsay – Jungles Of Vietnam
Nick Antonio – Sister Of Sioux City Sue
Kenny Arnott – The Singing Wanderer
Webb Brothers – The Jockey’s Are Striking
Cole Wilson – The Barman They Couldn’t Sack
Lucky Starr – I’ve Been Everywhere (New Zealand)
Lucky Starr – I’ve Been Everywhere (Australia)
Singing Kettles – Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
Rick and Thel Carey – White Crosses In The Jungle
Dusty Rankin – On The Trail Where The Rockies Meet The Sunset
Slim Dusty and Anne – Wild Rugged Land That I Love
Reg Lindsay – Goodbye Swingers
Reg Lindsay – From Forty To Sixty Five
Wayne Roberts – Aussie Talk
Buddy Williams – The Snowy Mountains
Slim Dusty – A Pub With No Beer

Upcoming Events May/June

Posted on by Frank The Drifter

I’m returning to doing live events in May. On the 1st will be Country Night @ Little Rose, which I had taken a break from since the first of the year. Then in June I’m gong to be playing records with Justis from Wathéča Records.

  • May 1st – Country Night @ Little Rose
    • 7-11 pm, Free!
    • 14206 Lorain, Cleveland Ohio
  • June 19th – Country Night @ Little Rose
    • 7-11 pm, Free! Bring money for mixtapes and tips
    • with Justis from Wathéča Records playing from his collection of Native American records.

LPs on the Database

Posted on by Frank The Drifter

When Dollar Country started I only collected 45s, it seemed easier and cleaner. Two songs per disc is nice. No picture sleeves, a nice big hole in the middle that helps you hold onto a stack while you flip through. Life was easy back then.

People used to mention how I didn’t collect LPs, I had to turn down so many, but at that point they just didn’t interest me. There’s probably a reason I told people but really I just wasn’t interested in them for whatever reason. At some point that changed because I realized there were a lot of great things on big records and the genres represented were different. In country you’ll always have more than enough 45s. Gospel and Bluegrass are much more LP centered. If you’re gonna spread the word of god you may as well do 30 minutes instead of 6.

So, anyway, things are different now. I’m still picky about country LPs because it’s not really worth collecting stuff unless it’s rare, you can find non-rare stuff in other people’s collections. But with Country Gospel you just have so many options on LP that never made it to a single.

Another thing 45s have going for them is that they’re easy to input to a database, LPs on the other hand have significantly more information. Not just more songs, but more songwriting credits, more publishing credits, more, more more. Personally I also have a check in system for my 45s. Clean them, sleeve them, stamp them with a date, ID number, and source number from where I got it, and now it’s in the collection. LPs take longer to listen to, take longer to log, and take up more space. Now multiply that by a few thousand.

Now that you’ve heard plenty about my feelings towards the different sizes, maybe you can understand why I haven’t put any LPs on the database yet. But I wanted to put them on there, I was just waiting to get my head right. To have the best entry point into it. I made sure the database was ready (there’s a lot of inside baseball for database and info stuff happening here), and I had all the right fields set. Yesterday I put the first full listing up with audio and everything.

This record isn’t special outside of it being the first one. I mean it’s special in the way that any bit of music is special, but I didn’t choose it just for this. I’ve also made the streaming audio into a basic video with the album covers so it’s more like youtube. People seem to like that style of video and something about just having streaming audio felt lacking to me, and maybe to others it did too.

The end goal is to have the website feel institutional in that it’s focused on the information but also not have it feel clunky in the way that many institutional websites feel. Useful in the way that the internet used to feel 10+ years ago and without the constant ads, unneeded widgets, and website features that seem to take away from the actual usefulness of the website. Has anyone else noticed this? It drives me crazy when I want the hours of a business and I have to go to a website that’s mostly scrolling pictures and I can’t just find out when they’re open.

Here it is, I hope you like it. The Byrd Sisters are as good a group as any to start it off. Three Sisters In Jesus, although in real life they’re two daughters and a mother.

Visit the entry here, and keep checking for more.

https://dollarcountry.org/items/show/27946