1-CD with 32-page booklet, 30 tracks. Playing time approx. 78 mns.

Texan Big Bill Lister is best known for his early 1950s stint as Hank Williams’ opening act and rhythm guitarist and for recording Hank Williams’ compositions Countryfied, The Little House We Built Just Over The Hill, and There’s A Tear In My Beer, which became a posthumous ’duet’ hit for Hank Williams with Hank Williams, Jr. after Big Bill Lister uncovered Hank Williams’ original demo acetate in the late 1980s. Big Bill Lister is interesting for more reasons than that, however. He was an engaging and commanding performer and one of those rare Texans with a decidedly Southeastern bent. He cut his teeth on cowboy music and did his share of beer drinking honky-tonkers, but Lister was no dyed-in-the-wool Texas honky-tonker; his influences straddled both sides of the Mississippi, but he was more a show singer than a dance hall musician. Today, he’s still active and sounding as good as ever, a half century after he made his first recordings.

Big Bill Lister’s raw, uncompromising country music may have limited his success in the rapidly changing climate of early 50s commercial country music, but it makes Big Bill Lister’s a true treasure today. Collected her are all of his 1951-53 Capitol recordings, as well as sides he cut prior to his move to Nashville for the San Antonio-based Everstate label in 1949-50. In addition to above-mentioned classics like There’s A Tear In My Beer, Countryfied, and The Little House We Built Just Over The Hill, there are several unissued sides, underappreciated songs like R C Cola And Moon Pie, What The Heck Is Going On, and rare Texas recordings like Local Yokel and This Time Sweetheart.