Johnny Horton

The Early Years was the first extensive Johnny Horton collection that Bear Family assembled. Spanning seven LPs, the set includes all of Horton's recordings for the Cormac, Abbott, and Mercury labels, as well as two albums' worth of demos and two albums' worth of overdubbed Abbott recordings issued on the Briar and Dot labels. Though these early recordings aren't quite as accomplished as his later, better-known work for Columbia, there's a lot of exciting of material here -- including proto-rockabilly and off-center honky tonk like "On the Banks of the Beautiful Nile," "I'm a Fishin' Man," and "The Train With the Rhumba Beat" -- especially for dedicated fans. Of course, the sheer size of the set means that only dedicated fans will ever pick up the box, but it is worth the investment for those fans, since these obscurities are often more interesting than the more polished recordings that followed later in his career. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide