California Country: The Best of the Challenge Masters

Producer: Joe Johnson.
Compilation producer: Rob Santos.
Includes liner notes by Colin Escott.
Digitally remastered by Tom Moulton and Greg Vaughan (Frankford Wayne Mastering Labs, New York, New York).
Personnel: Wynn Stewart (vocals).
Liner Note Author: Colin Escott.
Stewart was one of the founding fathers of country's "Bakersfield Sound." That style's biggest stars were clearly indebted to him--a young Merle Haggard played bass in Stewart's band and had his first hit with a song given to him by Stewart. Buck Owens had one of his earliest successes with "Above and Beyond," previously a lesser hit for Stewart. Nevertheless, Stewart never achieved Owens and Haggard's level of success, despite a few chart toppers.
Stewart's music was rhythmically aggressive, mostly in the honky-tonk vein, but early in his career he took a few convincing stabs at rockabilly ("Come On," "She Just Tears Me Up"). Like Owens, two-part vocal harmonies and strong melodic hooks figure prominently, and like Haggard, his shuffle rhythms frequently contained a hint of Western swing. Though Stewart's name faded after his death, he's revered by honky-tonk revivalists and hardcore country fans (Nick Lowe recorded an excellent version of Stewart's "Big, Big Love." CHALLENGE MASTERS packs an impressive 29 songs from Stewart's golden era (late '50s to mid '60s), providing all anyone should need to get the feel of his music.