Easy to Love: The Sun Years Plus

Mack Self's best-known recording, "Vibrate," was not released in its day, but has subsequently appeared on a number of rockabilly compilations. Self was a country singer, not a rocker, and "Vibrate" is his only recording in that vein. (His other frequently anthologized cut, "Mad at You," is uptempo country.) Self's commercial life at Sun Records consisted of one single on Sun and one on its subsidiary, Phillips International. The Sun single paired two slow waltzes, one of which ("Easy to Love") is probably Self's best song. The Phillips International single contained the aforementioned "Mad at You" and a folk-country tune, "Willie Brown," that resembles the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley." Thereafter, Self cut a handful of obscure records for independent labels as late as 1976. From this meager output, Germany's Bear Family label has assembled a 31-track career anthology that nevertheless omits some of his Sun recordings and most of his post-Sun singles. Sun's ramshackle arrangements and no-frills production values worked marvelously for rockabilly, but for country music, a Sun session and a run-of-the-mill honky tonk bar band could sound a lot alike. The flurry of false starts, alternate takes, and studio chatter is aimed at hardcore Sun Records enthusiasts only -- most major country artists don't receive this kind of fly-on-the-wall scrutiny. ~ Greg Adams