Bob Rocks

It's only right that Bob Luman had his biggest hit with the jaunty jolt of postivity called "Let's Think About Living" -- the swaggering, smiley Elvis homage, where Bob lamented the rash of doom-obsessed melodramatic singles popping up everywhere in the late '50s -- it perfectly suited Luman's big, hammy talents. Luman was more of a showman than a rocker, a quality that served him well when he slowly shifted over into the country charts after a stint in the army in the early '60s, but Bear Family's gargantuan 36-track, single-disc 2008 compilation Bob Rocks doesn't concentrate on those tunes: as the title makes plain, this focuses entirely on Bob's rocking sides, plucking singles and unreleased songs that have shown up on Bear Family's two previous comprehensive Luman box sets, two boxes that span a total of nine discs. Bob Rocks whittles down this material to the cream of the crop, slightly emphasizing his earliest recordings from the late '50s because this is, after all, when he rocked the hardest, including some sides where he was supported by a group that was later poached by Imperial Records labelmate Ricky Nelson to be his own backing band. Certainly, there is no impeaching the quality of Bob's backing bands here: he always sang with top players, the kind who could run through Chuck Berry and covers of Sun singles -- and there are a lot here, from Elvis' "Mystery Train" and "That's Alright" to Billy Lee Riley's "Red Hot" and Warren Smith's "Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache" -- without sounding tired. And Luman never sounds tired, either. If anything, he sounds too animated, revving up his performances with a crowd-pleasing glee that can be as off-putting as it is engaging. This natural theatricality winds up being underscored by the number of styles and covers he tries here, as he does a lot of Elvis, a little Everlys, a bit of Buddy Holly, some Chuck Berry, and a healthy dose of Jerry Lee, a sampling that emphasizes he's an adept entertainer, not a stylist. And that's why Bob Rocks winds up being a little tiring after such a long haul: he only wanted to bring a smile to your face and once it was there, he didn't know what to do next. It's a quality that makes for a good live show but not a terrific recording artist. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine