Songs Our Daddy Taught Us

Following some early country-styled recordings for Columbia Records, Don and Phil Everly moved on to Cadence Records, where they added some pop sheen to their Appalachian-derived harmony vocals and, thanks to a Boudleaux & Felice Bryant song that cruised along on a shave-and-a-haircut rhythm, had a massive hit in 1957 with "Bye Bye Love," the first of several hits the brothers would score for Cadence in the next three years before departing for Warner Brothers. But in 1958, just as the brothers were firmly establishing their commercial clout, they released their second Cadence LP, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, a stripped-down and rootsy folk affair full of the brothers trying out their wonderful harmonies on traditional fare like "Barbara Allen," "Down in the Willow Garden," and "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet," an album that was either ahead of its time -- with the folk revival just around the corner -- or woefully and well behind it, depending on one's point of view. It has been reissued countless times since in different configurations. This version adds a couple of Boudleaux & Felice Bryant songs at the start of the sequence, otherwise it's pretty much the original album. ~ Steve Leggett|