This is Ernest Tubbs contribution to this year's Record Store Day with a compilation of the transcription recordings he made for The World Broadcasting System in Chicago and New York in 1944 and 1945, released through Org Music. He is backed by his Texas Troubadours that include Jimmie and Leon Short, Butterball Paige, Jack Drake, Ray Head and Johnny Sapp.
The albums A-Side opens with I Lost My Ace Of Hearts one of a series of country heartbreakers, in this case Ernest finds himself all alone and lonesome after his sweetheart has gone a roving elsewhere.
Walking The Floor Over You has Ernest pacing up and down worried beyond belief that you might not return to his loving arms.
The End Of The World would have been a hot topic at the time, but this isn't about Armageddon, it's much more hoping your love will endure any separation that life throws your way, as the carefully picked banjo hints at pain and sorrow.
I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye has tears rolling down Ernest's face as he still can't figure out why his love has gone away; He is so worried you might be in another's arms.
Just Rollin' On as he's been kicked to the kerb again, so he's hitting that road on his ownsome while feeling mighty lonesome once more.
Let Me Smile My Last Smile At You may well have been a song for the troops with lyrics perfect for that letter home, to the sweetheart they left behind, hoping you'll be there to your dying day.
Action Speaks Louder Than Words a country hoedown that spells out that you are expected to do the right thing, not to act like a floozy spreading it around town.
The B Side opens with Where The Deep Waters Flow to the place where his love for you burns strongest, so you can be in no doubt what you meant to him.
I Don't Want You After All is Ernest throwing a hissy fit and dumping his Gal as she hasn't stayed true to him while he's been off gallivanting, is this one rule for him and another for her, either way it moralises and makes plain he expects his gal to be a good Christian girl who is devoted to him and no other.
When The World Has Turned You Down will you come back to daddy Ernest with your tail between your legs, he'll still be waiting for you, he doesn't say how he'll punish you, as he loves you too much, so put the heartbreak aside and go back to him.
When Love Turns To Hate you know it's time for tears before bedtime, things are never going to be the same again, if only it wasn't so and your love could endure.
That's All She Wrote feels like how a soldier might feel on getting a sad letter from back home, one that should have lifted his spirits, but instead leaves him feeling despondent, wanting to get a far longer letter.
I Knew The Moment That I Lost You is more sorrowful pleading to the woman he's lost, as his roving eye caught him out again, The fiddles and slide guitar just make this into a total country tearjerker.
The album closes with Just Crying To Myself as what else is there left to do, now he's lost the only woman to ever love him like you do, so dab away a tear and hope he can survive to fight another day as the fiddles and guitar soothes his heartbroken soul.
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