The Black Ace – Teardrops To Reality

A meaningful thread in the fabric of Alberta, Canada’s music tapestry was the Jimmie Rodgers-style balladeer Allan M. Kirby, known to radio listeners of the 1930s and live audiences through the 1970s as “The Black Ace Yodeling Hitch Hiker.” Long a fixture at the Calgary Stampede, Kirby was a prodigious songwriter. Thanks to the dedication of Kirby’s daughter Marie, this compendium of his words put to fresh melodies (and some of his own) has been issued, providing “new” entries into the general Western Music catalog.

Eccentrically on this release the first six songs on Disc 2 are replicated from Disc 1, but there are twenty-eight songs here to pick from. Among the thirteen performer/composers featured are such familiar names as Vic Anderson, Jeff Campbell and Mark Munzert. Additional musical support was provided by John Thiel and Beau Hughes. Picks: “Old Moon of Alberta” (w/ Leanne Copithorne), a feisty virtuoso guitar boogie from Jeff Gonzales “Ace Up My Sleeve,” “My Bluebonnet Land” (w/Carolyn Harley), “Cowboy’s Last Yodel” & “Will There Be Boxcars Up There” (w/Vic Anderson), “Desert Canyon Blues” (w/Charlie Ewing), “Lonely Guitar” (w/Aaron Hahn) and “Old Alberta’s Chinook Arch” (w/Harold Roy Miller).

Recommended for interested collectors. A meaningful thread in the fabric of Alberta, Canada’s music tapestry was the Jimmie Rodgers-style balladeer Allan M. Kirby, known to radio listeners of the 1930s and live audiences through the 1970s as “The Black Ace Yodeling Hitch Hiker.” Long a fixture at the Calgary Stampede, Kirby was a prodigious songwriter. Thanks to the dedication of Kirby’s daughter Marie, this compendium of his words put to fresh melodies (and some of his own) has been issued, providing “new” entries into the general Western Music catalog.

Eccentrically on this release the first six songs on Disc 2 are replicated from Disc 1, but there are twenty-eight songs here to pick from. Among the thirteen performer/composers featured are such familiar names as Vic Anderson, Jeff Campbell and Mark Munzert. Additional musical support was provided by John Thiel and Beau Hughes. Picks: “Old Moon of Alberta” (w/ Leanne Copithorne), a feisty virtuoso guitar boogie from Jeff Gonzales “Ace Up My Sleeve,” “My Bluebonnet Land” (w/Carolyn Harley), “Cowboy’s Last Yodel” & “Will There Be Boxcars Up There” (w/Vic Anderson), “Desert Canyon Blues” (w/Charlie Ewing), “Lonely Guitar” (w/Aaron Hahn) and “Old Alberta’s Chinook Arch” (w/Harold Roy Miller).

Recommended for interested collectors.

– by Rick Huff