Kelso Herston & the Guitar Kings - Country & Western: The Great Hits of the 50s

What did all those great session players in Nashville in the 1950s and '60s do when they weren't playing on hit records? Some of them, like Florence, Ala., native Kelso Herston made records of their own.

Herston's reputation as a guitar player got him work backing over 200 different artists. He later became head of Capitol Records' Nashville operation and was music director for the TV show Hee Haw. You can read more about him here. He also has a Facebook page.

Herston recorded a number of albums for Time Records in the 1960s, including Country & Western: The Great Hits of the 50s, which was released in 1965. Listen to and/or download his version of Hank Williams's Your Cheating Heart from the link below.

Your Cheating Heart

Among the members of Herston's Guitar Kings was future country hitmaker Jerry Reed.

Herston was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

Some of Herston's Time recordings (not including the album pictured here) are available at downloard sites like eMusic.

Martin Denny - A Taste of Honey

Once Martin Denny had established his credentials as the "father of exotica" with the 1957 album Exotica and its hit Quiet Village, along with several other similar-themed albums like Exotica, Vol. 2 & 3, Forbidden Island and Primitiva, he began veering into easy listening territory.

A Taste of Honey, released in 1962, was once such example. The title track, which was a hit for Denny, is below for your listening and downloading pleasure. Denny is on piano, with the future leader of the Baja Marimba Band, Julius Wechter, on vibes.

A Taste of Honey

The A Taste of Honey LP turns up quite frequently at relatively cheap prices and the title track has turned up on several CD compilations including a 1996 release on the Pair label entitled Bachelor in Paradise.

Here's a YouTube version of Denny's A Taste of Honey.

Martin Denny died on March 2, 2005 in Honolulu at the age of 93.