The Archive Series Vol. 2

There's nobody quite like the affable Texan Don Walser. His stellar yodeling alone has led critics to call him the "Pavarotti of the Plains" (Playboy) and "the greatest country singer in the world" (the Austin Chronicle). Walser honed his honky-tonk street cred during decades of playing Texas dance halls before he retired from his day job with the National Guard and promptly cut his well-received major label debut, Rolling Stone from Texas (1994). The Archive Series plucks two volumes' worth of material from earlier, mostly local releases. On such classic numbers as "Cattle Call," "Take Me Back to Tulsa," and "Long Black Veil," Walser shows his deep roots in old-time Western swing, with influences ranging from Lefty Frizzell and Webb Pierce to Ernest Tubb and Bob Wills.