Slim Whitman - Indian Love Call (CD)

All Music Guide

Aside from a pair of gargantuan Bear Family box sets, Indian Love Call is the most lovingly compiled Slim Whitman set to be released, and easily the best. Including 27 songs from his first six years of recording (also his major hit period), the disc debuts with his first single for RCA, 1949's "I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky," backed by a rocksolid string group composed of Chet Atkins, Homer Haynes, Jethro Burns, and Jerry Byrd. Whitman's throwback style a sprightly yodel and a crying tenor augmented by sympathetic steel guitar didn't play very well at first; country singers of the late '40s and early '50s did much better with honky tonk and country boogie. Within a few years, however, Whitman began reaching the country charts with Western or pop ballads "Love Song of the Waterfall," "Indian Love Call," "Secret Love," and "Rose Marie." A few were sizable pop hits as well (in England and America), and Whitman soon traveled around the world to perform. He also journeyed farther into the past for his material, including country chestnuts ("The Cattle Call," "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine") and 19th century songs as well ("Beautiful Dreamer," "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen"). (All but the last are present on this compilation.) Whitman produced one of the most beautiful crooning styles ever to come out of the country tradition, and this Living Era compilation is a fitting tribute.

- John Bush, All Music Guide