Glen Glenn - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud Loud Music (2004)

Orin Glenn Troutman (October 24, 1934 – March 18, 2022), known professionally as Glen Glenn, was an American rockabilly singer, whose career began in the early 1950s and continued for several decades.

The second collection of Glenn Troutman (aka Glen Glenn) music to appear on Bear Family, this set balances out the previous Rocks with 36 acetates, demos, and other unreleased fare centered around the years 1955-1958. During these years, Glenn and his guitar-playing sidekick Gary Lambert were deeply influenced by the hillbilly boogie and honky tonk records coming not only out of Nashville, but also by the studios of Los Angeles. There are 36 cuts here, the vast majority of them previously unreleased. They trace the evolution in Glenn's music from the beautiful honky tonk balladry of "Let Me Talk to You" and the swaggering barroom boogie of "It Rains Rain," to the rockabilly that would come later in the form of "Jailhouse Rock," "Shake, Rattle and Roll," and "Mean Woman Blues." While the energy of the barroom and rockin' tunes may be preferable to some, it's actually on the ballads that the true measure of Glenn's worth is measured. His readings of "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," Tommy Collins' "A Hundred Years From Now," and "Release Me," are simply stunning -- particularly since most of these tunes are home demos. The sound quality here is astonishingly good and is very clean throughout. Liner notes by Deke Dickerson and Johnny Vallis are excellent and the collection of photographs in the package is unparalleled even for Bear Family. In many ways, this eclipses the previous collection by offering listeners a very intimate look at the development of one of California's finest singers of country and rockabilly.