AUDIO REVIEW: Rose Maddox with the Vern Williams Band: Beautiful Bouquet

Known as the “Original Hillbilly Filly” and the “Grandmother of Rockabilly,” Alabama-born country singer Rose Maddox (1925–1998) lived for four decades on a farm in Ashland, Oregon. Beautiful Bouquet, newly available on CD, was recorded in 1982 in tribute to her son Donnie, who died earlier that same year. It includes some of his favorite gospel numbers, such as “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” and “In the Sweet By and By.” Accompanying Maddox is the exultant Vern Williams Band, featuring bluegrass musicians on banjo, mandolin, and fiddle. Maddox’s assertive energy and zesty twang, whether in sacred or secular repertoire, helped “get the public’s mind off their problems and worries,” she once claimed. Johnny Cash declared: “There’ll never be a woman who could outperform Rose Maddox. She’s an American classic.” Her heartily confident and eupeptically healing songs will make every listener feel inspired and invigorated. Maddox’s charismatic presence will be recalled from her acting role as Woody Harrelson’s grandmother in the 1998 film The Hi-Lo Country, but her heart-stirringly clarion voice is also indelibly etched on our memories.