What can I say/--I'm a fan & this is the man @ his best. I like the songs & the two Gospel songs are a nice addition. I highly recommend this CD.

We had forgotten how many terrific songs Ed Bruce both wrote and recorded himself. It's wonderful!

I just can't understand why a stand up guy like Ed Bruce would be a party to a sleazy, underhanded, lowdown RERECORD like this. Maybe he needs the money. Or nobody told him the dates on the CD would be so poorly marked unsuspecting fans would get duped. Whatever the reason, it's not a very good way to say thanks to those who have supported him all these years. Even if this is the only way to make these songs available, people still deserve to know what they are getting. So much for Ed, what about Varese Sarbande Record company? They have a good reputation in this country for selling quality CDs-- with original recordings. And amazingly Ed Bruce Greatest Hits contained original recordings--but they pulled it off the market. And now it sells used on Amazon for $80!!! Maybe they lost the rights to market Ed Bruce's greatest hits, but a rerecord is hardly a solution!!! After all, it makes me want to question the authenticity of all their other C&W CD's [Wilburn Brothers, Donna Fargo, Joe Stamply, Susan Raye, Jeanne Pruett, Paul Overstreet]. Do they contain original or rerecordings? If those are real, then why are they trying to palm off this bogus Ed Bruce greatest hits CD? Man, that burns me up. Varese! You have taken money from millions of C&W fans under false pretenses. Unless you want us storming your office -- in Paris, here's what you should do. Pay whatever you have to pay to put the ED Bruce Greatest Hits containing original recordings back on the US market. And we'll call it even.

Although Ed Bruce has the words right, the lacks his original voice as in the original recordings. The music is lackluster and does not meet up to the standards of Ed Bruce recordings.
The best bet would be to hang in there until "Ed Bruce's Greatest Hits" are available.

You have to look pretty carefully on the back of this CD to find the minuscule, typed explanation: "Contains new recordings of Ed Bruce's greatest hits, recorded April 1997." After finding it, one might be inclined to think this was some quick knock-off to fill out a contractual obligation or cash in via a TV offer. But a quick spin through the tracks finds Bruce's voice in good shape, supported by well-crafted productions that are neither chintzy (okay, there are some less than stellar uses of keyboards), nor overblown with modern studio techniques.

The album opens with Bruce's largest success as a songwriter, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." Though known for its chart-topping version by Waylon & Willie, Bruce himself actually took it to the top-20 three years earlier. Bruce covers eleven additional tunes, seven from his own pen, including a nice rendition of "The Last Cowboy Song" (on which he is remindful of Waylon, himself).

As with most re-recordings, this is not the place to start your appreciation of the artist's catalog. The best place for that would be Varese's now out-of-print "The Best of Ed Bruce," featuring most of these songs in their original versions. On the one hand, Bruce's maturity and rethinking of his songs is worth hearing, on the other, recording many years worth of hits in a short series of sessions can't help but compress the range these songs originally presented. While these are anything but throwaways, they're also no substitute for the originals, leaving them mostly for Ed Bruce fans and completists.