Collector Records is owned, operated, and run by Dutch record collector Cees Klop who appears to have never encountered an obscure independent rockabilly or early rock & roll single from the 1950s and early 1960s that he didn't want to add to his collection. He started releasing LPs of his finds on his own White Label in the 1970s, issuing some 200 LPs before going digital and switching to the CD format in 1991. Some of these releases were themed, but many were delightfully (and sometimes frustratingly) random, which is the case with this 30-track set, which has everything from rockabilly to surf instrumentals to covers of
Johnny Cash songs all tossed together without any discernible design, save that each track is from an independent label and was recorded in the 1950s or early 1960s and is on the obscure side. Some of these cuts really don't stand up to more than a listen or two, with their main appeal being their rarity, but a few are definitely interesting, including the Teen-Beets' "I Guess That's Why You're Mine" and a ragged pair of surf instrumentals, "Surfin' Way Out" by
Jack E. Downes and "Devil Surf" by
Chito & the Crescents. Then there's the simply odd, like "Hey Now, What Are You, Some Kind of Nut?" by
Andy Cory, which has to be heard to be believed, and even at that, a second listen to it is probably out of the question.