Rex Griffin – The Last Letter

Rex Griffin may be best-known for his enormously influential song of heartbreak and suicide, “The Last Letter”, but this three-CD box set from the world’s foremost reissue label, Germany’s Bear Family, shows Griffin was much more than a one-song artist. Unlike most country stars before or since, Griffin wrote almost all of his own recordings, and his songs forsook the excessive sentimentality that was popular at the time for a depth of painfully honest introspection generally absent from the music of his contemporaries.

Along with “The Last Letter”, Griffin’s most famous songs include the Eddy Arnold hit “Just Call Me Lonesome”, Hank Penny’s theme song “Won’t You Ride In My Little Red Wagon”, and “Everybody’s Tryin’ To Be My Baby”, later reworked by Carl Perkins and then covered by the Beatles. Griffin also recorded the first country version of “Lovesick Blues”, and while Hank Williams had heard minstrel yodeler Emmett Miller’s earlier version, he modeled his own version after Griffin’s.

Still, it’s for good reason that Griffin is most often identified with “The Last Letter”. Since recorded by country acts ranging from the Blue Sky Boys to Asleep At The Wheel, “The Last Letter” has also been a hit over the years for Jimmie Davis, Willie Nelson and Jack Greene. But of all the covers of the song, only Connie Smith’s resigned, funereal version comes close to matching Griffin’s 1937 original.

Recorded with just his acoustic guitar as accompaniment, Griffin’s own version is one of the saddest, bleakest recordings in all of country music. Supposedly written while Griffin was despondent over his collapsing first marriage, “The Last Letter” is a chilling suicide note that foreshadowed the sad honky-tonk songs of Ted Daffan, Floyd Tillman and Ernest Tubb.

This Bear Family set contains many striking Griffin performances, among them other bleak songs of proto-honky tonk such as “Over The River”, “An Old Faded Photograph” (later recorded by Hank Thompson) and “Beyond The Last Mile” (one of a few Griffin songs recorded by Ray Price). Some uptempo romps are also included, most notably “My Hillbilly Baby” (recorded by Ernest Tubb for his first album).

Griffin led a troubled, lonely life. He was beset with marital difficulties and health problems that included diabetes, alcoholism and tuberculosis, the latter eventually killing him at the age of 47. Born in the same Northern Alabama hill country that also was the birthplace of the Louvins and the Delmores, Griffin began his singing career by working at various radio stations throughout the South before signing with Decca in 1935.

Like many other country artists of the 1930s, Griffin began by imitating Jimmie Rodgers, and all of his earliest recordings feature Rodgers-style blue yodels. While the Rodgers influence never left him, it wasn’t long before Griffin developed his own unadorned, intensely personal vocal style that influenced the likes of Tubb (who regularly recorded Griffin’s songs) and Hank Williams.

The Last Letter includes all 36 of his 1935-39 Decca recordings, along with the 20 transcription recordings he made in 1944 for the Decca-owned World Transcriptions, and a half-dozen recordings he made in 1946 for King Records. The set also includes 16 recordings from Griffin’s younger brother Buddy, including two commercially released singles and a number of demos of Rex Griffin songs, all but three of them never recorded by Rex himself. Buddy Griffin idolized his older brother, and Rex’s influence on Buddy’s vocal style is obvious.

Considering the addition of Buddy Griffin’s recordings, the set may seem a bit padded — especially since all 16 of the Rex Griffin originals among the World Transcriptions were re-recordings of earlier Decca sides. Nevertheless, it’s illuminating to hear the full-band interpretations of Griffin’s songs on the transcriptions (on the Decca recordings, he recorded with minimal accompaniment), and occasionally they’re even superior to the Decca versions.

Also, while Buddy wasn’t nearly as talented a performer as his older brother, he’s an adequate substitute, and his recordings of many of Rex’s songs are the only ones available. Those songs include a sardonic look at his own chosen profession, “Shuckin’ Corn”, along with bitter songs of unrequited love such as “High and Dry”, “Don’t Talk About Your Love Affairs To Me” and “Just Wait and See”.

The notes on the back of the box are a bit misleading. They point out that “Won’t You Ride In My Little Red Wagon” and “Just Call Me Lonesome” are regarded as classics, but neglect to mention that neither was recorded by Griffin, so neither of them are found on the set. Also, the set continues Bear Family’s infuriating new policy of not listing the songs on the back of the box. Buyers aren’t sure what songs are inside until they actually open the set, and since Bear Family is a label known for its exhaustive inclusiveness, it’s possible to find a myriad of alternate takes that only a musicologist could love.

Still, this is a Bear Family set, which means excellent sound and detailed notes. It comes with a 16-page booklet that includes the first detailed Griffin biography (written by Kevin Coffey), a number of rare photos and a complete discography. Coffey’s notes not only provide our surest look at the life of Rex Griffin but also convincingly state the case for his importance.

Despite the duplicated songs and the inclusion of Buddy Griffin’s recordings, this set in an invaluable portrait of an influential artist who has been neglected far too long. The next time you’re sitting in a barroom and a sad song of unrequited love hits home, raise a toast to the original king of broken hearts, Rex Griffin.