Roger Miller Album: “Man Like Me: The Early Years of Roger Miller”

This is an excellent early collection of the Great Roger Miller. This collection is a 17-song compilation provided by Bear Family Records, covering the earliest years of Miller's career. Here, you can hear the unmistakable influences of Ray Price, Faron Young, and even Wynn Stewart. I was surprised at just how good Roger imitated their style and delivery; nearly flawless. But, this CD also covers the beginning of the styling that would become Roger's trademark, with "Poor Little Me", "A Man Like Me', and "Jason Fleming". The sound is excellent, considering the fair quality of the original recordings. But, then again, Bear Family has yet to put out a bad product. There's also a complete set of liner notes detailing Roger's discography and bio for this era (1957-64). Highly recommended.

This is a fun collection of early work by country singer Roger Miller, in the years before he hit the bigtime as a novelty-singing goofball in the early 1960s. These late '50s recordings on Starday and Decca show us a different Miller -- a straight country singer in the honkytonk mould, and a pretty darn good one at that! I have a bunch of this stuff on old LPs, but it sure is nice to hear it on CD as well, especially with Bear Family's tried-and-true top-quality sound mix. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue)

this is without a doubt a must have set for any Roger Miller fan. I was, however, surprised that this set is the first i've purchased from bear family with what seems to be subpar sound quality. by no means terrible, but the king of the road box has a version of the title track that sounds clear as day. considering that set was released eleven years prior to this, it's somewhat of a shock. i can't figure out why, possibly copywrite issues or ownership of the masters?? reguardless,it still sounds good. any fan will want to pick up both sets to get as much of the man's music as possible. especially considering the appaulling lack of attention Miller has had on cd reissues. i think it's high time for a thorough, career spanning collection of album cuts like bear family has done for so many other artists. hopefully someday we'll see somebody do this. until then, this set and the mercury box will have to suffice. the liner notes here are excellent and i'm glad i bought both bear family roger miller sets. worth every penny, but the other set doesn't have anything the mercury set doesnt cover and more.