Sweeter Than Candy: The Rarities Collection

With his slicing guitar style, edgy rockabilly energy, and a country-tinged voice that could shake, rattle, and roll, not to mention an impressive kit bag full of original songs and modernized, retooled blues tunes, Carl Perkins, although he wasn't as charismatic and successful as Sun Records labelmate Elvis Presley, was as instrumental as anybody in putting the template for rock & roll together. This set, most of which was recorded in a series of sessions held in Muscle Shoals in 1976, isn't Perkins at his sharpest, unfortunately, probably because the unnamed musicians he's playing with can't seem to find much fire. Perkins does his best here, and his voice shines through on songs like "Daddy Sang Bass," which Perkins wrote for Johnny Cash, but things really only take off with the final three tracks, drawn from an unidentified live show.