I have the
Cliff Bruner and the
Jimmie Rodgers box sets and about 10 other CDs issued by Bear Family. I bought them mainly for my listening and for some occasional gigs dedicated to Hillbilly/Rockabilly music. However, I DJ-ed songs for Lindy and Bal dancers off almost all my Bear Family sets/CDs. When I DJ at Western Swing bands' shows, about once a month, I like to play some vintage swinging Honky-Tonk and Hillbilly boogies, along with some Jazz, Blues and Western Swing.
If you like Western Swing music and especially the recordings of bands such as Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, the Cliff Bruner set is great and most of the tunes in there are not covered by any other re-issue. There are several tracks from his 1930s Hot String and 1940s Western Swing bands that I like to play for the dancers. However, it is not a very cost effective investment, if you are only looking for DJ-able tunes.
If you are interested in swing danceable Country and Western Swing from the late 1940s and 1950s and don't want to buy expensive box sets, the
Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series is awesome. There is a lot of excellent material on the CDs dedicated to artists such as Hank Williams, Little Jimmy Dickens, Webb Pierce, Leon McAuliffe, Pee Wee King, ... Each CD comes with a 30-40 pages booklet and more than 30 tunes. Same story for the
'...Rocks' series, dedicated to early Rock'n Roll and R&B. All those Bear CDs cost a bit more than similar CDs issued by other labels, but they are worth every extra penny because of the track quality and the liner notes.
As for the notes, one of the authors for Bear Family is Deke Dickerson, a musician from Los Angeles. He posts on his web site some of the brilliant
essays he writes for Bear. For instance, I really enjoyed reading his notes for the Johnny Horton compilation in the Shake This Shack Tonight series.