From The Vaults, Volume 1 - In My Dreams

This is the first release from the Czech Elvis Presley Fan club. Some call it a bootleg, but according to Czech laws it seems to be a legal release.
This CD claims to have unreleased studio takes 1956-1965. There is one important word missing here: officially. People in possession of the There's Always Me-series by Bilko do have all tracks, at least the Elvis tracks. Regarding the fact that this CD is issued by the Czech fan club for the Czech market we suppose their biggest market won't be in the latter group of lucky people.
The cover is sober but tasteful. There is a short comment in the inlay by the president of the Czech fan club, Pavel Cernocky. This comment is printed in both the Czech language and in English. Both languages are also used for the liner notes. These are very complete, including take-information and a couple of remarkable facts of each song. The CD itself has a nice full colour print with pictures of Elvis from Tupelo ('56), That's The Way It Is, Aloha and the Memphis bronze statue. On the background is a picture of Graceland.
The music itself is familiar of course. Most often the versions are pretty close to the released versions, with some exceptions. Not everybody likes the smooth Elvis-sound of the first half of the sixties. We certainly do and it is a pleasure to hear songs like Judy, Fountain of Love and Little Sister. Shake, Rattle and Roll doesn't seem to fit completely on this CD, because it is the only 50's track. The (sub)title song of this CD "In My Dreams" has a long explanation of maybe (probably to us) not having Elvis singing, but it may just be a demo made for him. Maybe for the Czech fan it is fun to have two "Czech Elvises" closing this CD with another eight tracks. To us it wasn't really amusing, we prefer the real thing.
The sound quality of this CD is pretty good, but just not as clear as on the There's Always Me-series.
The only conclusion can be that the CD isn't really interesting for people already in possession of the There's Always Me Volumes containing these takes. For the less lucky among us, this CD brings about 35 minutes of good Elvis songs, of a total playing time of 63 minutes.