rockabilly

[robrecht]

just expanding my musical universe: does anyone have any recommandations of artists in the rockabilly?
are there lots of sorts of rockabilly styles?
cheers

[weelie]

So are you looking for 1950s stuff or revival stuff (from late 70s up until now). The are many styles. You have the real old school country style stuff, with slap bass hollowbody guitars and all, then you have neo-swing with larger bands, or more modern overdriven stuff, all the way to psychobilly and other faster and punkier stuff.

Old stuff:
Elvis Presley: "Sun Sessions" is the real kick off in my book. Scotty Moore on guitar, of course. also other artists on SUN: Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis...
Johnny Burnette trio: tele and rumbling tube amp. Train Kepta Rollin!
The Best Of Gene Vincent
"Rockabilly Riot" (Various artists) -collection has a lot of the 50s hits you want. "Whistle Bait: 25 Rockabilly Rave-Ups" is old but less overplayed stuff.


Revival:
Stray Cats / Brian Setzer records is the most famous revival stuff.
Reverend horton heat -> raunchy modern rockabilly kinda stuff.
Wayne Hancock -> country hillbilly kinda stuff
Cramps -> 70s style sleazy "rockabilly" and psychobilly.
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys -> traditionalists of the genre

etc etc.

[Poppatwang]

Check out Robert Gordon

Current day rockabillies "Cave Cat Sammy"
are worth a look.

[bullfrog]

maybe the palladins ?

[bo]

He does more than rockabilly, but he's a current day artist whose recordings sound vintage. He's a fine guitar player too. I also recommend going to www.52-pickup.com, but only because it's my band...

[lenny]

don't forget the johnny cash "sun sessions" with luther perkins on guitar. might be slightly more hillbilly than rock, but it's good, and was influential to lots of rockers and rockabilly'ers

[RevMike]

For classic stuff, check out:

Johnny Horton
Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps
Eddie Cochran
Carl Perkins
Early Elvis
Everly Borthers
Buddy Holly

For more modern stuff:

Check out www.heavyrebel.net you'll find links to dozens of AWESOME regional acts. Including:

7 Shot Screamers
Blind Pharaohs (INCREDIBLE Stuff)
Speed Crazy
Rocket 350 (AMAZING stuff)
Lords of the Highway (Some of the best I ever heard)
Dexter Romweber
Bloodshot Bill
Nekkid
Tombstone Daddys
.....many more!

[ye olde fretmonkey]

The great thing about early Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton in particular is that it's so stripped down and bare-bones, it's a good jumping-off point for learning other stuff.

[zane]

Jeff Beck - "Crazy Legs"

[twang55]

I'll second Cave Cat Sammy. Just caught them recently at Gruehne Hall and the guitar player is awesome-played a red tele very well.

[psykobilly]

carl perkins.

[olewichita]

to add some more unknown stuff for those already initiated with the classics off gallup with gene vincent, grady martin with burnette, hal harris on starday, roland janes on sun etc...

some of the greatest obscure rockabilly guitar records i've ever heard are:

servant of love - the van brothers ( poor boy records 1960... both takes are deadly... "swanky" gentry guitar... )

dancing doll - art adams ( cherry records 1960... eddie weil and danny cole guitars... killer high octane guitars... )

my baby walks all over me / milcow blues - bob luman ( 1959 live at town hall... james burton guitar... what can i say... )

slippin' in - lou millet ( republic 1956... amazing fuzzy fingerpicked guitar... also appears on the lloyd mcullough republic sides... )

mama's little baby - junior thompson ( meteor 1956... this is what true rockabilly and rockabilly guitar is all about... )

carl perkins - her love rubbed off ( sun unnisued... carl's THEE man... the ike turner of rockabilly... )

little lou - john ashley ( capeheart 1961... eddie cochran guitar... not strictly a rockabilly record... cochran shows he had more chops than any other early guitar rocker... )

miss pearl - jimmy wages ( sun 1957 unnisued... don gilliland guitar... weird and wonderful... )

do it bop - billy prager ( crystal 1958... great steel... why does NOBODY play steel like this... second only to hop wilson... )

big sandy - bobby roberts ( sky 1958... 2 killer guitar breaks... )

of course there are 100s of other equally great rockabilly records with equally great guitar breaks... )

tj

[jaybee001]

I see you're from Belgium --> The Seatsniffers - check them out live when they're playing a town near you

[Darrell]

I would say that at least 1/3 of the songs on their CD's are a rockabilly style. 1/3 country, the rest are solid ballads and unique blends and remakes.

Good stuff.

[Mike Fleming]

Is Tiki's still around, in Gierle ? That was a great place for live rockabilly in Belgium.

Mike

[muddy888]

my recommendations

Brian Setzer
Reverend Horton Heat
Southern Culture on the Skids

[Twin Reiver]

The incredible Ronnie Dawson (a recent sad RIP) and Joe Clay of "16 Chicks" fame, a personal favorite. There is a great RCA rockabilly collection called, if I'm not mistaken, Get Hot or Go Home. And somebody has said Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio, right (Paul Burlison)? And then there's Paul Burlison. And oh yeah, don't forget, Paul Burlison.

[olewichita]

grady martin who plays most of those thunderous licks on the johnny burnette RnR trio stuff... paul was replaced for these sessions... sixteen chicks by joe clay has hal harris from the starday studio house band on lead guitar... the other half of joe's RCA stuff has the mighty mickey baker doing some of his most racous ever ( that and young jessie's stuff on flair... baker is on fire... ) agreed essential stuff... ronnie of course played his own guitar parts... do do do. jump and run, congratulations to me, action packed, rockin' bones not to mention all the blues demos... all XLNT

tj

[MandyMarie]

Twin Reiver - Ronnie Dawson indeed...especially those featuring Mr. Ole Wichita himself on the six string :D

Hey TJ, Art Adams lives here in Indiana and ever since he seen Danny's band at the rockabilly festival he's been to every single one of their shows - SUPER NICE GUY. He's got these killer promo photos from the 50's (repos of course) would you be interested in an autographed one? Let me know and I'll grab you one next time they play (this coming Saturday night).

[Poppatwang]

Very cool guitar player! Never heard him go rockabilly.
I'll have to track that down.

[Twin Reiver]

Thanks for the inside skinny, Mr. Witchita. And hey what's this about you and Ronnie Dawson? I don't want to put you in a position where you'd have to boast in public, but I wouldn't fault you for it and sure wouldn't mind the stories....

Grady Martin, no kiddin'....

[T-Joe]

The Hillbilly Hellcats with the fantastic Chuck Hughes on guitar. And another fairly unknown band Rockin' Lloyd Tripp and the Zipguns for a dose of real rockabilly from a modern band. I have to mention a local favourite as well, Cousin Harley from Vancouver, Paul Pigat on guitar. Man all these guys mine the old tones! I got about a hundred more... I've always had a weakness for Sleepy LaBeef too!

[tele71]

Billy Hancocks "Shakin That Rockabilly Fever"and "Wanted True Rock and Roll" Both are excellent albums. On "Shakin" he is backed up by the Tenesee Rockers with Bob Newscaster on guitar. Lots of tastey licks all over that album. And what can you say about someone who sings as well as Billy? Its impossible to belive one man knows that many songs. Heck of a bass man to.

[dave_esmond]

i always reccomend the cd collection "loud, fast and out of control" as a good starting for anyone getting into rockabilly.....

if you're looking for modern folks, check out deke dickerson and dave biller (biller and wakefield & biller & horton)....not strictly rockabilly all the time...but both have a flavor of that "countrycats playing jazz" that i love so much about early rockabilly....

d

[trag-o-caster]

I may be wrong, but I think the 1959 live Bob Luman show has a young Roy Buchanan on guitar. Isn't this the same show where Roy was spotlighted playing "Roy's Guitar Boogie" or something like that?

[olewichita]

roy played on roy's guitar boogie and i got a woman with bob luman... james is on the my baby walks all over me / milcow blues tracks... to make matters even more confusing roy did play on the WB 45 of my baby walks all over me... as you know trag roy was on many cool tracks between 1958 / 1966... tj

[olewichita]

i started playing with ronnie when i was about 15 or 16... he used to tour with boz boorer at the time ( morrisey's guitar player... ) and one day i walked up to ronnie and i said i know all your songs and i want to play with you... he laughed and chuckled...

but boz and barney ( ronnie manager at the time... ) knew me and told him that i was actually pretty good... so a couple of months went by and by then i think he had seen me play a couple of times too and one day he asked to play with him there and then... show me what you got!

so after that i played with him all over europe... he finally brought me over to the states in 1994 and i toured with him here for almost 4 years... after that i moved back to amsterdam and still did occasional gigs and tours with him in europe... but for personal reasons i had pretty much given up playing at the time... but i was always there for ronnie...

i moved to NY 2000 and we had talked about putting together the old band again with for sure me and lisa pankratz... kevin smith didn't really want to go on the road anymore at that time... anyway i moved to austin and the rest you probably know...

ronnie passed away last september 30th... luckily i did get to spend some good quality time with him before he passed on... i also played his last show which was one of the hardest things i've ever done in my life... at that point he was already so sick but he still kicked ass... that describes whoe he really was more than anything...

i played on 3 of his records and i think the live at the continental club is my favorite... at first i was unhappy with it because i thought it was flawed and didn't even come close to how good and tight some of our shows really were... now i love it with al it's clams and flaws... it's got great energy... and when we recorded it we hadn't played together for 9 months or something and we went in cold without a rehearsal...

losing ronnie was like losing part of my self... he was like a friend, mentor and father to me... he stuck with me throughout my life... even through the years i was impossible to deal with he maintained a relationship with me and never stopped believing in me...

there will never be anybody like him and he really is one of the great unknowns,

tj

[olewichita]

the essential bear family joe clay CD has all his 50s stuff on it... half with the starday band feat. hal harris, half feat. more or less the atlantic house band with mickey baker... i think only 10 tracks in total and some alternate takes but well worth it... essential listening... tj

[olewichita]

do you ever go to see lattie moore too? he plays in that area too i think... art adams took a friend of mine to see him and said he was still great... that pic would be cool! tj