Sunday 19 September 2010

Show of Stars '57 t-shirts



What a line-up. This concert must have been a blast. The t-shirt is the closest we can get to it now, so don't miss out. If you were there, this will serve as a neat momento. You could wear the shirt and trell people you were there. After all, millions have seen the Beatles in the little old Cavern!

Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Buddy and the Crickets, Everly Brothers, Clyde McPhatter. When did you go for a pee with a line-up like that? That must be why Paul Anka was on the bill.

To purchase, choose the size you require and click on the Paypal link.

The shirts are black, 100% cotton and professionally printed using top-of-the-range printers and heat presses. It is the aim of ShakyShirts/Julabelle to post any items within 24 hours of purchase.

The cost of this t-shirt is just £9.99.

Please note that currently we only ship to mainland UK at a cost of just £1.50.






Size



Tuesday 14 September 2010

George Jones - Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes

George Jones is 79 today. Check out this classic 1985 video for Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes? Apart from Willie, Merle and Jerry Lee I think all the others in it are dead. How the hell are the Killer, the Possum and the Red Headed Stranger still alive. Obviously the other guys didn't abuse themselves enough!

There's a few lumps in the throat moments in the video, like the clip of Jerry lee pounding the keys and a lovely smile from Marty Robbins. When it flashes to Johnny Cash the hair's on my neck stood up - what presence the man had.

Anyway, happy birthday George, take a ride into town and have a beer. There must be some gas in the lawn mower!


Reasons to love youTube No.8 - The Honey Dewdrops

Rockin' Chair Money- The Honey Dewdrops

I've never heard of the Honey Dewdrops, but I just put Rockin' Chair Money into youTube and voila. What a great surprise. It's an acoustic take on the great Hank Williams number and it cooks. The driving sound of that acoustic guitar blows my mind.

From the look of things, they're a husband and wife folk group. Well, even if the sex gets stale they've still got the music.

Check out their other stuff on youTube, you should be impressed.


Friday 10 September 2010

Imelda May hits top of Irish Charts



Imelda May's new album ‘Mayhem’ has entered the Irish Album Charts at #1, and her first album Love Tattoo has moved up the charts to #4, making her the first Irish Female Artists to have two albums in the top 5! This is great news for the young Irish singer and she will hopefully have similar success when it's released in the rest of the UK.

Radio 2 have been playing the title song all week and a load of people from my work have commented how much they like it. Rockabilly is coming back!

Sunday 5 September 2010

Hal Harris - Gold Star Guitar



Hal Harris - Gold Star Guitar
El Toro Records - ETCD1033

1. Carroll County Boogie
2. I Have Lived, Loved & Learned
3. Flying Eagle Blues
4. I've Loved, I've Laughed, I've Cried
5. Poor Boy Rag
6. Boy Crazy Jane
7. Twin Hearts & Twin Guitars
8. Guilty Heart
9. Taggin' Along
10. I Don't Know When
11. Duck Tail
12. Rock It
13. Gonna Be Better Times
14. Tu-La-Lou
15. No Fault Of Mine
16. Sixteen Chicks
17. Doggone It
18. Won't Tell You Her Name
19. How Come It
20. Slippin' Out & Sneakin' In
21. I Can't Find The Door Knob
22. Somebody's Knockin'
23. Lonesome
24. That Ain't It
25. Trucker From Tennessee
26. I'm Through
27. You Gotta Pay
28. Can't Play Hookey
29. Little Rock Rock
30. Don't Be Long Gone
31. Goodby Goodbye
32. Jitterbop Baby
33. I'm Comin' Home
34. Please Pass The Biscuits

As Dave Penny points out in his sleevenotes, Hal Harris was “one of the most celebrated of the early rockabilly guitarists of the 1950s” whose “chaotic and spine-chillingly bluesy solos on his Fender Stratocaster for Starday Records in Houston were as distinctive (and valuable) as Roland Janes' in Memphis, Grady Martin's in Nashville or Joe Maphis' in Hollywood.” He’s undoubtedly not as celebrated as the others but this excellent compilation from El Toro will surely help address the injustice.

It features the 1950s recordings issued under his own name as well as a selection of his session work for a bunch of Texas artists whose work was enhanced by Harris’ guitar, whether it be on a hillbilly or a rockabilly session. The country stuff stuff is fine and very much of the day and location, but it’s the rockabilly cuts that really stand him apart for me.

There’s a string of rockin’ classics as he served as the house guitarist for Pappy Daily's stable of labels, Starday, Dixie and D Records. The majority of them were issued at the time to little fanfare, but became classics across many a European household during the rockabilly revival of the 1970s and 80s. The names trip of the tongue - Joe Clay, George Thumper Jones, Sleepy La Beef, Link Davis, Rock Rogers and Benny Barnes. Picking favourites is irrelevant as they nearly all hit the spot. If pushed I’d have to go for Al Urban’s Gonna Be Better Times and Jimmie & Johnny’s Can’t Find The Door Knob.

Top prove he could have been much more than a session man, he did recorded a couple of rockers himself. It was actually one of these, Jitterbug Baby, that first made me aware of him on a 20 Great Rockabilly Hits of the 50’s (Cascade Records) in the mid 80’s. It was reportedly cut at the end of a 1957 George Jones session, along with another hot rockabilly number, I Don't Know When. That pairing, together with this cracking CD will forever keep Hal Fuzzy Harris in my heart and in my ears. Buy this release with confidence, it’s a peach.

Check out the clip below to hear Jitterbop Baby. I bet like me you've got nearly all the albums shown in the clip.