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!

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.

George Jones - youTube update

Mellow kindly wrote to me regarding the George Jones youTube clip I posted the other day. He points out that the other musicians are the Tennessee Three, Marshall Grant, WS Fluke Holland and the legendary Luther Perkins. You're right Mellow, I hadn't even looked in the background for some reason. Looking at it again I even noticed that Johnny Cash himself is the guy twiddling with George's left ear at the end.

George Jones - White Lightnin' (youTube)

Check out this great clip of George Jones. From a tv show in 1962, he's got the old flat top that no-one can believe he ever had - it's so much better than the playdo wig he wears now! I think it's Gordon Terry taking the guitar solo, but what I love is the way the guys tweeak ol' Possum's ears at the end - just letting the steam out. Perhaps they should have followed him around and done that in the 70's when he was getting a bit hot under the collar from a bottle of bourbon too many.

The Satellites – Wrong Move

The Satellites – Wrong Move
Planet X Records

Tracklist: Wrong Move, Trouble No More, Mad About Him Sad About Him How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues, How Come It, Show Me, Too Close For Comfort, You Look That Good To Me, Bayou Rock

Adelaide, Australia natives The Satellites have only been going just over a decade but this latest release is already their seventh album on Planet X Records. The band consist of Belinda Hartman, Steve Mithchell, Jad Green and Darren Hunt and are one of the top bands in the Southern Hemisphere. They’ve toured all over the world and had the priveledge of supporting the Stray Cats on their recent tour of Oz.

The band excel at hot rockabilly with the title track being a wild rocker that kicks the album off in fine style. And even better is the scorching version of Joe Clay’s You Look That Good To Me that absolutely sizzles. Mad About Him Sad About Him How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues is a lovely, hillbilly tinged rockaballad with great vocals from Belinda Hartman.

There’s a strong Stray Cats influence on a couple numbers with Trouble No More having the jazzier sound the cats sometimes employed, whilst the excellent cover George Jones’ cult classic How Come It is more Stray Cats than Thumper.

There’s a couple of hot duets in Bayou Rock and I think my favourite on the CD, Show Me, a bouncy little foot tapper with Hartman proving she’s got a great voice for rockabilly. A short but great CD, well worth checking out.