Webb Pierce - High Geared Daddy (Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight)

Bear Family's Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series seems tailor made for guys like me whose main love is rockabilly, but also have the good grace to enjoy their country music, especially of the uptempo variety. I like a good country ballad, but can't stand a singer just whining away. If anyone is going to fit that category, it's Webb Pierce. I find most of his ballads hard to digest but love the hillbilly boogie he was so good at. That makes this CD an absolute treat, with 32 performances covering his golden era from 1949-'59 on Four Star, Pacemaker and Decca. What is striking is how little the music changed over such a long period. If you look at virtually any rock 'n' rollers music over such a period, you can bet it would go from either hillbilly or blues to rock 'n' roll back to country, blues or soul. About the only thing that changed with Webb was the introduction of poppier backing vocals for a brief period in the late 50's. On a couple of these tracks he comes over like Marty Robbins or Sonny James.

Webb owned the country charts during the 50', amassing an astonishing 96 hit singles, more than half of which went into the top 10 including thirteen number 1's. There's reason he did so well is because his beat was so damn infectious, an must have sounded great on every hillbilly jukebox from the Dairy Queen's to the boozy honky tonk bar-rooms. The biggies are here like Honky Tonk Song, Tupelo County Jail, In the Jailhouse Now and I Ain't Never, but there's also some great moments with less heard numbers like I'm Tired and later version of New Panhandle Rag. From the earlier days the highlights have to be a trio of songs that will surely be on the big jukebox when we get to hillbilly heaven, Hayride Boogie, Drifting Texas Sand and California Blues. Hayride Boogie was adapted half a decade later as Teenage Boogie and rightly awarded cult status.

The boogie is relentless throughout - it's a white man's Lightnin' Hopkins or John Lee Hooker. This is a stunning release that rockers and hicks alike can buy with confidence.

Don Gibson - Don Rocks (Bear Family BCD 16991)

Don Gibson was an amazing songwriter who had a string of hits for RCA in the late 50’s and early 60’s. He bridged the gap between country and rock ‘n’ roll and although he sat with one and a half of his ass cheeks on the hillbilly side, he still had a flair for rockabilly. By no stretch of the imagination can he be called a rockabilly singer but there was a definite edge to his music. Not dissimilar to Roy Orbison, he excelled at taking the Nashville Sound outside the Music City city limits. It was too pop to be Charlie Feathers but it was also too rockin’ to put him on Bill Monroe’s Christmas card list.

Bear Family have served Don well over the years with the box-set treatment and the fabulous single CD, A Legend In My Time. As befits the title, and the series, this new one concentrates on the up-tempo sides and it’s stunning, from the music in the grooves to the packaging and sound quality. It covers the RCA years from 1957 to 1967 but doesn’t run chronologically, something that helps the CD run so smoothly.

The CD kicks of in cracking style with a trio of corkers. Sweet Sweet Girl is so beloved by us rockers thanks to Warren Smith’s great version, but Don’s is equally great. I’m sure everyone here is familiar with the big guns like Oh Lonesome Me, Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles and Blue Blue Day.

It shows the quality of the material he was producing in his prime for 1961’s I Sat Back And Let It Happen go unreleased for over twenty years. Where do you stop with the superlatives? Listen to Lonesome Number One – beautiful picking fromm Grady Martin, and great interplay with Cramer and the Jordannaires.

Sea of Heartbreak is one of those perfect pop songs with Floyd Cramer tinkling away as the Nashville A Team lay down a bouncy support for Don’s wonderful vocals. From April ’61, I just wish Bob Moore or one of those boys had persuaded Elvis to have a crack at it - you just know it would have been a killer, it was tailor made for the early 60’s Elvis treatment.

Of the covers, I thought his cover of Brook Benton’s Hurtin’ Inside was spot on and the gospel workout on Martha Carson’s Satisfied also works well. Hank Snow’s Movin’ On is slightly spoilt by the backing singers but the chicken picking guitar just about saves the day. Campdown Races is another that is perhaps not up to the standard of the rest. I love the funky arrangement of What’s The Reason I’m Not Pleasing You.

Basically, I could go on raving about this release but I’m sure you get my drift already. This is another stunning release from the king of the reissue market. Buy this with complete confidence, its another to Bear Family release that’ll you’ll need to keep close to the CD changer.

Lloyd Price – Lloyd Rocks!

Lloyd Price – Lloyd Rocks! (Bear Family BCD 16999) 1. Where You At 2. Country Boy Rock 3. Rock 'n' Roll Dance 4. Walkin' The Track 5. Lawdy Miss Clawdy 6. Why 7. I'm Glad, Glad 8. Baby Please Come Home 9. Tell Me, Pretty Baby 10. Carry Me Home 11. Woe Ho Ho 12. Heavy Dreams 13. The Chicken And The Bop 14. Hello Little Girl 15. Georgianna 16. How Many Times 17. Such A Mess 18. Down By The River 19. Gonna Let You Come Back Home 20. Stagger Lee 21. You Need Love 22. Where Were You On Our Wedding Day 23. Just Because 24. Personality 25. Have You Ever Had The Blues 26. I'm Gonna Get Married 27. Wont'cha Come Home 28. Lady Luck 29. Question 30. Mailman Blues 31. Ain't That Just Like A Woman 32. The Hoochie Coochie Coo 33. Lawdy Miss Clawdy 34. Baby Please Come Home (LP Version) Bear Family’s Rocks series is an amazing series that until now has focussed on the white end of rock ‘n’ roll. But with this release and one from the Cadillacs and Shirley & Lee, they have started to dip into the black end of the market. I’ve got the two Ace CDs from a decade ago and The Exciting Lloyd Price on MCA, but good as they are, they’re totally blown into the water by Lloyd Rocks. As usual with Bear Family the packaging is awesome (51 page booklet no less!), but it’s the choice of tracks by Bill Millar that really sets this one apart. The CD spans from 1952 to 1961 and runs through the pick of his up-tempo material for Specialty, KRC, and ABC-Paramount. The Specialty tracks from ’52 show just how ahead of the game New Orleans was when it came to rocking music. Everyone reading this must know what a great number Lawdy Miss Clawdy is, prototype rock ‘n’ roll from the oh-so-wonderfully familiar piano intro to Herb Hardesty almost stealing the show on sax. Other Specialty highlights Country Boy Rock, Rock 'n' Roll Dance, Baby Please Come Home and Walkin' The Track. Great as the music was, Lloyd was getting left behind when it came to New Orleans acts hitting the charts. In a move that was a massive gamble at the time, Price left Specialty and started his own label, KRC. Just Because is a beauty that was leased to ABC-Paramount and became a hit despite competition from Lloyd’s valet and cousin Larry Williams, who covered it and even claimed writer credit. Another KRC track to really hit the spot is The Chicken And The Bop, Georgianna (a cross between Smiley’s Tee Na Na and his own Lawdy Miss Clawdy) and Such A Mess. By September ’58 Lloyd was with ABC fulltime and it jump-started his career with a handful of hits like Where Were You On Our Wedding Day and Personality. There’s the magical intro to Stagger Lee “the might was clear and the moon was yellow, and the leaves came tumbling down” – great stuff. Not everyone’s cup-of-tea, the ABC sides may have lost some of the r’n’b drive for a polished line-up including some slightly square backing vocals. I love them though - they’re great songs, with enough of Lloyd’s roots showing through to keep them on the rocking side of pop. Just listen to I’m Gonna Get Married, it might smack of pop music, but there’s also a quality to them that could only come from an artist steeped in the traditions of New Orleans. This is a must have item that maintains the high quality of the Rocks series and is one of the best CDs you’re likely to buy this year. A brilliant release.

Sleepy LaBeef - Sleepy Rocks

Sleepy Rocks (Bear Family BCD 15981 AR)

The latest in the excellent Rocks series looks at the distinguished and prolific career of the Human Jukebox, Sleepy LaBeef. The 6'7" man mountain was born Thomas Paulsley LaBeff in Smackover, Arizona. Heavily hooded eyes earned him his Sleepy moniker while the Human Jukebox comes from the fact that's he's reputed to have thousands of songs in his repertoire. Thirty five of them are included here and it probably goes without saying that the sound quality and packaging has that usual German precision we've come to know and love.

As for the music, Sleepy has the fantastic quality of giving everything a genuine edge. The brilliance of the early stuff is beyond reproach, but what amazes me is the songs he did in later decades. By the '70s and '80s most covers of Roll Over Beethoven and Ride On Josephine sound like karaoke but not in the hands of Sleepy LaBeef who always gave his covers a forceful drive. If it's the early stuff that floats your boat you're gonna find it hard to go past the opening tracks with the well know belters, All The Time and I'm Through being as goods as rockabilly gets. There's a couple of early demos here, one being the scorching reading of Elvis' Baby Let's Play House.

There's a great feel to the trio of numbers from the Columbia Nashville session in September 1965, with the harmonica adding a welcome addition - You Can't Catch Me is perhaps the best Chuck Berry cover west of Dave Edmunds. When he joined the reactivated Sun label he cut a few first class albums, the pick of this hear being his cover of Sandford Clark's Lonesome For A Letter. This CD maintains the high quality of the series and is a worthy addition to anyone's collection.