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.

Rockin' Song of the Week No.87 - Paul Carnes

Paul Carnes - I'm A Mean Mean Daddy
PRC LO8W-4417/8 (1960)

PRC was a Hollywood label. Terry Gordon says on his site that "Both sides are published by Starday Music, indicating it was probably a Package Deal record, but it is not part of the numerical series. It is also unusual for a PD record in that it was pressed by RCA."

Nothing seems to be known about Paul Carnes, but that shouldn't be the case. If Mean Mean Daddy is anything to go by, this guy should have been recorded regularly. It's a pure rockabilly gem and it's sound belies the 1960 date. It sounds like something from '56 with a big infusion of hillbilly in the mix. The lyrics are definately from a '50s man, a time when it really was a man's world. "Well I left my girl in a little ol shack, she better frind another coz I ain't going back, coz I'm a mean mean daddy". Yeah, Mr Carnes was a mean mean daddy, but he sure did have a lotta fun. So do I, every time I hear this record - a rockabilly classic.

best place to find it is the Buffalo Bop CD (Bb-CD 55026), Mean Mean Daddy, probably the best compilation the label bought out. There's at least a dozen tip top rockers on it.

Rockin' Song of the Week No. 75 - Hi-Tombs

Hi-Tombs - Sweet Rockin' Mama
Cannon 832

"Hey man, dip dip dip dip". This is what rockabilly is all about. The beat is a foot-tapper with a guitar or two driving the song along. They even throw in a line from the Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace. The Hi-Tombs, Sweet Rockin' Mama came out on Cannon Records out of Richmond, Virginia in 1960, but the record has a sound of a couple of years before. This is hard rockin', none of that Bobbybilly that was around at the time. The song was written by group member Cody Reynolds and Harold Wilson (queue Mike Yarwood impersonation) who had a split of the publishing with Starday Records. The flip, Weeping Willow is an uptempo instro that is okay but nowhere near as great as the top side. The best place to find the Sweet Rockin' Mama is on Ace's brilliant Starday Dixie Rockabilly Volume 1 CD.

Battle of the Song No.1 - Rockin’ Daddy

Sonny Fisher - Rockin’ Daddy – Starday 179
Eddie Bond - Rockin’ Daddy – Mercury 70826

So who cut the definitive version of Rockin’ Daddy, Sonny Fisher or Eddie Bond?

The song epitomizes everything that makes rockabilly great. It’s full of bravado and images of dressing up in your best cat clothes for a good night of unrelenting rock ‘n’ roll to cure your blues. Both versions are sublime, and although they’re both rockabilly in it’s truest form, they’re both very different.

When Sonny Fisher entered the Goldstar Studios in January 1955, rock ‘n’ roll was still in its infancy. Perry Como was still the rage and outside of the south, Elvis Presley was unknown. The results that day are startling, with Fisher’s Rockin’ Daddy being as raw as music can get. Joey Long’s guitar cuts through the air like a switchblade knife and Leonard Curry and Darrell Newsome lay down a stark beat that holds nearly as much menace as the guitar. In the early days of ’55, a lot of rockabilly numbers were by country singers who were trying anything to get some coin. No such nonsense here though, with these vocals, Sonny Fisher couldn’t be anything but a hard-assed young buck with rockin’ on his mind.

Eddie Bond didn’t cut his version for another twelve months but the wait was well worth it. His version has a fuller sound with a crack band that included future Nashville legends Reggie Young and John Hughey. Young is blistering throughout and don’t be fooled by Hughey being in the mix with his steel guitar, this is rockabilly music – cowboy hats ain’t in sight.

So while Eddie Bond made more great records than Sonny Fisher, and he can justifiably claim to be “a rockin’ daddy from Ding Dong Ten-O-See”, I have to say that if I had to play one version of Rockin’ Daddy to show Martians what rockabilly is all about, I’d have to go with Sonny Fisher’s.