|
VINTAGE
ROCK 'N' ROLL & ROCKABILLY
Sleepy
LaBeef-> Ketty Lester
| SLEEPY LABEEF |
Bear Family BCD 15662 |
Larger Than Life |
● CD $132.98 |
6 CD set with 28 page booklet featuring this talented and
versatile performer. It includes his early recordings for Starday, Dixie
and other small Texas labels, all his Columbia recordings from 1965- 1965
and all his Sun recordings from 1970 to 1979. Includes more than 30
previously unissued songs or alternate takes. Booklet includes notes,
discography and rare and previously unpublished photos.
|
| SLEEPY LABEEF |
Eagle 90115 |
Let's Turn Back The Years |
● CD $18.98 |
29 tracks, 73 minutes, highly recommended
Great collection
of early and unissued Sleepy, his deep throat and droopy eyelids rockin'
up a storm throughout. The awesome Starday sides All Alone/ Lonely/ I'm
Through/ All The Time are here, as well as a selection of his
later-50's recordings for various Texas independents like Gulf and
Crescent. You'll definitely want to hear his unissued-til-now 1956 Gold
Star acetate Baby Let's Play House, probably his rawest moment, and
more unreleased stuff from '63 like Somebody's Been Beating My Time
/Tore Up /Ride On Josephine. The disc finishes up with some great live
Sleepy doing That's All Right/ Good Rockin' Boogie and an Elvis
medley. Some of these tracks can be found on the LP "Early, Rare And
Rockin' Sides" from the late 70's but is nowhere this complete. Great
vintage photos complete the package. (GDR)
|
| SLEEPY LABEEF |
Rounder 3072 |
Nothin' But The Truth |
● CD $15.98 |
Nearly an hour of rockabilly & rockin' country recorded
in Oct. '85 at Harper's Ferry, MA. I've never been a Beef fan, always
found him plodding & boring. This LP does the trick, I find myself
really boppin' to it. Back with a 5 piece band & occasional backing
vocalists, Beef tears through everything from Hank Ballard's Tore Up
Over You to Webb Pierce's How Do You Talk To A Baby , from Milk
Cow Blues to Bo Diddley's Gunslinger to Toot Toot !
Relentless rockin', reminds me of Johnny Cash on speed! Also inc. a fine
Hank Williams medley which also inc. Whole Lotta Shakin' & Folsom
Prison Blues. (GM)
|
| SLEEPY LABEEF |
Rounder 3129 |
Strange Things Happening |
● CD $15.98 |
14 tracks, 52 minutes, recommended. The beefy one is a
certified professor at the college of musical knowledge. His repertoire
encompasses virtually every genre of 50's American folk music and numbers
in the hundreds. Here, Sleepy wraps his lived-in basso profundo around a
small but ample sampling. He sings some blues - Sittin' On Top Of The
World , Muddy Waters' Young Fashioned Ways ; some C&W -
Ernest Tubb's Waltz Across Texas , Mel Tillis' Life Turned Her
That Way ; a bit of gospel - Sister Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things
Happening and much more. If at all possible Sleepy and his band (a
good one) turn the tune into a powerful rocker with masterful guitar -
just check out the trashing they give to Johnny Cash's You're My Baby
. Don't miss his live show either. It's like this CD time 10. (AE)
|
| SONNY LANDRETH |
Volcano 31032 |
Outward Bound |
● CD $12.98 |
11 tracks, 44 min., highly recommended.
Guitarist/ songwriter Sonny Landreth
led the Goners, John Hiatt's great band, and this is his wild major label
solo debut. Landreth covers a remarkable amount of ground on this
ambitious record, from straight-ahead rock to hard blues and swamp
excavations and then back again to sweet, but hard-headed pop. The songs
are direct and varied, the performances as vivid as you could hope for,
and the sonic clarity is outstanding. Landreth produced Outward Bound
with R.S. Field, whose similarly wide-ranging songwriting and production
work with Webb Wilder, John Mayall, and Billy Joe Shaver make him some
sort of a national treasure. So what are you waiting for? (Note: As soon
as they heard how great this record is, CBS started hawking a
tossed-together set of demos recorded several years ago; that collection
should be avoided.) (JG)
|
| BRENDA LEE |
Bear Family BCD 15644 |
Wiedersehn Ist Wunderschon |
● CD $21.98 |
16 early 60's numbers for the international market, with
German, Italian, French, and even a few English titles (Kansas City/
Darling Bye Bye/ No My Boy.
|
| BRENDA LEE |
Bear Family BCD 15772 |
Little Miss Dynamite |
● CD $113.98 |
Four CDs 122 tracks, essential. It took only six years for
Little Brenda Lee to mature from exuberant adolescent rocker to pre-eminent
female teen ballad singer, a process that reflected as much on her
Nashville producers Paul Cohen and his successor Owen Bradley as much as
on her own talents. This comprehensive set starts at the beginning with
the 1956 session and her muscular, edgy interpretation of Jambalaya.
through rockers One Step At A Time (a rare New York City session)
and the early hits, including Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.
From there, it's an easy jump to Dynamite to I'm Sorry, Sweet
Nothin's, Emotions and All Alone Am I, among her best
known ballads. Not all the selections are so celebrated, since obscure
numbers like the 1957 Doodle Bug Rag and the unreleased Tables
Are Turning, Funny Feelin', Just Forget, Careless,
That's All, She'll Never Know, Let Me Be The One, Sweet
Lovin', Time Is Not Enough, the pop number Zing! Went the
Strings of My Heart also appear. The sound is, as usual, outstanding
and Brenda's cooperation enhanced the entire package, particularly the 84
page hardback book. Paul Kingsbury's notes were based on Brenda's own
recent insights, as well as many photos from her personal collection and
even a complete color reproduction of her 1957 "Brenda Lee Souvenir
Album",
along with a definitive discography by Richard Weize and Don Roy. (RK)
|
| BRENDA LEE |
MCA MCAD2- 10384 |
Anthology 1956-1980 |
● CD $25.98 |
40 songs, all the big hits, on two CD's covering 1956-1980,
from her earliest days in the late fifties as "Little Brenda
Lee" through her early pop-rock sides to her early sixties pop
ballads to her 1970's and 1980's country hits. The early sides had enough
country flavor to keep those fans happy (even though most only made the
pop charts) and enough of a sassy rock and roll edge to grab the kids.
Recorded with some of Nashville's greatest pickers, "Jambalaya,"
"Bigelow 6-2000," "Dynamite" and "Sweet Nothin's"
and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" wear well over three
decades later. Early sixties material like "All Alone Am I,"
"As Usual," and later more country-flavored material like
"Nobody Wins," "Big Four Poster Bed" (all country
hits) are testimony to the durability of her music. Ironically, though
Brenda's always been a Nashville product, she never had a Top Ten country
record until 1973. The packaging is perhaps MCA's best ever, far superior
to their Country Hall of Fame Series, with a better booklet, near-
complete recording information. With Brenda's help MCA was able to get
hold of some excellent photos and memorabilia. The well-researched liner
notes by Diana Haig place Brenda's career in the right context and are
truly enjoyable reading. (RK)
|
| CURTIS LEE |
Collectables 5706 |
Pretty Little Angel Eyes |
● CD $11.98 |
17 tracks, 43 minutes, recommended
Finally collected are all
of Curtis's '60-63 Dunes sides.Ray Peterson, who had a hits with, among
others, the Phil Spector produced Corinna, Corinna, started the
Dunes label & invited Lee to record, setting him up with Phil, who
produced the title classic (co-written by Lee & Tommy Boyce), with
backing by The Halos, singers of the ethereal Nag. Phil also
produced Under The Moon Of Love (which sounded closer to Freddie
Cannon), before starting Philles Records. This has all the other Dunes
sides, including Lonely Weekends (not the Charlie Rich tune), Afraid,
& the Goffin-King tune Just Another Fool. As a bonus, there's
even an outtake of Under The Moon Of Love. Good combination of 60s
neo-doowop & teen pop. (GM)
|
| MYRON LEE & THE
CADDIES |
Collector 4439 |
Rockin' & Rollin' Out Of The Midwest |
● CD $16.98 |
21 tracks from the late 50s/ early 60s by this popular
touring band - includes unissued songs and alternate takes.
MYRON LEE: Aw C'mon Baby/ B.J. Davy/ Baby Sittin'/ Blue Lawdy Blue/ Come
Back Baby/ Everybody But Me/ Everybody's Talkin'/ Fat Man/ From Now On/
Homicide/ Honky Tonk Song/ Mary's Swingin Lamb/ Peter Rabbit/ Peter
Rabbit/ Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night/ Rock Around The Clock/ School's
Out/ Shine/ Summertime Blues/ Town Girl/ Twist Medley
|
| LENNY & THE
THUNDERTONES |
Eagle 90119 |
Lenny & The Thundertones |
● CD $18.98 |
27 tracks, 64 minutes very good.
This CD has the complete
recordings (released & unreleased) of a real journeyman band. Starting
out as The Thundertones, led by guitarist Lenny Drake, they had a bunch of
raw rockin' instrumentals for Dot & subsidiary Comma, with mostly
originals including the great opener Hot Ice, along with standards Little
Brown Jug/ Alabamy Bound & movie soundtrack tune Moon Over
Manakoora. After some internal shakeups, they became a studio band for
Astra, continuing with the instrumentals, but also having teen pop vocals,
often released under the vocalist's name, notably Bill Carnes, along with
some 50s style stuff, includes a fine tribute to Chuck Berry called Big
Berry (Boss Man Guitar), Finally there's a bunch of unreleased stuff
from the later 60s where the band takes on a flower power approach. (GM)
|
| KIM LENZ & THE
JAGUARS |
Hightone 8108 |
The One & Only |
● CD $16.98 |
Recommended. 2nd CD by that red-headed women, rockabilly
hearthrob Lenz & her trio. Produced by Big Sandy & guesting
Sandy's pianist from the Flyrite Trio, Carl Sonny Leyland, who also
contributed the track Comin' Back Strong. Half the tunes are fine
Lenz originals including Howl At The Moon/ Dancin' Me To Death
& Stick 'Em Up Honey, & fine covers of Dean Carter's If
You Don't Like My Peaches (Don't Shake My Tree), Sonny Burgess's Flame
Of Love. (GM)
|
| THE LEROI BROTHERS |
Rounder 9031 |
Crown Royale |
● CD $15.98 |
The LeRoi Brothers may still be roadhouse rock legends back
home in Austin, but nothing here rocks half as hard as, say, anything on
their feverish Lucky Lucky Me from a few years ago. The cover of
Buck Owens' Rhythm And Booze and the would-be dance sensation The
Itch are good ideas - as good as this disc gets - but the Bros. have
too much talent to be satisfied with such an average outing. (JC)
|
| KETTY LESTER |
Collectables 6289 |
Love Letters |
● CD $13.98 |
14 track collection from this sultry vocalist. Includes the
monster hit title song from 1962 plus a mix of pop, R&B with an
occasional touch of jazz and blues - Looking Fo A Boy/ Hello Lover,
Goodbye Tears/ I Want To Be Happy/ When Day Is Done/ We've Come A Long
Way/ Gotta Be This Or That/ But Not For Me, etc.
|
Back To Vintage Rock 'n' Roll Index
|
