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Rockabilly - Page 31

Lee Rocker

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Lee Rocker - Night Train to Memphis
Lee Rocker – Night Train to Memphis

Lee Rocker – Night Train to Memphis

Upright records [2012]
Rockabilly Boogie – Night Train To Memphis – Slap The Bass – Twenty Flight Rock – Wild Child – Honey Don’t – That’s Alright Mama-Blue Moon – Tear In My Beer – Lonesome Tears – Built For Speed – So Sad – All I Have To Do Is Dream

Covers albums usually don’t thrill me, that’s the reason why I didn’t expect much from this one. But Lee Rocker’s latest effort. was a surprinsingly good surprise. First he has the good idea to keep it short : twelve tracks like in the good old days of vinyls. Rock’n’roll albums are not supposed to be long. Then he manages to stay true to these classics and make them his own in the same time. With the help of his sister on some backing vocals, a great band (Buzz Campbell, Brophy Dale and Jimmy Sage),  innovative arrangements and an instrumation that goes beyond the drums/double bass/guitar format, like a dobro or a banjo on the Stray Cats’ Built For Speed, he gives to songs that you’ve heard a thousand times a totally new approach and manages to make them sound fresh again.
Vocally, Rocker’s is on top form and especially shines on the more country tinged tunes, like Hank Williams’ Tear In My Bear. The surprise, but that’s a good surprise, also comes from softer tunes like Buddy Holly’s Lonesome Tears and the Everly’s So Sad and All I Have to Do is Dream.
And when he rocks he takes no prisonners like on the Burnette’s Rockabilly Boogie. The sole self penned tune is Slap That Bass. As the title indicates its a slap bass driven rockabilly number with jazzy guitar licks.
There’s no mistakes, although the credits read Lee Rocker on just one track, this album is 100% his own.

Lee Rocker - Hot'n'Greasy Vol.1
Lee Rocker – Hot’n’Greasy Vol.1

Lee Rocker – Hot’n’Greasy Rockabilly Vol.1

[2012]
Rebel – Crazy When She Drinks – Black Cat Bone – Say When – Texarkana To Panama City – . Stray Cat Strut – I’ll Cry Instead – One More Shot – Blue Suede Night

A collection of live songs recorded at concerts and radio broadcast . The sound is very good, the performance perfect and the setlist perfect with songs taken from Bulletproof, Black Cat Bone and Racin the Devil and a cover of Stray Cats Strut. Nice addition to your collection. According to Rocker there’ll be two more volume released in the forthcoming months.

Kee Rocker - Cat Tracks
Kee Rocker – Cat Tracks

Lee Rocker – Cat Tracks

Stray Cat Strut, Rock This Town, Runaway Boys, Sexy & 17  [2012]
Digital only

The title says it all. Four of the best and most successful Stray Cats songs re-recorded by Lee Rocker and his band. They perfectly manage to recreate the sound of the Stray Cats early albums. I don’t know if Rocker plans to record more Stray Cats songs in the future but being a far better singer today than he was at the time,  it’d be good to hear him re-cut “She’ll Stay Just One More Day” and “Drink That Bottle Down” .

Fred “Virgil” Turgis


Lew Phillips

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Lew Phillips - s/t
Lew Phillips – s/t

Lew Phillips – s/t

Rhythm Bomb – RBR 5782
Fallin’ In Love Is Easy – Marie-Lou -Laurie-Anne -Be My Baby – Tell Me Why – In The Night -Your Love -Hey Baby -My Little Woman -You’re The One -On My Way -Love Makes Me Feel Blue -What Have You Done -Rock With Me Baby -Mister Colter

Lew Phillips is a young rocker from Canada. After one ep and one single on Wild Records, Rhythm Bomb presents his debut album with 15 self-penned songs. Beside singing lead, Phillips also plays lead and acoustic guitar. The other musicians are Dominic Simard and Eddy Blake Eaton on bass and Michel Dagenais (Howlin’ Hound Dogs) who plays drums, bass, piano, organ. He is also credited for producing, recording and mixing the record.
Phillips has a good voice and obviously Buddy Holly had a major influence on his musical development (and probably still have). One can find and hear the same inflections and hiccups in his voice. The songs are in adequation with the voice and often sound like some Holly’s long lost recordings. Other influences that can be heard are Ritchie Valens, notably on the ballad Laurie Anne and a bit of Little Richard on Rock With Me Baby. Dagenais’s production is perfect and give to the LP a true and real 50’s sound.
Despite the fact that some of the orginals sounds VERY much like Buddy Holly  (Tell Me Why that is quite close to Tell Me How and In The Night being just a mix between Take Your Time and Well All Right) it’s a very good album. Good to hear new artists like Phillips or his label mate Ricky Fabian, who concentrate on the melodies.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Pat Cupp – Long Gone Daddy – Complete 50’s recordings

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patcuppmusic_smallEl Toro Records ETCD1019
That Girl of Mine (demo) – I Guess It’s Mean That Way (demo) – Baby Come Back (demo) – Do Me No Wrong (RPM 461) – Baby Come Back (RPM 461) – Long Gone Daddy (RPM 473) – To Be The One (RPM 473) – Long Gone Daddy (Crown CLP 5364) – Do Me No Wrong (Crown CLP 5364) – Baby Come Back (Crown CLP 5364) – That Girl of Mine (Crown CLP 5364) – I Guess It’s Meant That Way (Crown CLP 5364) – Baby Come Back (Rollin’ Rock 45-002) – Do Me No Wrong (Rollin’ Rock 45-002) – Long Gone Daddy (Rollin’ Rock 45-003) – That Girl of Mine (Rollin’ Rock 45-003) – I Guess It’s Meant That Way (Rollin’ Rock 45-009) – I Won’t Remember To Cry (Rollin’ Rock 45-009)

Pat Cupp’s fifties recordings stand as some of the finest rockabilly ever made. His legacy may be modest in term of quantity (18 cuts for only 7 different songs) but the quality equals the likes of Carl Perkins and Mac Curtis (to name two that pop in my mind). Songs 1 to 3 are demos recorded at the Onyx studio in Memphis in January 1956 to get interest from Sam Phillips. Had he only recorded these demos, his place in the rockabilly pantheon would have been assured.  Powerfull rhythmic, hiccupy voice, mean guitar… all the ingredients are here to satisfy the most exigeant rockabilly fan. But more was to come. Cupp and his band (the Flying Saucers) secured a contract with Joe Bihari from Modern Records. The result is the session of May 13 1956 that saw the release of two singles, RPM 461 (Do Me No Wrong/Baby Come Back) and RPM 473 (Long Gone Daddy/To Be The One). The fact that Modern/RPM was more R & B oriented shows on this recording. A tamer rock’n’roll sound was favored, like the sax version of  “Long Gone Daddy”  (recorded with session musicians) or “To be The One“, written by Pat’s sister Ruth,  with doo woop backing vocals. Despite the high quality of these recording, the true genius of Pat cupp lies in his rejected blistering rockabilly version of this songs recorded that same day (10 in total). They later resurfaced on Crown and another batch in the 70’s on Rollin’ rock. I guess I’ll soon run out of superlative, but if someone asked me what rockabilly is, Pat Cupp’s complete 50’s recording would be one of the records I’d play to help him understand.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Sidewynders (the)

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the Sidewynders - let's go sparkin' with...
the Sidewynders – let’s go sparkin’ with…

The Sidewynders – Let’s Go Sparkin’ With…

Rhythm Bomb – RBR5788 – 2014
Lyin’ Baby – Heart In A Daze – Salty Dog Blues – Fancy Free – No Shame – Knock On Wood – Mad At You – Dry Run – Closer & Closer – Every Girl’s Heart – The Blues Don’t Care – She’s Got It Made – She’s Alright With Me

Rhythm Bomb launched its Los Angeles branch with two releases that will be hard to top: the Frantic Rockers and this album, Let’s Go Sparkin’ with the Sidewynders.
The line-up remained unchanged since their debut album except for the addition of Brian “Shorty” Poole of Dave’n’Deke Combo fame on steel and double bass. The band rips through a 13-song-half-an-hour set of mostly originals ranging from Sun inspired Rockabilly to hillbilly bop with fine harmonies and a bit of western swing in between with superb interplay between Ramon Espinoza on guitar and Poole on steel. Cervantes sings with his heart (and a bit of his guts too)  while Carlos Velazquez provides a solid beat but not too heavy.  Danny Angulo (Rip Carson, Omar) guest on three tracks on second and baritone guitar.
Perfectly recorded by Poole and Wally Hersom for two songs it’s a killer from start to finish!

Fred ‘Virgil’ Turgis

The Speedos

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the Speedos - It's Only Rock'n'roll
the Speedos – It’s Only Rock’n’roll

The Speedos – It’s Only Rock’n’Roll

PART 647.001 [2010]
Ghostriders ~ Believe me ~ Remember then ~ From the bottom of my heart ~ Sandy ~ You’re driving me crazy ~ Cotton fields ~ I’m not a juvenile delinquent ~ A Zippe Di Zoom ~ Fly me to the moon ~ Come go with me ~ Lovely night ~ Rag Mop ~ I just want to know ~ Sh’Boom ~ West Virginia (Country Roads) ~ The Diary

Part has the good idea to reissue the Speedos catalog. First released in 1989, It’s Only Rock’n’roll was until this reissue only available on vinyl and I suppose long out of print.
This quartet could be described as the German cousins of the British Keytones.
They play doo-wop harmonies with a bit of jive on a rockabilly background. There’s even some hillbilly with their uptempo cover of Cotton Fields.
Like numerous debut album, it’s not flawless, but the few minor imperfections are well compensated by the freshness of their approach.
The repertoire goes from Frankie Lymon (I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent) to the Del-Vikings (Come Go With Me) or Frank Sinatra (Fly Me To The Moon) with a couple of originals too written by lead singer/guitarist Olaf Prinz. On a couple of songs the line-up (guitar / doublebass / drums / saxophone) is augmented by Götz Alsmann on piano for a fuller sound.
As an added bonus,the band’s debut ep from 1987 – featuring a self penned song (I Just Want To Know) and three covers: Sh-Boom, John Denver’s Take Me Home Country Roads and a rockabilly-doo-wop rendition of Neil Sedaka’s The Diary – is included. Recommended.

 

the Speedos - A Dreamin' Life
the Speedos – A Dreamin’ Life

The Speedos – A Dreamin’ Life

King Hat [1992] – reissue Part [2010]
I call it bop – Duke of earl – Jungle book – I adore you – Quiet whiskey – Believe me – A dreamin´life – Dance town – Caledonia – Blackboard jungle – Forever – Hey you

A Dreamin’ Life is the band’s second album, and to get to the point, their best. It takes more or less the same ingredients than their debut but both the sound and the band are better.
It kicks off with “I Call It Bop” that wouldn’t be out of place on the Stargazers’ debut album. Next is the accapella doo-wop “Duke Of Earl” with top vocals and harmonies. They also do great justice to Louis Prima’s Jungle Book. “I Adore You” is a sweet ballad with a bluesy edge. The pace changes with Wynonie Harris’ Quiet Whiskey, a solid jiver also treated in a Stargazers style. Believe Me features Gotz Allssman and is a re-recording of a song from their first album in a more accomplished version. The title track is a soft rockabilly. “Caldonia” is the sole weak point of the album, but it’s quickly forgotten with Blackboard Jungle a great rock’n’roll. “Forever” is another great moment in the Keytones style while Hey You concludes the album on an uptempo note.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

speedos
The Speedos – Olaf Prinz, Bernd Eltze, Volker Naves & Frank Johland

Pat Capocci

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Pat Capocci

Pat Capocci
Pat Capocci

Pat Capocci is nothing else than one of the best thing to happen to modern rockabilly in the recent years. “Modern” is probably not the right word to describe the sound of this rockin’ cat. He sounds as if he came right from the fifties wether he plays rockabilly, blues, hillbilly bop.
And most of all this guy has the whole package that would make more than one envious: he has the look, the songs, the sound, the voice and he’s more than able when it comes to deliver a hot (or a smooth) guitar solo.
All this reasons made that Capocci arrived on the top list of the guys we wanted to interview.

by Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Can you introduce yourself?
Pat Capocci: Hi my name is Pat Capocci, Im a guitarist/singer from Australia.
I’ve grown up my whole life in the Maitland/Newcastle area,kinda in between the country and the coast,but now I’m unfortunatly living in Sydney,its great for gigs as there’s so much more on but it’s so fast, busy and has no soul compared to home

In the liner notes of Steppin’ Out you’re writing that your Dad took you to gigs when you were young. What kind of importance did he have in your discover of rockin’ music?
Pat Capocci: Dad and mum have always been really suportive of anything I do musically, when I was a teenager and into punk rock he kinda pointed me towards the bands I should listen to and then when I started getting into the rockin scene he took to me to see bands in pubs (mainly blues bands) when I was underage,he had a great vinyl collection of early Chicago blues and I guess thats really were the obsesion started to grow
One thing he always made sure was that I remained open minded about all music styles, listen to it and learn something from it rather than just critisize it push it aside,and I guess that’s still with me today and reflects in my influences and my playing

What kind of stuff did you start with? I mean, did you start by listening to modern bands then move backward or did the pioneers led you to the current scene?
Pat Capocci: I gues as far as Rockin/Roots music concerned I’ve always mixed it up, I started with Carl Perkins, Merle Travis, Deke Dickerson, Bob Wills, Little Walter, Hank Williams, Jimmie Rogers (Chicago one), Joe Maphis, Johnny Guitar Watson, Charlie Christian, Jimmie Vaughn and Big Sandy,the list goes on but I guess these fellas are the main guys I lernt/stole from!haha

When did you pick up the guitar? Were you influenced by a guitar slinger in particular?
Pat Capocci: I would have been around 6/7 I think? Dad played a bit and there was always one lying around the house, I was a very curious kid,I had to know what was goin on! haha
But round that age it was pretty much dad picking his folk blues tunes that got me exited.
From 16 on Dave Biller, Junior Watson, TK Smith, Jimmie Vaughn, Kid Ramos and Dangerous Dan were my go to guys

Tell us about your early experiences… What were the first bands you’ve played with?
Pat Capocci: My first serious atempt playing in bands was in high school, I was around 13ish,we had a 1977 inspired punk band,we did a heap of buzzcocks,the clash,the vibrators,all the good English stuff,I was still listening to dads records during this time but
It would have been two years after when I met Ezra Lee,he was 13 and I was 15,we’d seen each other round Mailtland and I managed to track his number down,I called him up and we were jamin the nxt day and pretty indeprable for the next few years after
Ezzys dad played bass in a local legendary band Johnny Greens Blues Cowboys,we were at every gig that was close by and always got asked up to do a few tunes,thinkin back I dont know how good we would have sounded,two young fellas thinkin they know everything about playing a shuffle!haha
That band and the pub we grew up in (The Grand Junction Hotel) gave us good music and life education.
My first real fultime band I joined up with when i was 16 were called The Torpedos,dad took me to see em one Saturday night,the next week I tried out for the guitar spot and that Saturday was my first gig!
They played everything,Rockabilly,Jump Blues,Hillbilly Bop,Blues,Country,Swamp Pop,Jazz,pretty much all the great styles in roots music,we played everywere,pubs,clubs,partys,on the street,wedings pretty much anywere that would have us,it was a good grounding to learn alot of styles at a young age because your brains like a little sponge soaking it all up
I was with the Torpedos for about two years,and they were a good two years,i met heaps of great players,traveled a bit,learned alot about music,the busniess side of it,life,it was good times
Before I went out on my own i tried to set a goal of being able to Travis pick and sing at the same time,I kinda had a direction I wanted to go in and figured if I couldn’t do that I’d be up the creek without a paddle!
That was when I was 18/19 and amongst all the other bands I’m in the solo line up is still the main band we regularly play with

Your debut album “Steppin’ Out” shows a wide variety of rockin’ style with hard hitting rockabilly, Sun sounding Rockabilly, western swing/hillbilly bop influenced stuff, honky tonk… Is this something you deliberately did, as some kind of “visiting card”?
Pat Capocci: That’s a good way to put it Fred!yer exactly,that was pretty much the idea,and that we were big fans of “The Graeme Thomas” sound,we weren’t sure if we’d ever get a chance to record there again,and Graeme is a master of all styles so we set out to try everything


Recording Press Tone Rockabilly 4 with Rusty Pinto

One very good thing on that album is that you penned your own songs.
Was it important for you to release your own material?
Pat Capocci: Defantly Fred,it’s something that Dingo (Presstone Label Owner) has always pushed us to do,his reasoning was that why re record something that’s been done to death by other bands,try and create something new and exiting
Everyone we’ve really dug has written there own stuff so it was just a natural progresion to do the same I think

I remember discovering Preston records in the 80’s with the compilation album “Aussiebilly” on Nervous Records and it was quite a shock especially at a period when most band were more neo-rockabilly sounding.
How do you feel about being associated to such a legendary label/studio?
Pat Capocci: Aussiebillys a great comp! It was defanatly a dream come true to record at Preston,all our favorite Aussie bands made there recordings there, I still remember the first song we ever recorded there and hearing it playback the first time,it was nuts,a very sureal experience!
Graeme Thomas is a genius when it comes to nailing a sound,his music and studio knowlege is spot on!
And now Dingos taken the next step by rely pushing the label into the international market

Preston Rockabilly vol.2, saw you playing guitar for Ezra Lee and Danny & the Cosmic Tremors – both great – in addition to your own songs. How do you approach the fact of playing for other singers. Do you try to vary sounds or use different “tricks”?
Pat Capocci: I think it’s always important when playing with anyone to be a team player,fit in with what’s already goin on,listen to what’s happening and play accordingly
I have my own opinions as to how the guitar should sound for certin styles and usually stick with that unless the singer wants something different,but as for tricks,I think having your chops down in a lot of different styles is key,that way you have unlimited options at the ready

What other bands do you play with?
Pat Capocci: At the moment there’s a few i’m in,there’s my band,Danny And The Cosmic Tremmors,Twilight Rythem Boys,Rusty Pinto Combo,Kieron McDonald,Scotty Baker and a new two piece western swing/rnb/country/Jazz outfit we’ve been doin called Two Timmin Playboys,and that’s been alot of fun!!

Talking about guitar, you cite the great TK Smith as one of your favorite player. I believe that you met him at this year’s Rockabilly Rave. I can suppose that your discussion centered around guitars…
Pat Capocci: I did meet TK which was great, i also got a lesson of him,and that’s opened up a whole new world just from that 1hr lesson
We did talk a bit about guitars also a bit about surfboards,alot people wouldn’t know but he shaped a heap of boards for his label in the 90s,I’ve surfed my whole life and were both into early/mid 60s designs,he’s a true craftsman in every sence of the word

Was this Rave your first time in Europe ? How were the reactions?
Pat Capocci: No,we came over for Screamin in Spain last year,that was our very first time in Europe,I think we went down well at the Rave?we sold most of the merch we brought over,and got some nice comments of the folks,we defantly had a good time,it’s was sad having to leave and come back home to reality!haha

“Delinquent Beat”, your second long play, is slightly heavier in term of sound. One can definitely hear the influences of James Burton and Roy Buchanan when both of them played for Dale Hawkins and there’s even a bit of Deke Dickerson on the guitar too…
Pat Capocci: Yer defantly,the plan was rather than try and cover all bases like “Stepping Out” have a more uniformed style and stick with it the whole record,and the fellas you mentioned defantly influenced that

We’ve talked guitar, but what about the singers and the songwriters you like?
Pat Capocci: I do talk about guitar a bit to much!haha,for modern singer/songwriters I really dig Charlie Thompson, Don Cavali, Joey Simone, Rusty Pinto, Lynette Morgan, Charlie Hightone, The Horton Bros, Sage Guyton and Axel Praefcke and the out of originals I dig Merle Travis, Willie Dixon, Gene O Quinn, Jimmie Rogers, Carl Perkins…the list goes on!haha

Recently you were featured in Marie-Claire. A word about that? Is Rockabilly in Australia that big ?
Pat Capocci: A friend of ours contacted us to see if we’d be interested in doin a photo shoot with the magazine,they were doin a fashion shoot that had absolutely nothing to do with the Rockin scene but wanted central figures from the local scene,strange?but we figured why not,let’s see what the trendy kids are up to.
I think the “look” has defantly become very popular in the trendy circles in Sydney,it’s good in the way that the “look” might turn these folks who wouldn’t usually know anything about the scene onto the music/culture,an it’s been great for me because all the Levis/Lee outlets in town have had heaps of sales and I’ve scored big time!haha
Rockabilly in Australia is no were as big as it is in Europe,however there’s some great crossovers with all the underground cultures comin to the gigs latley

What are your projects ? What are you working on at the moment?
Pat Capocci: At the moment I’m trying to put in at least 3/4 hrs of practice a day,I do the band stuff were playin that week for about 1hr and try to put the other time towards scales and improvising
As far as recording goes,were gunna do a new Lp with Rusty Pinto in December and we’ll be doin a new 45 at that time aswell
There’s some plans to do some recording in states but I don’t want to say anything yet as it’s not %100 locked in and I don’t want to jinx myself!haha
Other than that were starting to plan another European tour for around July/Aug,and we can’t wait!

One last word you’d like to add…
Pat Capocci: Were really looking foward to coming back to Europe,we had such a great time this year,if anyone out there wants us for a club/pub/festival/weding/funeral we’d love to play!haha

We also keep our website updated with new photos,news and merchandise at www.patcapocci.com.au

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