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A Tribute To Gene Vincent - RABHOF CD121

DICKIE HARRELL & FRIENDS

Git It – Billy Swan & Tracy Nelson / Be Bop A Lula – Narvel Felts / Say Mama – Rosie Flores / High On Life – Roman Self / Lotta Lovin’ – Billy Swan / Dance To The Bop – Narvel Felts / Baby Blue – Tracy Nelson / Right Now – Billy Swan / Over The Rainbow – Roman Self / She She Little Sheila – Larry Merritt

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The walls of Sun Studio in Memphis Tennessee have seen it all, from poor black blues singers in the early fifties, like Howlin’ Wolf and Little Milton, to recording sessions by Rock’s millionaires in the nineties. It was here Elvis Presley got the opportunity to record his first records, which opened up the door for a crowd of young raw talent. Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, Sonny Burgess, Billy Lee Riley, Ed Bruce, Conway Twitty, Narvel Felts, the list goes on and on, but they all recorded their first records for Sam Phillips at Sun Studio.

In December 2004 the studio saw a different group of people enter it’s doors when Rockabilly Hall of Fame curator Bob Timmers organized a recording session to pay tribute to his long time idol Gene Vincent. Joining Bob were legendary Blue Caps drummer Dickie Harrell, the “I can Help” man himself Billy Swan, Narvel “The Marvel” Felts, rockabilly filly Rosie Flores, roots music diva Tracy Nelson and Roman Self, son of famous songwriter and Rock & Roll wild man Ronnie Self. Add some good old Memphis session musicians and give them eight songs popularized by Gene Vincent and you have a tribute that hardly can go wrong.

Billy Swan has been recording at Sun Studio since the mid-nineties and just like he wrapped a CD full of Elvis songs in new arrangements (“Like Elvis Used To Do”), he gives “Git It” a very interesting duet treatment. Gene Vincent recorded the song in 1958 with Tommy Facenda, Paul Peek and Eddie Cochran on backup vocals. Billy Swan reworked the original into a great duet with Tracy Nelson. On his other contributions, “Lotta Lovin’” and “Right Now”, Billy sticks to the original Rock & Roll arrangements while a hot piano and Dickie Harrell’s solid work on the skins recreate the feel of the original recordings. Tracy Nelson’s solo contribution is a hot bluesy version of “Baby Blue”, a Gene Vincent composition from the movie “Hot Rod Gang”.

Narvel Felts has been a Gene Vincent fan ever since he appeared with Gene & His Blue Caps back in the fifties. Most recently he included a great version of “Lotta Lovin’” on his "Super Songs Narvelized"CD.Listening to “Be Bop A Lula” and “Dance To The Bop” I can only wish for a whole CD by Narvel doing Gene Vincent songs. He certainly has the voice to pull off the wide range of music that is part of Gene Vincent's legacy.

Somebody once called “Say Mama”, a song written by Blue Cap Johnny Meeks, the most perfect rock and roll record of all time. A bit too strong of a statement in my opinion but Rosie Flores does a nice job including a fine guitar break.

Roman Self’s contribution comes in the form of “High On Life”, a song written by his dad Ronnie that was released on Gene’s 1970 “The Day The World Turned Blue” album. Roman’s interpretation of the song is much closer to his dad’s original then to Gene’s version, which suffered from a producer trying to incorporate the musical sounds of the early seventies. This is the type of material country radio refuses to play, which means old style country music fans will love it.

The CD closes with two tracks recorded at Burns Station Sound without Dickie Harrell. “Over The Rainbow”, a standard that Gene recorded back in 1958, and “She She Little Sheila”, a song written by rockabilly legend Whitey Pullen and Jerry Merritt, a guitar player who Gene met at the end of 1958 after the Blue Caps as a working unit had disbanded. Performing the song, and sticking close to Gene’s original version, is Jerry’s son Larry.

On the negative side I have to mention the low number of tracks and the fact that none of the session musicians receive credit. Both items are most likely due to the small budget of this very worthwhile project. Neither should keep Gene Vincent fans or Fifties music fans, from purchasing this excellent CD.

The CD is available from the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.