[Harp-L] Sun Records and the Rockabilly Harp



Hey Jimmy,
 
I can offer a little insight on this.  Seeing as my playing harp doesn't pay the mortgage here in in New York I keep a day job at Thirteen/WNET New York.  This is where the PBS series AMERICAN MASTERS originates and I'm pretty sure it was the episode GOOD ROCKIN TONIGHT that you saw.  Long story short, I'm killing time with Sam Phillips at the LA press tour and so I say to Sam "hey, just in case you aren't aware of this you should know that Jimmy and Walter's EASY is considered by 50 years worth of harmonica players to be perhaps the ultimate amplified harp recording - it's a landmark ".  Well Sam just bubbles up with that southern Baptist enthusiasm and on a dime spins around and insists that the filmmaker come over and hear this testimonial himself.  Sam went on about Shakey Horton's tone and feel...he was a real fan.
 
I asked him why he recoded less harp after Sun found Elvis.  He explained that when the label started to record less black music and more rockabilly that bands would be more likely to bring in a sax or electric guitar, partly to differentiate themselves from the blues bands or hillbilly bands.  Makes sense.  He did remind me of the notable exception of Billy Lee Riley.  Later that day I played the film's showcase with Sonny Burgess, D.J. Fontana and Cowboy Jack Clement with Sam officiating and Dave Alvin sitting in.  What fun!
 
Trip Henderson ~ NYC
 
 
Message: 10
Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 14:38:14 -0500
From: rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] rockabilly harp
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <20050804143814.6d3gspwojgo4g40k@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=ISO-8859-1

Saw a great documentary of Sun Records. Seems a shame though. Once Sun really
started with rockabilly, all those great bands, great singers, good rock and
roll, all of it crying for harmonica.

There were plenty of harp players in Memphis. Sun Records knew how to record it.
Why no rockabilly harp? Bo Didley had tons of harp on his stuff.

Rainbow Jimmy


 





This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.