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Dan Forte
Jack Nitzsche – Hearing Is Believing
It may have only reached number 39 on Billboard‘s Pop Singles chart in 1963, but “The Lonely Surfer” is as perfect as any 21/2 minutes in rock history. Bill Pittman’s Danelectro six-string bass enters, playing the Duane Eddy-esque melody over a medium-gallop drumbeat, supported by unwavering rhythm guitars, with a triangle marking the 3, and…
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Dan Forte
Evan Johns & The H-Bombs with Danny Gatton – Showdown At The Hoedown
One of many reunions that took place over the years, after a teenaged Evan Johns provided vocals and rhythm guitar on Danny Gatton’s legendary Redneck Jazz album in 1978. This was recorded live at Baltimore’s 8×10 club in March of ’84, just a month before Johns disbanded D.C.’s H-Bombs and joined Austin’s LeRoi Brothers, and…
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Dan Forte
Willie Nelson – The Complete Atlantic Sessions
It’s ironic that one of the terms coined to describe the music various singer/songwriters were making in Austin in the early 1970s was “progressive country” (others being “redneck rock” and the more marketable “outlaw country”). Because the brand of country that Nashville defector Willie Nelson, hippie eclectic Doug Sahm, and New York folk-rock import Jerry…
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Dan Forte
Adrian Legg
A Moment with the Fingerstyle Wizard
Adrian Legg isn’t your typical gearhead. Oh, he’s a gearhead, alright – he even authored a book entitled Customizing Your Electric Guitar. But for a self-described “guitar nerd,” he can talk endlessly and eloquently about politics or religion, classical music or poetry. And though his solo fingerstyle live shows are jaw-dropping displays of his mix…
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Dan Forte
Richie Allen And The Pacific Surfers – The Rising Surf and Surfer’s Slide
Of all the bandwagons to infiltrate rock and roll, surf music would have to rank as one of the shortest lived but most widespread. I’m not talking about Dick Dale, the Belairs, the Surfaris, and the Chantays; they were the real deal. But, since it was fairly simple guitar instrumental music, blues man Freddy King’s…
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Dan Forte
James Burton and Ralph Mooney – Corn Pickin’ And Slick Slidin’
The first domestic CD release of this pickin’ fest from 1968 is cause for celebration. This all-instrumental outing featuring two of country’s greatest stylists – Tele maestro James Burton in his post-Ricky Nelson/pre-Elvis days, and pedal-steeler Ralph Mooney in his post-Buck Owens/pre-Waylon period – resulted in a dozen varied tunes showing the pair’s individuality and…
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Dan Forte
Jefferson Airplane – The Essential Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane released eight studio albums between 1966 and ’72, then culled a live curtain call from its final tour before morphing into Jefferson Starship. Since then, there have been at least twice that many anthologies and compilations of the original band’s work. While not perfect, RCA/Legacy’s The Essential Jefferson Airplane provides a decent introduction…
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Dan Forte
The Explosives – Ka-Boom!
The Explosives were possibly the best of the punk/new wave bands that sprang up in Austin (centered around haunts like Club Foot, Raul’s, and the Continental Club), on the heels of the city’s progressive country movement and a few years behind punk pioneers like the Ramones and Sex Pistols. Formed in 1978, they were history…
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Dan Forte
Herb Ellis – Ellis In Wonderland
For his 1956 debut as a leader, jazz guitarist Herb Ellis enlisted pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown, drummer Alvin Stoller, trumpeter Sweets Edison, and saxophonists Jimmy Giuffre and Charlie Mariano. Too bad he couldn’t get any good players… like God! At the time, Ellis was a fixture in the Oscar Peterson Trio, having replaced…
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Dan Forte
Donovan – Try For The Sun: The Journey Of Donovan
Donovan Leitch rose from Dylan wannabe to the flower-power embodiment of all things peace and love. He sometimes appeared to be more a hanger-on than his own artist – the wide-eyed clone who Dylan seemed alternately amused by and dismissive of during his ’65 English tour in the documentary Don’t Look Back, one of the…
