Well, it’s been forever. I know. I’m sorry. How’s the family?

Honestly I haven’t had much to blog about on the audio side of things… I’ve been way too busy doing things like getting married… working overtime, painting, sleeping, putting up Christmas decorations, and otherwise being as absolutely boring as possible. It’s been smashing! I’m really ready for a nice 14 day vacation, but alas, there will be no such thing in 2009. Next year, maybe… just maybe, heck maybe we’ll even get a honeymoon. But not any time soon. After all, there “Ain’t no rest for the wicked” as they (Cage the Elephant) say. By the way, that is music you should buy… Plus, they’re our neighbors from the North (Kentucky, that is… not Canada).

What have I been doing lately, audio-wise? Well let’s see…. I’ve transferred tons of tapes for Sun Records & some Bear Family releases. I restored & remastered some very old Oak Ridge Boys material for a 3 disc release through Cracker Barrel. I prepared masters for the new Johnny Cash 3 disc Cracker Barrel exclusive… I’ve completely ignored my blogging responsibilities… I developed a custom database and digital distribution platform for the Sun Records catalog. I’ve started a modest web-hosting company… I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a digital-only record label but then I realize that I would probably want to press vinyl for every release (how’s that for a crazy?) More on that later… possibly.

I’m starting to feel musically constipated… like I need to take a big creative poo. Maybe I’ll let you look at it when I’m done.

Oh yeah, this was supposed to be my 2009 list of Music You Should Buy… Here you go:

1. Paramore – brand new eyes
2. The Glen Miller Orchestra – Glenn Miller Orchestra (2 CD Set)
3. Louis Jordan – At The Swing Cat’s Ball
4. JET – Shaka Rock
5. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
6. Matthew Perryman Jones – Swallow The Sea
7. Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs

What’s on your list?

James

Randy & The Radiants

Ace Records recently released Randy & The Radiants – Memphis Beat. Alec Palao, the driving force behind this release, stopped by Sun Records last summer and we dug through all the old tapes to find every last recording of the Radiants. The resulting release is an excellent glimpse into Sun Records post Elvis, Johnny, Roy, and Jerry. In short, the Radiants were Sam’s answer to the Beatles. The included photos and 15-page insert really fill this package out nicely. Excellent all around!

In 1964, when the British Invasion reared its ugly – to the established American record biz – head, Memphis’ original pathfinding rock’n’roll imprint, Sun Records, was in its twilight years. Sam Phillips was never a follower of trends, but when his son Knox presented a fine example of the local grass roots reaction to the British in the shape of the Radiants, Phillips acknowledged their talent, and signed the enthusiastic youngsters to Sun. Their two singles on the iconic yellow label now count as the highlights of its latterday catalogue.

True to the diffuse nature of its musical heritage, Memphis had an interesting and unpredictable take on what the Beatles and their ilk inspired. Randy & The Radiants are an excellent example of this, and most likely the earliest: slightly derivative perhaps, but certainly inspired in content. Though the garage rock crowd know the band’s name for the crunchy chording of My Way Of Thinking, the considerable cache of Sun sessions from 1964 and 1966, the best of which are included upon “Memphis Beat”, reveal the Radiants as several fret-notches above the average teenage combo of the time.

There is the expected quotient of frat-band raunch and Anglicised rockabilly – while it is fascinating to hear the band cover older Sun copyrights such as Boppin’ The Blues– but the true gems in the Radiants canon are guitarist Bob Simon’s contemplative originals, with their own mature blend of harmony and soul, akin to that of the best British beat like the Searchers. The searing, irresistible Truth From My Eyes would have made a great mid-period Hollies single, and tunes like To Seek And Then Find, Nobody Walks Out On Me or I Won’t Ask Why are so effortlessly Mersey in execution, it’s easy to forget the grandaddy of rockabilly is behind the mixing desk. Add the warm, authoritative rasp of Randy Haspel, Memphis’ answer to Allan Clarke, and one can understand Sun’s excitement in having found a local and commercially-potent interpretation of the British beat.

As Haspel relates in a fascinating memoir included in the booklet to MEMPHIS BEAT, the tremendous promise of the Radiants was cut short just as they were hitting their stride, largely due to events beyond their control. But any group should be proud of what Randy & The Radiants accomplished in what was a relatively brief time together. That Knox and Sam Phillips helped them to their moment in the sun (pun intended) is the icing on the cake.

By Alec Palao

Another awesome release from Bear Family Records (and I’m not saying that just because I worked on it). This album ranks pretty high in my iTunes play-count list. Pick up a copy and give it a spin.

CD with 48-page booklet, 35 tracks, playing time: 82 mns. – A ten-year retrospective of one of the unsung Sun Records heroes! Previously unissued Sun recordings! He was there at the beginning… watching Elvis in Mississippi in 1955… and he’s still wowing crowds at revival shows! This collection covers Hayden Thompson’s first decade of recording: Here are both sides of all five singles issued between 1954 and 1962… all of them fabulously rare, along with most of the songs unissued at the time, plus eight previously unissued versions of the much-admired and much-emulated classic rockabilly sides Hayden cut at Sun in 1956 and ’57.

Death Cab for Cutie

Man, I’m really loving this new Death Cab album. I’ve only been listenting to them for about the past year, but loving every minute of it. Seriously. Go get you some.

“I Will Possess Your Heart” is the single that they’ve been pushing, and it’s great, but if you’re going to just grab a few tracks, get the next two on the album instead… “No Sunlight” and “Cath”. There are some really cool breaks in “Cath”. Totally cool.

Currently Listening to: No Sunlight

Bear Family Records just released the Johnny Cash box set that I worked on recently. It’s a 3CD box set that includes ALL of the Out-Takes and alternate versions of Cash from the Sun Record Company vault. I can say that with authority, because I personally took out each tape and threaded them onto the tape machine. Transfers were made at 88.2Khz through Apogee converters for all you audio nerds out there.

This is, without a doubt, the best Johnny Cash alt-takes collection ever assembled. It’s literally like you’re a fly on the wall inside the Memphis Recording Service. You can hear Sam Phillips come into the room and give them pointers on how to approach the songs.

Bear Family Records is proud to present the most eagerly awaited entry in its series of Studio ‘Outtakes’ releases that includes the Everly Brothers and Janis Martin. The CD-set provides an unprecedented collection of every known alternative take recorded by Johnny Cash at Sun Records, including previously unissued alternative takes. This set offers the dedicated Johnny Cash fan and collector an opportunity to hear subtle differences between takes as each song developed in the studio. Material is presented in chronological order for easy reference and comparison with master recordings and focuses on the first four years (1955-1958) of Johnny Cash’s career, widely acknowledged as his peak period of youthful creativity. The package includes a lavishly illustrated booklet containing rare and previously unpublished photos of his fishing trip with Johnny Horton, as well as original session notes.

Bear Family recently released “Hank Ballard – Nothing But Good”. It’s a 5 CD box set that includes an 84-page album size book. As usual, The Bear really outdid themselves in terms of quality & quantity. I transferred & mixed some of the original 2 & 3-track tapes for this release. Classic R&B and funk never sounded so good! My album credit on this project is printed in huge letters on the back, gotta love that.

Hank Ballard and The Midnighters were the first professional vocal group young James Brown ever witnessed in person. He vowed one day soon he’d be onstage doing the very same thing. Our retrospective contains everything the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer and his vocal group cut for the Federal and King labels from 1954 to 1962! Five jam-packed discs include unissued gems, alternate takes, unreissued rarities, and a demo version of ‘The Twist’ as well as the classic hit! It’s also featuring all the original hit versions, and comes with comprehensive liner notes from Bill Dahl! – Long before The Temptations, Four Tops, and Spinners made Detroit ground zero for soulful male vocal groups, the city spawned Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, the Motor City’s first nationally successful R&B group. Though Hank could belt the blues with livewire intensity (and does here), Ballard’s group was primarily concerned with rocking the house. They were one of the first vocal groups to record with their own band, initially led by blistering Houston guitarist Cal Green, whose solos are frequently mind-boggling. – Never has the recorded legacy of the late Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer been treated with such loving care and respect, and never have he and his group sounded better!

The Jesters

This is yet another great release by Ace Records, and again curtsy of Alec Palao.

It’s remarkable to ponder the fact that, as thoroughly as the vaults of the legendary Sun Records have been mined over the forty years since Sam Phillips shut up shop in 1967, some of the best rock’n’roll the label produced has remained hidden until now. I speak of course of the incredible Jesters, and the small but incendiary collection of recordings they made at Sun in 1965. True, a few bits and pieces have snuck out over the years, but always with the implication that, aside from their wellregarded 1966 single ‘Cadillac Man’, the rest of the band’s material was substandard British Invasion-influenced fare.

A quick listen to the hair-raising contents of “Cadillac Men” will show just how blindingly wrong that idea is. This is some of the most cathartic and crazed 60s rock I have ever come across, comparable to Dean Carter or the Sonics in its sheer power and fury. As the Sun historians know, playing guitar for the Jesters was Sam’s son Jerry, along with a quixotic individual by the name of Teddy Paige, whose leads are the proverbial headless chicken of rockabilly yore, hot-rodded with a corrosive blues edge. Add to that a pumping rhythm section and the soulful bawling of lead singer Tommy Minga, and there can be no doubt that the Jesters stand up there with Billy Lee Riley or Sonny Burgess as great Sun rockers; the true garage analogue to the wildmen of Sun Records’ 50s heyday.

“Cadillac Men” contains everything the Jesters recorded for Sun, produced by Knox Phillips, with Sam no doubt smiling approvingly over his son’s shoulder. We have also added four essential tracks by Minga’s subsequent combo the Escapades. ‘I Tell No Lies’ and ‘Mad Mad Mad’ are acknowledged Memphis garage classics, and are presented here for the first time legitimately licensed and in great sound quality.

The Jesters

And if the sounds weren’t enough, the combo’s brief history, as revealed in the lengthy liners, is even stranger than fiction, encompassing as it does Memphis maverick Jim Dickinson, a future medieval knight, and The World’s Most Perfectly Formed Midget Wrestler. It’s been mentioned to me on more than one occasion that with a story like the Jesters’, you don’t actually need any music to be entertained, but believe me, you’ll be as excited as I was upon discovering the incandescent magic of this amazing combo.

By Alec Palao