Customer Reviews

Have 'Twangy' Guitar-Will Travel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, so maybe, as a proud native of the Grand Canyon State, I'm hopelessly biased, but this first album from Coolidge, AZ's favorite son is among my handful of all time top picks! There is a quality to Duane's early music (recorded entirely at Lee Hazelwood's Pheonix studio) that can only be fully- FULLY- appreciated by other desert-dwellers. Duane's sound is wide-open spaces, echoing canyons, and dry, clean air! It is a jeep ride through the creosote flats of the great Mojave and Sonoran wildernesses! Absolutely inimitable.

Having said this I would also like to praise the remarkable eclecticism of this first and greatest All-Instrumental Rock and Roll album. I have heard this album- at least in sections- for about 30 years now (older brother is possibly world's biggest Duane fan!) and I have only recently come to respect the range of styles represented here. Hazelwood and Eddy pulled every possible trick out of their bags in late, great '58: there is real rockabilly ("Cannonball" w/ Al Casey- Duane's truest rockabilly outside of his later "Theme From Dixie"); standard Rock and Roll ("Rebel Rouser"); proto-surf (the legendary "Movin' and Groovin'"); country-rock ("Detour"); standard country ("Anytime"); REAL- (no foolin')- BLUES ("Three-30-Blues"); Rhythm and Blues ("I Almost Lost My Mind"); just a hint of jazz stylin' ("The Lonely One"); and even a stab at what would later be called Folk Rock ("Lonesome Road"). Absolutely incredible!

So buy it, tape it, put the top down, and roll on on out!

Al

If you want to hear songs like "Rebel Rouser" and "Cannonball" as they were meant to be heard, this is the CD to buy. The vibrations of the bass string have a presence missing on other CDs containing the same songs.

I bought the album when it came out, it was great then and it's a classic today! As a budding guitarist in the fifties I learned so much from Duane Eddy! "Ramrod" was the first instrumental I played before an audience. All of my crowd loved his tunes to dance to. He had a great band to back him up, and he sold a ton of records. Other than a compilation this is his best album in my opinion! Great 50's Rock and Roll! I highly recommend it. Not a bad cut on it!!

This album should be included on every list of inluential rock and roll albums. First, all the tracks could have been hit singles. Five of them were, including "Rebel 'Rouser," THE anthem for every guy cruising the drive-ins with the car windows rolled down in the Summer of '58. Gil Bernal's wailing sax solo (unbilled) is as hot as Duane's guitar on this one. The great Plas Johnson (also unbilled) is featured on "Ramrod" and "Movin''n Groovin." Second, "Have Twangy Guitar Wiil Travel" is also possibly the first rock and roll album in stereo. And finally, it was on the charts for over two years. Even other rock and roll stars bought this one. With this album, Duane Eddy proved words were not necessary to be a rock and roll star! It's great to have a CD version on Jamie...the original label...with three "bonus tracks" from the same sessions. One of these, "Mason-Dixon Lion" is a great rave-up. It could have been a hit single on its own. If you don't have "Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel" in your music collection, your music collection isn't complete.

Although the music is great, the copy I bought cuts out in the middle of the biggest hit on the album, Movin' 'n' Groovin'. It sounds like a mastering error. Also, the packaging is atrocious. The cover is a blurry color xerox. The back has really cheesy graphics. Look for the vinyl original.

I first owned this album on a cheap label re-issue, but on playing it quickly realised that I needed to own it in its proper form. I imported this edition on the Jamie label, the label that issued the album in the first place in December 1958, with the original tapes remastered by Tom Moulton and Greg Vaughn, and am glad I did.

The dozen tracks on this, Duane Eddy's first and classic album, clocked in at 28 minutes. Five of the tracks were new, the rest had appeared on 45s and 78s during the year, and all but the first single, Moovin' 'n Groovin', had made the U.S. top thirty. They show Duane Eddy not only at his most reverberationally twangy but also showcase a dizzy array of his instrumental styles using those heavy-gauge guitar strings and the legendary $200 grain silo that Lee Hazlewood installed outside the studio in Phoenix AZ where the album was recorded to use as an echo chamber.

Duane's singles were mostly home-grown compositions, but a number of the tunes new to the album were popular at the time, having been recorded by the Collins Kids (The Lonesome Road), Ivory Joe Hunter (I Almost Lost My Mind), Spade Cooley (Detour)(this was also the B-side of The Lonely One, which came out at the same time as the album), Patsy Cline (Anytime) and of course Elvis Presley (Loving You).

During the recording period the studio had been upgraded to three-tracks enabling stereo recording, and so the six new tracks including Detour appear in stereo on this CD. The blistering sax of Steve Douglas and the whoops and hollers of the Sharps that adorn many of the tracks were overdubbed at Gold Star in Hollywood, a studio that was to learn more about reverb when one Phil Spector began to use it a few years later.

The three mono bonus tracks added to the CD are Up And Down (the B-side of Moovin' 'n Groovin'), The Walker (B-side of Ramrod) and Mason Dixon Lion (B-side of Cannonball).

I'm 63 now but remember listening to Duane Eddy 45's when I was a teenager.

I was pleased to find this CD and immediately ordered it for my collection. I have the Anthology, and a couple of other CD's by Duane.

Upon receiving the CD, I found my enthusiasm tempered by the fact that the song I most wanted has a defect!

I found Mason Dixon Lion fades out at 37 seconds and fades back in at 41 seconds. I have the original 45 where Mason Dixon Lion is the flip side of Cannonball. It does not have a drop in it.

I notified the seller who found the same defect on a couple of CD's in stock. The seller also found the same defect on Amazon. They immediately refunded my purchase.

Unfortunately, the only way to get a copy of this song is on "Have Twangy Guitar, Will Travel".

It appeared on a CD called "That Classic Twang" a few years ago but that is no longer available.

I look forward to the time when this song will be available in its entirety.

David Ray Huntley

This has to be one of the best albums ever!This was originally done on vinyl back in 1959;which is also my birth year.The album and I,are both 50 years old.The songs are fresh and cannot be dated to any time period.For an instrumental CD,it is one of the best.Duane Eddy,has always been one of music's finest guitarists,the world has ever seen.I highly reccommend this CD for all who love music,not only as a collectors item,but for great quality songs.All serious collectors however,need to locate the original album on vinyl and purchase it for their collection.I did and I am so glad I did.

This is a perfect example of 50s Rock 'n' Roll guitar. If you love the tone of Gretches, and you like horns in Rock 'n' Roll, get this album.

please delete my review. The label got in touch with me and offered to replace my defective copy, and they told me that they scrapped the entire run of defective discs.