News & Updates — rockabilly

On this day of birth for many great musicians, I have to give a nod to a personal favorite of mine, the outsider rockabilly/country wildman Hasil Adkins. A one-redneck band who could play percussion and guitar at the same time, this guy whooped it up like a punk rocker before such thing existed, with some of the most bizarre stories ever set to song. His songs talked about sex, chicken, hot dogs, aliens, his car (which he named "the Hunchin' Wagon), dealings with the law, decapitating heads, eating peanut butter on the moon and other crucial issues of his world,...

One of early rock & roll's greatest voices, Roy Orbison, was born 80 years ago today. Mixing country, rockabilly and pop with meticulous recording and deep lyrics with that amazing voice, there was only one Roy Orbison, the man who dressed in black with dyed black hair and dark sunglasses standing motionless on stage delivering the songs with otherworldliness. He toured with Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and his songs were covered by the Everly Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Glenn Campbell and others. We salute you, Lefty Wilbury.

The King of Rockabilly, Carl Perkins came from a poor sharecropper family in Tennessee. He formed a band with his brothers and played all over the region before Carl got signed to Sun Records. His tune "Blue Suede Shoes" was his huge hit and also became a hit for his friend Elvis Presley. Perkins cut a bunch of rockabilly and country tunes for Sun and Columbia and did some touring with Chuck Berry. He cut some impromptu recordings with Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis which would be released and sold as The Million Dollar Quartet. He and Cash...

A birthday shout-out to the Man In Black, Johnny Cash! He was the first "country" artist I ever respected and I always loved his baritone voice and shuffling-yet-soulful '50s tunes. The fact that he did concerts for incarcerated people, opposed the Vietnam war and included topics (and actions) in respect to indigenous culture gave him a lot of real cred, in my opinion. His music had just the right amounts of country, rockabilly, gospel, blues, folk and even mariachi and he totally OWNED that Nine Inch Nails song. There was nothing artsy about his style, just a direct approach with...

Sam Maghett aka Magic Sam! Not just the best barbecue on Chicago's West Side, but also one of my very favorite blues guitar players and singers! From his first record "All Your Love" (as Good Rockin' Sam, for the Cobra label) in 1957 until his early death in 1969 (just 32!), his rockin' sound and pleading voice was a staple on the blues circuit. Born in the Mississippi Delta into a family of sharecroppers, he built his own cigar-box guitars as a kid and when the family moved to Chicago in 1950 he had his eyes on the prize and...