I bring this up because I never see this genre of music brought up for discussion here. Over the past year or so I've been gradually building an database of mp3's of what I think are some great, classic songs but I wanted to ask the Obners if they had any additional recommendations, both new or old.

When I'm done I'll be posting the results of my efforts in The Mix column if anyone is interested.




Here's what I got so far:

Brenda Lee
Carl Perkins
Gene Vincent
Johhny Cash
Chuck Berry
Johnny Burnett
Les Paul
Wanda Jackson
Eddie Cochran
Janis Martin
Johnny and Santo
Dave Crimmen
The Sabres
The Esquires
Charlie Feathers
The Collins Kids
The Reverend Horton Heat
The Stray Cats/Brian Setzer
Southern Culture On The Skids
Pulp Fiction soundtrack selections
Cry Baby soundtrack
plus a lot of other artists I've never heard of before...



your thoughts?...

I hate modern day rockabilly, a la, The Living End. Haaaate.

Haven't heard of them. Probably a good thing though.

If you want it pure you've got a great list of rockabilly artists. But, don't forget that there is plenty of rockabilly in early rock & roll.

Buddy Holly
Elvis
Bill Haley
Jerry Lee Lewis

much more...

Steve

I love rockabilly. Nice list ya got there. I'll just add a few more that I'd personally consider essential...

Wanda Jackson - the queen of rockabilly
Mac Curtis - put out early stuff on the King/Federal labels along with Charlie Feathers
Duane Eddy - instrumental hitmaker famed for his "twangy" guitar, biggest hit Rebel Rouser

And I totally agree with tossing guys like Elvis, Jerry Lee, Buddy Holly and such in the genre. You can also find rockabilly stylings in early hits by a lot of country folks, like George Jones and others.

The modern stuff's hard to mention without knowing more specifically what you're into since things are more splintered with your traditionalists and the psychobilly types making music all rooted in rockabilly but sounding vastly different.

I like it a lot.
I just don't know that much of it.

Didn't Scruffy the Cat do some Rockabilly-type stuff?
How about Flat Duo Jets?

Are you familar with The Cramps? Twisted rockabilly, but rockabily all the same.

Steve

Vaugely familiar.
I've heard one or two songs. And the name "Lux INterior" is just one of the best stage names ever, following, of course "Pat Smear".

What ? No love for Social D? It's the band I think of when I think of Rock-a-billy. Well at least in present bands. Also check out Tiger Army

I think they're more "psychobilly" but The Legendary Shack-Shakers are a fantastic band. I have their album 'Cock-A-Doodle-Don't' and it's good but one can't appreciate them until they seem them live. Seriously the best live band I've ever seen.

Find all the guys that The Cramps covered--

Hasel Adkins
Charlie Feathers
etc.

And that's just the U.S. guys. There's a ton of Australian and New Zealanders who cranked out great nascent rock & roll at the end of the fifties.

The genre is enormous. I dig hearing a tune or two, but I can't see it as a steady diet--which makes jumping in feet first and sinking tons o' cash not attractive. This means I'd do nothing more than dabble.

It's the reason I'm not up to speed on Blues and a lot of Jazz. To do it right would mean abandonning the music I like and submerging myself in the new genre. I'm not ready to move in that direction.

From the early era you also need some Sonny Burgess - his "comeback" album from the 90s Tennessee Border was produced by Dave Alvin and the title track is awesome.

Speaking of Dave Alvin, check out some Blasters (particularly "Marie, Marie" or "So Long, Baby, Goodbye").

Also, an underrated, forgotten band from the '80s the Shakin' Pyramids (I think they were from Scotland). Find the song "Sugar Bee", which was rockabilly with an accordion as lead instrument. Great stuff.

And stay away from Robert Gordon, unless it's the Robert Gordon w/ Link Wray album Fresh Fish Special. And even then... meh.

There is a really good rockabilly band out of Athens called Rocket 350.

You can hear some of their stuff on their site www.rocket350.com

Good stuff. Complete with stand up bass and nicknames such as "Grease Monkey" and "The Admiral".

the amazing royal crowns [now just the amazing crowns, i believe, thanks to a lawsuit] arent half bad.
sun puts out some brilliant comps if you just want to get yr feet wet. most of them include the biggies like carl & wanda & such, but you might also check out people like link wray if you want to hear some amazing gtr work. there's great 2 disc set of his which i think is called 'mr guitar' which i cant recommend highly enough.

I was actually gonna those guys as well Derris.

The ex-Husbands were a good ATL band before they broke up. I'm pretty sure that theyre guitar player is doing something else but I'm not sure of the name.

Edit: apparently they were from New York; I guess that they used to just play here a bunch