"Session Guitar Star" by REGGIE YOUNG [Various Artists] (January 2019 Ace Records CD Compilation - Duncan Cowell Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

Featuring "Stranger in My Own Home Town" by ELVIS PRESLEY
From his 1970 Album "Back In Memphis" on RCA Victor Records 

"...Meet Me In Church..."

Despite there being about 3 or 4 clunkers on this CD compilation (in my not-so-humble opinion) - the others are all so damn good, I'm going to resist dropping that final star and keep it a full five. Why? Because this nimble-fingered US contributor (Reggie Young) deserves his hour in the sun and your dosh/attention. Some background first as to why I think this is a properly great Ace Records release (aren't they all you might say)...

In December 2018, Missouri's Reggie Young was a sprightly 82 and yet its odds on that you've never heard of the guy or his sweet guitar picking style and contributions. Or have you? Ace Records UK put out his first official solo album called (not surprisingly) "Forever Young" in May 2017 on Ace CDCHD 1500 (Barcode 029667079822) - a 7-Track CD album of Soul-Rock instrumentals in the vein of J.J. Cale meets Dan Penn meets George Benson - a combo many would gladly scorch their unmentionables to acquire. Actually, the album’s good rather than being great, but it still exudes class.

Anyway, in my review of that late beginning for Reggie Young, I listed a 20-song resume of his work - seriously famous tunes by people like Elvis Presley and Dusty Springfield – all showcasing his knack of playing the right part at just the right time. And lo and behold, from that Hall of Fame potpourri of Soul, Rock and Beat (covering a six-decade career) - some of those name-checks have turned up here. Nice! Let's pick up that Fender and get to church people...

UK released 25 January 2019 - "Session Guitar Star" by REGGIE YOUNG [featuring Various Artists] on Ace Records CDCHD 1537 (Barcode 029667093323) is a CD compilation offering 24-Tracks from 1956 through to 2010 (79:55 minutes):

1. Slip, Slip, Slippin' In - EDDIE BOND and HIS STOMPERS

2. Carol - BILL BLACK'S COMBO

3. A Touch Of The Blues - BOBBY BLAND

4. Dream Baby - JERRY and REGGIE

5. I'm Movin' On - THE BOX TOPS

6. The Champion Pt. 1 - WILLIE MITCHELL

7. Meet Me in Church - SOLOMON BURKE

8. Chicken Crazy - JOE TEX

9. In The Pocket - KING CURTIS and THE KINGPINS (some copies simply credit The Kingpins)

10. More Love - JAMES CARR

11. Don't Forget About Me - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD

12. Stranger in My Own Home Town - ELIVIS PRESLEY

13. I Wanna Roo You - JACKIE De SHANNON

14. Drift Away - DOBIE GRAY

15. Rock 'N' Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life) - SONNY CURTIS

16. Victim of Life's Circumstances - DELBERT McCLINTON

17. Lover Please - BILLY SWAN

18. Morning Glory - JAMES and BOBBY PURIFY

19. Cocaine - J.J. CALE

20. I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink - MERLE HAGGARD

21. The Highwayman - THE HIGHWAYMEN [Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson]

22. Griselda - NATALIE MERCHANT

23. Whenever You Come Around - LITTLE MILTON

24. Where Do We Go from Here - WAYLON JENNINGS

From the 1956 pure Rockabilly of "Slip, Slip, Slippin' In" by Eddie Bond & His Stompers through to late soul from Little Milton's "Whenever You Come Around" (2002 on Malaco Records) - you're hit with class over and over again. Interesting Beat instrumentals turn up in the form of a Chuck Berry cover of "Carol" at the hands of Bill Black's Combo and Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby" by our hero and his mate Jerry 'Satch' Arnold trading as Jerry and Reggie (1964 on M.O. Records). Written by Curtis Ousley and Bobby Womack, King Curtis and The Kingpins give us a stunning Funky B-side in the shape of "In The Pocket" - the flip to "Ode To Billy Joe" in September 1967 on Atco 6516.  This is the kind of head-jerking brass-punching guitar-groove that sends my saggy ass into raptures. Throw in James Carr and the gorgeous righteous Southern Soul of "More Love" and even James & Bobby Purify proving they still had a way with a tune in 1975's "Morning Glory" and Soul Music is never far from your ears.

Only when it gets to the truly cheesy rot that is "Rock 'n Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life)" by Sonny Curtis (Track 15) and a weedy Delbert McClinton effort from 1975 alongside the vastly overrated "Highwayman" LP project with Nelson, Jennings and Cash - does the track run go off the boil. The Natalie Merchant contribution "Griselda" comes from her lesser-seen "Leave Your Sleep" 2010 CD on Nonesuch – a compilation that concentrates on children’s poetry (Reg coughs up a sweet solo). It all ends on a Waylon Jennings Country boogie from 1987 - "Where Do We Go From Here" – Reggie’s guitar (accompanied by Jim Horn's brass, Jim Horn of Rolling Stones fame) giving the bopper real bottom end. I’ll even forgive the overly hissy Solomon Burke song "Meet Me In Church" because what it lacks in fidelity – it tramples all-comers in sheer Soulfulness and feel.

Throw in great mastering from DUNCAN COWELL, a fabulous jam-packed 36-page booklet that out-details this detailed review (courtesy of BOB DUNHAM - includes loads of affectionate recollections from Reggie) and you're on a winner. The only Audio dull moment for me was the wimpy volume to the 1968 Stereo Box Tops cut of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On" from their "No Stop" LP on Bell Records - for some reason it has no oomph at all. But any CD compilation that sports Dobie Gray's masterful take on Mentor Williams "Drift Away", J.J. Cale's "Cocaine", the King's yeah baby "Stranger In My Own Home Town" (Elvis getting funky) and Jackie DeShannon's lovely cover of Van Morrison's "I Wanna Roo You" gets my vote. And there's nearly 80 minutes of it too.

"...You know a melody can move me...and when I'm feeling blue...the guitar is coming through to sooth me..." – Dobie Gray sang on 1973's fantastic Soul-Rock single "Drift Away" - a tune Rodders would cover so well on his "Atlantic Crossing" album in 1975. Reggie Young is one of the reasons why we felt that way. Gimme the beat boys and free my soul indeed...

"Morning Brings The Light/John James/Sky In My Pie/Head In The Clouds" by JOHN JAMES (June 2017 Beat Goes On Reissue - 4LPs Remastered onto 2CDs) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along with many others are available in my e-Book
For sale on Amazon 




Features the 1970 Album "Morning Brings The Light" on Transatlantic Records 

"...Through The Lanes..."

Now here's an obscuro. And once again England's Beat Goes On Label (BGO) has done our unsung hero a Welsh Guitar Picker solid (if that's not too rude).

Stretching from 1970 to 1975 – you get full four albums originally on Transatlantic Records in the UK remastered in 2017 by long-standing Audio Engineer Andrew Thompson onto 2CDs – the first two containing some vocals but the last two strictly instrumental with genres crossing between straight-up Acoustic Folk to Bluegrass, Dixieland Jazz and Ragtime (all on Acoustic Guitar). Here are the skies in the pie...

UK released 16 June 2017 (23 June 2017 in the USA) - "Morning Brings The Light/John James/Sky In My Pie/Head In The Clouds" by JOHN JAMES on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1301 (Barcode 5017261213013) offers 4 full LPs originally on Transatlantic Records (UK) in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1975 newly remastered in 2017 onto 2CDs and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (75:05 minutes, 22 Tracks):

1. If Only I [Side 1]

2. One Long Happy Night

3. Pickles And Peppers

4. Liverpool Lullaby

5. Hogan's Alley (Black Eyed Blues)

6. Once I Lived By The Sea

7. Picture Rag [Side 2]

8. A Little Blues

9. So Long Since I Was Home

10. Ostrich Walk

11. Lampeter

12. Morning Brings The Light

Tracks 1 to 12 are his Debut album "Morning Brings The Light" – released August 1970 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 219 (produced by Chris Golby).

13. To Meet You I Hurry Down [Side 1]

14. Original Rags

15. Jazzbo's Holiday

16. Evening Comes Quickly

17. Three Through The Lanes

18. Tim E Whay

19. Song Around A Square [Side 2]

20. Rolling On Down

21. Stoptime

22. Daughter Of The Wind

Tracks 13 to 22 on Disc 1 and Track 1 on Disc 2 are his second album "John James" - released November 1971 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 241 (produced by John Whitehead).

Disc 2 (79:56 minutes, 27 Tracks):

1. Listening To That Old Rag/Ragtime Dance

Tracks 13 to 22 on Disc 1 and Track 1 on Disc 2 are his second album "John James" - released November 1971 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 241 (produced by John Whitehead).

2. And Sam Came Too [Side 1]

3. Sailor's Farewell

4. Mammy O'Mine

5. Easy Street

6. Out On The Rolling Sea

7. Sky In My Pie

8. Conquistador

9. Bach Goes To Town [Side 2]

10. Kicking Up The Dust

11. Nola

12. Quiet Days

13. Weeping Willow

14. Blap Bam Boom

15. Be Mine Or Run

16. Turn Your Face

Tracks 2 to 16 are his third album "Sky In My Pie" (credited to JOHN JAMES and DAVE BERRYMAN) – released 1972 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 250 (produced by Stephan Grossman).

17. Georgemas Junction [Side 1]

18. Black And White Rag

19. Head In The Clouds

20. Slow Drag

21. Wormwood Tangle

22. Stranger In The World

23. Rags To Riches [Side 2]

24. Blues For Felix

25. Heliotrope Bouquet

26. Secrets In The Sky

27. Stretching Of A Young Girl’s Heart

Tracks 17 to 27 are his fourth album "Head In The Clouds" – released November 1975 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 305 (produced by Ritchie Gold).

The outer card slipcase lends these BGO reissues a classy feel whilst long-time associate to the label JOHN TOBLER has penned the new 12-page liner notes and interviewed John James especially for the project. Anyone who knows the original vinyl platters – their rear sleeves had a few words but little by way of any meaty info (the 1970 and 1971 Jeremy Gilbert and Robin Denselow original liner notes are here nonetheless). I say this because James now enlightens of many of the tunes and their genesis and his collaborations with Berryman on the 3rd LP and John Renbourn on the fourth. The ANDREW THOMPSON Remasters are quietly lovely – strings pinging - sweetly done – the original tapes clearly in very good shape. To the music...

Songs like on "Once I Loved By The Sea" and "A Little Blues" are like pretty John Renbourn or Bert Jansch vignettes - plaintive, lovely and peaceful on the ear and head. Scott Joplin is never far from James' thoughts either - his own "Picture Rag" a beautifully gut-string-picked nod to the great Ragtime man - whilst "Ostrich Walk" is another instrumental but this time more in the Dixieland style. On the second self-titled album his then wife Jo James joins him on two tunes in duet vocals - the awful hippy claptrap of "Rolling On Down" which is rescued by "Daughter Of The Wind" - a James original Ralph McTell might have looked at with envy. Pete Berryman who would share a credit on the third album "Sky In My Pie" turns up on album two having written the playful travelling song "Jazzbo’s Holiday".

The third LP "Sky In My Pie" is a co-credit with another guitarist – PETE BERRYMAN (don’t you just love that gorgeous John Ashcroft artwork). JOHN RENBOURN of Pentangle guests as Second Guitarist on three songs (all instrumentals) – two by James called "Georgemas Junction" and "Stranger In The World" and a Renbourn original called "Wormwood Tangle". Parts of the melody in the fab "Stranger In The World" almost come across as Acoustic Prog while the Charlie Byrd cover of "Blues For Felix" feels very Leon Redbone without the voice. Scott Joplin turns up once again in the lazy afternoon mint-juleps-on-the-lawn feel to "Hellotrope Bouquet" – the very accomplished fourth album then ending in four and half minutes of "Stretching Of A Young Girl’s Heart" where some of the playing actually mimics such young hurt.

So hard to find on original vinyl now and unlikely to see reissue on the format (even in these vinyl is cool days of 2019) – this BGO 2CD twofer is a superb reissue and welcome too. John James will probably never be a household name – but this is a sweetly stacked reminder of what we all missed first time around...