CDs – Tech & Book Talk at SSCL

Weekly Recommended Listens: February 2017: Week 4: Sixties Rock: Twangy Guitars Concluded

March 3, 2017 Linda Reimer

Here’s our weekly recommended music posting! We’re continuing our 2017 look at Sixties Rock by finishing out our February spotlight on Twangy Guitar players and early sixties instrumental rock.

And this week I’ve got a couple of what I’d describe as “digging deeper for music gems” artists and various artist albums. The bands and artists spotlighted this week are less well-known than the twangy guitar players whose music we’ve listened to in the previous three weeks of this month. And some of the suggested albums are various artist collections. So the music is fun but I’m going to eliminate the Brief Artist Bios section for this week. If you want to know more about the band/artists discussed you can check out a number of cool rock encyclopedia books at the library or click on one of the links in the References section.

So here are our five music sections for this week:

I. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week

II. CD Music Recommendations Of The Week

III. Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups

IV. Wild Card Print Book Recommendation Of The Week (a print book that focuses on a musician, musicians, songwriters or other musical genres, styles etc. from any musical era)

V. References (for those who’d like to know a bit more about the artists of the week).

And here are our recommendations of the week!

I. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week:

1. Surfin’ With The Astronauts by The Astronauts:

This album contains the Astronauts only hit, the instrumental Baja, and a number of other fun party songs including: Surfer’s Stomp, Susie-Q, Pipeline and Surfin’ USA. And for this listener’s proverbial money – this guitar-centric group has a slightly more mellow sound than some of the other rock instrumentalists of the era.

So if you’re looking for a mellow listen for the weekend – this is the album for you!

Here’s a link to the album:

https://goo.gl/Xbr5Dk

2. Raunchy! Vol. 2: Rockin’ Into the Sixties

by various artists:

Just a quick FYI note, the title of this album is actually misspelled within the Freegal Music Catalog! They left out the “n” in the word raunchy. So if you search for this album by copying and pasting the title, instead of clicking on the link below, you’ll have to take out the “n” and type the title in as “Rauchy! Vol. 2: Rockin’ Into the Sixties! (We’ve asked Freegal to fix the typo but that may take a while…)

Now on to the album! This is an album full of fun songs! It includes songs by some super well-known players including Duane Eddy, Sandy Nelson, The Ventures and the Shadows, and a number of artists that are less well known in the U.S., but that recorded some really cool songs nevertheless, including: Rock organic-centric tunes like Gonzon by James Booker, which also features a neat flute solo, Big Guitar by the Owen Bradley Quintet, the Jazzy Topsy II by Cozy Cole, Guitar Boogie Shuffle by The Virtues, Bongo Rock by Preston Epps, Rockin’ Crickets by Hot Toddys, The Enchanted Sea by The Islanders and Teensville by Chet Atkins.

This is a really great collection of early sixties rock instrumentals with a few pop instrumental hits of the era thrown in too. The album contains more than 40 songs and I liked it so much upon listening to it – that I bought a copy of it! Highly recommend – in fact, I’d say if you only listen to one album I’ve suggested this week – let this be the one!

Here’s the link to stream the album:
https://goo.gl/Wrofqt

3. Space Hunters In The Wild West by Spacemen:

In looking for information on this group online – I found only one reference that indicated they are a modern group from Sweden! But they play classic American guitar-centric instrumental tunes as if they just stepped out of 1962!

As the title of the album would lead one to suspect, most of the songs on this album have a western theme. Here are a selection of song titles: Western Express, Brave Buffalos, Smiling Poney, Lonesome Cowboy and Country Woman.

The guitar playing on this album is bright, shiny and upbeat -fast-paced songs do indeed predominate – check it out!

Here’s the link:
https://goo.gl/qenTCT

Freegal Notes:
To access Freegal Music from a desktop or laptop simply click on the following link:
http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

The Freegal Music Catalog homepage will display —

it looks like this:

The Freegal Music app can be found in your app store and it looks like this:

Freegal Wild Card Pick Of The Week:

Cold Spring Harbor

by Billy Joel:

This is Billy Joel’s first album from 1971!

And Joel is pretty popular, so I’m not going to say much about this album — except to note that if you’d like to listen to Billy Joel’s seventies albums in sequence and hear how his music has evolved over the years you can – they are all in the Freegal Music Catalog ready for you to stream!

And here are the songs on Cold Spring Harbor:

1. She’s Got a Way
2. You Can Make Me Free
3. Everybody Loves You Now
4. Why Judy Why
5. Falling of the Rain
6. Turn Around
7. You Look so Good to Me
8. Tomorrow Is Today
9. Nocturne
10. Got to Begin Again

Here’s the link to stream the album:

https://goo.gl/WtGYcA

III. Compact Discs Recommendations:
As with the Freegal music recommendations for this week – the CD recommendation is a various artists collection of early sixties rock instrumentals with a few pop instrumentals thrown in for good measure.

Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties, Vol. 1: 1960

This three disc set is part of a series and includes more than 80 songs including songs by: The Bill Black Combo, Bill Haley, Chet Atkins, Nat King Cole, The Ernie Fields Orchestra,The Champs, The Fireballs, Duane Eddy and many more!

Here’s a link to the request page:
https://goo.gl/4lJ4zP

Wild Card CD Picks Of The Week:

Since I’ve only suggested one CD, for those who like CDs, I’m going to suggest two wild cards picks for this week: Scorched by Mark Anthony Turnage, who plays both Jazz and Classical music, and, a great folk music, various artist collection titled Live at the Caffé Lena.

1. Scorched by Mark Anthony Turnage:

Here is the entire stellular review of this LP from the AllMusic site, written by Rick Anderson:

Commissioned by the Society of Friends and Patrons of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and recorded at its premiere performance in September of 2002, Scorched is an extended suite of large-scale reconceptions of guitarist John Scofield’s jazz compositions, scored for big band, symphony orchestra, and guitar trio. English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage has been working in the borderland between jazz and classical music since his early days at the feet of Gunther Schuller, and his orchestral elaborations on Scofield’s original themes are surprisingly insightful and exciting. Scofield himself leads the trio, which also includes the legendary drummer Peter Erskine and electric bassist John Patitucci. Turnage avoids the standard classical-jazz crossover error of trying to make an ensemble this large actually swing; instead, he creates interest with dense but agile harmonic movement and crisp rhythmic change-ups; when Scofield and his crew take over periodically in a more standard jazz idiom, the effect is one of bracing contrast. The big-band-and-orchestra generally alternates with the trio rather than plays alongside it, but there are some thrilling moments of interplay, such as at the end of “Fat Lip 2” and the brilliant “Make Me 2.” Scofield’s solo playing on the contemplative “Cadenza” is another particular treat. Very highly recommended.

Here’s a link to the request page:

https://goo.gl/aurrDH

2. Live at Caffe Lena: Music From America’s Legendary Coffee House 1967-2013 by various artists:

The Caffe Lena is located in Saratoga Springs, New York and was on the New York City area folk musicians tour circuit in the early 1960s. In fact, one of the first places Bob Dylan played, after he relocated from Minnesota to New York City in 1960, was the Caffe Lena. Folk artists both well-known, emerging and just great solid players and songwriters you never hear on the radio have played there over the years including the previously mentioned Dylan, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, David Bromberg and many, many others.

I was fortunate enough to see Bill Staines there a number of years ago when the “Lena” of Caffe Lena, founder and manager Lena Spencer was still alive, she was quite nice and it was great fun – it felt almost like sitting in my living room with friends listening to another friend play folk music!

Here’s a description of the album: Live At Caffé Lena: Unreleased performances by Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Kate McGarrigle, Rick Danko, Anais Mitchell, Sleepy John Estes, Arlo Guthrie, Sarah Lee Guthrie, and more.

Nestled in the quaint upstate town of Saratoga Springs, New York is Caffè Lena, the oldest continuously operating folk music coffeehouse in the US. Opened by Lena Spencer in 1960, this tiny room has played host to influential artists across diverse genres of music; traditional folk, blues, singer-songwriters, jazz and bluegrass. Luckily, many performances were caught on tape through the years, offering the listener a thrilling seat inside this hallowed venue. ‘Live At Caffè Lena’, a 3-CD box set, the result of years of investigative research, contains 47 tracks, all released for the very first time, alongside previously unpublished photographs. Images include selections from the archive of esteemed photographer Joe Alper, who captured many iconic, intimate portraits from the folk era of the 1960s.

‘Live At Caffè Lena’ documents an important folk universe that was and is still happening in upstate New York, a story heretofore largely untold. The release of this collection comes at an auspicious time in light of renewed interest in the New York folk scene of the 60s as depicted in the forthcoming Coen Brothers film, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis.’ The film is loosely based on Dave Van Ronk’s 2005 memoir ‘The Mayor of Macdougal Street.’ Van Ronk, a Caffè Lena regular, served as a mentor to many artists, some who would go on to eclipse his fame. His 1974 recording of “Gaslight Rag “featured on the box set references the Gaslight Café, a famed Greenwich Village venue that along with Caffè Lena was a catalyst for the folk music revival.

Caffè Lena embodied the spirit of the folk boom, the era and its artistry, building a reputation as a hotbed of creativity and connection. It was also a safe haven and nurturing space for artists, its atmosphere cultivated personally by Lena Spencer herself. She would graciously house wayward artists, sometimes for months at a time. But she was not merely a host. She championed artists, from Bob Dylan as early as 1961 all the way through the 80s until her passing. Her passion for identifying and promoting talent is evident throughout this 3-CD set. That Caffè Lena is still open for business tonight is a testament to her legacy.

‘Live At Caffè Lena’ is an important visual and audio document – 40+ years of our collective music history unearthed from dozens of “lost” tapes – night after night, show after show, through the decades – captured on tape in a tiny room in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Here’s a link to the request page:
https://goo.gl/QfifTD

IV: Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups:

The Astronauts live in 2012 playing Baja

And a link to a “video” which features a photo of the group in their heyday accompanied by the original recording of Baja:

Santo and Johnny – Sleepwalk

Dave “The Baby” Cortez – The Happy Organ

V. Wild Card Print Book Recommendation Of The Week:

The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock: Trouble Girls

by Barbara O’Dair:

Granted this book was published in 1997, so you won’t find women who’ve gome up in teh rock world in the last twenty years discussed within its pages; however, it is a great read if you want to know about women in rock from the days of Rockabilly to the 1990s — for those eras this book offers a solid look at women in rock.

And here’s the official description of the book:

An impressive collection of 56 essays by 44 female writers about the role of women in popular music. Divided into six sections, the book opens with “The Pioneers of Rock & Roll: Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Rhythm & Blues, and Country” and features such artists as Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Patsy Cline. Subsequent chapters cover solo artists and girl groups of the ’50s and ’60s; the ladies of rock in the ’60s and ’70s; and the pop singers and punksters of the ’70s. Sarah McLachlan, Bjork, Madonna, Salt-n-Pepa, k.d. lang, Janet Jackson, and Selena are just a few of the “Divas and B-Girls” spotlighted in another chapter. The volume wraps up with “Oh You Pretty Things!: Toward the Millennium” and includes the Go-Go’s, Ani DiFranco, performance artist Laurie Anderson, and Riot Grrls like Bikini Kill. O’Dair and her troupe of well-credentialed writers have produced a comprehensive, well-written, and visually appealing volume that has an excellent index, bibliography, and discographies with each chapter.

A must-have for libraries wanting vibrant, accessible material that will appeal to adolescent readers, especially women. Review by John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Here’s a link to the request page:
https://goo.gl/Kl3Atl

VI. References :

General References:

Santelli, Robert. Sixties Rock: A Listener’s Guide. Contemporary Books. Chicago. 1985.

Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard Books. New York. 2009.

Artist/Group References:

The Astronauts: Biography by Richie Unterberger

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-astronauts-mn0000753852/biography

Caffe Lena “Good Folk Since 1960” – Official Website:

Home

Billy Joel: Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/billy-joel-mn0000085915

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Biography by Allen Schrott
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-anthony-turnage-mn0000817980/biography

Santo & Johnny: Biography by Jason Ankeny
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/santo-johnny-mn0000299277/biography

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and including our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York. Library cards are free and at our library you can obtain one by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features both your name and your current address.

Weekly Recommended Listens: February 2017: Week 2: Sixties Rock: Twangy Guitars Continued

February 22, 2017February 22, 2017 Linda Reimer

Here’s our delayed weekly recommended music posting for the week of February 13, 2017.

As you may know, STLS has been upgrading equipment over the last week and StarCat has been up and down – but this morning it is up for good so here are the music recommendations for last week and the recommendations for this week will be up by Saturday.

In succeeding weeks my plan is to have the Weekly Suggested Listening Recommendations posted on Thursdays — and I’ll start doing that next week – starting Thursday, March 2.

These weekly postings will offering suggestions of music you can listen to both through the library’s digital Freegal Music Service* and via the library’s compact disc collection. Our music theme for this year is Sixties Rock and our monthly theme Twangy Guitars. This weeks’ posting has five sections:

I. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week

II. CD Music Recommendations Of The Week

III. Videos

IV. Wild Card Print Book Recommendation: This recommendation will be a print book that focuses on a musician, musicians, songwriters or other musical genres, styles etc. from any musical era.

V. References & Brief Artist Bios (for those who’d like to know a bit more about the artists of the week).

This week our recommended trios of twangy guitar players, and their bands, are:

Johnny & The Hurricanes, The Shadows & The Ventures!

I. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week:

1. Johnny & The Hurricanes: Greatest Hits by Johnny and the Hurricanes:

This collection features the hits and more! J&TH best known songs are here including – Red River Rock, Beatnik Fly and Reveille Rock as are a number of other fun, bouncy favorites.

Here’s the link to the album:
https://goo.gl/qm4tjI

2. The Shadows – Various Artists Collection Guitar Greats:

There is a complete album by The Shadows found in the Freegal Music Catalog; that album is titled The Albums and EP’s Collection 1961-1962 (https://goo.gl/OyqLGw); however, since the album covers a super short period of time and doesn’t feature their best known hits I’m going to recommend you stream a different album and then if you really love the sound of The Shadows you can go back and stream the Albums and EP’s Collection LP!

The album I’m recommending is a various artists collection titled Guitar Greats and it features music by many popular instrumentalists of the early sixties including Santo & Johnny (Sleep Walk), The Champs (Tequila), Bill Justis (Raunchy), Bo Diddley, Les Paul, Dick Dale, The Scotty Moore Trio and many more! And the album features three of The Shadows best -known hits: Apache, Kon-Tiki and Wonderful Land.

Here’s a link to the album:
https://goo.gl/SlFldZ

3. The Ventures – No Trespassing – The First Four Albums:

The Ventures are, undoubtedly, the best known instrumental rock group of the sixties. And this collection includes the first four Ventures albums: Walk Don’t Run, The Ventures, Another Smash! and The Colorful Ventures. Included in this collection are some of the ventures most popular songs including: Perfidia, Ram Bunk Shush, Walk Don’t Run, Raunchy, Rawhide and more!

And a neat item of note as described by the publishers “Also included on this superb set is a rare July 1961 radio interview with Ventures main men Bob Bogle and Don Wilson.”

Here’s a link to the album:
https://goo.gl/Vr3Xrz

Freegal Notes:

To access Freegal Music from a desktop or laptop simply click on the following link:
http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

The Freegal Music Catalog homepage will display — it looks like this:

The Freegal Music app can be found in your app store and it looks like this:

Freegal Wild Card Pick Of The Week:

The Wild Card Pick Of The Week may feature a recommended musician, band, composer or musical style of any time in the history of recorded music and is not tied to our yearly theme – thus the title “Wild Card Freegal Pick Of The Week.”

So without further ado here’s the Wild Card Freegal Music Pick for this week:

Traditional Music from Cape Breton Island by various artists:

This various artists collection includes music by Natalie MacMaster! Corning Civic Music fans may recall that Natalie MacMaster, and her husband Donnell Leahy, kicked off the 2016-2017 Civic Music concert series. I was fortunate enough to attend their September 24, 2016 concert and boy, can they both play the fiddle! Natalie MacMaster plays on two songs on this compilation: The Bonnie Lass of Headlake & Irish Lasses. Other artists featured in this collection include: Jerry Holland, John Morris Rankin, Brenda Stubbert, Howie MacDonald, Dougie MacDonald and more. If you like traditional fiddle music – you’ll like this album!

Here’s the Freegal link to the album:
https://goo.gl/Q5LYgo

About Requesting CDs This Week: Due to the upgrade of catalog equipment, not all of our recently added items, books, DVDs, CDs etc., are currently listed in StarCat even though they are available on our shelves – this includes three of our four CD recommendations the CDs by Johnny & The Hurricanes, The Ventures and our Wild Card CD pick of the week — Charley Pride’s four album collection Charley Pride – Country Charley Pride/The Country Way/Pride Of Country Music/Make Mine Country; those three CDs are available on our shelves so you can pick them up today. And of course, you can always call us and ask us to place requests for items and/or pull available items from our shelves and leave them at the Circulation Desk so you can pick them up later.

The library’s phone number is: 607-936-3713 and entering extension 501 will get you a live person to assist you!

And now, on to the recommended CDs!

II. Compact Discs Recommendations:

1. Johnny & The Hurricanes:

The Very Best Of Johnny & The Hurricanes

by Johnny & The Hurricanes:

This CD set contains 50 of the bands original recordings on two CDs. The hits are all here as are a solid number of other fun rocking tunes including: Red River Rock, Crossfire, Joy Ride, Milk Shake, Corn Bread, The Kid, Beatnik Fly, Traffic Jam and more!

2. The Shadows: Two Classic Albums Plus by The Shadows:

This set includes the classic Shadows albums The Shadows and Out of The Shadows as well as their classic era singles and EPs. The set includes over 100 hundred great classic instrumental songs! The songs include: Guitar Tango, FBI, Kon Tiki, Wonderful Land, Bongo Blues, Shadoogie, That’s My Desire and more!

Here’s a link to the request page for the CD:
https://goo.gl/gfIWDb

3. The Ventures – No Trespassing – The First Four Albums:

The Ventures are, undoubtedly, the best known instrumental rock group of the sixties. And if you’ve read this entire posting to this point – then this will sound familiar!

And if think you’ve read it before – you have!

This is the exact same album I recommend you stream from the Freegal Music Catalog – this is simply the CD version instead!

As a reminder the collection includes the first four Ventures albums: Walk Don’t Run, The Ventures, Another which collectively contain more than 50 songs.

Wild Card CD Pick Of The Week:

Charley Pride – Country Charley Pride/The Country Way/Pride Of Country Music/Make Mine Country by Charley Pride

Our Wild Card CD Pick Of The Week is a four album CD set by the great country artists Charley Pride. The set, which includes four of Pride’s first five albums.

Charley Pride, began his recording career in the 1960s. Pride, who is black, broke the stereotypical mold by singing and recording country music. During his recording career he’s earned 36 number one country songs, 4 platinum and 30 gold albums! If you’re unfamiliar with his music he has an easy going voice and style which is somehow reassuring to listen to no matter what subject his is singing about. The songs in this collection include his first hit The Snake Crawls At Night, Yonder Comes A Sucker, The Last Thing On My Mind, Spell Of The Freight Train, Just Between You & Me and many more!

III. Videos:

Johnny & The Hurricanes:

Red River Rock live version recorded in 1981.

(A slightly fuzzy video – but you can see the actual band playing)

Red Rover Rock (original version) – the sounds is good for this video but you don’t get to see the band playing, instead you’re treated to 2 minutes of looking at a vintage photo of the group gathered around their touring van.

The Shadows:

Here’s a cool video of the Shadows playing their biggest hit – Apache.

The Ventures:

Introduced by Dick Clark here’s a link to a clip of the Ventures playing their biggest hit Walk—Don’t Run:

V. Wild Card Print Book Recommendation:

The Rolling Stones by Reuel Golden:

This is a great 522 page book, published by Taschen (they’re known for their photos) that features top notch photos of the Rolling Stones over the years. This book is what we use to call a “coffee table book” because of its size and the beautiful photos it contains. The book is about the size of three large pizza boxes and is a bit weighty so you’ll get a mini work out when you pick it up. Check it out!

Here’s the publisher description of the book:
“We were lucky enough to work with some of the greatest photographers in the world who captured many magical moments of our career. This volume brings together some incredible pictures spanning the past fifty years.” Mick Jagger

“This book isn’t just rock ‘n’ roll, it’s a roller coaster through fifty years of memory lane! “Keith Richards Ladies and gentlemen…The Rolling Stones!

The definitive, authorized illustrated history of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band
The kind of fame and success The Rolling Stones have achieved in their 50-years and counting career is without parallel; their most famous riffs and catchiest lyrics are indelibly engraved in our collective memory. With their bluesy rock ‘n’ roll and mesmerizing off and onstage presence, the Stones redefined the music of the 1960s and 1970s and paved the way for rock as we know it today. They also set the standard for how a rock band should look and behave. Produced in close collaboration with the band, this book charts the Stones’ remarkable history and outrageously cool lifestyle in over 500 pages of photographs and illustrations, many previously unseen, and gathered from archives all over the world. Unprecedented access to the Rolling Stones’ own archives in New York and London adds an equally extraordinary, more private side to their story. For Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie this is their official photographic record.

Features:
Over 500 pages of incredible images from some of the world’s greatest photographers, including David Bailey, Peter Beard, Cecil Beaton, Anton Corbijn, Annie Leibovitz, Gered Mankowitz, Helmut Newton, Bent Rej, and Norman Parkinson

V. Brief Artists Bios, General References & Artist Specific References:

Brief Artists Bios:

Johnny & The Hurricanes:
Johnny & The Hurricanes formed in Toledo, Ohio in 1958. And they can be thought of as a roll over band in the sense that they were popular in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. The classic line up of the band included Paul Tesluk on organ, Dave Yorko on guitar, Lionel “Butch” Mattice on bass, Tony Kaye on drums and saxophonist and band leader Johnny Paris on saxophone. The group differed from The Ventures and The Shadows, who were guitar-centric, in prominently featuring the saxophone and organ playing of, respectively, Paris and Tesluk. Their most popular songs include: Crossfire, Reveille Rock, Beatnik Fly and their biggest hit Red River Rock. The group was exceptionally popular in Europe and when they played the Cavern Club in Hamburg, Germany in the early 60’s their opening act was a then little known band called The Beatles! Paris continued to tour with various versions of the band until he died in 2006.

The Shadows:
The Shadows: The Shadows formed in Hertfordshire, U.K. in the late 1950s. Their classic line up consisted of guitarists Hank B. Marvin & Bruce Welsh, drummer Jet Harris and drummer Tony Meehan.

The Shadows were Britain’s answer to the Ventures and the first British rock group to hold sway over the British charts – they were the most popular British rock group in the pre-Beatles era. The Shadows were originally named The Drifters and first stepped into the international lime light as British pop star as singer Cliff Richard’s back-up band. They changed their name to The Shadows in the early 1960s when the great American R&B group The Drifters emerged. Some of the Shadows most prominent songs include: Apache, F.B.I. Guitar Tanto, Don’t Make My Baby Blue & Kon-Tiki

The Shadow never had a hit in America; however, Shadows lead guitarist Hank Marvin cast a strong influence on succeeding generations of British guitarists and became the U. K.’s first guitar super star so he really does rate mention right up there the other great American instrumental guitarists of the early Sixites era: Steve Cropper (Booker T. & The MG’s), Duane Eddy, Link Wray and Nokie Edwards (The Ventures).

The Ventures:
The Ventures were formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1959 and originally consisted of Bob Bugle on bass, Don Wilson on rhythm guitar, Nokie Edwards on lead guitar and Howie Johnson on drums. The classic line up of this guitar centered band included the previously mentioned Bugle, Wilson, Edwards and Mel Taylor on drums.

The Ventures are quite probably the best known instrumental rock group of all time and continue to play concerts to this day. Some of their most well-known hits include: Walk—Don’t Run, Ram-Bunk-Shush and Perfida.

Also notable is the fact that the Ventures jumped on the LP bandwagon by putting out long-playing records with themes. For example, one of their albums is titled The Colorful Ventures which features songs with colors in their title; another is titled The Ventures Perform the Great TV Themes. Ironically, one of their most popular albums, The Ventures Play Telstar & The Lonely Bull, departed from that format and featured a number of well-known songs that have nothing to do with each other, from a thematic standpoint, including: Green Onions, Red River Rock, Percolator, Last Night, Let There Be Drums, Tequila, Apache and of course — Telstar.

General References:
Santelli, Robert. Sixties Rock: A Listener’s Guide. Contemporary Books. Chicago. 1985.

Corning Civic Music. http://www.corningcivicmusic.org/

Corning Civic Music: Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy. https://goo.gl/ne43G9

Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard Books. New York. 2009.

Artist Specific References:

Johnny & The Hurricanes References:

Johnny & The Hurricanes Artist Biography by Heather Phares. AllMusic.com.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnny-the-hurricanes-mn0000242577/biography

Johnny Paris. American Pop Musician Who Led From Saxophone. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/may/09/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries

The Shadows:

The Shadows. Artists Biography by Bruce Eder. AllMusic.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-shadows-mn0000496405/biography

The Ventures:

The Ventures: Artist Biography by John Bush. AllMusic.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-ventures-mn0000921965/biography

That is it for our music recommendations for the week of February 13 – the newest recommended Sixties listening suggestions will be posted by Saturday.

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

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