Ringo Beaucoup of Blues
I just recently "re-discovered" this record, a WONDERFUL record and recording, great songs, beautiful sounds, stunning to me. Might be I'm alone in thinking how wonderful this disc is, but even if there is only one other who has a curiosity and takes a listen and likes it, well then, I'm a happy human!
Stay safe my Audiogon family!
Ringo Starr, a longtime lover of Country music (he sang Buck Owens’ "Act Naturally" on a Beatles album), went to Nashville to record his wonderful Beaucoup Of Blues album. He had pedal steel guitar master Pete Drake---who had already recorded with Dylan on a number of his albums (Dylan started recording in Nashville in ’65), including his great John Wesley Harding---round up all the best Nashville musicians for the recordings. Ringo’s not a very good singer, but that’s okay; the album is pretty darn cool anyway. Thanks for reminding me, @rpeluso! Starting in the mid-60’s, the Blues roots of Rock ’n’ Roll were really coming to the surface. That was followed in the late-60’s with the exploration of the Country roots of Rock ’n’ Roll. Dylan, The Byrds, The Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco, Commander Cody, Asleep At The Wheel, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and many other lesser-knowns went pretty hard Country. In many cases harder Country than the music coming out of the Nashville music community itself. Nashville actually considered the emerging Country-Rock as too Country for Country radio! Around the same time, The Everly Brothers recorded a great album that was a tribute to their father, with whom they had started performing on radio as children: Songs Our Father Taught Us. The Everly Brothers, a favorite of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Gen-u-ine Hillbilly music, a wonderful album. |
Now that you mentioned it... I found that album a couple of weeks ago, in my local shop. It was in the 3 for $10 bins. I'm quite fortunate to have a couple of shops walking distance with boxes of stuff long forgotten. It's a great album. I always thought of Ringo as the singer of "Photograph", "It don't come easy" and the now creepy "You're 16" on FM radio. I always liked Ringo's pop stuff. bdp24 is the resident R&R musicologist, and always provides cool insight. Not related, but along with this Ringo score, I found another artist that I've only read about-Don Nix. He wrote one of the most kick ass tunes-"Going Down" which Freddy King and Jeff Beck do justice to. El Becko- dig the piano unexpected piano intro, which catches everyone by surprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm84bbEkRj4 |
@tablejockey: Don Nix is very cool. He's an Alabama boy, and a great songwriter. I have his album on Elektra Records, recorded in Muscle Shoals with The Swampers (whose members include the great drummer Roger Hawkins and bassist David Hood---his son Patterson is a member of The Drive-By-Truckers), along with Duck Dunn of Booker T & The MG's. Bobby Whitlock (Delaney & Bonnie, Derek & The Dominos) talks about Nix in one of his YouTube videos. |