Album Reviews |

Duane Eddy



Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel 8 ( 1958 )
Lonesome Road / I Almost Lost My Mind / Rebel Rouser / Three-30-Blues / Cannonball / The Lonely One / Detour / Stalkin' / Ramrod / Anytime / Moovin' 'N' Groovin' / Loving You

Duane Eddy's sound is wide open spaces and the echo rising up the canyon. 'Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel' spent 82 weeks on the Billboard album charts peaking at number five, an impressive feat for anybody. Recorded in Lee Hazlewood's studios, Hazlewood also getting to co-write six of the tunes with Eddy. Born in 1938, Duane Eddy was one of the earliest guitar heroes and inspired many a budding guitarist to pick up the instrument. He crossed both Rock n Roll and Country music styles as well as pop. Released in 1958, this album predates the surf boom that saw instrumental music reborn as hip and cool, heck, back in 1958 there was no one more hip and cool on the guitar than Duane Eddy. Both Hank Marvin ( The Shadows ) and The Ventures openly admit his influence, so you could say that Duane Eddy was the very first, original rock n roll guitar god. Well, that's the research out of the way, about all I could find to tie in with this album release. It's often very difficult reviewing these older artists when you weren't even born when they were at their commercial peak. I'd welcome original fans memories about being around at the time. He seems to have had a pretty hot band backing him up on these twelve cuts. I dig the opening tune, 'Lonesome Road Blues', the mixture of guitar and saxophone, the little jazzy rhythm section. We move on and arrive at the classic 'Rebel Rouser', always on the best instrumental compilations and rightly so. A timeless, deep twangy guitar melody rises and rises.

'Three-30-Blues' is packed full of Duane Eddy atmosphere, 'Cannonball' rolls along and 'Ramrod' practically invented The Ventures. Again, the saxophone sails away as a glorious accompianment to Duane. The album lasts less than thirty minutes, is easily enjoyable and is timeless in a way a lot of modern music simply isn't. Keeping it simple pays dividends. Rewarding genuine talent by throwing it into the spotlight and highlighting it is the answer. Throwing shameful pretenders into the limelight gets us where we are today.

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