Nicknamed the ' Father of Rock and Roll', he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as ' Maybellene' (1955), ' Roll Over Beethoven' (1956), ' Rock and Roll Music' (1957) and ' Johnny B. But you can also hear that the whole thing is a bit of a trial.Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. It also shows why this song was pretty decent. You can hear, in this track, the sheer professionalism of the guys which partly shows why they were such big stars in their day. Then The Louvin Brothers, reverred country stars, gave it a go with Red Hen Hop.

This was Robbins hanging on to the coat tails of rock. From the introductory guitar strumming that lacks fire to the absensce of intensity in the vocal performnce. What doesn’t work is the likes of Marty Robbins trying to cover Chuck Berry’s Maybellene. Jones also added the odd Elvis stylistic edge and Little Richard scream and, you know what? It works.

Give him his due, though, he did bothe to write a relevant song, How Come It (ok, it might have sounded a little too much like Tutti Frutti…but still). Hide behind the title Thumper Jones, rather than George. George hated the idea so much, he tried to hide. Jones wasn’t a rock’n’roll fan but his record label had been scared to death by Elvis Parsley’s Heartbreak Hotel, so it pressurised Jones into heading into the rockabilly sphere. The song title may be a touch confusing but the results rocked. Lefty Frizzell’s You’re Humbugging’ Me was another success despite the rural lyrics and the country tones. The results were good – relief for him then. Yet, even he took Hayride Boogie, increased the tempo and renamed it Teenage Boogie. So you have Webb Pierce feeling that he should be making an effort despite the fact that he really didn’t have to because he was very successful in his chosen country sphere. The ructions were many and the results were fragmented but, above all, what we had here was a whole bank of singers who were right out of their comfort zone. Some were fresh into country and saw rock’n’roll as an even more exciting genre than country and embraced rock’n’roll wholsesale. Others tried valiantly and made a fist out of it. Many country artists tried and couldn’t really handle the new rock’n’roll style. Many didn’t want to be left behind, many didn’t really understand the new music but the feared that they might be seen as stale and old hat, it scared a lot of them. Many were not sure if they should be featuring the style in their own music or violently opposing it. The issue, that is well described within the excellent liner notes that span the copious booklets with each of the CD packs is this: despite the fact that the country artists were doing well or carefully building a career in country, the sheer force of rock’n’roll, so to speak, shook them up. A cusp that focuses on artists plying their trade, within the then comfortable rut of country and the new kid on the block, rock’n’roll. Not only for the array of music that spans the two CD packs (62 tracks in all) but for what they represent.

Both of these CDs are quite, quite delicious. Title: They Tried To Rock Vol.1 & Vol.2 Label: Bear Family

Hillbillys playing rock roll