So here's a long overdue follow-up to a 2007 Beware Of The Blog post about country music records featuring fuzztone guitar sounds. Call me nuts, but I find extraordinarily endearing the improbable blend of country music traditionalism with tastefully restrained space-age guitar pyrotechnics that can be heard in these tunes.
A quick recap: the fuzztone guitar sound was born in the summer of 1960, on Don't Worry (MP3), a Marty Robbins country record that featured Grady Martin's fuzz-drenched 6-string bass guitar coming through engineer Glen Snoddy's mixing board. In some accounts this new sound was the result of a malfunctioning channel in the sound board, while others attribute the sound to a loose wire in Martin's amp.
Some hold that the fuzztone sound was born earlier - in the 1950s, with the jolting guitar blasts heard on some amazing-sounding records by the Johnny Burnette Trio, like Train Kept A Rollin' (MP3) or Link Wray's Rumble, but I tend to side with the experts who refer to those wild sounds as distortion, rather than fuzztone.
In any event, here's another dozen country fuzz tunes for those who enjoy exploring the odd sounds heard on the fringes of country music.
Johnny Dollar - Do Die (1:39)
Cowboy Copas - Sold The Farm (2:19)
Bob Morris - Queen Bee (2:32)
Johnny Dollar - Windburn (1:49)
Curtis Leach - Wheelin' & Dealin' (2:39)
Sanford Clark - The Fool (2:33)
Sue Thompson - Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass (2:25)
Loretta Lynn - It'll Be Open Season On You (2:42)
Buddy Merrill - Gentle On My Mind (2:10)
Bobby Zehm - Sitar Pickin' Man (2:18)
Billy Gray - Rotten Love (1:47)
Cornell Hurd Band - This Gun Don't Care (2:43)
Fantastic! Thanks so much!
Posted by: Samm Bennett | August 24, 2011 at 11:23 AM
This is awesome stuff. Every one of the songs on this new posting are winners (except the Sue Thompson song; didn't like that one). I loved your 2007 posting and play many of those fuzzy songs in my playlists. I used a few of them in my blog posting of country songs (for download) recently:
http://kielbasage.blogspot.com/2011/07/mixtape-my-kinda-cuntry.html
Posted by: Kielbasage | August 24, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Thank you very much!
Re Sue Thompson - is this a cover of Buck Owens, or vice versa? Buck's version rules.
Posted by: Holly | August 24, 2011 at 02:42 PM
Holly, the original version of Who's Gonna Mow was by Buck Owens (the song's author) and Sue Thompson's recording came later.
Posted by: Listener Greg G. | August 24, 2011 at 03:35 PM
That Johnny Dollar rekkid just sent me to line dancin' college!
Posted by: Fatherflot | August 24, 2011 at 06:09 PM
Thinking about when Johnny Cash ad-libs in the version of "Orange Blossom Special" on Live at Folsom Prison "well I don't care if I do-die do-die do-die..." Didn't know that was a song reference!
Posted by: Vic | August 25, 2011 at 04:38 PM
Didn't know about the Cash reference to Do Die. I'm sure he must have been referring not to the Johnny Dollar version heard here, but to the version by Bobby Austin, one of the song's author's, which was released on Capitol in the mid-60s. You can hear Austin's version over on YouTube.
Posted by: Listener Greg G. | August 25, 2011 at 05:10 PM
Completely great, thank you. A few songs from the 2007 fuzz post get a lot of play here.
Posted by: Nat | August 28, 2011 at 12:46 PM
This is probably going to be a favorite post of the year for me. Thanks!
Posted by: Arvo | September 17, 2011 at 08:24 PM
Haven't heard this yet but I can't wait: loved the 2007 post which somewhat introduced me to country music at age 16! Who's gonna mow your grass is one of my favorite songs, country or otherwise, so I'm curious/apprehensive about hearing this version... anyway thanks so much! Love the posts, greg!
Posted by: Emma | March 19, 2012 at 07:39 AM
When did Lee Hazlewood record "Della" on the Smash label? Must have been around 1961. Lots of good, mellow fuzz here.
Posted by: Ted Hering | June 16, 2012 at 02:38 PM