Charlie Gillett's Radio Picks From Honky Tonk Various Artists (DJs)

£11.70

Genre:
Rhythm & Blues
Label:
Ace Records
Format:
CD
Catalogue Id:
CDCHD 1242

I had just passed my thirtieth birthday when I got my own radio show in March 1972, being set loose to play pretty much whatever I wanted, Sunday lunchtime on the BBC’s local FM station, Radio London. Just 45 minutes at first, it was fairly soon extended to an hour and then to two hours, broadcast every week until 31 December 1978.

For a while, all I wanted to do was play every great record with rock’n’roll in its blood, many of them rarely, if ever, heard on British radio, and most of them emanating from the southern states of America. In those days, pop music in the UK was played on medium wave stations and this show on FM radio might easily have remained a well-kept secret if it had not been championed by John Collis, radio correspondent for London’s weekly listings magazine Time Out. When John heard the rumour of the show he called up a week or so ahead of the first programme to ask what I was planning to do; it soon became clear that he needed some kind of identity for each programme in order to be able to justify mentioning it on a regular basis.

So I began with a programme of records made in New Orleans and Louisiana, and returned to that region several times, as well as moving west to Texas and even further out to California, north to Memphis and Chicago, and often grouping records with particular themes. I can no longer remember how I ran across every track included here, but probably as many as half of them were tips of one kind or another, while many of the others had been unearthed during the previous five-year period when I was working on a history of popular music, called The Sound Of The City, which traced the emergence and evolution of rock’n’roll out of independently-recorded R&B and country music in the late 1940s and early 50s.

As the grapevine spread, listeners started to get in touch to tell me about records I seemed unaware of, not only obscure originals from the 1940s and 50s, but current artists too. I had a pretty frosty attitude towards a lot of current British pop, even though much of it was made by people my own age and with similar tastes. I never did play T Rex, Roxy Music, Wizzard or Slade but was thrilled to make room for JJ Cale, Jesse Winchester and Delbert McClinton. No coincidence, most of them were from the American South too.

Among the regular listeners were many people who knew far more than I did, some of them dedicated to finding every possible piece of information about the records they liked best – dates and locations of when and where they were recorded, names of any and all sessions musicians and which little label released the record first. Such people can be notoriously possessive of what they have discovered, but I was lucky to be befriended by Bill Millar, John Anderson, Ray Topping, Errol Dixon, Rob Finnis and others, who between them managed to make up for my woeful ignorance and gave me a much better education than I ever had in school or university. As far as I was concerned, Honky Tonk was a shared forum and bulletin board for the music we all revered. One of the greatest surprises was that the programme drew an audience of real live musicians in London, who liked this kind of music themselves, and some of them began to submit their demo tapes.

By Charlie Gillett

Share

Track listing

Show

Side 1

  • 01 Preview How Far To The Horizon - Jesse Winchester

  • 02 Preview Down On The Farm - Big Al Downing

  • 03 Preview Honky Tonkin' - Delbert McClinton

  • 04 Preview Mary Lou - Young Jessie & The Cadets

  • 05 Preview Games People Play - Joe South

  • 06 Preview The Way I Walk - Jack Scott

  • 07 Preview Call Me The Breeze - J.J. Cale

  • 08 Preview Shoppin' For Clothes - The Coasters

  • 09 Preview Small Town Talk - Bobby Charles

  • 10 Preview Let's Have A Party - Amos Milburn

  • 11 Preview Morning Glory - Mac Gayden

  • 12 Preview Susie-Q - Dale Hawkins

  • 13 Preview Back To Schooldays - Graham Parker

  • 14 Preview Who Do You Love? - Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks

  • 15 Preview Read The Signs - Bruce Channel

  • 16 Preview Ruby Baby - Dion

  • 17 Preview La Belle De La Louisianne - Eddy Raven

  • 18 Preview No More Doggin' - Rosco Gordon

  • 19 Preview Meet De Boys On The Battlefront - Wild Tchoupitoulas

  • 20 Preview What'cha Gonna Do? - Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters

  • 21 Preview Third Rate Romance - The Amazing Rhythm Aces

  • 22 Preview Oh! Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin') - Barbara Lynn

  • 23 Preview Sultans Of Swing (Demo) - Dire Straits

  • 24 Preview Honky Tonk (Part 2) - Bill Doggett

  • 25 Preview Soul Makossa - Manu Dibango

Delivery & Returns

Show

We offer free P&P to UK addresses. For all other territories packaging is free and postage is charged on a weight basis.

We use Royal Mail First Class for UK deliveries and standard Air Mail for all other territories, very large orders will usually be sent via parcelforce. You may cancel your order at any time prior to your order being dispatched by emailing us at orders@acerecords.com ensuring that you quote your name, address and order reference number or by telephoning +44 (0) 208 453 1311 between 9am and 5pm GMT/BST, Monday to Friday. Please note: As music downloads are dispatched immediately after purchase, there is no possibility of cancelling these orders.

In the event that any products supplied to you by us are damaged or defective, we agree to replace or repair the damaged or defective products or refund the amount you paid for such goods (including postage & packaging) providing you notify us (either via post at or e-mail: orders@acerecords.com ) and return the goods within 28 days of purchase. Physical goods should be sent back to us in the same condition you received them to: “Returns” Ace Records, Such Close, Letchworth Garden City SG6 1JF, United Kingdom. Music downloads should be returned to us via the e-mail address above including a copy of your notification.

You have the right to cancel your order within seven days of purchase, or seven days of receipt of the goods (whichever is the longer). If you choose to cancel your order, full payment will be returned to you. Returned items should be sent to: “Returns” c/o Ace Records, Such Close, Letchworth Garden City SG6 1JF, United Kingdom. Music downloads should be returned to us via the email address: orders@acerecords.com including a copy of your notice of cancellation and order number.

Press quotes

Show

Honky tonk cooking doesn't get better than this. ★★★★★

Record Collector

Customer reviews

Show

Related products

Customers who bought this item also bought