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Hey people, it's Dean Carter time ! Carter is a singer-guitarist with the heart and much of the sound of a '50s rockabilly wildman, yet recorded music that updated that rockabilly spirit with '60s garage rock and dashes of soul, and even a bit of psychedelia here and there. Carter didn't put out a whole lot of records in the '60s, and those he did put out were heard by few. Yet one of those singles in particular, 1967's "Jailhouse Rock"/"Rebel Woman" (on the small Milky Way label), is highly valued by '60s garage collectors, even if its rockabilly influence made it a little anachronistic. He recorded for the Ping label in 1961 under his real name, on the more established Fraternity label in 1962 as Arlie Nevil, and then for Limelight as Dean Carter in 1964. That same year, he and Arlie Miller, a member of his band the Lucky Ones, started a home studio in Danville, Illinois to record both Carter and other musicians. The pair also ran the s...

Yes ! Grandma Wanda ! Jackson was still in high school when country singer Hank Thompson heard her sing on an Oklahoma City radio show and asked her to record with his band. She dated Elvis Presley, who encouraged her to step away from the country-tinged gospel she had been performing since childhood and try her hand at rock and roll. She developed her own distinctive voice and performed in a variety of styles, from folksy traditional tunes to country twang and high yodels to throaty, suggestive ballads. Wanda's first records on Decca Records were country records made with Hank Thompson's band, one of which "You Can't Have My Love", a duet with Hank's bandleader, Billy Gray, made the Top 10 on the country charts in 1954. In 1956, she made her solo debut on Capitol Records with "I Gotta Know" which made a one week appearance on the country charts that year. It would be 5 years before she next appeared on the country charts. Anyway, on 28 October, 2008...

People ! I’m back ! Hope everyone’s ok...well let me see, let’s start with dynamite shall we. Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club ! Yeah ! Sam Cooke is one of my secret hero, I bet he’s one of yours too ! Frankly, most of Sam Cooke's pop hits were sugary, blanched affairs (don’t get me wrong, I love the tracks that way). But this live album was the real deal, giving us the church-reared R&B singer who liked to tear up the clubs along the Southern chitlin circuit. Recorded in Florida in 1963, 'Live at the Harlem Square Club' captures the man at his sanctified, sandpapered best ! The voice worshipped by disciples from Otis Redding to Rod Stewart. No syrupy glissandos or polite Hollywood chorales here: this is sweat-drenched, back-to-basics R&B, with Sam tearing up "Chain Gang," ! This set only makes it seem sadder that Cooke never lived to reign in the soul era he inaugurated... And frankly, if you wanna be my friend, you’d better get this record now !...