Ralph McLean - Country

The country music roots of Elvis are often overlooked.  Here's Ralph's review of The Roots And Rumours Of Elvis from his weekly column in the Sunday Life newspaper:

He may have been The King Of Rock And Roll to most but Elvis will always be a country boy in my book.  Just look at the facts.  Born into crippling poverty in rural Tupelo in the deep south his first home was a shotgun shack (so called because if you fired a shotgun through the front door the bullet would whiz straight out the back), he grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and idolised Hank Williams….now it doesn't get much more country than that does it?

He recorded some fantastic country music throughout his career and even when it came to making his first historic recordings for Sam Philips at the legendary Sun Records in 1954 many of his choices were country and western classics that he loved and knew by heart.  Listen to those early, fresh faced stabs at standards like Blue Moon Of Kentucky and I Love You Because and you can tell this is music that really speaks to the young Elvis.  You can hear it in every single tremulous note of his voice.  When the future King first charted in the mid fifties it was in the country charts rather than the pop and his early appearances on that legendary home of country crooners The Louisiana Hayride radio show prove this was one artist who knew his hillbilly music better than most.

There's a great new compilation that's just been released by Rev Ola records that looks a little deeper into The King's undeniable obsession with all things country and having been listening to it, and playing it on my radio show, for some weeks now I'm delighted to say I can recommend it wholeheartedly to first time fans and hardened believers alike. 

Called The Roots And Rumours Of Elvis it's a fascinating trawl through songs that the young Presley allegedly recorded, but were subsequently lost, at Sun and numbers that he apparently played live in that self same mid fifties era.  This means we get such full blown honky tonk classics as Lefty Frizzell's Always Late (With Your Kisses) and Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses) along side blues tunes like Ivory Joe Hunter's I Almost Lost My Mind and sing a long standards like Red Foley's Tennessee Saturday Night.  A lot of the tracks are pure guess work, there's no definitive history of just what Elvis actually played live at many of his early shows for example, but it's a fun concept and one that fans will love getting stuck into.  Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, for example, from whom Elvis appropriated That's All Right is represented by Hand Me Down My Walking Cane, another original that the King apparently admired.  Had he recorded this instead of That's All Right would he have taken off in quite the same way?  The questions are many and the answers are few.

Essentially a companion piece to The Roots Of Elvis Vol One, released by the same label last year, this is a great way to celebrate the country leanings of the man and also enjoy some truly great music in the process.  Get yourself a copy today.