Friday, February 03, 2006

Edwin Letcher Goes Everly Crazy!

The Everly Brothers Gone Gone Gone CD (Collectors’ Choice)… It’s a good thing the Everly Brothers didn’t let something as petty as a few years without hits deter them from putting out album after album of high quality material. This is one of the best records they did in the mid-sixties. Gone Gone Gone was a return to rock and roll after four years trying their hands at everything from Christmas and country music to adult contemporary fluff. The songwriting is superb throughout. Don and Phil struck paydirt many times with tunes by the Bryants, so it’s only natural that five of the twelve songs here are theirs. But someone should do a collection of Everly-penned tunes someday. Three of the twelve winners on this disc are theirs and they shine just as brightly. (Edwin Letcher)

The Everly Brothers It’s Everly Time CD (Collectors’ Choice)… This is a killer diller album, the first in a whole string Don and Phil recorded for Warner Brothers. They had a somewhat better track record on the independent label Cadence, but hit the ground running for the WB. And while their audience might have quit buying the records in the same gigantic quantities, the boys never slacked up any on their end. The songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant were responsible for half the songs on this effort and their work stacks up well against past glories like “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Bye Bye Love.” All the material is strong, with Don’s “So Sad (to Watch Good Love Go Bad)” one of my faves on this set. (Edwin Letcher)

The Everly Brothers Roots CD (Collectors’ Choice)… This was the last studio album Don and Phil did with Warner Brothers. The boys and the label heads pulled out all the stops and put together a wonderful country-rock record. Unfortunately, there just weren’t very many folks clambering for such an animal, and this became yet another well-intentioned and executed project that went nowhere. The lads did a couple Merle Haggard songs, and covered Jimmie Rodgers, Glen Campbell, Ray Price and George Jones. Ron Elliott of the Beau Brummels was heading in the same neo-country direction and supplied a couple songs as well as some guitar and production work. There are some orchestral, almost psychedelic touches sprinkled throughout that add an otherworldly quality to the material and give it a nicely cohesive feel, even though the album mixed state-of-the-art ’68 rock with clips of the Everly Brothers’ act circa 1952. (Edwin Letcher)

2 comments:

Prmod Bafna said...

Hmmm great post on the everly brothers music.. will b sure to check em out ;)

VP81955 said...

The "Gone Gone Gone" album isn't really one per se, but a slapdash collection Warners put together in late 1964 to capitalize on the single (which in itself is splendid, one of the Everlys' best rockers). A few of the tracks are from earlier albums circa 1960.