Duane Eddy - Brian Setzer collaboration - Will It See the Light of Day?

This may be old news to some of you, but I just stumbled across this article from last January, regarding a Duane Eddy show in Anaheim last January 14th. Toward the bottom of the article he talks about an album he's looking to find some distribution for, with guests artists that include Phil Everly and Brian Setzer:

Duane Eddy Returns

You know Duane Eddy. Even if your parents weren’t old enough to buy records during the “King of Twang” guitarist’s heyday of the early 1960s, you’ve surely heard his distinctive plucking—or at least the countless artists who have borrowed from his pioneering sound. Eddy’s bold, single-note melodies and the bending of the low strings produced a run of 34 chart singles, 15 of which made the Top 40, racking up sales of more than $100 million worldwide.

Eddy’s groundbreaking debut album, Have “Twangy” Guitar—Will Travel, remained on the charts for 82 weeks after being released in 1958. His singular sound—infused with elements of country, blues, jazz and gospel—influenced George Harrison, Dave Davies, Mark Knopfler, Foreigner’s Mick Jones and Who bassist John Entwistle, to name just a few.

Now 71, the Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer returns to Orange County Saturday for a rare live performance, backed by a band he will have met fresh off the plane from Nashville.

Another hot guitarist whose sound harkens back to Eddy’s halcyon days, Deke Dickerson, snagged the icon for the seventh-annual Guitar Geek Festival that runs during—and near—the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“Each year, I say to myself, ‘How much I would kill to get Duane Eddy?’” Dickerson says. “Duane has the reputation of being very private, somewhat reclusive, and in this day and age of everyone posting everything about themselves every 30 seconds on Twitter, Duane doesn’t have a website, he doesn’t have a management company, and just tracking him down proved nearly impossible.”

Dan Forte, a Nashville-based music critic who performed under the nom de plume “Teisco Del Rey” at a previous Guitar Geek Festival, let it drop that Duane and his wife, Deed, were his friends. Dickerson promptly fired off an e-mail to Mrs. Eddy in October, asking if her husband would be interested in appearing at the festival and heard . . . nothing.

“I figured it was a dead end,” Dickerson recalls. “Imagine my surprise nearly a month later when my phone rang at 7 in the morning, and on the other end, a voice [said], ‘Hello, Deke, this is Duane Eddy. . . . Now about this festival of yours . . .’”

Forte had been doing the hard-sell in Nashville.

“Dan suggested to me it would be fun to do,” Eddy tells the Weekly nonchalantly and non-recluse-like by phone. “Deke was apparently saying he’d like to have me on his show. Between the three of us, we arranged it, so I guess it’s going to happen.”

The guitar great concedes he’ll be as surprised as the audience over what comes out of his Duane Eddy Signature Gibson and Gretsch guitars.

“I’m expecting to have a good time,” says Eddy, who does not get to play live as much as he’d like.

“There is not a lot of demand,” he says. “As a friend of mine says, ‘There’s a pent-up demand for you out there, Duane.’ That’s Kenny O’Dell. That’s one of our jokes.”

O’Dell, who has been friends with Eddy for around 50 years, wrote “Behind Closed Doors,” which Charlie Rich made into a big country hit. Everyone apparently knows everyone in Nashville. And Eddy knows Orange County. He and Dick Dale, playing separate shows, were among the first rock & rollers to appear at the old Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa in 1960 and ’61.

Reminded of this, and of how Eddy influenced the surf guitar sound that came out of OC and southern Los Angeles County in the early 1960s, he remarked, “I just met Dick Dale recently, when he was inducted in the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville. We had fun talking. His passion for guitars is very refreshing and fun to listen to.”

Eddy did not know much about NAMM, but his ears perked up after he was informed that music-industry types will likely be about. He’s currently looking for a distributor for a new album he’s made; Artifacts of Twang features 10 new originals and one cover. Guest vocalists include Phil Everly, Brian Setzer and Griffin House.

Dickerson couldn’t be happier Eddy’s coming here.

“To say that it is a huge thrill to have Duane on the festival is a major understatement,” he says. “If there was a Mount Rushmore of rock & roll electric-guitar players, Duane would be George Washington.”


Anyone know anything more about this? I don't know if this "Artifacts of Twang" album will ever get released, but maybe Brian and Surfdog could convince Duane to be a part of Brian's new "guitars only" project. If not, maybe Surfdog would consider getting involved to help this album get out.

Ever since Duane joined Brian onstage in Nashville to perform "Peter Gunn" with the BSO, I've been dreaming for these two to play together again. When it all comes true, wow! That's Somethin' Else!

Rebel Rouser-billy

I know nothing, but it would certainly be great if it ever saw the light of day!

I was at that with my wife, I got to say hi to Mr. Eddy in the hall.. Setzer wasnt part of the show.
Duane was at Namm as well.

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

I was at that with my wife, I got to say hi to Mr. Eddy in the hall.. Setzer wasnt part of the show.
Duane was at Namm as well.

Tavo, you are always there where beat goes on.
I`m impressed.
If i ever come to SoCa i`m sure your house is marked in one of these touristic maps.



By the way i was playing an audition last sunday for a new prof. Show-Band. They wanted a Gretsch/Setzer/Rockabilly-Style player for some shows.
The amp they gave me was an Engl with Marshall cab. Not bad for Metal, but for Rockabilly...
With the Nocturne in front of the amp the sound was "shake, rattle and roll".
I guess i`m in now...

According to Duane - in interview in latest issue of UK guitar mag 'Guitarist' - Setzer on his new album which is not finished.

scatcatcnut wrote:

According to Duane - in interview in latest issue of UK guitar mag 'Guitarist' - Setzer on his new album which is not finished.

so... the million dollar ..er uh.. pounds sterling question is: CAN YOU SCAN IT and SHARE with us?

I can't!! I'm on computer at work - don't have computer at home at present and no facility to do the scanning thing at work - really sorry!! Incidentally there is also an interview with Jimmie Vaughan in there as well for any T'Bird fans.

Incidentally -according to the Duane article he lost a lot of guitars in that Nashville flood -ditto Brad Paisley - who is also in that issue. Apparently Paisley lost every single guitar bar the one he had at home and all the DrZ amps etc ruined!! They were in some kid of storage facility.

Holy dead thread, Batman!

I just read about a new Duane Eddy album, Road Trip, recorded last October over 11 days in Sheffield, UK. So I went looking for this Artifacts of Twang album with Brian Setzer and Phil Everly, to see if I missed it, and it has never been released!

Shista!

Apparently, Duane Eddy's new manager also manages Sheffield's own Richard Hawley, and the two artists collaborated on Duane's first (released) studio album in nearly 25 years. As much as I yearn to hear the Setzer-Eddy pairing from the unreleased album, I can't think of an artist better-suited to orchestrate the proceedings of an entire Duane Eddy album than Richard Hawley. Hawley's Lady's Bridge album was a favorite of mine from a few years back, and whether he was channeling Phil Spector or Duane Eddy, the man was an echo master, a veritable high priest of reverb.

I can't wait to hear it. It could be the best (or second-best) instrumental album of the year!

I still hold out hope for the release of the Artifacts album, though. I can't get enough of that twang!

Link to Review and Purchase of Road Trip

Road Trip-a-billy

Rickabilly wrote:

Holy dead thread, Batman!

I just read about a new Duane Eddy album, Road Trip, recorded last October over 11 days in Sheffield, UK. So I went looking for this Artifacts of Twang album with Brian Setzer and Phil Everly, to see if I missed it, and it has never been released!

Shista!

Apparently, Duane Eddy's new manager also manages Sheffield's own Richard Hawley, and the two artists collaborated on Duane's first (released) studio album in nearly 25 years. As much as I yearn to hear the Setzer-Eddy pairing from the unreleased album, I can't think of an artist better-suited to orchestrate the proceedings of an entire Duane Eddy album than Richard Hawley. Hawley's Lady's Bridge album was a favorite of mine from a few years back, and whether he was channeling Phil Spector or Duane Eddy, the man was an echo master, a veritable high priest of reverb.

I can't wait to hear it. It could be the best (or second-best) instrumental album of the year!

I still hold out hope for the release of the Artifacts album, though. I can't get enough of that twang!

Link to Review and Purchase of Road Trip

Road Trip-a-billy

You should hang out now and then at the Gretsch discussion pages on Duane's Thread or join his Facebook page. You'd be up to date quite well.
ps. here's duane's pedals, I just found out he digs the Brain

I've just been over there today. Lotsa great Duane info. I still can't quite figure out what happened with the Artifacts of Twang album. Deed Eddy said they were looking for someone to distribute the album in 2009 / early 2010, and then Duane switched management. And the album never materialized. I understand wanting to move on, especially after the frustration of not being able to get the album out. And it sounds as though these latest Sheffield sessions really reinvigorated Duane. He's even talked about buying a home in Sheffield and living there half the year. But I hope he revisits the Artifacts album sometime soon.

Richard Hawley arranges these lush reverb-drenched pop symphonies in his own work, which could showcase one side of Duane's sound nicely. I hope he captures the rockin' side as well.

I guess that's why I was so excited about the previous project, as it purported to be a rock-n-roll centered album.

Anyway, I'll post my thoughts about the Road Trip album as soon as it wings its way over from the UK.

Sheffield-billy

Rickabilly wrote:

I've just been over there today. Lotsa great Duane info. I still can't quite figure out what happened with the Artifacts of Twang album. Deed Eddy said they were looking for someone to distribute the album in 2009 / early 2010, and then Duane switched management. And the album never materialized. I understand wanting to move on, especially after the frustration of not being able to get the album out. And it sounds as though these latest Sheffield sessions really reinvigorated Duane. He's even talked about buying a home in Sheffield and living there half the year. But I hope he revisits the Artifacts album sometime soon.

Richard Hawley arranges these lush reverb-drenched pop symphonies in his own work, which could showcase one side of Duane's sound nicely. I hope he captures the rockin' side as well.

I guess that's why I was so excited about the previous project, as it purported to be a rock-n-roll centered album.

Anyway, I'll post my thoughts about the Road Trip album as soon as it wings its way over from the UK.

Sheffield-billy

I've kinda gone Eddy crazy too as I just put tvjones Dynasonic pickups in my Setzer signature guitar even ordered a duane eddy bigsby handle for it.. btw.. do you own "Twang Anthology?" He's got a song he did with a momentary doowop group called "the sharps" Originally called Have Love Will Travel.. together on the same label with Duane it was called
"Have Gun will Travel"? The lead vocal in that group has a distinct sound and I've tried to hunt this character down and find other recordings of his as a new white kid on the block JD Mcpherson has bagged "That" vocal styling along with some little Richard too. Any thoughts on that little gem?

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

.... a momentary doowop group called "the sharps" Originally called Have Love Will Travel.. together on the same label with Duane it was called "Have Gun will Travel"? The lead vocal in that group has a distinct sound and I've tried to hunt this character down and find other recordings of his as a new white kid on the block JD Mcpherson has bagged "That" vocal styling along with some little Richard too. Any thoughts on that little gem?

You mean these guys?

There's a bit of info on this youtube-clip, a.o. the line-up: Carl White (Lead), Al Frazier (Tenor), Sonny Harris (Lead), Turner "Rocky" Wilson Jr (Bass). Whether it's Carl White or Sonny Harris who sings lead on this track, he sure has a cool voice. Doesn't seem like a "momentary" group though - they recorded with Thurston Harris before turning into the Crenshaws. Here are some other songs too:








Other info I've found claims they turned into the Rivingtons. Probably different "the Sharps", although this lead singer sounds kinda the same... Great stuff all the same, even though the lyrics aren't exactly DEEP...

Yep seen all that.. I want the lead singers album delivered to me on a platter! at least a website to order from

Just got the new Duane Eddy cd...good stuff - get your hands on this one if you can.