Good Rockin’ Tonight is the CD companion to the PBS American Masters Documentary of the same title that presents Sam Phillips’s contribution to the history of American music. The genius of the documentary is the way it brings traditional Sun artists together with artists they influenced ranging from Jimmy Page to Matchbox 20. (If you get a chance to see the documentary, I promise you’ll never forget the session where Jerry Lee Lewis sits in with Matchbox 20.)

The CD preserves that magic of artists paying tribute to the rockabilly roots of their art and the musicians who paved the way for those later artists who took the rockabilly legacy and created something new yet familiar from it — contemporary rock and pop music. The range of contributors on this CD is astonishing, as the track listing shows:

• Paul McCartney: That’s All Right
• Jeff Beck & Chrissie Hynde: Mystery Train
• Jimmy Page & Robert Plant: My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It
• Johnny Hallyday: Blue Suede Shoes
• Elton John: Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Blue Moon of Kentucky
• Van Morrison & Carl Perkins: Sittin’ on Top of the World
• Bryan Ferry: Don’t Be Cruel
• Bob Dylan: Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache
• Eric Clapton and the Impressions: Just Walkin’ in the Rain
• Matchbox Twenty: Lonely Weekend
• Sheryl Crow: Who Will the Next Fool Be?
• Chris Isaak: It Wouldn’t Be the Same Without You
• LIVE: I Walk the Line
• The Howling Diablos and Kid Rock: Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
• Mandy Barnett and the Jordanaires: You Win Again

The performances on this CD bring to life the legacy of Sun and demonstrate the vitality of the rockabilly tradition. Some of the tracks, such as Paul McCartney or Bryan Ferry performing renditions of Elvis’s tunes that sound remarkably like the King himself, or Elton John’s take on Jerry Lee Lewis’s raucous barrelhouse piano, are extremely faithful to the original songs that have become part of our musical psyches. And the duet between Carl Perkins and Van Morrison on the traditional Sittin’ on Top of the World is unforgettable as a traditional Sun artist sits in with a more contemporary songwriter and singer.

Other artists make the songs their own and discover new dimensions to familiar music. Dylan, for example, makes the song his own while enriching the original tune. The version of I Walk the Line on this CD is another example of an incredible interpretation that discovers anew the haunting lyricism of Cash’s original.

The Kid Rock take on Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee may be one of the most exciting tracks on the CD. Though at first listening, the rap interpretation seems to take the tune very far from its rockabilly origins, a second listening suggests that Rock and the Diablos rap reinvigorates the song with all the rebelliousness that characterized those rockabilly cats who followed in Elvis’s footsteps and the alchemy of Sun Studios that changed the face of American music by transforming the Memphis and Mississippi blues into rock ‘n roll. This and the other performances make a fine tribute to the roots of rock ‘n roll. In fact, each track deserves a review, but I’ll leave that to you. I’ve highlighted a couple just to show the incredible range of interpretation on this CD. Take some time out this year and celebrate the birth of rock with this CD. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. As Sam Phillips himself wrote, “This is one helluva record!” And who can dispute Sam Phillips’s ear for good music?

Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy of Sun Records was written by Tim Bennett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise

Over the years I had more or less lost track of Peter Gabriel’s career. In the 70s I had been a diehard Genesis fan who lost interest in their music as it became more commercially successful and left its innovative head music origins. In fact, I can still recall my sense of disappointment when I saw Genesis immediately after Trick of the Tail had been released and Gabriel had left the band (although I have to say I was delighted at hearing how well Phil Collins’ voice suited their music and getting to see Bill Bruford sit in with Collins on drums). To my mind though, over the course of the years, Peter Gabriel’s songs have remained much truer to the original spirit of Genesis – charting new territory in terms of rhythms and integrating musical influences from other parts of the globe.

So I approached the concert on July 1, 2003 at Germain Amphitheatre in Columbus, Ohio with a good deal of curiosity. I looked forward to hearing, I hoped, some classic Gabriel from the earlier albums and to becoming acquainted with some newer material – especially from the recent album Up – and his current band.

The opening act, Sevara Nazarkhan, immediately demonstrated that Gabriel’s commitment to world music and its influences is unflagging. She and her band opened the concert with a fascinating set of Uzbeki music that truly rocked the house. Their music consisted of tradition Middle Eastern vocal stylings from Sevara (Uzbek music is apparently closely related to Turkish music) set very often to a hard-rocking background from a band consisting of keyboards, drum kit, bass, and doutar. The doutar is also in the lute family of instruments, as is the guitar, but is a two stringed instrument which can be alternately plucked, tapped, or played with a bow (suggesting perhaps yet another influence on Jimmy Page’s Dazed and Confused?). Their music demonstrated an incredible synthesis of rock and traditional Uzbek music that succeeds wonderfully and largely, I suspect, because of the folk traditions common to both. The blues is the blues, whether sung in the hauntingly ethereal tones of traditional central Asian vocals or in the plaintive growl of the Mississippi Delta.

Gabriel and his band followed Sevara with an incredible set. The set list, including the encore, spanned Gabriel’s career from the first solo album to his most recent and included selections from music he has composed and performed for films:

• Red Rain
• More Than This
• Secret World
• Games Without Frontiers
• Mercy Street
• Darkness
• Digging In The Dirt
• Don’t Give Up
• The Tower That Ate People
• Growing Up
• Animal Nation
• Solsbury Hill
• Sledgehammer
• Signal To Noise
• In Your Eyes
• Shock The Monkey
• Father, Son

Accompanied by Ged Lynch on drums, David Rhodes on guitar, Rachel Z on keyboards, Richard Evans on a variety of instruments from acoustic guitar to mandolin, Melanie Gabriel singing background vocals and Tony Levin on bass and stick, Gabriel’s performance of these songs was flawless. One of the concert’s highlights was the duet between father and daughter on Don’t Give Up. Gabriel was clearly delighted to share the limelight with Melanie. Hearing Gabriel and the band perform standards like Games Without Frontiers, In Your Eyes, and Sledgehammer was exciting. When they performed Solsbury Hill, Levin, Rhodes, Melanie Gabriel and Evans followed Gabriel as he skipped through the audience (“they’ve come to take me home”). This song that suggests that we are all truly nobler than the mundane routines of our lives allow, is infectious; and having the chance to see the band skip by three feet away makes it even more so.

But the new material was equally captivating and explored soundscapes very reminiscent of the early King Crimson (especially Darkness) and incorporating rhythmic structures far more complex than is typically heard in today’s popular music. This, of course, suggests the synergy of the collaboration between Peter Gabriel and Tony Levin. There are few bass players who play with the sheer energy and heart pounding pulse of Tony Levin. (You can read the Guitar Noise interview with him here.) His work with Gabriel’s band is phenomenal. And the audience both knew and appreciated it and honored his bass playing with thunderous applause. Levin lays down complex bass lines that carry Gabriel’s music into exciting places. To my mind, the rest of the band moves in and out of the sounds woven by Gabriel and Levin.

And Gabriel continues to write songs that aim to open new horizons both musically and lyrically – it is music with a conscience. During his performance of The Tower that Ate People, a giant ball descended and enclosed him, sealing him hermetically away from the band and the audience. (Frankly, if you’ve ever seen a gerbil in a gerbil ball, you’ve got the picture). The song suggests that the more human beings seek to protect themselves and grow concerned with security, the more they become the prisoners of their attempts to protect themselves and their possessions. Animal Nation (from the film The Wild Thornberrys) is, in the tradition of Shock the Monkey, a call to value the lives of the other animals with whom we share this world.

Toward the end of the concert, Gabriel performed Signal to Noise from the new album. He prefaced it with an exhortation for people to be involved in understanding that we share a global village and to let their voices be heard if they disagreed with the government’s current foreign policy. A number of people left the amphitheatre. I must admit their exit baffled me. Not very long ago they had been standing, dancing, and singing to Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers – a song whose lyrics condemn political aggression and plead for peaceful cooperation around the globe. I thought it a pity they left.

They missed a rousing encore that included a rocking rendition of Shock the Monkey and a tender lyrical ballad Gabriel wrote to his adult son after they had shared some peaceful, quiet moments during a stay in the wilds.

Gabriel is clearly still a major creative force with a band that you’ve simply got to hear. And you can: recordings of the concert are available from the Encore Series offered at www.themusic.com. Check it out.

Peter Gabriel at the Germaine Amphitheatre was written by Tim Bennett for Guitar Noise. A good guitar player you will be if you visit the above site. © 2012 Guitar Noise