A long-awaited overview of Reggie Young’s six decades as Memphis and Nashville’s most in-demand guitarist.
Bobby Bland, King Curtis, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Joe Tex, Johnny Cash, Solomon Burke, Merle Haggard, Jackie DeShannon, James Carr … these are just a few of the many musical heavyweights whose recordings have been embellished by the talents of Reggie Young, Memphis and Nashville’s most versatile and in-demand session guitarist. They’re all here on this CD overview of Reggie’s six-decade career, along with 14 other prime examples of his uncanny ability to play exactly to a song’s requirements while at the same time leaving his own indelible stamp.
“Session Guitar Star” shows Reggie completely at home in all the various genres that have provided top class material for so many Ace LPs and CDs for the best part of 40 years. Thanks to his versatility we were able to make our selections from a wide range of R&B and blues, rock’n’roll, instrumentals, rockabilly, soul and pop, as well as a number of left-field country cuts to reflect the amount of time he plied his trade in Nashville. 18 of the 24 tracks are new to Ace CD.
Reggie Young’s guitar work has been heard on many Ace compilations over the years, most notably our “Memphis Boys: The Story Of American Studios” CD of 2012. We have consciously avoided any duplication of tracks here, although several of the same artists are featured, including Dusty Springfield with her gorgeous version of Goffin & King’s ‘Don’t Forget About Me’, the gritty Memphis R&B of King Curtis’ ‘In The Pocket’ and Joe Tex with the madcap, funked-up ‘Chicken Crazy’.
From Eddie Bond’s rockabilly classic ‘Slip, Slip, Slippin’ In’ to the southern boogie of Waylon Jennings’ ‘Where Do We Go From Here’, we continue our musical trip via Bobby Bland’s sublime ‘A Touch Of The Blues’, James Carr’s country soul gem ‘More Love’, Elvis Presley’s romping take on Percy Mayfield’s ‘Stranger In My Own Home Town’ and a somewhat diverse arrangement of Hank Snow’s ‘I’m Movin’ On’ from the Box Tops. After an outing for Reggie’s very first single, a strong instrumental version of ‘Dream Baby’, we can ‘Drift Away’ with Dobie Gray, experience some of James & Bobby Purify’s ‘Morning Glory’, avoid line dancing to J.J. Cale’s ‘Cocaine’ and take the Merle Haggard option, ‘I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink’.
The bumper 36-page CD booklet contains a potted musical biography of Reggie Young plus track notes, rare photos and other relevant illustrations. Reggie himself provided photos, quotes and anecdotes and was significantly involved in the track selection.
BOB DUNHAM
