On my blog site recently there's been a conversation beginning about the "rules" of being a modern rockabilly band. In among my posts I confessed that when I first started playing in a rockabilly band years ago, I didn't even know enough about rockabilly to recognize that my bass guitar wasn't " genuine" rockabilly gear. All I knew is that I enjoyed the noise of the music and I wished to play it. I quickly learnt that there were a great deal of fans who felt that we could not be a genuine rockabilly band since I wasn't playing slap bass on an upright bass fiddle. A reader in the UK relates a comparable experience due to the fact that he doesn't play the "right" guitar for rockabilly. This all raises an old aching spot with me and opens the discussion when again about what's important: The music or the look ?
Opting for the look
Naturally, it's fun to dress like the original rockabilly felines and chicks from the mid to late 1950s when rockabilly was fresh and brand-new and Elvis was taking the world by storm in addition to all of the other artists he influenced. And by and big, it does not cost a great deal of cash to attain the rockabilly look. You can discover all sort of fantastic clothes at garage and yard sale along with pre-owned stores. Simply gunning through the far back of your parents' (or grandparents'!) closets can reap fantastic rewards for rockabilly clothing.
But things get more complicated when you're in the band. Now it's not just the clothes that make the rockabilly look. It's the instruments. And it's a lot more costly to set yourself up with a classic instrument from the 50s period. And brand-new instruments made to appear like the old ones are not exactly cheap either. What's a brand-new aspiring rockabilly act to do? If they don't feature a standup bass and a Gretsch 6120 hollow-body guitar (like the one Eddie Cochran played), they're not taken seriously. They're seen as imposters, not genuine "rockabillies".
The initial rockabilly club was not exclusive
Absolutely nothing might be further from the spirit of initial rockabilly! Rockabilly was not an exclusive club that was open only to those kids that came from wealthy families that could pay for the "right" instruments. No method! By and big, our heroes were dirt bad. These men were vibrant, here young players who took whatever they took place to have at hand and made music with it! And as modern rockabilly fans, we've all gained the banquet of remarkable music that these artists made on those instruments.
Now, it simply so occurs that hollow-body electrical guitars and stand-up basses are the instruments that a great deal of these people owned back then. After all, those were the same instruments utilized by country musicians of the day and since rockabilly was so strongly rooted in nation, it made sense that rockabilly musicians-- numerous of whom started playing country initially-- utilized those same instruments. However not all of them followed that mold.
For example, as far as guitarists go, they utilized several guitars to make their music And they weren't all hollow-body guitars. No one believes less of Carl Perkins due to the fact that his blockbuster "Blue Suede Shoes" was taped with a solid-body Les Paul guitar. Friend Holly played a solid-body Fender Stratocaster on his fantastic early rockabilly and no one at the time discounted him. Cliff Gallup, who bet Gene Vincent's Blue Caps utilized a strong Gretsch DuoJet guitar and most rockabilly fans consider his guitar work as some of the absolute finest rockabilly playing of perpetuity.
It's not the look, it's the music.
To put it simply, it wasn't about the "look" at that time. It had to do with the noise and it was about the energy. It's fun to have the "look" these days and the majority of bands attempt to put their own spin on the classic look. However eventually when I go to a rockabilly show, I'm far less concerned with what the band appears like as I am with what they sound like. If they rock and their music makes me smile the method and move rockabilly does, well then, that's good enough for me! The rockabilly neighborhood might really use with less concern about the look and more concern about letting go and taking pleasure in the noises. After all, that's what it's really everything about anyway.
If you're a group of kids and you don't have lots of dough, however you wish to start a rockabilly band, you'll probably face the self-appointed "authentic-look" police eventually. Do not let them stop you. Choose up the instruments you crash and have into those very first strains of a great rockabilly tune. If they can't see previous your seek to listen to and enjoy the music, it's their loss ... not yours!
In one of my posts I confessed that when I first began playing in a rockabilly band years earlier, I didn't even know adequate about rockabilly to realize that my bass guitar wasn't "authentic" rockabilly equipment. Cliff Gallup, who played for Gene Vincent's Blue Caps used a strong Gretsch DuoJet guitar and most rockabilly fans consider his guitar work as some of the outright finest rockabilly playing of all time.
Robert Gordon was doing straight-out rockabilly and having a bit of success while bands like The Blasters were using rockabilly influence heavily to form a brand-new "roots rock" noise.
These fans do not just purchase rockabilly records and go to rockabilly programs. The rockabillies use the trappings of 1950s fashion to express their love for rockabilly music and the excellent parts of the rockabilly lifestyle.