The Ubiquitous HIred Gun Session Veteran Shout-Out Thread

Good James Burton interview, 31 minutes---stream, download, or read:
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/757066866/elvis-guitarist-james-burton-i-went-professional-when-i-was-14

Idk where else to put this, but I was looking at records in an antique mall the other day, and the first record was a Stanley Turrentine one with Wilton Felder on bass (Up Front), and the next was a Wilton Felder record as a leader on sax. If I hadn't already known a little bit about him, I definitely would have been intrigued.

There's really something awesome about guys who are session aces on totally different instruments. Like, I just learned that Charlie McCoy, best known for being the harmonica player on tons of stuff like "The Boxer," or playing guitar on lots of Dylan stuff, also played sax on "Pretty Woman." (I also learned in the process that "Pretty Woman" apparently has sax, buried though it may be.)

G.E. Smith is a great guitar player, of course, but I really like the way he tells a story https://t.co/Ewl0SoGm1H

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) May 21, 2021

RIP Roger Hawkins

:(

I mean I already knew but was already thinking about this earlier today.

omg the current episode of cocaine & rhinestones (s2 e3), about the nashville a-team, is fanfuckingtastic and absolute required listening for anyone on this thread or anyone who's a fan of

grady martin!
chip young!
pete drake!
lloyd green!
floyd cramer!
charlie mccoy!
the jordanaires!
buddy harman!
etc!

https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/nashville-a-team

(also, this appears to be the first mention of chip young on this thread!)

Andrew “Mike” Terry!

RIP (never mentioned on this thread) kenny malone! :(

https://i.imgur.com/vwp9iNq.jpg

This is a good interview with 'cousin' Kenny Vaughn, pretty wide array of musicians referenced in the low key long talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb4JKW4bs7M

Hah, came here to mention the cocaine & rhinestones episode about the Nashville A-Team and see FCC gave ‘‘em all a shout out last year. Seconded.

Yeah, that's a good one. He's so tendentious and cranky sometimes, yet deeply knowledgeable. Fun.

Hugh McCracken!

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 6 January 2005 03:58 (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Scott beat me to it, 17 years ago. Still, on this side of the Atlantic we have...

Hugh Burns!

Just noticed that I've been reading and/or posting in this thread for one third of my life.

Not my adult life. not my online life. My actual human life.

RIP hargus "pig" robbins :(

RIP, person I thought was....

Carl Fortina!

Andy Stein!

Al Perkins!

Carl Lynch!

Dennis Coffey was a member of the Funk Brothers, who were pretty tied to the studio as a whole, but even before his solo hit, "Scorpio," he would just go a little ways over from Motown to a local club, for a regular gig in an organ trio, resulting, for instance, in the amaaazing set recorded in '68, released by Omnivore in 2018 as One Night at Morey's. in 2019, Omnivore put out Live at Baker's, recorded in 2006, and the Detroit Music Factory label issued Down By The River in 2019: both solid, distinctive takes on jazz, not exciting in the same way as the 60s cosmic funk of Morey's, but very enjoyable.
wiki sez:

...as a member of the Funk Brothers studio band, Coffey played on dozens of recordings for Motown Records, and introduced a hard rock guitar sound to Motown record producer Norman Whitfield's recordings, including distortion, Echoplex tape-loop delay, and wah-wah: most notably heard on "Cloud Nine", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)", and "Psychedelic Shack" by The Temptations. He played on numerous other hit records of the era: Edwin Starr's "War", Diana Ross & The Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together", and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold".

In 1971, Coffey recorded "Scorpio" which was a million selling instrumental single that peaked in the US at number nine on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart and at number six on the Billboard Hot 100.[2] The instrumental track featured the former Motown "funk brother", Bob Babbitt on bass. On January 8, 1972 Coffey became the first white artist to perform on the television show Soul Train, playing "Scorpio".[3] "Scorpio" received a gold disc awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 9, 1971.[4]
...In 2004, he published a memoir, Guitars, Bars and Motown Superstars.

In 2008, he co-produced the Carl Dixon sessions at Studio A, Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Four tracks were recorded featuring some of the Funk Brothers including Uriel Jones, Bob Babbitt, Coffey and Ray Monette, plus other distinguished Detroit session musicians...

,,,Along with Mike Theodore, Coffey discovered the folk-rock singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, who is the subject of the 2012 Oscar-winning film Searching for Sugar Man in which Coffey appears. Coffey played lead guitar on Rodriguez's first album Cold Fact (1970).

Got a bunch of other albums too, incl. on Westbound (hopefully some P-Funk involvement on those).

Harold Bradley!

RIP Bobby Eli

In 2011, Daryl Sanders gets the word from "all but one" of the surviving local A-listees who played on Blonde On Blonde---& made Galileo look like a Boy Scout, too much man, let it all hang out:

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/looking-back-on-bob-dylans-i-blonde-on-blonde-i-the-record-that-changed-nashville/article_c17cc27e-b6e4-5794-901c-e2e7ce4c5cb9.html

Maybe not the perfect thread for this, but today I learned about Barry Miles, who released a record as a 14 year old drum prodigy on Charlie Parker's record label (!), featuring his original bebop tunes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqgfqTy-Mw

Then he switched to piano, and made fusion records with his *14 year old littler brother on drums* playing like Tony Williams:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIZ_mEdhBs8

Then he was Roberta Flack's music director during the '80s/'90s, with his brother on drums sometimes I think. And apparently his brother Terry Silverlight is a very successful tv composer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Silverlight

Look at them go...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzaMjBfUvec

https://immediatefamilyfilm.com/

“I had been hesitant to make a follow up to "The Wrecking Crew". But when I was approached with the idea of "The Immediate Family", I didn't think twice. The Immediate Family consists of Danny 'Kootch' Kortchmar Guitar/Vocal, Leland Sklar Bass, Russ Kunkel on Drums, Waddy Wachtel Guitar/Vocal and Steve Postell Guitar/Vocal.”

Oh right.

A friend showed me this, which is pretty interesting, though the interviewer looks like a distracting cross between Paul Williams and George Lucas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zpTY20TL44

Kunkel is okay but not revelatory. Wachtel is a legend just for his hairdo.

But Lee Muthaflippin Sklar? That dude gives me a frisson of gratitude every time I reflect on our collective good fortune that we get to co-exist with him. This story alone solidifies his place among the GOATs, where he put a non-functioning "shimmer" switch on his bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6lEX0guChs

Yes, Lee Sklar seems like a great guy.

I am not a Beato fanboi but that Tommy Tedesco anecdote is golden.

Bill Jennings!