Paul Burlison – Train Kept A-Rollin’
It’s some story — not enough to get guitarist Paul Burlison in the indexes of most music history books, but explore the legend of Johnny Burnette & the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio, and you’ll find Burlison landing honorable mention as the guy who “invented” fuzz guitar. As Burlison explains in an interview on this enhanced CD, all he did was drop his amp on the way to a stage in Philadelphia one night, knocking a tube loose. After “Train Kept A-Rollin'” was released as a single in 1956, engineers beat down his door to see how he’d mastered the sound.
Train Kept A-Rollin’ delivers an updated version of that tune with Burlison still scorchin’ at 69, but now it’s Johnny and Dorsey Burnette’s sons — Rocky and Billy — on vocals, Gary Tallent on bass and D.J. Fontana on drums. Also playing guitar on this and other tunes is The Band’s Jim Weider, who produced this disc of straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll. Adding more class to Train are the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Kim Wilson; Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas and Conrad Lozano; The Band’s Rick Danko and Levon Helm; and Mavis Staples.
The disc, 11 songs in 39 minutes, includes two other Trio tunes: “Lonesome Tears In My Eyes”, featuring the guitars and vocals of the Los Lobos crew, who make it their own, and “Lonesome Train (On A Lonesome Track)”, a standout anachronistic version sung by Danko.
Burlison shares leads on most of the songs, a nice touch that adds to their diversity. The riffs aren’t inventive, but they’re played so exceptionally that it hardly matters. “Love’s Like Rain”, an excellent tune written by Weider and Colin Linden, features Wilson’s soulful vocals, the legendary background pipes of Staples, and the weeping organ and Wurlitzer of Richard Bell. And Staples and Helm turn the Leiber/Stoller classic “Hound Dog” into a sweet duet, with Danko singing background.
If nothing else, Train Kept A-Rollin’ shows how close the musicians who chose to be a part of this project fell from the Trio tree.