He may not be a household name, but Roland Janes is
a Memphis legend, with a musical career that spans six decades. Along with
Scotty Moore and Carl Perkins, he developed the rockabilly guitar style at Sun
Records. He played on the majority of Jerry Lee Lewis’s 200+ Sun recordings.
Janes was a modest man who could submerge his own ego and virtuosity for the
good of a session.
Born in Brookings, AK, in 1933, Janes was the product
of a musical family -- his father, a lumberjack, moonlighted as a guitarist,
and his siblings and cousins played a variety of instruments as well. After his
parents divorced, Janes spent his adolescence shuttling between Brookings and
his mother's home in St. Louis. Around the age of 13, he first picked up the
mandolin, soon moving to guitar and playing country music in combination with
his cousins.
In 1953 Janes relocated to Memphis, and when work proved scarce he
joined the U.S. Marine Corps. During his tour of duty he played guitar in
military service clubs, and following his discharge returned to Memphis to back
pianist Doc McQueen, through whom he met guitarist/engineer Jack Clement, who
in turn brought him to Sam Phillips' Sun Records.
Janes served as the linchpin of the Sun house band
from 1956 to 1963. During that time, he played on landmark Lewis sides like
"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "High School
Confidential," and was a founding member of Riley's crack backing band,
the Little Green Men, in addition to collaborating on records headlined by
everyone from Charlie Rich to Sonny Burgess. The guitar intro to Riley’s
“Flyin' Saucers Rock and Roll” is legendary. Janes also worked with a young Roy
Orbison on his first Sun recordings, including "Chicken Hearted"
(1958).
His Roland
Janes Band also cut its own Sun session on February 11, 1959 -- essentially the
Little Green Men with Riley on second guitar and Eddie Cash on vocals, the
group recorded five songs, none of them officially released until 1987.
For Phillips' brother Jud's eponymous label, Janes released the 1959 instrumental "Guitarville" and “Patriotic Guitar” on his Judd label, credited to Roland James (with an m). Later in 1959 Riley and Janes recorded as The Spitfires for the Jaro label. One side of their instrumental single was “Catfish”, a re-recording of the unissued “Rolando” from the February session. The tune sounded suspiciously like Buddy Holly’s “Modern Don Juan”.
Billy Lee Riley's Little Green Men: Riley, Roland
Janes, Marvin Pepper, and J.M. Van Eaton
|
For Phillips' brother Jud's eponymous label, Janes released the 1959 instrumental "Guitarville" and “Patriotic Guitar” on his Judd label, credited to Roland James (with an m). Later in 1959 Riley and Janes recorded as The Spitfires for the Jaro label. One side of their instrumental single was “Catfish”, a re-recording of the unissued “Rolando” from the February session. The tune sounded suspiciously like Buddy Holly’s “Modern Don Juan”.
Janes played regularly on Sun record releases
adding guitar that "was both surgically precise and wildly kinetic,
perfectly complementing the delirious energy that galvanized Sun's most
memorable contributions to the early days of rock & roll." Janes was
also responsible for "nearly single-handedly inventing many of the
engineering methods used in modern recordings, from microphone placement and
cabling to board and tape deck tricks." In 1960 Janes and Riley formed
their own label, Rita Records, and had a hit with Harold Dorman's
"Mountain of Love".
He left Sun in 1963 and opened his own studio,
Sonic Recording Service, where he produced records by Jerry Jaye, Travis
Wammack, and others. The studio closed in 1974, but in 1977 Janes returned to
the music industry as a producer and engineer at the Sounds of Memphis recording
studio, as well as a teacher of recording techniques. In 1982, he retired from
teaching and went to work for Sam Phillips again. For the remaining 31 years of
his life he worked as a producer and engineer at Sam Phillips Recording Service
for Knox and Jerry Phillips and continued as an active session musician,
playing guitar on Mudhoney's 1998 album Tomorrow Hit Today
Janes recorded all kinds of music, mostly with young musicians. Occasionally he still did session work for others. He was elected to The Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame not long before his death (following a heart attack) on October 18, 2013, aged 80.
(Compiled and edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic and
article by Colin Escott @Bear Family) :
5 comments:
For “Roland Janes – Guitarville!” go here:
https://www31.zippyshare.com/v/kqEALfxc/file.html
1 Guitarville
2 Patriotic Guitar
3 Rolando (Take 2)
4 Roland's Groove
5 Guitarville
6 Patriotic Guitar (unissued)
7 Rolando (Take 1)
8 Red Sails In The Sunset
9 Impact
10 Sincerely Yours
11 Roland Slidin' Home
12 My Kind Of People
13 The Story Of My Downfall
14 Don't Push Me Around
15 It's No Sin
Thanks too for Huelyn Duvall and Roland Janes! Wonderful stuff, thanks Bob!
Thanks very much, great stuff
Anyway you could re upload this?
Hello bigCman. Here's the new link
https://krakenfiles.com/view/SibJ38ZjG3/file.html
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