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Blue Rhythm Boys

Jim Carlisle

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Jim Carlisle – Don’t Start Cryin’ Now

Jim Carlisle

Billy Goat BILL 001 [1978]
Don’t Start Cryin’ Now / She Knows How to Rock Me
Jim Carlisle, who later formed the Blue Rhythm Boys with Paul Ansell, made his debut recording on Billy Goat records in 1978 with this single on which he plays all instruments.
The A-side is a Slim Harpo tune turned into a Rockabilly that wouldn’t be out of place on Sun or Meteor labels. The sound is impressive, very authentic as some would say, and if you didn’t know it was recorded by a British guy in the late seventies, you’d swear it comes straight from an old dusty box of unissued tapes from the fifties.
The same goes for Piano Red’s She Knows How to Rock Me which is more rockin’ blues.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Rockout records

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Rockout records

Rockout records was a Rockabilly and Psychobilly label formed by Gary “Gaz” Day, bass player for the Gazmen, the Frantic Flintstones, the Nitros, and Morrissey.

Rockout records

7″

  • The Nitros – North´n´South – NITEP001 [1993]

10″ LP

12″ LP’s

  • The Nitros – Something’s Gotta Give – NITLP001 [1993]
  • Paul Ansell’s Number Nine – Number Nine – NIT LP 002 [1993]
  • Frantic Flintstones – Ravin’ With The Lunatics – NIT LP 003 [1993]
  • The Caravans – Straightside – NITLP 004 [1993]
  • Carlos And The Playboys – Girls On The Loose – NITLP005 [1994]

CD’s

  • The Nitros – Something’s Gotta Give – NITCD001 [1993]
  • Blue Rhythm Boys – That ´Ol Blue Magic – NITCD 006 [1994]

Cat Talk

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Cat Talk – Gonna Miss Me

Gonna Miss Me – I Wish I Never Lost You
Scat Records BC001 SCAT 010

Cat Talk

Named after Lew Williams’ song, Cat Talk was a rockabilly band from England formed by Chad Strentz (vocals), Sam Crabtree (Lead Guitar), Roger van Niekerk (drums) and Brad (double bass.)
Crabtree previously played with Red Hot’n’Blue and the Blue Rhythm Boys while Strentz sang with Scat Cats.
The band released this self-produced single in the early eighties (around 1983.)
Despite being credited to Strentz and Crabtree, Gonna Miss Me is not an original but the classic Muddy Waters tune. Their version is slightly sped up and more rockin’.
The flip side is an excellent boppin’ Rockabilly.
If you want to have an idea of their sound, I’d say that Cat Talk wouldn’t have been out of place in the Northwood catalog.

cat talk

V/A – The Northwood Story

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the Northwood Story

the Northwood Story
the Northwood Story

The Northwood Story

NVCDCOMP 3
Red Hot ‘n’ Blue – Sure Like The Look In Your Eyes / Riverside Trio – Forty Miles Away / Lazy Farm Boys – Jack Rabbit / Sure Shots – Fire Engine Baby / Lone Stars – Lonely Town / Rochee & The Sarnos – Woman Eater / Blue Rhythm Boys – That Don’t Move Me (Alternate Take) / Slingshots – Hay Rig Ride / Fireball XL5 – Walking On The Edge Of Midnight / Red Hot ‘n’ Blue – Caldonia / 4 Blazes – Buck Dance Rhythm / Peter Davenport & the Roof Raisers – Bop A Du Bop A Du Bop / Riverside Trio – Dopey Frutti / Slingshots – That Chick’s Too Young To Fry / Sprites – B-I-Bickey-Bi Bo Bo Bo / Fireball XL5 – Blues Don’t Go / Blue Rhythm Boys – Rollin’ And Tumblin’ / Red Hot ‘n’ Blue – Move Baby Move / Riverside Trio – You Lied All Through The Night / Crawdads – Don’t Let Religion Fool Ya

Northwood was one the most exciting label of the mid 80’s, aiming at an “authenthic” sound before the term was coined by so-called purists. This collection gathers 20 songs, including 18 never issued before.
Red Hot’n’Blue are featured here with three songs. Sure Like The Look In Your Eyes is a re-cut of their great blues bopper with a different line-up and a fuller sound. Louis Jordan’s Caldonia is a track that didn’t make it on the album and was scheduled for a 7″. They give it a real jazz treatment by merging it with Babs Gonzales/Dizzy Gillespie’s Oop pop a da. Superb solos from every band members. The third song is a live take of Dick Penner’s Move Baby Move.
The Riverside Trio was the other great name of the label and the other band to have a full lp. Included here are two hillbilly boppers (one from their early demo and a studio outtake from their debut album) and a new version of Doppey Frutti, probably recorded to be released as a 7″.
The Blue Rhythm Boys were another great band on Northwood. Too bad there wasn’t more unissued stuff. Rollin’ & Tumblin’ comes from their 7″ and That Don’t Move Me is an alternate take of the Carl Perkins cover also present on their debut 45rpm, though this take is a lot wilder.
The Sprites (featuring Pascal Guimbard who later played with Red Hot’n’Blue) were a French band playing Gene Vincent inspired stuff. They had two songs on Big Noise from Northwood. Their cover of Vincent’s B-I-Bickey-Bi sounds exactly like the Screaming Kids.
Another promising act was the Slingshots, who were also on Big Noise. They played Rockabilly with a strong rural feel, and released their debut album more than ten years later after their debut on wax. The Crawdads who have one song here followed a similar path by releasing their debut album “On A Platter” in the early 90’s.
The Sureshots became very popular on the scene, they were and still are a solid live band and released some great albums too. Their cover of the Jiv-A-Tones‘Fire Engine Baby was released on a French ep with the French band the Jokers. This is an alternate take.
The Lonestars later evolved into Howlin’ Wilf’s Vee jays. They played rockin’ blues with a touch of jazz. With the two songs featured on the James Dean of the Dole Queue sampler Lonely Town is to my knowledge their only release.
The Four Blazes featured Pat Reyford and have one song here, a hillbilly rendition of Slim Gaillard’s Buck Dance Rhythm.
Peter Davenport is famous for his association with the Stargazers. The Roofraisers were his first post Gazers venture and featured Jacko Buddin on vocals. Bop A Du Bop A Du Bop is one of the two songs that first appeared on Big Noise From Northwood. Great Bill Haley/Jodimars inspired stuff.
This compilation also proposes an unissued songs from Rochee & the Sarnos (Woman Eater) and two songs by Fireball XL5.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis

The Blue Rhythm Boys

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Blue Rhythm Boys - At Last (wild records)
Blue Rhythm Boys – At Last (wild records)

Blue Rhythm Boys - At Last (Big Beat)
Blue Rhythm Boys – At Last (Big Beat)

The Blue Rhythm Boys – At Last

Big Beat CD WIK 105 {1992}
Wild Records {2010}
That’s The Stuff You Gotta Watch – I’ll Go Crazy – Person To Person – I’m Walkin’ – It Isn’t Right – Cajun Love Affair – Trace Of You – Crazy Mixed Up World – Ride ‘N’ Roll – Babe’s Comin’ Home – Mother Earth – I’ll Try – Hoochie Coochie Man – Come On Back – Wang Dang Doodle – Breathless – Blue Rhythm Boogie – Go Ahead On – Catfish

Wild records has the good idea to reissue this now hard to find jewel, first released in 1992 on Ace / Big Beat.

“At Last“, seldom an album had a so perfectly suited title. This 19 songs album (15 on the 10” vinyl) fulfilled a wait of almost 10 years. Recorded live in one hectic 10 hour session it finally shows the Rhythms’ on a long distance and it was worth the wait.
The line-up has changed a bit since the EP. Ashley Kingman (Red Hot’n’Blue, Rockin’ Rocket 88 and now Big Sandy And His Fly Rite Boys) joined Ansell and Carlisle on second guitar while Matt Jackson (a gifted guitarist too) was on drums and Nick Gillroy on bass. They took advantage of this fuller line-up to delve into a more rhythm and blues/Chicago blues repertoire with songs by Willie Dixon, Fats Domino, Howlin Wolf, James Brown, Memphis Slim and Little Walter. They are often close to the originals (Hoochie Coochie Man, Wand Dang Doodle) while sometimes playing them in a rockin’ blues way (“The Stuff You Gotta Watch”). Conway Twitty’s I’ll Try is turned into a blues with pumping piano and soulful vocal from Ansell and a scorching guitar solo that make this song one of my favorite (if you’re interested). The frantic covers of Tommy Cassell’s Go Ahead On and Jerry Lee’s Breathless are here to remember us they started as a rockabilly band as do Ansell’s own “Come On Back” with another wild solo from Jim Carlisle (what a guitarist!). Another fave of mine is Cajun Love Affair with harp and some French lyrics to add the Louisiana flavor.If you like good rockin’ blues with a touch of rockabilly and soul here and there, put your hand on this one. All killer, no filler !

Available at Wild Records.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis

Blue Rhythm Boys - Northwood
Blue Rhythm Boys – Northwood

The Blue Rhythm Boys – Northwood ep

Northwood Records.-NWEP 101
Rollin & Tumblin/My Happiness/That don’t move me /Nobody but you

In the world, there are some enigmas which remain unexplained and others which find sometimes their resolution. But while waiting for this moment of “light”, the men think hard fantasise and seek placebos. For a long time the Elvis “My Happiness” version, the first recording of the future King for the Sun label remained a mystery, an “all the dreams” object for wild imagination of the whole wide world rockers. Was it possible to sense an already germinated hillbilly cat magic in this title? Even some suspicious people wondering whether this legendary Graal really existed until it was finally discovered and published for the first time ever.
But before this magic moment, a blue EP enabled us to have an idea of what this song was supposed to sound by a young Elvis. This mono recording Ep released back in the early eighties by the no longer alive british label Northwood had on his cover written in some large black capital letters framed by musical ranges what seems to be the name of the band : “The Blue Rhythm Boys”. But inside of that modest blue cover there was four tracks of pure rockabilly blues dynamite which included a presleyan “My Happiness” cover
Paul Ansell, the singer, for whom it was the first band, gives us an idea with his inhabited voice of what one dreamed being Elvis interpretation of that Betty Peterson and Borney Bergantine song. It was like holding in your hands the real one copy Sun single and being Indiana Jones listening to that relic of the past!!! It was for my part the first time that I heard a “so much fifties sounding” combo. The other tracks were “Rollin & Tumblin” (Muddy Waters), That don’t move me (Carl Perkins) and Nobody But You (Little Walter) and are real killers played by some of the finest british musicians of that era (Jim Carlisle – slide guitar, Allen Thow – bass and Jeff Tuck – drums). If you haven’t already lived that experiment and even if we all know today the Elvis “My Happiness” cover, it’s never too late to listen to what has become a rockabilly milestone for many rockers around the world.

David “Long Tall” Phisel