John Munnerlyn and Lee Jeffriess

John Munnerlyn and Lee Jeffriess – Guitars in perspective

[2010]
Sins & Woes – It Ain’t Hay – Johnny Has The Keys – Make Way for Wyatt – Blues for Earl – Java Jump – Mercy Street – Hello Stranger – Can’t Go Back – Chester’s Mule – Swingin’ in the Kitchen – I Lost You

Fans of Big Sandy already know Lee Jeffriess, he’s, with Jeremy Wakefield, one of today’s most talented lap and pedal steel player, and you might remember Munnerlyn as the guitar player with the Haywoods. It’s an all instrumental album (all original material mostly from the pen of Munnerlyn). Of course the comparison with West and Bryant, or closer to us, Biller and Wakefield, comes to mind but they’re less jazzy and more country, hence the presence of a fiddle on a majority of tracks. Their sound owes more to the Texas Troubadours solo albums or the stuff Buddy Emmons cut with Howard Rhoton and Spider Wilson for Little Jimmy Dickens. You’ll also find a bit of gipsy jazz in Mercy Street and some nice Merle Travis/Chet Atkins picking on Chester’s Mule.
An excellent album that won’t be out of place near your Fly Rite Boys and Biller and Wakefield albums.
Icing on the cake, it comes in a nice digipack with a tip of the hat to Tal Farlow on the cover.

Fred “Virgil” Turgis