Duane Eddy - "Rebel-'Rouser" - Jamie, 1958

I wanted to mix it up with something a little twangier this week, and then I realized the King of Twang himself has not made an appearance here yet! For shame, Mike Crash, for shame. Well, better late than never.
Duane Eddy managed to become a guitar god in the late 50's putting together simple yet rocking little tunes like this one.  Born in Corning, NY in 1938, he was already playing guitar at 5. His sonic guise was that of a twangmaster extraordinaire, playing leads on the bass strings of his guitar to great effect.  Weird factoid: a 20,000 gallon water tank was used as an echo chamber on one of his early records, "Moovin' and Groovin'" to accentuate his sound.

His follow-up, "Rebel Rouser" was the big hit, getting all the way up to #6 on the charts. Why don't we have instrumental hits anymore? Get cracking musicians!
The man has worked with everyone from Ravi Shankar to Waylon Jennings, and he just keeps cranking out the tunes. He was also the first guitarist to have a signature model, and was inducted into the Rock hall of fame in '94. He's still kicking around God bless him, doing his twang thang.

Jamie was another great label out of Philly, started in 1957 by Harold Lipsius. Today's record was their first big hit, and Duane Eddy basically made the label successful just by his record sales. Any of you diggers have certainly come across this label or one of their subsidiaries such as Phil-L.A. of Soul, Dionn and Sundi. I believe the label stopped releasing tunes in the early-mid 70's.