Stereophile: The Rock and Roll Trio

Locust Street has a fabulous essay on the Johnny Burnette Rock and Roll Trio, along with three top-notch examples of what that group could do. Johnny, his brother Dorsey, and guitarist Paul Burlison just flat out rocked and the fierce rhythm and burning guitar of "Train Kept a-Rollin'" sounds remarkably fierce 50 years later.

All of you LP buyers need to keep your peepers peeled for the Solid Smoke label's great-sounding late '70s release of the Rock and Roll Trio's Coral sides.

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Reader Comments

Posted Sat May27, 2006, 2:34 PM — By Jeff Wong

After Elvis Costello's Almost Blue came out, I tried tracking down as many of the original vinyl versions of the songs he covered as I could. I have a gorgeous 7" Coral 45 of the Johnny Burnette Trio's "Honey Hush" with "Train Kept a-Rollin'" as the flip. It's a great record, so, I'll keep my eyes peeled for the LP.

Posted Sun May28, 2006, 2:18 PM — By Wes Phillips

You're amazing, Jeff. I just can't stump you. This is like the time I lent you my tatty old copy of Ross Thomas' Chinaman's Chance and, after you'd read it, you said, "I just realized I had a first edition of it that I'd picked up somewhere and never gotten around to reading."

Posted Mon May29, 2006, 6:58 PM — By bllfrog

In the liner notes of a 1978 Solid Smoke LP reisssue of the RNR Trio, Paul Burlison explains, "After carrying my equipment on stage one night, I didn't realize I had knocked an amplifier tube loose. We started playing, and my sound was distorted, like a fuzz sound. And we really liked it! So whenever we wanted that sound, I just pulled that tube out a bit." The dawn of tube tweaking...

Posted Tue May30, 2006, 9:37 AM — By wes Phillips

Great pickup, bilfrog. I'd heard all those "slash the speaker with a knife" stories and that explanation never seemed credible. Tube distortion - that I can buy.

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