Cat No: CMQCD 1493
RELEASED MAY 21st 2007 ON SANCTUARY RECORDS

So, what’s the story? - over to Chas: “I’ve been mates with J.I. for donkey’s years - ever since The Crickets nicked our guitarist, Albert Lee, from my band Heads, Hands & Feet, in 1970! We’ve played together loads of times over the years, and I produced an album with Mike Berry and The Crickets, at J.I.’s studio, a few years back. We’ve always wanted to record something else together, and we got the chance when I was over in Nashville, on holiday, around eighteen months ago. Dave and I play some of these numbers onstage anyway, so it’s not so very different from what people are used to. It’s actually my first ‘new’ album for nine years…”

This delicious, thoroughly infectious brew of gentle R&R, rootsy Americana, and laid-back R&B features Chas on piano, guitar, bass & vocals (he also writes the sleevenotes!); J.I. on drums & vocals; and another old friend, former Sun Records producer/writer/singer/ picker Jack Clement on Dobro.

The material comes from a wide range of sources. Naturally enough they wanted to include a Buddy Holly & The Crickets track - J.I. suggested ‘Tell Me How’ - whilst first generation R&R is further covered in the shape of Elvis’s ‘Wear My Ring’, Gene Vincent’s ‘Lotta Lovin’, Wynn Stewart’s ‘Darlin’ C’mon’ - and, of course, Jerry Ivan’s own ‘theme tune’, ‘Real Wild Child’. From the world of R&B, Billy Swan weighs in with ‘Lover Please’, an early 60s hit for Clyde McPhatter, Louisiana man Bobby Charles is represented with two songs, ‘(Before I) Grow Too Old’ (a hit for Fats Domino) and ‘I’m That Way (I Don’t Mind)’, whilst Chas & J.I. run with Ray Charles’ arrangement of the perennial ‘One Mint Julep’. They reach back to earlier musical eras for ‘Honolulu Baby’ (which Chas learned from Laurel & Hardy!), Al Martino’s ‘Here In My Heart’, and Teresa Brewer’s ‘Til I Waltz Again With You’, whilst their arrangement of Bob Dylan’s ‘She Belongs To Me’ brings to mind Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band’s version. Finally, J.I. was keen to include a Chas & Dave song and suggested his own favourite, ‘Billy Tyler’ (a song also recorded by ace picker Albert Lee).

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION…

CHAS HODGES’ Rock & Roll credentials go back to the very early 60s, when he played bass in Mike Berry’s backing group, The Outlaws. Under the aegis of mad indie producer Joe Meek, Chas played on dozens of early 60s UK hits, e.g. Berry’s ‘Tribute To Buddy Holly’ and ‘Don’t You Think It’s Time’; The Outlaws’ own ‘Swingin’ Low’ and ‘Ambush’; John Leyton’s ‘Johnny Remember Me’ and ‘Wild Wind’; Heinz’s ‘Just Like Eddie’ and ‘Country Boy’; and many, many more. Chas later joined Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, playing on their biggest hit ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, and also the shortlived Heads, Hands & Feet, before finally teaming up with his old chum Dave Peacock in 1971 to form Black Claw, who would ultimately evolve into the perennial CHAS & DAVE.

JERRY “J.I.” ALLISON is a man with an impeccable R&R pedigree, which began way back in the early 50s. A schoolchum of the late Buddy Holly, the duo began playing together in their early teens, recording a series of demos which would be overdubbed and reissued in the years following Buddy’s sad death, in January 1959. As a co-founder and integral member of The Crickets, J.I. co-wrote several of Holly’s most enduring hits, including ‘That’ll Be The Day’, ‘Peggy Sue’, ‘Think It Over’, ‘Well, All Right’ and ‘Maybe Baby’, among others. After Buddy’s death The Crickets enjoyed further successes in their own right before going on on to work with artists like The Everly Brothers, Bobby Vee and Waylon Jennings, and they still occasionally reconvene for memorial concerts and brief tours.

Available HERE