PHIL GAMMAGE
Most of past UARA Phil Gammage’s music was only released in Europe, mainly France; he might be the most prolific of all of the UARB’s and UARA’s, with dozens of albums to his credit, either as a solo artist or in a band. I had already located a fair amount of music by Phil Gammage on the Bandcamp website, where my nephew John Lucas’s music can also be found. (John Lucas, a/k/a Lucas Kovasckitz is also on Amazon and Spotify and is now supporting his family strictly by sales and licenses of his music – Google used one of his guitar figures for a national ad not long ago; that’s what got the ball rolling). I immediately went for Motel Songs, a sampling of songs from Phil Gammage’s first five solo albums, and that only made me want to buy them all. I also picked up a recent album called Used Man for Sale, having a more mature sound and clearly showing that Phil Gammage is not just going through the motions but is just as committed to his music now as he was in his younger days. I have on my list to order Phil Gammage’s latest album, It’s All Real Good, which was released in September 2019.
I also supposedly have a copy of the most recent of Phil Gammage’s albums at the time that I put up the post about him, Adventures in Bluesland. I cannot find a physical copy of the CD, so I guess I just got a digital copy, which I am playing now over the computer. Just not the same, having to play it that way; sorry, you digital fans out there! But it is a great record, and I am happy to be hearing it again.
I ordered a copy of Phil Gammage’s Kneel to the Rising Sun from Amazon.com; although there was a fairly recent CD reissue, this album is available on Bandcamp only digitally. I also managed to find two LP’s on Amazon.com by Phil Gammage’s early band the Corvairs. Thus far, I have resisted ordering any more albums from Amazon.com by Certain General, which also features Gammage; even though November’s Heat is one of the best albums I have acquired in recent years.
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I have previously posted the opening track on the Thomas Anderson album Blues for the Flying Dutchman, “Bill Haley in Mexico”, which I just have to hear again (sorry, Phil Gammage!). As almost everyone knows, Bill Haley and His Comets had the first big rock and roll hit with “Rock Around the Clock” (1954, though it did not become a hit until 1955). I am not sure what the chorus is talking about when it goes: “I wanted to know / I wanted to know / What happened to Bill Haley down in Mexico”. But I cannot recall a more insistent chorus with a better instrumental follow-up than this one. I am reminded of the first time that I played the American album by the Dutch band Shocking Blue, The Shocking Blue, which naturally includes their big hit “Venus”. I simply could not believe how good the opening song, “Long and Lonesome Road” was, and I actually got up from my chair and restarted the album.
(Year 10 Review)
