On my blog just recently there's been a conversation beginning about the "rules" of being a contemporary rockabilly band. In among my posts I confessed that when I initially began playing in a rockabilly band years ago, I didn't even understand enough about rockabilly to recognize that my bass guitar wasn't " genuine" rockabilly equipment. All I knew is that I loved the sound of the music and I desired to play it. I soon discovered that there were a lot of fans who felt that we couldn't be a genuine rockabilly band due to the fact that I wasn't playing slap bass on an upright bass fiddle. A reader in the UK relates a comparable experience because he doesn't play the "right" guitar for rockabilly. This all raises an old sore area with me and opens the conversation once again about what's important: The look or the music ?
Opting for the look
Obviously, it's fun to dress like the original rockabilly felines and chicks from the mid to late 1950s when rockabilly was new and fresh and Elvis was taking the world by storm in addition to all of the other artists he influenced. And by and big, it does not cost a entire lot of loan to accomplish the rockabilly look. You can find all sort of terrific clothes at garage and yard sale along with pre-owned shops. Simply gunning through the far back of your parents' (or grandparents'!) closets can reap terrific benefits for rockabilly clothing.
Things get more made complex when you're in the band. Now it's not simply the clothes that make the rockabilly look. It's the instruments. And it's a lot more costly to set yourself up with a vintage instrument from the 50s period. And new instruments made to look like the old ones are not precisely low-cost either. So what's a brand-new aspiring rockabilly act to do? If they don't feature a standup bass and a Gretsch 6120 hollow-body guitar (like the one Eddie Cochran played), they're not taken seriously. They're viewed as imposters, not real "rockabillies".
The original rockabilly club was not unique
Absolutely nothing could be further from the spirit of initial rockabilly! Rockabilly was not an exclusive club that was open just to those kids that originated from rich families that could afford the " ideal" instruments. No other way! By and big, our heroes were dirt poor. These guys were dynamic, young players who took whatever they happened to have at hand and made music with it! And as modern rockabilly fans, we've all gained the banquet of remarkable music that these musicians made on those instruments.
Now, it so takes place that hollow-body stand-up basses and electrical guitars are the instruments that a lot of these people owned at that time. After all, those were the very same instruments used by nation artists of the day and considering that rockabilly was so strongly rooted in country, it made sense that rockabilly musicians-- a lot of whom began out playing nation first-- used those very same instruments. However not all of them followed that mold.
As far as guitarists go, they utilized numerous different guitars to make their music And they weren't all hollow-body guitars. Nobody thinks less of Carl Perkins since his smash hit "Blue Suede Shoes" was taped with a solid-body Les Paul guitar. Buddy Holly played a solid-body Fender Stratocaster on his fantastic early rockabilly and no one at the time discounted him. Cliff Gallup, who bet Gene Vincent's Blue Caps utilized a solid Gretsch DuoJet guitar and most rockabilly fans consider his guitar work as a few of the absolute finest rockabilly playing of perpetuity.
It's not the look, it's the music.
Simply put, it wasn't about the "look" at that time. It was about the sound and it had to do with the energy. It's enjoyable to have the "look" nowadays and most bands try to put their own spin on the classic look. However ultimately when I go to a rockabilly program, I'm far less worried with what the band looks like as I am with what they seem like. If they rock and their music makes me move and smile the method rockabilly does, well then, that's good enough for me! The rockabilly community could truly use with less concern about the look and more issue about releasing and enjoying the noises. That's what it's read more truly all about anyhow.
If you're a group of kids and you don't have lots of dough, however you wish to begin a rockabilly band, you'll most likely face the self-appointed "authentic-look" police eventually. Don't let them stop you. Get the instruments you crash and have into those first strains of a excellent rockabilly tune. It's their loss ... not yours if they can't see previous your look to listen to and take pleasure in the music!
In one of my posts I confessed that when I first began playing in a rockabilly band years back, I didn't even know adequate about rockabilly to realize that my bass guitar wasn't " genuine" rockabilly equipment. Cliff Gallup, who played for Gene Vincent's Blue Caps utilized a solid Gretsch DuoJet guitar and most rockabilly fans consider his guitar work as some of the outright best rockabilly playing of all time.
Robert Gordon was doing straight-out rockabilly and having a bit of success while bands like The Blasters were using rockabilly influence heavily to form a new "roots rock" noise.
These fans don't simply buy rockabilly records and go to rockabilly programs. The rockabillies use the features of 1950s fashion to reveal their love for rockabilly music and the great parts of the rockabilly lifestyle.