ClarlieFeathets WILD WILD PNRTS! In at the birth ofrodcn'rclt Charlie Feathers had to urait trvo whole decades befone his crucial contribution to the genne was rrcognised. Vintage Rrckrecalls his quintessential rreconding years WORDS BY JTREl'IY ISAA( harlie Feathers is a rockabilly record two years later. Feathers started interpreter of traditional country ballads legend. The son oftenant farmers hanging out at the studio at the suggestion and, despite Feathers' protests, kept him from rural Mississippi, he was of blues shouter Howlin'Wolf, who recordingcountry music. So itwas no there at the dawn of rock'n'roll. His unique recorded there, and when Phillips started surprise that Feathers' next single, released 'bluegrass rock' style was key in getting Sun in 1952, Feathers found his niche as a on Sun, was a little different. DefrostYour Elvis Presley started and still influences busy session musician. Heart was another funereal country waltz the music today. Yet unlike his famous Sun But he was not satisfied to guest on other featuring fiddle, steel and soaring nasal Records label mates Presley, Johnny Cash, people's records. He wanted to make his vocals, and its flip,WeddingGownOf Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy own recordings of a unique new musical White,ismtchthe same. It sold 191 copies Orbison, he remained an obscure local style he had developed. and, far from makinghim a million dollars, performer before fi nding su rprise "I was singing bluegrass and rapping on earned Feathers royalties of 97.56. mainstream acceptance 20 years later. the guitar like I heard them black artists His work for Sun is often unfairly Now immortalised in such top Hollywood do," he recalled. "Bluegrass rock, that's maligned. Although perceived as movies as K111 B ill and Walk The Line, what it reallywas. Bill Monroe music and traditional country, it actually melded Charlie Feathers is the ultimate rockabilly black artistsi music is what caused bluegrass and hillbilly music with blues, template for the cyber age. rock'n'rol1." and this is what Phillips heard, later Charles Arthur Feathers was born on 12 In late 1954 he got his chance when explaining, "Charlie was a damn talent June 1932, in the hill country near Holly Phillips allowed him to record I've Been because ofthe blues feelinghe put into a Springs in northwest Mississippi, around Deceived f Peepin' Eyes on Sun's subsidiary hillbilly song. He was a"superb stylist - he 50 miles southeast of Memphis. Flip label, but things didn't work out quite could have been the George Jones ofhis He started early in music through as Feathers had hoped. day." While some may find Feathers' early singingin church and listeningto Grand Those expecting to tap their toes to his country vocals grating today, they were Ole Opry stars like Bill Monroe on the trademark rockabilly sound will be typical oftheir style and era, and wireless. He was also inspired by the bemused by these first offerings from the complemented those of label mates Doug music of the black field hands with legendary hillbilly rocker. Dec eiyed is a Pointdexter and Ernie Chaffin. whom he worked, learningto playguitar traditional country waltz featuring Ofmore than 30 sides recorded by from sharecropper and bluesman scrapingfiddle, steel guitar and high, Feathers at Sun, only four were released, Junior Kimbrough. whining vocals. The jaunty Pe epin' Eye s is and those hopingto hear more vociferous Feathers left school in his teens to work more upbeat, but its faster-paced acoustic material amongthe unreleased Sun tracks with his father on the oil pipelines in guitar is still laden with fiddle, steel and will be disappointed, as only Corinne, Illinois and Texas, where he first played country harmonies. So what happened to Corinnacomes close. honky-tonks andjuke-joints. By 1950 he "bluegrass rock"? More significant is the hotly-debated had settled in Memphis, working as a truck When Phillips first heard Feathers play contribution he made to the label in the driver and at a box lactory. he didn't hear "a white singer who could two years he was there. On the surface, At the same time,27-year-old radio sound and feel like a negro and make a Feathers'claims ofinfluence at Sun seem engineer Sam Phillips opened his studio at million dollars". He heard a superb thin. He claimed to have developed the + 706 UnionAvenue, wherehis Memphis Recording Service recorded a mixture of FENTHERS WNSN'T SNTISFIED TO local bluesmen for R&B record labels such GUEST ON OTHER PEOPLE'S as Chess, as well as private waxings of weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and birthday RECORDS. I{E HND DEIIELOPED greetings, such as the one Presleywould N UNIGIUE NEW STSIE YII{TAOI-RMK 85 CharlieFeathets label's legendary echo technique, yet Phillips didn't like the song and flatly Feathers was an illiterate farmeq while refused to record it. So Feathers sirnply Phillips was an experienced sound took it across town to Sun's rival, Les engineer. He claimed to have arranged Bihari's Meteor 1abe1, who paired itwith Presley's supercharged take on Bill GetWith It for release. Monroe's Blue Moon Of Kentucky ('I arranged all Elvis's stuff," he declared in GET WITI{ fT was the first disc Feathers 1990). But when asked, Scotty Moore didn't cut in tl-re st1,le for which he would become remember it that way. Feathers gets a legendary, his energetic vocals whipping half-credit for writing Presley's Sun cut up a storm to the country rock backing of I Forgot To Remember To Forget,brt hencl-rmen Jerry Huffman and Jody co-writer Stan Kesler later said he already Chastain on guitar and bass. But the had the songvirtually completed and gave greater triumph was Tongze-Tied Jill, a Feathers the credit for his steadfast work racy rockabiliy story song featuring the on the demo. And, ofcourse, Feathers stuttering vocal idiosyncrasy for which taught Jerry Lee Lewis his unique piano Feathers would become famous, its wild pumpingstyle... sound giving further credence to the The details ofthese anecdotal claims are singer's B/ue Moon... arrangement claim. rnurky and unsubstantiated, but it is Sadly, this eariy success was short lived. interestingthat none of Phillips' rockabilly The record was a hit in Memphis, but the artists - Sonny Burgess, Warren Smith, trio left Meteor after falling out with Billy Lee Riley, or even Carl Perkins Bihari over the meagre royalties the1, himself - had the wild sound found on received. In any case, Feathers did not feel the Presley sides, yet they had done the song that can be clearly justice. "It would have heard on Feathers' been No.l if we'd cut it later efforts for at Sun." he later other labels. wistfully observed. lw9F Perhaps Feathers' gE8 He would continue biggest - albeit wrestlingwith unintentional - claim marrying bluegrass to fame at Sun was of a rock to the Sun sound more comical nature: over the next couple the use ofhis photo on ofyears. the sheet music for ffi Feathers next BIue Suede Shoes recorded at Sid because Carl Perkins' Nathan's King image wasn't sexy enough. "Cari was Records, a major indie whose roster of bald-headed," Feathers later recalled, country and R&B artists was struggling "so they used my picture instead." against the rising tide ofrock'n'roll. At any rate, Feathers was not cuttingthe In short, King was looking for an answer to songs he wanted. While Phillips is often Elvis, and Feathers and his bluegrass rock pilloried for not tapping Feathers' true seemed just the ticket. In August 1956 he potential, the singer's stubborn attitude entered King's Cincinnati, Ohio, studios mayhave harmed his chances at Sun. to crtOne lldndLoose andBottle To "He really had it," Phillips reca1led, "but he The Baby. was difficult and I never got the best out of Feathers rea1ly hit his stride with this him. He always felt he knew more than rollicking rockabilly pairing whose anyone else." Feathers put it more bluntly, characteristic slap bass style, reminiscent "The record always ends up the way ofPresley's Sun tracks, provided the someone else wants to hear it." launchpad for his distinctive The crunch came in early 1956 when, hiccuppingvocals. after cutting several tunes that Phillips Feathers recorded several more tunes refused to release, Feathers took the label for Kingbut, despite their defining boss a demo ol Tongue-Tied Jill. rockabilly sound, the records sold poorly + *CHARIIE WNS H DNMN TNLENT BECNUSE OF THE BLUES FEELING I{E PUT INTO H HILLBIILS SONG'' YIl,ITAO[-ROCI r Th* K*1q *r R*trs{estrLLYt* :1 rrnci Ferrthers' nlc'nts rcmrrine cl lnlecognisec1. "Ther.u.r. never right," ire lrtrcr eclmittccl. " \\Ic jr-rst Cirln't har.c the soLrncl. I u':-Ls clrssatisfiecl x'ith rll o1'tl'rcr-n. cvcrl'onc." Tl-ri:; is furtl-rcr cviclcr-rcc of the r':rnc1or.r.r coillborative chem i stn, of the Su n sessiolrs. Ferrthers 1<neu. ufiat hc u'nntcrl. but u'rrs uot rllori.eil to pr':rctise it at Sr-Ln. \-et ulre:r he cli11 it his x'ar.rit N'Ieteor anci King. thc :rbscr.rcc ol t,hi I iips' engi neeri r.rg erpertise nerrnt the nerrr-cutting-eclge sii-les u'ere not quite there" In 1t)58. Feathers su.itchecl to Chu-lie Krrhn's Krrr. Recorcls in NTenrphis, u'here f it u.rrs joinecl br. gr-iitirrist Rolrnd J:lmes ;rnrl Ran-iort XIar.rpin on c'ltLutts. Ther- recorcietl four trrrcks - .1tut1,;ie Fever,/l-\'l:n, Dot'L't YoLr anrl ,-|{v -\,I'r,,,Jo d .t,'s Iiaot.