An Outbreak of Twangin: 26 Cool Early 60s Guitar Instrumentals, Phantom Guitars,

Performer: Various Artists
Producer: Jude Holmes; Steven Carr; Nick Saloman (Compilation)
Distributor: Forced Exposure Dist.

Notes: It took a while for the British rock & roll scene to develop a breed of truly credible vocalists in the late 1950s and early-'60s (as well-meaning and enthusiastic as Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, and Adam Faith may have been, the fact their music didn't communicate outside their native soil is telling), but fine guitarists started appearing with surprising speed, and in the wake of the Shadows a steady stream of great instrumental rock sides began flowing out of the U.K. once the Big Beat took hold. Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond collected 25 great lost instrumental sides from the early-'60s on the 2008 compilation PHANTOM GUITARS, and AN OUTBREAK OF TWANGIN' is a follow-up that unearths another 26 tracks of similar style and vintage. The Shadows were the clear inspiration for most of the acts here, along with Duane Eddy, Link Wray, and Jorgen Ingmann, but there are a few stylistic surprises in this set. It took a while for the British rock & roll scene to develop a breed of truly credible vocalists in the late 1950s and early '60s (as well-meaning and enthusiastic as Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, and Adam Faith may have been, the fact their music didn't communicate outside their native soil is telling), but fine guitarists started appearing with surprising speed, and in the wake of the Shadows a steady stream of great instrumental rock sides began flowing out of the U.K. once the Big Beat took hold. Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond collected 25 great lost instrumental sides from the early '60s on the 2008 compilation Phantom Guitars, and An Outbreak of Twangin' is a follow-up that unearths another 26 tracks of similar style and vintage. The Shadows were the clear inspiration for most of the acts on An Outbreak of Twangin', with Duane Eddy, Link Wray, and Jorgen Ingmann also audible in the style of some of these guitarists, but there are a few stylistic surprises in this set. Rob E.G. uses an electric lap steel to being a unique sound to "Jezebel," the guitarist with the Gordon Franks Orchestra lends a slinky jazz feel to the noir-styled "An Outbreak of Murder," the Cannons make the most of a whammy bar and a reverb tank on "Bush Fire," "Ghost Train" is a cooler-than-expected side from the usually staid Bert Weedon (who, as the author of Play in a Day, literally wrote the book on picking up the six-string), and Ahab & the Wailers toss in the coolest-sounding electronic keyboard this side of "Telstar" on "Neb's Tune." Most of the other tunes fall into the standard-issue category of Shadows-era Guitar-Based Instrumentals, but they're also good ones, and overall this is more consistent than Phantom Guitars and just as much fun. Too bad they couldn't have found some room for the real Hank Marvin in the midst of all this, though. ~ Mark Deming

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