Acclaimed american blues rock and boogie-woogie pianist, Gene Taylor, began, around the age of 16, working with some of the big names in the West Coast blues scene including Big Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker. In the mid-seventies he joined the James Harman Band and then Canned Heat and in 1981 The Blasters recording four critically-acclaimed albums for Warner Brothers and appearing on every important music television show of the period. From 1993 to 2007 Taylor played with The Fabulous Thunderbirds amongst various other projects. During the years Gene’s piano playing has been required by Dwight Yoakam, Kim Wilson, Charlie Musselwhite, Amos Garrett, Doug Sahm, Kid Ramos, Junior Watson, Carlos Guitarlos and many more... Let Me Ride In Your Automobile is Gene Taylor’s 4th solo album and it’s the rockinest one, just like a cocktail of his work with The Blasters during their 1980's Los Angeles heyday and from his later years with The Fabulous Thunderbirds down in Austin, Texas.
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This CD version seeks to rectify this unwarranted neglect of a fine performer and includes the complete issued recordings of Rudy Green from his Nashville debut in 1946 to his last known single back in Music City over a decade later. Also included are a few examples of Rudy's work as a session guitarist in Chicago in the 1950s.
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A real down-home boy, Al Ferrier has been recording in the Louisiana backwoods since 1955 and continues to record for the label that gave him his first break over half a century ago - Goldband Records. This chock-full compilation gathers together his 1950s recordings in all their glory; the true King of Louisiana Swamp Rockabilly...he's the man!!!
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Over the last three years, El Toro Records has been leading the field in systematically reissuing the neglected legacy of the late, great Buddy Holly. When Universal finally announced a box set of his complete recordings last year we thought that our task was over - but not so! The complete set turned out to be far from complete; so this final Buddy Holly release from El Toro Records has gathered the material ignored by the otherwise exemplary Universal box set, notably all those commercial recordings which featured Buddy as session-musician-cum-producer from his golden years of 1957-58 and a bonus CD to collate all the remaining radio/TV interviews and the live radio/TV/promo clips from 1958 that hadn't been featured in our previous volumes. Sandwiched in between, and taking advantage of our title of “Buddy’s Buddies”, we have a jam-packed compilation CD of talented Texas artists with whom Buddy crossed paths in the 1950s. Rave on!"
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This thirty-track compilation traces the first half of his high-voltage career in the recording business and proves how necessary he was to the birth and development of New Orleans R&B and rock 'n' roll.
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12Th eddition of the worlwide famed Screamin’ festival and 3rd volume of this top series! Don’t miss either of them!!
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(The Mad Rubes are a trio from Milan who play great Rock’n’Roll deeply based on blues influences. Rockabilly and Country are also often involved creating a unique and explosive groove as you’ll find in this their first album.
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Head cat of the Stray Cat pack, Brian Setzer has always been quite open and honest in his self-confessed pillaging of old Rock 'n' Roll songs, which he equates to the widespread re-arrangements of old-time country and blues tunes....
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(This) ...is modern, slap bass driven rockabilly from Finland – spiced up with melodic influences ranging from the 50's to 80's. Maibell & The Misfires' first album includes 13 songs all written by the band. The music sounds tidy, snappy and energetic with Maibell's fresh, clear and soulful voice on top of everything. The lyrics deal with situations people end up in their lives, some of them exude joy and happiness while the others are filled with misery and heartache.
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De luxe package; gatefold 12" clear blue viny album!! (This) ...is modern, slap bass driven rockabilly from Finland – spiced up with melodic influences ranging from the 50's to 80's. Maibell & The Misfires' first album includes 13 songs all written by the band. The music sounds tidy, snappy and energetic with Maibell's fresh, clear and soulful voice on top of everything. The lyrics deal with situations people end up in their lives, some of them exude joy and happiness while the others are filled with misery and heartache.
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This is their 3rd full length release on El Toro Records; a rock n roll album with 13 songs to move you. Both Barb and Rachel sing harmonies with power, strength, and fire but yet, softly on some ballads. ...
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Head cat of the Stray Cat pack, Brian Setzer has always been quite open and honest in his self-confessed pillaging of old Rock 'n' Roll songs, which he equates to the widespread re-arrangements of old-time country and blues tunes....
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On this second release for El Toro the band captures, once again, with 15 self penned tracks, the energy and spirit of the masters, injecting the traditional sound with the necessary authenticity to make it sound like it was indeed recorded in the '50s during Sun's heyday…
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Welcome to the 5th volume of El Toro's Collectors Choice series in which Al Turner cherry picks rarely heard and seldom reissued Hillbilly Boogie tracks from the 45s and 78s shleves of late 40s and early 50s records collectors. 12 page booklet with interesting notes and rare pictures and label shots from each one of the releases featured.
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4 Full Length Top Hits, Top Ten Tunes, Hillbilly Hit Parade… That's what this new delivery compiled on our Collectors Choice series by Pasi Koskela is about; "Cheapo" cover versions of Country & Western top hits of the 1950's. 8 page booklet with interesting notes and rare pictures and label shots from each one of the releases featured.
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This first-time compilation of the finest work of this unsung guitar picker contains all the 1950s recordings issued under his own name as well as a sparkling selection of his session work from those years; from his debut featured spot as one of Curley Williams' Georgia Peach Pickers through his career as houseband-leader and guitarist-of-choice for Pappy Daily's stable of labels - Starday, Dixie and D Records - and his renaissance during the 1970s/1980s rockabilly revival when his exciting solos on those cherished records by Joe Clay, Thumper Jones, Sleepy La Beef, Link Davis, Rock Rogers and Bob Doss were a clarion call to pack the dance floors all over again...
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In 1988, I was contacted by Jonas Bernholm to co-produce a Rudy Green LP for his "Whisky, Women And..." subsidiary. Sixteen tracks were selected from Rudy's twelve issued singles and were sent for remastering, and the catalogue number was registered (KM-705), but the much-anticipated volume never materialised; the burgeoning CD revolution took off with a vengeance, Jonas decided to get out of the music business and the project was shelved. Now, this exciting El Toro LP finally makes available this legendary "lost album" which was planned over twenty years ago but never saw the light of day!
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Wayne Walker will forever be known as a highly-successful songwriter in the country and pop fields during the 1950s and 1960s. Since his death in the late 1970s, however, he became something of a rockabilly hero in Europe with such obscure recordings as “All I Can Do Is Cry”, “Love Me”, “Bo-Bo Ska Diddle Daddle”, “You’ve Got Me” and “Little Ole You” which have kept the dance floors of the many rock ‘n’ roll clubs filled. Strangely, those thirty-odd years that have since elapsed have never seen a complete Wayne Walker reissue…until now! This is Wayne Walker – The singer and his songs
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Hank Thompson’s key to success lies in his songwriting and his band's consistent sound. Thompson's songs often cast an unflinching eye on the drinking and carousing honky-tonk lifestyle, as exemplified by his signature song "The Wild Side of Life" as well as "Honky-Tonk Girl" and "Six-Pack to Go." From the late 1940s through the 1970s he was consistently in the country charts, landing nearly fifty songs in the Top-10 or Top-20. With record sales well over 60 million internationally, Hank Thompson's career has impacted on seven decades (from the '40's into the 21st century) of recorded music history. Hank Thompson died Nov. 6, 2007, following a battle with lung cancer. This double CD set features a fine selection of tracks from the 40’s and 50’s, including some OPS (Office Of Price Stabilzation) radio transcriptions plus a radio show from 2001 in which the King of Western Swing tells the story of his life; the beginnings, his influences and roots, his mates and colleagues...
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Laura B and the Moonlighters are an exciting seven-piece rockin' and honkin' rhythm and blues combo in the upbeat style of Ruth Brown, Big Maybelle and Lavern Baker. Lady Laura and the guys guarantee a big beat sound and performance to match many of the great R'n'B artistes of the fifties.
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Once again in the great tradition of the european doowop vocal groups, it's from Spain this time that we get the lastest offering from the fantastic Velvet Candles. From great self penned numbers and covers of fairly obscure songs and even some traditional vocal group material sung in their native language, the guys and one girl serve up a great album that all doowop and Rock and Roll fan, whether you like the white or black sounds, will love. There is something for everybody in this superb set with is bound to become a classic in its own right.
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BRIOLES' music is mainly based on 50's R&R but they've added more elements that -right from the start- have conformed their unique and recognizable sound. They've usually been described as psychobilly or neorockabilly -labels they don't dislike but don't define them accurately.
Love, Rhythm & Hate is a masterpiece; the best work of the band so far, pure BRIOLES sound!!
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De luxe package; gatefold 10” viny album featuring 3 songs not on the CD version plus the CD version in slipcover!!!
BRIOLES' music is mainly based on 50's R&R but they've added more elements that -right from the start- have conformed their unique and recognizable sound. They've usually been described as psychobilly or neorockabilly -labels they don't dislike but don't define them accurately.
Love, Rhythm & Hate is a masterpiece; the best work of the band so far, pure BRIOLES sound!!
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While it is not often documented, it stands to reason that of all the many black artists who were influenced by country music radio in their childhood, a percentage would grow into maturity with a real feeling for hillbilly music and incorporate the style it into their own musical heritage, just as the white rockabillies introduced an urban blues element into their country music.
This album has been compiled to showcase this inverted spin on the conception of rockabilly - got them Hill Billy Blues?
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Deluxe package! 12” double vinyl album in fold out sleeve + CD version in sleepcover
While it is not often documented, it stands to reason that of all the many black artists who were influenced by country music radio in their childhood, a percentage would grow into maturity with a real feeling for hillbilly music and incorporate the style it into their own musical heritage, just as the white rockabillies introduced an urban blues element into their country music.
This album has been compiled to showcase this inverted spin on the conception of rockabilly - got them Hill Billy Blues?
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In March 2009, The Aces signed with El Toro Records. Hailing from California (USA), their debut album “ No One Rides For Free ” is a collection of 10 original songs which fans of the band call punk trance blues or pounding riffs and a distorted wall of sound topped by wailing harp. The bands goal was to capture that raw primitive sound which is present at their live shows. The record was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs utilizing old fender tweed tube amps pushed to the brink of exploding captured with 1940's and 1950's microphones. The Aces sound will charge you!
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Sunday morning. After a few hours of sleep they made thier way to Circo Perrotti Studios in Gijon to blast out these 9 songs. These guys got right down to work- real pros with thousands of gigs under their belts. They hauled in their own gear, got settled down in the studio and started busting each others balls like they were teenagers, as they hammered out songs they hadn´t even played live before. When it was time to break and treat them to a nice Asturian lunch, they asked me if I could set them up with some Diet Cokes and Snickers bars, because they didn´t want to stop playing! When they did stop, it was back to the hotel in Oviedo for 5 hours sleep and 4 connecting flights to Arkansas the next morning....
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Beginning his promising rise to national fame in the late 1930s as a rival to that other trumpet-playing, gravel-voiced entertainer, Louis Armstrong, Hot Lips Page changed tack, jumping with both feet in the direction of the burgeoning R&B sound in the mid 1940s. It was a move that was sure to offend all the serious jazz music fans, but it would endear him to all the low-brow jump-blues lovers - both then and now! This CD celebrates those R&B years of the man who could have been King…
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Lucky Marcell holds all the cards! One of the best singers at the moment, with pure 50`s style and raw energy that will blow your mind no matter if it`s a wild rocker or a slow pace.
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Following on from our well-received Texas Rockabilly compilation “Real Cool Cats” (ETCD 1010) in 2006, El Toro Records now brings you another volume of Lone Star Bop. This time spotlighting the obscure Texas-born or raised recording artists that were elevated to star status in the 1970s when their all-but-forgotten careers were revived by a tiny, home-based, Californian record company run by a rock'n'roll-crazy Italian called Rockin' Ronny Weiser.
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Back in '53 when Charline Arthur sang ‘I Heard About You', she could never have imagined that some half a century later, and halfway around the world, a feisty young Italian singer, Sabrina, aka. Rockin' Bonnie, would be singing the same words and echoing the same sassy energy...! This, her debut album. has all the ingredients to make one strong cocktail of musical styles.
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Due to popular demand, following the release of our debut release; “Rockin' With The R&B” a few years ago. El Toro Records now presents a second helping of jumping R&B from the late 1940's and early 1950's, all of which exhort the listener to “Rock! Rock! Rock!” or, in a few instances, to “Roll Roll! Roll!” long before the official birth of Rock and Roll in 1954. ..
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Welcome to the third volume in El Toro's new series of Collector's Choice compilations, making available rarely heard and seldom reissued tracks from the 45 and 78 shelves of 1950s record collectors. Dave Penny's first set in the series features Hillbilly Bop and the more rural sounds from the Rockabilly spectrum.
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Welcome to volume four in El Toro's new series of Collector's Choice compilations, making available rarely heard and seldom reissued tracks from the 45 and 78 shelves of 1950s record collectors. Dave Penny's second set for these series cherry-picks the Rock 'N' Roll style in its many guises - from major labels to tiny indies..
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This disc tries to reunite these artists who in the first years of Rock And Roll created new songs and covers recreating the rhythm coming from the north helping to spread it across the country through various record labels like RCA Victor, Columbia, VIK, Musart, Peerless, etc...
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This rockin' compilation of 27 original US recordings from the '40s and '50s is a vibrant example of Dutch DJ AT's repertoire - and great for parties.
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On Jerome's new album, Introducing, he delivers an impressive assortment of rockabilly, blues, straight-out rock and Americana backed up not only by rhythm section aces Deon Buck on bass and Coen Moleschot on drums but also by top class artists like Gene Taylor on keyboards and Big Pete on harp to name just a couple.
Opening track “Hot Rod Party” is already a dance floor filler around the planet!!
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Listening to our friends, The Vibrants rendition of our "King Of The Surf" make us proud that this fine group of talented young men has done such a great job capturing the spirit of Surf. THE TRASHMEN
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Listening to our friends, The Vibrants rendition of our "King Of The Surf" make us proud that this fine group of talented young men has done such a great job capturing the spirit of Surf. THE TRASHMEN
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At last! The vinyl edition of this great Hillbilly Swing album!! Packaged in a deluxe foldout sleeve with one of the nicest designs ever on El Toro catalogue! Features 17 tracks, 6 more than the CD version!!!
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It's here! It's here! 3 years after the first album from these Croatians, El Toro Records exclusives', they are they are back with a masterpiece of XXI century Rockabilly and they're gonna knock your socks off with the rockin' sound, and tear your shoes laces with the stompin' beat!! Don't you dare to miss the unique opportunity to hear one of the best Rockabilly hepcats from the shores of the Adriatic!!!! Ladies, save your tears in a glass for that special somenone in your heart. After you get throught this brand new album, everyone's bound to SCREAM for more!!
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Super DeLuxe package!! Includes 10” vinyl album in gatefold cover featuring 10 tracks plus the CD version in slipcover featuring 16 tracks!!!
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THE COMPLETE 50'S RECORDINGS
An undisputed king of rockabilly music, Charlie Feathers started out at the legendary Sun studio in 1954 writing songs for Elvis Presley before launching his own faultless recording career on Sun, Meteor, King and other labels. Feathers' reputation as the unreconstructed hero of rockabilly was set by the European revival of the 1970s, since when he has been lifted to the status of "God" by the patronage of such high-profile fans as The Cramps, Bob Dylan, The Fall and Quentin Tarantino. This double CD set finally gathers together all the prime 1950s recordings of the man, including all his known demos, alternative takes and even the tracks which feature Charlie as a session musician on guitar and spoons!
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BUDDY HOLLY & THE CRICKETS, RITCHIE VALENS AND THE BIG BOPPER
Special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of “The Day The Music Died”
It was late January, 1959, when the tragic Winter Dance Party began; a gruelling twenty-four day tour of the mid-west by a rock 'n' roll revue which included Buddy Holly and his group, J P "Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens. Poorly funded and inefficiently organized, the tour began a disaster and steadily got worse, with a motley successionof clapped-out coaches being the only transportation provided to the artists by the booking agency. Eleven days into the tour and facing another tortuous 400 mile road trip to the next venue on a freezing bus, Holly decided to charter a plane after their unscheduled appearance at ClearLake, Iowa. He and the two other headliners took off for Fargo, NorthDakota, in the teeth of a blizzard during the early hours of 3rd February1959... it was a date that would come to be known as one of the darkest in the whole history of rock 'n' roll...
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THE COMPLETE 50'S RECORDINGS
Like several other notable teenage musical prodigies from the deep south of mid 20th century America, Sun Records was the making of Jerry Lee Lewis. Although he arguably enjoyed greater success as a Country star in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jerry Lee's Sun recordings from the 1950s are what made him one of the undisputed kings of Rock 'n' Roll; and that extraordinary first year from late 1956 to late 1957, more than any other, won him the crown. This selection of hits, misses and sessions as anonymous hired-hand - topped-off with the inclusion of all four of his pre-Sun demo recordings - are among the first swaggering steps in a cocksure career...
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Rare gems of 40's and 50's Hillbilly Boogie and Rockabilly. Welcome to the first of El Toro's releases in our new Collectors Choice series, where we will be making available a large collection of rare 1950s recorded material, many of which are only to be found on scarce 45's, 78's and acetates. 8 page booklet with interesting notes and rare pictures. Label shots from each one of the releases featured.
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Rare gems of 40's and 50's Hillbilly Boogie and Rockabilly. Welcome to volume two of El Toro's Collectors Choice series, where we once again make available more exciting and obscure sounds of 1950s Rockabilly and Hillbilly Bop for the discerning listener. 12 page booklet with interesting notes and rare pictures. Label shots from each one of the releases featured.
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