Today is a tale of music royalty. In the 50s, brothers Dorsey Burnette and Johnny Burnette were two of the three members in the legendary Rock and Roll Trio (Paul Burlison was the third one). We are talking the dawn of rock and roll here. And Billy Burnette is to the castle born, as Dorsey Burnette was his dad. The term Rockabilly – well, Billy is the ‘billy’ part of it; his cousin is Rocky. There is a cool short history to be found here.
By age eleven Billy had recorded his first album, and then two years later at thirteen, he toured with Brenda Lee while he was teaching himself to play guitar. Aside from myriad solo projects through the years, Billy spent time playing with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Roy Orbison and John Fogerty. Among lots of others, Ray Charles, The Everly Brothers, Gregg Allman, and Ringo Starr have recorded his songs. And he had the good taste to cover Peter Green’s classic “Oh Well,” just part one, on the album Memphis in Manhattan in 2008.
Cut to 2011, as we welcome a new release from Billy Burnette called Rock N Roll With It. It is his first studio album in a decade. Later this week, on Saturday, November 12, he will be inducted into the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, TN. Billy has kept it fresh, powerful, and alive for all these years. He brought royalty to Marathon Recorders in Nashville when he came to play for Music Fog: guitar God, Kenny Vaughan, monster drummer Jimmy Lester, and the legendary Dave Roe on upright bass. It don’t get no better, that is for sure, as Billy Burnette pours it on. This is a wake up, a Monday song, so fasten your seat belt, it’s “Wrong One Right.”
-Jessie Scott
