Legendary Guitarist’S First Studio Album For 24 Years
Co-Produced By Long-Time Fan Richard Hawley
On June 20th, Mad Monkey Records - in conjunction with EMI – will release the new Duane Eddy album, Road Trip.
Road Trip features 11 songs, recorded in 11 days at Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield, October 2010. The album was co-produced by long-time fan Richard Hawley – whom, along with members of his band, co-wrote a selection of the album’s songs with Eddy.
Eddy and Hawley met at last year’s Mojo Awards, where Eddy was awarded - by another fan, Be-Bop Deluxe’s Bill Nelson - with the Mojo Icon Award. Hitting it off straight away, a plan was hatched whereby Hawley would work with Eddy on a new album – a dream come true for Hawley who’d wanted to work with his guitar hero for a long, long time, having been turned onto the wonders of his playing when he was a mere boy.
The resulting album Road Trip is a cinematic journey, rich and resonant in production, evoking Eddy’s love of the desert, yet capturing the character of what’s become Hawley’s native Sheffield sound. The album draws the listener into a widescreen world; a road movie travelling through desert badlands. Along with classic-sounding Eddy tracks, encompassing rock ’n’ roll, country and jazz, the album also features some very new-sounding contemporary tracks, which sound like nothing he’s ever recorded before.
From album opener ‘The Attack Of The Duck Billed Platypus’ - a classic Eddy primal rocker which conjures up images of eerie, lawless western towns - Road Trip journeys through ‘Twango’, a tribute to Django Reinhardt; the Morricone-esque ‘Bleaklow Air’; the perfect meeting of Eddy’s and Hawley’s styles on co-write ‘Kindness Ain’t Made Of Sand’; plenty of the great man’s trademark ‘Twang’ on ‘Curveball’, ‘Mexborough Ferry Boat Halt’ and the scuzzy, garage rock ’n’ roller - all reverberating bass notes and wailing sax - ‘Primeval’, and the beautifully picked and understated album closer, ‘Franklin Town’. Throughout the album is an incredible reminder of the extraordinary virtuosic guitar-playing and songwriting talents of Duane Eddy. Often imitated, never equalled.
The Road Trip band:
Duane Eddy - Guitar
Richard Hawley - Guitar and co-producer
Colin Elliot - Bass and co-producer
Shez Sheridan - Guitar
Jon Trier - Piano
Dean Beresford - Drums
Ron Dziubla - Sax
The Road Trip tracklisting:
1.The Attack Of The Duck Billed Platypus
2.Twango
3.Curveball
4.Road Trip
5.Bleaklow Air
6.Kindness Ain’t Made Of Sand
7.Mexborough Ferry Boat Halt
8.Desert Song
9.Primeval
10.Rose Of The Valley
11.Franklin Town
Duane Eddy’s importance is immeasurable. He has been credited as one of the originator’s of rock ’n’ roll’s dirtier guitar sound, helping to keep the genre alive when it became safe and commodified, and cited as an influence by such luminaries and peers as Hank Marvin, Jimmy Page, Steve Cropper, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Ry Cooder, Art of Noise (with whom he had a Top 10 hit of a remaking of his classic 1960 hit ‘Peter Gunn’), Dave Davies of The Kinks, and many, many more.
The album will be available on CD, vinyl and digital download.
Duane Eddy will be available for interview and playing UK live dates in the summer (to be announced shortly).