This past January (during the 2017 Winter NAMM Show), I walked out of the Observatory[1]—a concert venue in Santa Ana, California—and grabbed an Uber to...
This past January (during the 2017 Winter NAMM Show), I walked out of the Observatory[1]—a concert venue in Santa Ana, California—and grabbed an Uber to my hotel in Anaheim. As soon as we left the curb, the driver—a young guitar-playing greaser with plenty of tattoos—asked me about the show I'd just seen.
"It was all rockabilly," I said. "Jeff Beck and Darrel Higham just covered a bunch of Gene Vincent songs[2] at a Gretsch[3] event. Cousin Harley and Duane Eddy played too."
"Ah, cool," the driver said. "I love rockabilly."
I figured he'd say that...you know, based on his greased-back hair and Sailor Jerry ink—despite that very wise saying about not judging a book by its cover.
But when I asked him what rockabilly bands he listened to, it was ASAP obvious that he really didn't know what rockabilly was—even though he had adopted "the look," a common practice in Orange County. He might've mentioned Johnny Cash at one point, but as soon as he listed some baseball-cap-wearin' modern country dudes, I cut him off and filled the rest of our trip with a verbal version of what you're about to read.
Simply put, it's a guide to rockabilly guitar; to be more precise, it's a list of 10 killer vintage rockabilly songs that every rock fan—let alone every guitarist—should know and/or learn how to play. These are the songs modern players like Pigat, Smith, Higham[4], Jim Heath[5], Buzz Campbell[6], Brian Setzer[7] and Australia's Firebird Trio[8] listened to back in the day—not to mention Jimmy Page, George Harrison and Jeff Beck.
Nothing has changed; listening to these songs now—and learning the solos note for note—is just as helpful as it was when Setzer's pompadour