Search - Billy Swan :: Billy Swan's Best

"I Can Help:" Maybe He Can

Stephanie DePue | Carolina Beach, NC USA | 01/29/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Billy Swan, singer-songwriter-music producer, is yet one more good musician born on the banks of the Mississippi River; it really must be something in the water. He was born in Cape Girardeau, a small southwestern Missouri town. "I Can Help," his biggest hit, in the mid 1970's, sold over five million copies worldwide, and can still be heard today, as can the first song he ever wrote, "Lover Please," a country standby. Both songs are included on this record, as is a good rockabilly "Shake Rattle and Roll,", and a weird, ill-advised, slowed down "Don't Be Cruel."



"I Can Help" works on two levels: it means what it says, but there's also a sly sense of humor in there: "it would sure do me good to help you," sings the narrator.



Swan did the usual scuffling around to pay his dues. Played three piece combos in local beer joints. Swept the floors, emptied the ashtrays, and moved the mics around Columbia Records' Nashville Studios; in fact, he had this job first, then gave it to his good friend Kris Kristofferson; then toured with Kristofferson as an original member of his band. Later toured with Kinky Friedman.



Aside from that living legend Jerry Lee Lewis, Swan is one of the few dues-paying rockabilly players left standing. Maybe he can help you."