Search - Link Wray :: Wray's Three Track Shack

A Towering Momento

R. J MOSS | Alice Springs, Australia | 07/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"How I've sweated on the re-release of the epigymous, Link Wray album, one of the early 70s masterpieces of Americana, rich and raw in a way 'The Band's' lauded albums could only simulate. Like liner notesman, John Collins, I picked up Wray's early music in remainder bins. John Fogerty, even Lonnie Mack, were better received, striking similar grooves. But Link was right out there, quiveringly, his own man.'Fire & Brimstone', an enduring favourite, has the power of an incantation; stupendous vocals from a one-lunged man!. Collins notes 'in the late 60s there was a studied attempt by such musicians as The Band,Neil Young, Guy Clark and David Ackles, all in their own way, to evoke a rock'n'roll vision of Americana, of white clapboard chapels, dungareed farmers, dusty drifters and outlaws.' But Wray and his two brothers weren't aping any mystical, mythical rural past...from the outside looking in. They weren't even speaking for the white-man poor. They were by his own admission,'Shawnee poor'. His vernacular is, up and down, the rockin' truth, no prisoners taken. The menacing throb he pulls from Willie Dixon's,'Tail Dragger' exemplifies his own take on the Blues. This dizziness subsides with the lovely mandolin interlude of,'Beans and Fatbatback' before the full-on rocker,'I'm So Glad' is unleashed. Neighbours beware. You wouldn't want to be duelling with these dudes.'Shawnee tribe' is simply magnificent, ripping into the heart of a remembered past, a wordless humming, intermittently augmented with some barking acoustics. This is everything that Robbie Robertson's explorations of his indigenous roots lacks. I wonder what they played at Link's funeral? May he rest in peace."

REAL Roots Music

M. Brust | Denton, TX United States | 09/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is really nothing else like these recordings. A can of nails and whatever else is laying around gets used to flesh out these heartfelt,soulful tunes. Non-repeatable--unbeatable acoustic homemade music---don't miss it."

Forget what you think you know about Link Wray

A. Woodley | 02/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maybe if the Rolling Stones had been Americans or Captain Beefheart had been a country boy they could have cut a piece of raw Americana like this. It is unlike anything you have ever heard before but yet it is strangly familiar. You already know Link Wray's reputation on the guitar but this album takes it a step further. His guitar sound is more raw and gnarly than ever before. His voice is rough and pure. Discover yourself, rock-n-roll, and save your soul all at the same time."