Johnny Burnette's Lonesome Train On a Lonsome Track Solo

Listening to a lot of 50's rockabilly, Johnny Burnette vocally stands head and shoulders above most of the fray.   In my opinion perhaps only Elvis, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and perhaps Eddie Cochran sang with the force and excitement he did. Listen to "Lonesome Tears in My Eyes" and you will see John Lennon learned alot from Johnny Burnette.  Of course Johnny Burnette, like Elvis and Gene, was fortunate to have phenomenal guitarist backing him up.    Although there is controversy surrounding it,  I think it is nearly universally accepted now that guitarist  was studio wiz Grady Martin and not Paul Burlison playing on the overwhelming majority of those classic Rockabilly Trio tracks.  Here is Grady Martin's solo on the Johnny Burnette track "Lonesome Train on a Lonesome Track."   After Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup, Grady Martin may be the 3rd most influential rockabilly guitarist of that era despite  never really having received credit or recognition for playing on those tracks.

A couple of notes about the solo.  Note that the chord progression not a typical 12 bar blues.  Also the majority of the solo is in the G blues scale.  I had some difficulty figuring out exactly what was being played in bar 10 but I think what I transcribed is fairly accurate.

Grady Martin

Johnny Burette

Crazy Legs guitar solo

Since I just started I thought I would put up another tab and after Scotty Moore who next but the legendary Cliff Gallup. I think Cliff Gallup remains one of rock's greatest enigma's.  A technically proficient guitarist who played at breakneck speed who just as fast disappeared never to record rock music again.  Thank god we had him even for the short time he played with the great Gene Vincent.  This is the first solo from Crazy Legs.  The second solo is actually pretty similar to the first.  The first three notes are slightly muffled and the last few are sort of obscured by Gene's vocals.  So I did my best for those.  The thing I would note is that on the sliding double stops on bars 4 and 5, I play the slide with downstroke and the A note on the 7th fret with an upstroke.  I denoted this for the first slide.  You can play it how you like but I think its easier that way even if it deviates from strict alternate picking.

A couple things I'd like to add about the solo.  The lick over the D chord is a great classic lick that can be played over the IV in any key.  It's a great lick when you are jamming and can't think of something else  or need to come up with something fast. The great thing about it too is you can play it over the I chord as Cliff does in the second solo. This lick is included as one of the licks in the great rockabilly instruction video 50 rockabilly licks you must know by Jason Loughlin.

50 rockabilly licks you must know

Another interesting thing about this solo, at least the first few measures,  is how Chuck Berrry-esque it is at least compared to Cliff Gallups other solos.

I'm Left, Your Right, She's Gone solo

Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup are in my opinion the 2 quintessential Rockabilly guitarists and probably about  75% of the classic rockabilly licks comes from them.  Here is my interpretation of the solo from "I'm Right, You're Left, She's Gone."  I'm pretty sure Scotty Moore plays the opening triads higher up on the neck, mainly on the B, G, and D strings  but I like to play them mainly on the E, B and G strings.  Either way they are the same notes and you can transpose them up the neck if you wish.

This solo combines classic Scotty Moore triads, Banjo roll picking, and Scotty's patented Travis style picking and some twang at the very end.   The descending lick at the end is great to throw over the V (B) when you are playing in E, which in Rockabilly is quite often.

Hopefully I'll post the majority of the rest of this song over the next several months.

New Rockabilly Guitar Lick Blog

One thing I've been struck by is the dearth of published Rockabilly licks.  Yes, there are some good instructional videos by Jason Loughlin, Paul Pigat, Jim Wieder, and Damian Bacci. But where do you go from there?   I don't purport to be an expert at Rockabilly guitar but have worked  my way through various rockabilly licks and guitar solos.  I will try to post at least one lick or solo per week.  I hope people will enjoy this site and learn something from it.  Please feel free to comment at any point especially if you feel a lick ins't quite correct or authentic.  Disclaimer: this blog is purely for educational purposes and dedicated keeping the art of Rockabilly guitar alive well into the 21st century.