Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, and sometimes extraordinary things hide behind the most innocuous titles. ‘The Tennessee Tapes’ could mean anything at first glance, but what we have in this neat vinyl is the record of sessions unlike any others, before or since. 

In 2017, Tom Toxic (ex Holstein Rockets, now the frontman of Tom Toxic und die Poison Jerries) made a pilgrimage to Tennessee with the goal of recording in the footsteps of his heroes. That in itself is remarkable, albeit not unknown in rockabilly circles. What elevates this above other Sun-era homages is the friends he recorded with, and we have to take a second just to let each fact about the contributors for this album sink in. 

• ‘The Tennessee Tapes’ is the last album on which the late, great Sonny Burgess ever recorded. 

• W.S. Fluke Holland, who played drums on the original recording of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and worked with Johnny Cash for four decades, and J.M. Van Eaton, the rhythm behind ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ and founder of The Little Green Men with Billy Lee Riley, played drums for probably the last time in these sessions. 

• Dave Roe, bassist for Johnny Cash, Bobby Crafford of The Legendary Pacers, Bubba Feathers (son of Charlie Feathers and Rockabilly Rave headliner), Juan Larios of the Quakes, Stephan Griebel of the Nymonics, and ex Mad Sin guitarist Tex Morton completed the lineup. 

Each of those facts alone is enough to give you the shivers, and to have all of these names on one record is the kind of stuff that Rock n Roll dreams are made of. This album, recorded at Sun Studios, Sam Phillips Recordings and the Cash Cabin, was enough of a statement on it’s own to get Toxic inducted into the International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame. ‘The Tennessee Tapes’ acquired a mythical, ‘lost album’ status as it was often discussed in hushed tones but never officially released…until now. 

There’s a golden warmth that streams from every second of this album. Opening with his take on Carl Perkins’ ‘All Mama’s Children’, charming in it’s joy and simplicity, we’re whisked into ‘Here’re My Hands’ which you’d believe was a fifties original if you didn’t know better. The absolute love poured into the originals makes for a testament to the power of Rock n Roll: the wild ‘You Killed A Friend’ slips down like a shot of whiskey and the iconic ‘Rock And Roll And Beer And Girls’ from Toxic’s solo album trips lightly in its warm-hearted country-influenced reinvention. If you want tracks which roll steady like a freight train, you’ve got ‘Trouble Bound’, and if you’re after sunny melancholy with a side of joyful gang vocals, then there’s ‘Don’t Go!’. The guitar line from ‘It’s A Mess’ will get stuck in your head for days before it’s shaken off by the shoulder-shuffling, booze-soaked ‘My Brother Alcohol’, resplendent with its solo from Bubba Feathers. We close out with the incredibly aptly titled ‘Never Too Old To Rock n Roll’, a song which deserves to be an anthem for every rockabilly of a certain age. 

‘The Tennessee Tapes’ is proof that Rock n Roll never dies, and can always be persuaded to come back for one last session. It’s an album that unites past and present for a celebration of the sound we love in tremendous style, and deserves a lot of attention. 

Kate Allvey

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