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Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Guitars Play The Sound Of Ray Charles - Tom & Jerry

Unchain My Heart
Guitars Play The Sound Of Ray Charles
Tom & Jerry
With The Merry Melody Singers
Mercury Records
MG 20671

From the back cover: Tom Tomlinson has been playing guitar since he was four. Born in Minden, Louisiana in 1928, he began plucking a Sears Roebuck guitar as a toddler and had mastered the instrument, without the benefit of formal training, by the time he was eight. During his high school years, he fronted his own band. After a stint in Korea as a U. S. Marine, he returned to music, to serve as lead guitarist for Johnny Horton, contributing his valuable sound to such Horton hits as Battle of New Orleans, Sink the Bismarck and North to Alaska. Injured in the same auto crash that took Horton's life, Tom spent months recuperating, then teamed with Jerry Kennedy in recording a hit Mercury single, Golden Wildwood Flower, which began the partnership that's still flourishing.

Jerry is from Shreveport, Louisiana. Like Tom, he flashed signs of musical talent at an early age age. He began studying the guitar at at the age of eight; by the time he was turned to the guitar, recording with Horton, Rusty Draper, June Valli Patti Page, George Jones and others. His present work with Tom indicates that he's taken advantage of that experience to become a mature musician.


Unchain My Heart
I Got A Woman
Hit The Road Jack
What'd I Say
Hallelujah I Love Her So
This Little Girl Of Mine
One Mint Julep
I'll Drown In My Own Tears
The Right Time
Swanee River Rock
Lonely Avenue
Leave My Woman Alone

1 comment:

  1. Great to read about Tom and Jerry. What a thought - to translate Ray Charles to guitars. I love how they put the sunglasses on the guitar for the album cover.

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