I love Don & Phil, but most of the clips were very poor video transfers of them 'miming to the record' on various TV shows, so I was ready to turn it off half-way through. Suddenly, there they were, complete with their Gibson Everly guitars, singing 'Mama Tried' - live - with none other than Clarence White playing his B-bender Telecaster!!!! Great stuff, and it may be the only film of the boys with Clarence ('though he did play on a number of their tracks).

How great it was to hear that bender-style Tele playing in its earliest form by its first exponent.

Guitar-wise, the whole DVD is a gem! That may be CW's first B-bender Tele (this had to be around 1968), and the Everlys are shown with their sunburst J200s, their all-black ones, their light grey w. black pickguard ones, as well as their black with cream p/guards (Don gave his to Albert Lee years later), while the later clips (post 1962) feature the Gibson 'Everly' guitars. For those of you not quite as obsessed with this subject as I am, these were an adaptation of the old Gibson J185, with a black finish and 'tortoise-style' double guards; they're extremely 'collectable' (whatever that means), but are disappointing instruments.

Anyway - 'Mama Tried' is amazing.....

RR

[This message was edited by Roger Rettig on 23 January 2006 at 05:08 AM.]

A strange decision, in my view.

I remember a conversation at Mandolin Bros (NYC's premier guitar dealers) after a customer had called the store.

Stan Jay: 'What was he after?'
Salesman: 'A Gibson Everly Bros.'
Stan Jay: 'Why?'
Salesman: 'He didn't say - maybe he wanted to practise without annoying the neighbors...'

There's no doubt that they were very cool, though! I traded my '63 J200 for a new 'Everly' in London in 1964, but let it go soon after. I wish I'd kept BOTH guitars now.....

I need someone to be as excited as I was to see Clarence White playing with Don & Phil on this DVD - anyone?

Clarence was a pioneer of bluegrass flatpicking and tele string bending. His influence in everywhere in bluegrass today.

This DVD is called 'The Everly Brothers - Partners In Music'. My friend in Britain got it from a budget-priced bin somewhere, although I don't know if it's surfaced here in the US. If you should see it, grab it - the Clarence track is worth the money on its own!

Strange as it may seem, the first version I ever heard of 'Mama Tried' was Don & Phil's on their superb 'Roots' album in '68; it wasn't until later that became aware of Merle! Blame it on my UK upbringing....

While Clarence White recorded with the Everlys a number of times, he wasn't on this particular album, and it's a delight to hear his classic Telecaster styling on the song, which also fits the Everlys like a glove!!!

Check it out if you can - especially all you 'Tele' afficionados.

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´75 Emmons p/p D10 8+4, '96 Emmons Legrande II D10 8+5, ca '72 AWH Custom D10 8+3, Peavey Nashville 1000

These german producers have made a nearly-as-bad DVD compilation of Merle Haggard tracks called "Poet of the common man" - BEWARE! A bunch of lo-fi video transfers of some very uninspired, badly shot live performances...

There, now I feel better...

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´75 Emmons p/p D10 8+4, '96 Emmons Legrande II D10 8+5, ca '72 AWH Custom D10 8+3, Peavey Nashville 1000

[This message was edited by Per Berner on 03 February 2006 at 07:31 AM.]

I thought I'd made it clear about the general quality of this offering, but maybe I failed (no - I've just re-read my original post, and I think it's plain enough..). My point was that 'Mama Tried' was worth the price of the DVD; I'm sorry you disagree.

I think there's a bunch of Everly's outtake material from '69 from the same session where CW cut 'Cuckoo Bird' their '69 single, I don't know if he's on it, or indeed whether this material appeared in the Everly's box set.

Regarding that new Everlys box-set: it's 1960-1965, so won't include the CW stuff. There is to be a second set in due course!

But all the rest is just so monumentally bad... a typical rip-off, produced by totally incompetent hacks... There must be much better material available.

Anyway, it may be money well spent after all. I have shown the "worst of the worst" tracks to quite a few friends by now, and we all got a good laugh out of it.

[This message was edited by Per Berner on 06 February 2006 at 12:22 AM.]

The same company has done DVDs on Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Lonnie Donegan, and my UK pal sent me these, too.

The Cochran one is just as poor as the Everlys disc, and the Gene Vincent is much worse (!!!). The Lonnie Donegan DVD is a straight transfer from a 1990 compilation VHS tape named after his 1960 TV series, 'Putting On The Donegan' (issued by the TV Company that owns the originals). I KNOW that this one has been challenged by the owners, so I wouldn't be surprised if all these discs were 'pirate' releases.

I have to remind myself that TV wasn't as sharp back then as we've come to expect today, and a careless transfer only makes things worse, but I'm still delighted to see performances that are (apparently) unavailable elsewhere. The Eddie Cochran DVD has a number of live TV performances with Eddie playing his Gretsch (pretty well, too!); I saw Cochran live at Finsbury Park in North London in 1960, so that's a nostalgia trip for me!

In summary, I find I'm able to accept these DVDs for what they are and revel in their historical content. Their visual/audio quality simply highlights just how far TV technology has come since those days.

It also helps that I didn't have to pay for them...

Actually I did get it new, for eight bucks.
The footage is for the most part way washed out, did you notice the Everly Brothers in their regimental unfiforms and cropped haircuts from '62 or so.

The two numbers circa 1969 are 'Mama Tried' and 'Kentucky Sunshine' and are live performances from the same show.
It's not Clarence White, but the other great stringbender player Bob Warford doing all those great guitar parts.
It's a white B-bender Telecaster, no#2 stringbender in fact, Clarence's electric prior to Bob and if I'm not mistaken utilised on the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo by CW in it's pre-bender form.

The style of playing was what led me to assert that this was Clarence. B-benders do sometimes lead us down a particular path, musically, but it was more than that; Mr Warford has a very similar touch to Clarence, so I didn't question his identity.

I offer my humble apologies for misleading anyone - it was, obviously, unintentional, and it's a lesson to me to not jump to conclusions!!!

Many thanks for the correction, Jason - as always, you're a mine of information! This subject is very dear to me (I'll NEVER forget first hearing 'I'm On My Way Home Again' on the radio - WOW!), and I'm dismayed that I didn't know of Bob Warford before now.

'Embarrassed in Naples'.....

PS: It's still a great clip, though

[This message was edited by Roger Rettig on 07 February 2006 at 03:12 AM.]

How good is that guitar work though, Bob and Clarence are just so far beyond all the other guys at that point, don't get me wrong, Phil Baugh, Albert Lee and James Burton were both killer players and cutting some awesome stuff at the time, but Clarence and Bob.. wow.

There's not a lot of recordings available featuring Mr. Warford, he's on Red's '73 solo album, uncredited on a Everly's album, Ian Mathew's '73 album, Michael Nesmith's '73 album and if you see pics he was a dual lead with James Burton as part of Emmylou Harris' Hot Band on their first major tour in '75.

Fantastic stuff all 'round, basically a chance to discuss two bender greats on one forum.

cheers