This coming Sunday, 8/20, would be the 84th birthday of rockabilly guitarist and producer Roland Janes, who passed away in late 2013. In his honor, Bob Dylan has shared a Christmas story by Janes on his website. Recalling a time they met in Memphis, Dylan writes:
He had given up guitar playing in the early '60s to concentrate on engineering and producing records for Sam Phillips. The records that he had played on in the ‘50s were the classic records of Jerry Lee, Billy Riley, Sonny Burgess, Barbara Pittman, Charlie Rich and others. He played no small part in any of those recordings. In fact, he defined those recordings as much as the featured performers. All through the years I’ve listened to Roland constantly on all those records he played on. I think his playing is unprecedented, and to me he was one of the most exciting players ever, both rhythmically and melodically.
Janes' Christmas story is titled "House Of Broken Dream's" [sic], and it's available in PDF form here. Merry Christmas?
