{"id":23834,"date":"2022-10-07T05:30:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T09:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23834"},"modified":"2025-02-12T09:06:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T14:06:28","slug":"album-review-linda-gail-lewis-early-sides-1963-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/07\/album-review-linda-gail-lewis-early-sides-1963-1973\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Linda Gail Lewis \u2013 Early Sides 1963-1973"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rock and roll history is scattered with sibling also-rans. Some are quite good: Mike McGear (Paul McCartney\u2019s brother) made an excellent album with Roger McGough<\/a> and another very good one of his own. Others are less spectacular, or \u2013 fairly or not \u2013 never caught the attention of the listening public.<\/p>\n

Linda Gail Lewis certainly belongs in the first category. With a sound firmly rooted in early rock and roll, the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis made music in the \u201860s that bridges the gap between what the Killer did and the approach of Wanda Jackson. A new collection brings together 18 sides cut between 1963 and \u201873.<\/p>\n

With excellent, knowing production by such figures as Scotty Moore, Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy, the songs on Early Sides<\/i> demonstrate Linda Gail Lewis\u2019 range. Backed by ace players, she tackles a variety of material from the saucy rockabilly of \u201cCC Rider\u201d and \u201cAin\u2019t Nothin\u2019 Shakin\u2019 (But the Leaves on the Trees)\u201d to the uptempo pop-with-strings of \u201cBreak Up the Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when syrupy Nashville strings threaten to overwhelm (as on \u201cSmall Red Diary\u201d), Lewis strong vocal delivery keeps the focus on the singer. Brother Jerry Lee stops by for a duet on \u201cBaby (You\u2019ve got What it Takes),\u201d a fun, loping number just right for dancing. That 1965 recording also leans a bit in the direction of Phil Spector, with three guitars and a saxophone filling out the sound. (He\u2019s not credited on piano, but that\u2019s almost certainly Jerry Lee on the ivory glissandos.)<\/p>\n

Bill Justis is the arranger on Linda\u2019s reading of \u201cJim Dandy,\u201d and it swings hard. Kris Kristofferson\u2019s weeper two-step \u201cMy Heart Was the Last One to Know\u201d is very much in a classic country mold, but Lewis proves she\u2019s every bit as at home with that material as with the more rocking tunes. And by 1969, her original compositions were making it as singles. \u201cLouisiana,\u201d \u201cGather \u2018Round Children\u201d and \u201cWhat is Love\u201d are solid country numbers with keening fiddle courtesy of Kenneth Lovelace (and that\u2019s Hargus \u201cPig\u201d Robbins on piano).<\/p>\n

Jerry Lee is back for \u201cBefore the Snow Flies,\u201d one of the collection’s most well-known tunes. It\u2019s a clip-clop country tune, but Linda demonstrates her range and subtlety. Sandy Rhodes is at the oddly out-of-tune piano for Chip Taylor\u2019s \u201cWorking Girl,\u201d a slice of quintessential countrypolitan pop. Pig Robbins and pedal steel master Pete Drake are the stars of the catchy \u201cSmile, Somebody Loves You.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somewhat uncharacteristically, Robbins plays a Wurlitzer electric piano on \u201cIvory Tower.\u201d It enlivens the lugubrious melody. (Trivia for rock fans: that\u2019s Bob Moore on bass on this and many other Linda Gail Lewis tracks; he was the father of R. Stevie Moore.)<\/p>\n

The saucy \u201cI Wanna Be a Sensuous Woman\u201d is a Linda co-write with Hal Worthington; it has a Tom T. Hall feel. That song and the collection’s last track (\u201cI Should Not Have Fallen in Love With You\u201d) both feature Linda Gail Lewis on piano along with vocals; her instrumental skills are solid.<\/p>\n

As Early Sides<\/i> vividly demonstrates, Jerry Lee Lewis\u2019 sister is very much an artist in her own right, one richly deserving of the success she has enjoyed. And those who appreciate the earliest of these tracks will be pleased to know that her latest album \u2013 just released \u2013 rocks quite<\/i> hard. Family Jewels (Live)<\/i> is well worth seeking out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rock and roll history is scattered with sibling also-rans. Some are quite good: Mike McGear (Paul McCartney\u2019s brother) made an excellent album with Roger McGough and another very good one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,49,65,66],"tags":[4953],"class_list":["post-23834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-country","category-new-release","category-review","category-rockabilly","tag-linda-gail-lewis","cat-19-id","cat-20-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-66-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29015,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23834\/revisions\/29015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}