Guitarist Billy Mure (1915- ), like Buddy Merrill, was heavily influenced by Les Paul's multitrack recordings and his LPs, like Supersonics in Flight on RCA Victor and Supersonic Guitars on MGM, contained lots of pyrotechnic fretwork.
Alas, his albums didn't sell all that well and are now quite collectible.
Mure got his start during the big band era, joined the station orchestra at New York's WNEW in 1947 and did a lot of work in the recording studios. (For a biography of Mure, visit Space Age Pop Music.) His playing on the Ames Brothers' 1950 hit Rag Mop is sometimes cited as the first rock 'n' roll guitar solo. There's no question that Mure plays some hot licks on that record, but whether that constitutes rock 'n' roll is highly debatable.
Tough Strings, his only album for the Kapp label, came out in 1961 and consisted of cover versions of mainly instrumental hits by the likes of the Ventures, Floyd Cramer and Jorgen Ingmann. You can listen to what he does with the Ventures' Walk Don't Run from the link below.
Walk Don't Run
Tough Strings isn't available in a digital format, but there are several of Billy Mure's MGM albums available as on-demand CD-R's or downloads. These are almost certainly sourced from vinyl, so the usual listen-before-buying caution applies.
As for Mure himself, he's still playing frequently (as of Feb. 2013), at the age of 97, at Squid Lips Overwater Grill in Sebastian, FL.
To close, the Ames Brothers, with Billy Mure on guitar.
The Ames Brothers - Rag Mop-1950 by CASVI_Factory
I bought "Tough Strings" in 1961 (and still have the vinyl). I have cleaned up the tracks and have converted them to digital mp3 format. Let me know if you want more information... regards, Rod
ReplyDeleteStill have the vinyl myself, although I bought it some years after its release and probably at a thrift store. Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeletewould like to know and where can we contact by phone , for Johnny stiles and luther Randolph 20 16 , marva.lee sunn10023@yahoo.com
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