Old Enough to Forget

Kids today have no idea that once upon a time, not that long ago, cable television was a luxury, and it wasn't until the mid '70s most of us had a colour TV. The channels that came in with the rabbit ears were the ones we watched. There was Gunsmoke, The Beachcomers, and on Saturday* it was The Tommy Hunter Show  that I watched with my parents, and despite not being a country fan I sure did like the guitar players. Wilf Carter seemed to be a staple, but chances are I only saw him a handful of times. I also remember a big deal being made out of fiddle player Al Cherney whenever he was on ... but I don't think he has a Christmas album. Wilf Carter was one of the first Canadian country stars in the classic cowboy tradition. Apparently in the States he was known as Montana Slim something I was this many years old when I found out. I was out to lunch the other day with my mum and mentioned I'd found Wilf Carter's Christmas album, and she told me how he was her dad's...

As a kid I loved the song "Downtown" and I knew it was by Petula Clark (pronounced pe-CHOO-la) and that's as far as it went. I probably saw her on TV and that's where I was exposed to the song. I'm pretty sure that I didn't hear it on the radio back in '65. It's always interesting to read up on an artist who'd been well established in other parts of the world, when they're introduced into the North American market. Downtown is described as her debut hit album, although she'd been around since the mid '50s amassing an impressive list of hits in Europe. According to the short essay on the back cover she'd sold an astounding 20,000,000 records before debuting over here with "Downtown" back in '65. The album was produced by Tony Hatch, who conducted and wrote many of the songs on the album. Musically this is that strange mid '60s pop that was more an extension of the '50s. The vocals are drenched in cavernous rever...

It's Epiphany, and the last of the gifts have been given and we are at the end of the Christmas season. So what do you do when there's nothing really left to say about the holidays? You play an instrumental album - and who better exemplifies the instrumental rock than The Ventures - the best selling instrumental band, OF ALL TIME. When I found this my inner kid was overjoyed. I loved "Walk Don't Run" and of course their version of the Hawaii 5-0 theme. I had never heard a full album by the band, and didn't really know much about them other than they were early guitar heroes. The Ventures Christmas Album was released in 1965 and it hit the charts, and would land on the charts again in 1966, 1967 and 1968. A pretty cool feat. The Ventures for a period of time had their guitars made for them by Mosrite, and these are the guitars on the cover of the album. Signature models, before signature models were a thing - not counting the Les Paul of course. It would seem...