Jimmy Bowen is the successful record producer whose musical career began as a Rockabilly recording artist and songwriter. He formed a trio right out of high school and created a songwriti...
Sonny Burgess was known as the wild man of rock and roll who brought a driving guitar style to early Sun recordings (the label that launched Elvis Presley). Among those recordings were “W...
Ace Cannon grew up in Mississippi singing with his father on street corners and in church, and he knew even as a small child that he wanted to have a life in music. When he was ten his f...
Buzz Cason began his musical career as a singer in the late 1950s and early 60s. He formed The Casuals in Nashville and later sang with The Statues for Liberty. As he continued to sing, B...
Owen Clayton began playing the double bass while in school. At the time, he had to stand on a box to play, but he didn’t mind at all because he enjoyed the sound of the instrument and it’...
Bobby Crafford still has his first snare drum, the one he played when he recorded early Rockabilly songs for Sun Records in Memphis, TN. In 1957 he joined the Pacers, the band behind Sonn...
Deke Dickerson began his musical career when he started playing the saxophone, but quickly realized he was much more adept at playing the guitar. As a part of the affectionately named “68...
Fred Douglas recalled picking up his first Fender Precision Bass when he was hired to record as a member of the Pacers. The Pacers were the band behind the “wild man of rock and roll” Son...
DJ Fontana drove down to Houston in a pink Cadillac with Elvis Presley after being hired as the then unknown singer’s first drummer. They pulled up to Herbie Brodstein’s Drum Shop (Herb w...
Jerry Fuller recorded a Rockabilly version of “Tennessee Waltz” which was a favorite of Elvis Presley and gave Jerry extra status among Elvis and Rockabilly fans alike. Yet it was his ski...
Roy Gaines, like his brother, Grady, who played saxophone for Little Richard, made his mark in the early days of rock and roll. As a blues guitarist, Roy recorded a number of songs for RC...
Charlie Gracie was an early Rockabilly performer who recorded three charted songs in a single year, 1957, right in the heart of the golden era of rock and roll. His biggest hit "Butterfl...
WS Holland played drums behind Johnny Cash for over 40 years! The man put the beat to most of Johnny’s greatest recordings and his innovations in drumming inspired countless musicians aro...
Wanda Jackson has been performing as an entertainer and singer worldwide for over 50 years. Known affectionately as the “Queen of Rockabilly”, she began her career as a teenage country si...
Kern Kennedy tickled the ivories on a number of early rock and roll and rockabilly recordings back in the 1950s. It was the heyday for Sun Studios in Memphis right after the success of El...
Doug Kershaw is the wild man of Cajun music who has been a powerful ambassador for the musical style around the world for many decades. His passion and high energy performances gained the...
Bill Kirchen is a well known rockabilly guitarist known by his tag, The Titan of The Telecaster! During much of his career Bill could be seen and heard playing his 1959 Sunburst finished ...
Eric Lindsey was given a guitar from his father when he was 13 years old. For years it puzzled Eric on how he took to making music so quickly and with such skill. He later learned that hi...
Carl Mann sang in church as a child and grew up just a few years behind Elvis Presley, who, like Carl, brought the style of church musical expression to popular music when he began record...
Wally Marx is a passionate rock and rockabilly guitarist, accomplished author, and an invaluable contributor to the NAMM Oral History program. A dedicated and longtime NAMM volunteer, Wal...
Scotty Moore set a date and time on July 4, 1954, to get together with a young singer who wanted to record with Sam Philips at Sun Records in Memphis. Sam asked Scotty, who had recorded w...
Slim Jim Phantom and his two school friends, Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker, formed the iconic band Stray Cats in New York back in 1979. They revived the rockabilly style of the 1950s with a...
Lee Rocker formed a punk rock style group that just happened to play rockabilly. The Stray Cats had a host of hit records, first in England and beginning in the early 1980s in the United...
Chan Romero made a significant impact on pop music in the late 1950s and early 60s by blending his Mexican and Native American heritage with rock and roll. He wrote and recorded timeless ...
Brian Setzer nearly single handedly brought back the popularity of the rockabilly electric guitar sound that was first established by Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley's first guitarist. Brian...
Smoochy Smith was hired by Sam Philips at Sun Studios in Memphis to play piano on a few sessions in the late 1950s. Smoochy was being requested for record dates from both local performer...
Jimmy (J.M.) Van Eaton was the house drummer for a little recording company in Memphis that began one of the centers of the birth of rock’n’ roll. Sun Records was formed by Sam Philips in...
Fabrice Vignati and his wife Tracy teamed up to create a new take on Rockabilly music, which they call Gypsybilly. Being a fan of Rockabilly since he was a kid, Fabrice brings the classic...
Tracy Vignati and her husband Fabrice formed a band together using a style they call Gypsybilly! They debuted their band, The Vignatis, in 2009. Tracy describes their style as a blend of ...
Joey Welz was a member of Bill Haley’s Comets as well as Link Wray’s Wray Men. He played piano in the early days of Rockabilly for Bat Records with his own group as well as with The Jay R...
Jason D Williams grew up with music all around him so it was no surprise that he devoted his life to playing. With a strong influence from boogie woogie and rockabilly, Jason D began per...
