Lonnie Mack

★★★★ Sa-Ba-Hoola!

Two Sides Of Lonnie Mack – Fraternity Recordings 1963-1967 ACE. CD/DL

A best-of the guitar pioneer’s early rockers.

When Rolling Stone proclaimed Mack “in a class by himself” in 1968, his 1963 debut LP The Wham Of That

Memphis Man was re-released and Mack was resurrected from obscurity. Revered by Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bootsy Collins, his instrumentals of Chuck Berry’s Memphis and his own Wham! prove why: flashy, lightning-fast runs; whammy-bar mastery; thrilling dynamics; orgasmic resolution. This 14-song anthology is divided by instrumentals (those two included) and vocals – he was also one of the mightiest blue-eyed soul men. Grounded in gospel, he’s pleading, testifying, screaming and sweating about the big stuff on Where There’s A Will. His voice shared with his guitar the valleys-andpeaks approach within a song’s confines. But it was his innovative pyrotechnics up and down the frets that changed the language of rock forever.