Carl Perkins
Some Things Never Change
(Sun Records)
Some 70 years have transpired since unpolished picker Carl staggered all creation with a sound too sprawling for bucolic containment. Before us spins fresh wax whose geniality, calloused-hands character, and unpretentious, good-times fruition affirm the title's aptness.
Spirited originals recall idiosyncratic persuasions; numbering among those are six-string flourishes that bespeak a Country/Blues amalgam that must be lived, and a comfortably grained voice as winkingly home-styled as the sharecropper in the next row, but possessed of singular tunefulness.
(Carl and associates also dispense wonderment via interpretations of others' works. Carl's erstwhile Sun confederate, the Man in Black, and John Hiatt turn up in varied garments.)
The determinate stomp of "Don'tcha Know I Love You" registers what could be considered a happy update of 1957 Perkins song "Movie Magg." The giddy suitor grew up, and his ardor swelled. (We were all pulling for him.)
I won't for one moment dispute the validity of Carl's recognition by numerous Halls of Fame, nor his Grammy statuary. He deserved official praise.
But of far more significance are the blazes he kindled in the hearts of kids who, though dirt-poor as he had once been, grabbed up guitars and became members of the Rockabilly culture: a go-getter sect drunk with ambition. Its missionaries danced in the streets over Carl's '90s reemergence, and the Rebel subculture will endure so long as folks dig fun.
"When I was a young lad, about all that I had, was an old guitar and rhythm in my soul," Carl sang. Purpose transcended hard luck life.
(Available digitally, on CD, and "blue-suede splatter" translucent vinyl.)
Recommended: "Baby, Bye Bye," "Don'tcha Know I Love You," "Memphis in the Meantime," "Messin' Around with Rock'n'Roll," "Some Things Never Change," "Miss Muddy," "Where Does Love Go," "Get Rhythm," "Heart of My Heart," "Baby, Bye Bye" (Jackson Demo)
Videos: "Baby, Bye Bye" "Don'tcha Know I Love You" "Messin' Around with Rock'n'Roll" "Where Does Love Go" "Heart of My Heart"
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