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Hank C. Burnette was born the youngest of three kids (a brother & a sister filled out the rest of the family) on December 12,1944 in the little northern town of Sveg, Sweden and was christened Sven-Åke Kenneth Högberg. The proud parents both had musical backgrounds, his mother sang and accompanied herself on guitar at local gatherings and his grandfather built violins and guitars (and bred dogs!). Sven-Åke's interest in music came at a very tender age, three years old he had already learned to sing a few sea chanties at the top of his lungs (to the neighbors delight and his parents embarrasment). In 1949 he got his first guitar, OK, a toy guitar, but still a guitar.
Two years later, 1951, the family moved to the little village of Brattmon, close to the Norwegian border, where he also began school. His big influence during this time was the Swedish master of the accordion, Carl Jularbo. Which, eventually, in 1953 (when Elvis did his first waxings for Sun) led to him picking up the accordion himself, encouraged by an old village character called Poo.
In 1955 he heard, for the first time, hillbilly music performed by Swedish guitarist Sven Stiberg's band and thoroughly enjoyed what he accommodated. However, the biggest impact on him was when he and his father used to take the bus down to Torsby, another rather small village south of Brattmon, where he discovered Owe Thörnqvist doing his self penned (and almost pre-Rockabilly) version of the hilarious "Albin & Pia" on a coffee shop jukebox. Owe was the first Swedish artist who began putting typical U.S-influenced rock ingredients into his music. Although he sang in Swedish, he somewhat managed to sound both very authentic and original with a lot of straight forward rock elements incorporated and with very amusing lyrics in his songs.
Sven-Åke still continued to sing the Swedish hits of the time though (which consisted mainly of 99% translated American chart climbers) and playing old traditional accordion tunes on his Hagstrom Granesso "pump organ".
During the autumn of 1956, in the midst of Sven-Åkes 5th grade in school, the Högberg family moved again, this time to the city of Umeå way up in the northern part of Sweden and that's where he finally became familiar with the real deal - true American rock'n'roll music. The first rock'n'roll artist he discovered was, not surprisingly, Bill Haley. And from now on many where the dimes and nickels that saw there way into the slots of Umeå's jukeboxes to satisfy Sven-Åke's ever rising need for this exciting new type of music. But, although ole "Hillbilly" Haley & His Comets were quite able to kick up some ruckus, it really wasn't until a certain young truck driver from Memphis arrived on the scene that our young Swedish hero was totally blown to pieces! As he later recalled:
-It was like a full blown tornado had hit me! This mean-eyed rebellious looking cat with a sneer grin on his upper lip, dark greasy pompadour hairdo and sharp sideburns, accompanied by a big, boxy Gibson J-200 loosely slung over his right hip, really looked like...something, to put it mildly! And with a name like Elvis Presley, where the hell did he come from...outer space?? And his music was, of course, nothing less than a cultural shock to me! He, right there and then, totally changed my way of thinking, my way of performing, my way of playing and gave me my first genuine insight into what real down-to-earth, red hot rootsy rock music was all about! And from then on it was goodbye trifling accordion waste-o-rama and hello real gone red hot down to earth US of A rock'n'roll music that mattered and nothing else!!
The change didn't come that abruptly though, as Sven-Åke by popular demand from his classmates was still crooning out those old perennial Swedish chart toppers, but suddenly decided it was time to "upgrade". So he rented a trumpet (!) at a local music store, just to bring it back a few days later (much to the neighbors relief!) when he realized that he'd probably picked the wrong tool for his stairway to rock'n'roll stardom! Oh, well...not one to let that discourage him, he soon had some more creative tools up his sleeve when a brand new little Philips Mignon record player came into his life. That was definitely also the end of his trifling accordion days!
Enter 1958 and another major turning point in our young Swede's musical journey to fame and fortune. At the tender age of 13, his mom bought him a cheap Levin acoustic guitar and taught him his first three chords. After an hour or so he could already accompany himself and he eventually realized that this was it. He had finally found his niche in life and was ready to dive hands down 100% into the wonderful world of music, rock'n roll music that is! Little did he know that these first steps were to become a lifetime love affair and a relationship filled with exciting and unpredictable happenings. After just a month he had begun to stir up quite a reputation by playing and sing¬ing his guts out at a fair deal of local coffee shops, high school hops and what have you, just him and his guitar and he soon found himself in great demand for all kinds of teenage gatherings. Swamped by teenage cuties with flirty eyes wherever he went, whether it would be walking down the street or playing at a local hop, he soon realized that something special was going on and enjoyed the whole situation tremendously.
He was eager though to expand his abilities on the guitar further, so he signed up for a guitar course at a local music store. His teacher, Rune Sandberg ("a pretty cool and totally jazz triggered player, who'd been around since the early 40's and knew his Django and Charlie Christian chops inside out", according to Sven-Åke), soon discovered that Sven-Åke already knew nearly as much as he did himself. So instead of going through the usual beginner's routines, Rune concentrated more on developing quite jntricate chord progressions (based heavily on straight jazz standards, such as "Crazy Rhythm", "Lady Be Good" and "12th Street Rag") for Sven-Åke to sink his teeth into. And during the actual class lessons he let him front the rest of the pupils by playing improvised and quite intricate single string patterns, much to his own great satisfaction. And after the actual class lessons Sven-Åke almost always stayed on for an extra hour or two, playing and discussing guitar music in general with Rune and in the process learned quite a few new tricks of the trade from the old veteran. This would become real handy when he later started messing around with tape recorders and began cutting his very first sound-on-sound tracks. In fact, he cut his very first offerings already in 1958, at a friend's house and soon rented a monstrous L.M. Ericsson tape machine at a local radio shop, without even knowing how to operate it. Sven-Ake:
-/ couldn't for my life figure out how the heck you were supposed to be able to change between the two available tracks when recording, let alone make the two of them play back (which is done simply by reversing the reels!), so I unscrewed the combined recording/playback head and turned it upside down, screwed it back on again and, hey, presto, I had another track on my hands to fool around with!
Rune was also vital in making Sven-Åke upgrade his cheap Levin to a better and more sophisticated guitar, a Hagström 'Concert' Archtop model made in Norway (and bought brand new for 495.00 Swedish crowns), which he, as soon as he could afford it, converted intc an electric by attaching a De Armond "clamp on" pickup in the neck position.
Determined as hell he decided it was now time to kick some real ass and quickly formed his own five piece band tabbed Teddy &The Teddy Bears (after Elvis' big hit), made up of four boys from the neighborhood with the same approach towards music as himself. The band consisted of Sven-Åke (vocals/rhythm guitar); two brothers Häggström, Lars (bass) and Bo (rhythm guitar); Bo Riddarström (lead guitar) and Björn "Böna" Carlgren (drums). After playing just a few proms, Sven-Åke was voted the town's un¬disputed "King Of Rock'n'Roll" when the band played their real first big venue on July 23, 1959, at an outdoors show at Döbelns Park, Umeå.
Sven-Åke and the Band was in extreme demand for anything from local parties to big dance hall shows! However, after only close to a year in existence, they began to spread apart musical wise. Sven-Åke himself, for instance, began feeling a bit restricted doing only vocals and really wanted to broaden his horizon and spend more time concentrating on developing his guitar technique. He got what he craved for by listening to guitar twangers like James Burton, Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore and was soon able to absorb the very essence of great rock guitar playing at its very best. He would even go as far as to copy Scotty Moore's solos, note for note, off Elvis' records. This eventually led to that rival band leader Johnny Blomqvist begged him to join his band, The Little Johnny Combo, later renamed Little Johnny & His Red Dynamites, as a lead guitar player.
Teddy & The Teddy Bears eventually played their last show on December 13, 1959 and disbanded in January 1960 when Sven-Åke joined Johnny's band and became a full time musician.
In the summer of 1960, Sven-Åke thought he deserved a vacation and moved further up north to visit his sister living in Strömsund, Jämtland. Apart from helping out in her family's bakery, he also managed to make several stage appearances, both in Strömsund and in the much larger city of Östersund, backed by local musicians on all occasions. During this time band leader Johnny had got the band booked for a week at an amusement park in Umeå. And with Sven-Åke back in town again they played the gig and appeared on the same bill as Rock-Ragge and a host of other crerne de la creme Swedish artists of the time.
During this week they also met Swedish accordion player Edwin Westrell (who played on the same bill and once played with Sven-Åke's childhood hero, Carl Jularbo) who suggested that the band should make some demo recordings, which they did one night, after a show, at Johnny's apartment on the 2nd floor of an old wooden house a couple of miles outside of Umeå.
The neighbors were brought to a somewhat abrupt awakening that night when all hell broke loose and the old building practically shattered to pieces under the stomping pressure of classics like "The Saints Rock'n'Roll", "Reelin' & Rockin'", "Guitar Boogie", "I'm Feelin' Sorry", "A Mess Of Blues" and "Sweet Little Sixteen". Allan, the piano player, went hog wild during the outro of "Sweet Little Sixteen" and accidentally knocked a bottle of Coke off the top of his piano, which hit the wooden floor with a big bang...oops, what a rare sight to behold! The tape was sent to Ewe's Ljudkopia in Stockholm and soon evolved into a 10" mini LP (inci. Coke bang and all!), presented in one copy each to every member of the band, period! A SUPER rarity for all you HCB fanatics out there to track down!! Sven-Ake:
-After a while we seemed to be getting less and less bookings, and the reason for this was because of our popularity. The audience would stand on tables and chairs, which broke when they jumped on them. It would mostly cost more to repair or revive the damage interior than it would cost to pay us our fee of 25 Swedish crowns a piece!
Later the same autumn the band broke up and Sven-Åke and the rest of the Högberg family moved south to Stavsjö, a small village between the cities of Norrköping and Nyköping in the midst of Sweden, where he started studies in radio engineering. The local newspaper soon found out about his background and did a front page article about him.
Just in time for Christmas 1960 the Högberg family moved yet again, this time to a brand new apartment in Oxelösund, a small city some 12 miles south of Stockholm by the sea. It was here the phenomenon of Hank C Burnette was finally beginning to take shape. As soon as the family had settled down, he initially tried to start a new band by advertising in the local press, but couldn't find the right type of musicians so the whole thing was dropped. Instead, he borrowed a tape recorder at a local radio shop and made a demo, which was sent to Felix Aivo of Knäppupp, a small independent and now long defunct Swedish record label. Wrong label for rock'n'roll though, but that didn't hurt Sven-Åke much. He soon got his hands on a 2nd tape recorder and started messing around with two separate machines and made his very first "sound-on-sound" recordings in late '61.
In the spring of 1962 he did his last (?) public performance at a place called "Träffen" in Nyköping, singing Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again", accompanied by his own guitar playing. Shortly afterwards he bought a brand new Tandberg tape recorder and did his first real "sound-on-sound" recordings using his soon to be famous one-man-band technique.
The following year he expanded his arsenal of studio equipment even further. He now also saw fit to start a rather prosperous import/wholesale business, which eventually led to a gratifying import of loads of obscure 45's (he bought up almost every remaining ORIGINAL Sun single from Tom Phillips' (Sam's brother) Select-O-Hits in Memphis, among other things!) and hard-to-get LP's! And while he was at it, he incorporated a complete and brand new pearly white drum kit to his instrument collection, plus a Kay Flat Top acoustic, a Supro 'Comet' lap steel, a Dynachord Echo-King amp, etc. The same year, while diggin' thru leaflets from small and obscure record labels, he spotted the US Blue Horizon label out of Warrington, Florida in the batch and got in touch with half Cherokee indian (!) prez Larry Stevens. Hank:
-It just hit me that I should send him a tape of some recordings I had done and two weeks later I got me a record deal!
And now...finally...enter the world of The Legendary Hank C. Burnette. The name itself was "invented" between Larry Stevens (who's biggest idol was Hank Williams) and Sven-Åke (who's aiways had a weak spot for Chet Atkins and the "Travis pickin"' technique, although he doesn't practise it himself. He also considers Johnny Burnette, from his 50's Rock'n'Roll Trio days, as one of the most underrated true rockabillies of the era!). Hence, Hank (for Hank Williams), C (for Chet Atkins) and Burnette (for Johnny Burnette)...voila..HANK C. BURNETTE!
In February 1967 Hank's first record on Blue Horizon was released with "Hank's Guitar Boogie Shuffle", recorded as early as February 18, 1962, backed with "Hambone Shuffle" (Blue Horizon 106) and it got extremely good reviews. The follow up was a four track EP, which he put out himself in Sweden, pressed on the same label and in only 100 copies. The tracks were "All Mama's Children", "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You", "I Want To Be Free" and "Young and Beautiful" (Blue Horizon EP 10). All songs were recorded during the spring of 1964.
At the same time he received an offer from Globe Studios in Nashville, who wanted him as a producer and engineer, an offer he declined. By 1968 he had done about 1000 recordings. He also did musical backgrounds for Danish singer Peer Ivan and for U.S. country singers Don Haugen, Frank Darris, Cal Price, Gena Malone and others.
In August 1968 a new record was on the market with the tracks "Hank's Wildwood Flower" (a tune that Hank had recorded the basics to four years earlier), coupled with "Together Again", released on the US Seagull label (SG-101), which in fact was identical to the former Blue Horizon label, but now operating out of Nashville. The reason for the name change was the similarity to a few other labels with the same name. "Hank's Wildwood Flower" got an extremely good response on the many Nashville radio stations in particular. This isn't surprising as the song itself is commonly regarded as a second anthem of Nashville. It even made the second half of Cashbox's Top 100 country chart and hit No. 7 on the Tri-State Distributors "Popular Pick Of The Week" chart.
Because of the popularity of the record, a fan club was also hitting the ground at this time, handled by Miss Lynn Sheffield out of Fitzgerald, Georgia and she had special earrings made up out of different types of guitar picks, as a free gift for all the female club members. Regular picks very also offered, engraved with the HCB logo.
Bad health forced Hank to undergo an operation in 1970, which kept him hospitalized for quite some time. But in early 1971 he was back in full swing again and began cutting a track which later would turn out be his biggest achievement recording wise, at least in terms of sales.
In March 1972, the Seagull label released the original version of "Spinning Rock Boogie" b/w "Bet Your Bottom Dollar" (Seagull SG-1016). Both tracks were finished March 3, 1971. The A-side took about two months to record and is perhaps the most outrageous record he has ever done, while the flip side is an instrumental remake of Jack Scott's "You Can Bet Your Bottom Dollar". Hank did get a very good response to this one and soon a new 45 was available, now on his own Wildcat label. The reason for starting his own label was simple. Seagull was really more of a straight country label and Larry Stevens was perhaps not the world's greatest admirer of out and out red hot rockers (hence the distribution of SG-1016 wasn't exactly the greatest around, although it got raving reviews from the trade papers!). So Hank simply put two and two together and decided to broaden his horizon from a "one man band" to a "one man label" operation, which, in retrospect, happened to be a very clever decision.
The classic Billy Riley track "Rock With Me Baby" was put onto reels on April 20, 1971 backed with the self penned "Sugaree, Sugaree" (Wildcat 1). This release was indeed to be his big breakthrough on the European continent. And things started to heat up even more as the days, weeks and months passed by! During the month of June he could be heard on Swedish radio for the first time when two tracks were played on the show "Bandet Går". In 1973 he was voted "Europe's King of Rock'n'RolI" by the Dutch "Rockville Int'l" magazine. He landed a deal with Mac Records from Belgium and pulled off the first two releases on Mac Bouvrie's label in February (in fact, the first releases to come out on that label). The same year also saw releases by Dutch labels Diwa ("Multisided" Diwa LP1) and United Rock ("The Hank C. Burnette Sound" LP 501). French labels Dreamland and Rock wanted four tracks each and before the end of the year he got himself a three year deal with UK Southern Sound Records, the first release being a single with Jack Earls old SUN classic "Slow Down" on the A-side and Memphis legend Eddie Bond's "Here Comes That Train" on the B-side (SSR-500). This was followed by an LP release tabbed "Spinning Rock Boogie" (SSRLP 400), incl. the original Seagull version of "Spinning Rock Boogie".
The year 1974 was to be a hectic year for Hank C. Burnette. The wheels were turning faster and faster and he was putting more and more pressure on himself as time rolled by. He also upgraded his instrument park even further and bought the best studio equipment he could find and as a result rebuilt his own studio localities from scratch. At approximately the same time he was voted "Scandinavia's King of Rock" by the Norwegian "Whole Lotta Rockin"' magazine. He was also invited to appear on the Swedish TV show "Tratten" but declined as they wanted him to appear with a studio band which he thought would be to his disadvantage and the gimmick with "sound-on-sound" recordings would be lost. The same year UK rock star Shakin' Stevens spoke highly of Hank and told everybody that he was the proud owner of all Hank's releases. And according to U.K. rock'n'roll aficionado Danny Reddington, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zep fame both had standing orders for every new HCB record that hit the counters of his Reddington's Rare Records shop in Birmingham during the mid 70's! Can't beat that with a stick, can ya?! In October 1974 he got a phone call from Dag Häggqvist of Sonet Records, who'd seen his name creeping up all over the place in different trade & underground press. A two year contract was swiftly signed and Dag sent him a brand new Revox A-700 tape recorder to confirm the deal. In 1975 he dug down into his musical archives and after some new overdubbing he could send Sonet a tape with 51 vocal tracks and 57 instrumentals and came out with a very good contract for a brand new Sonet album that was signed on August 9, 1976. In September Sonet decided, in conjunction with Hank, to release a shortened and more "commercial" version of the old Seagull recording, "Spinning Rock Boogie", which Hank had put the final touches to a few months earlier by redoing the intro and shortening the entire tune from over 4 minutes to just under 3 minutes. "Don't Mess With My Ducktail" was on the reverse (Sonet 2094). The same month also saw the release of the Sonet album "Don't Mess With My Ducktail" (Sonet 693). Hank:
-"Spinnin' Rock Boogie" started out as a blank piece of left over tape that I didn't know what to do with. So, I simply went bananas, pulled all the plugs and pushed my old Tandberg to its limit! The actual recording took place in January, 1971 in half the space of a make shift garage (the other half was occupied at the time by my dad building bird cages, I kid you not!!). Instruments used was down to an old Hagstrom "plank" from '60 and a Supro 'Comet' lap steel that I imported as a trade sample in '65 from Claude Breton Exports in New York. The drum sound heard was produced by a battered German made Lefima snare with an attached crash cymbal the size of a normal dinner plate, period! Good grief, the things you do to ruin your career! Low tech or not, this little piece of home cooked patchwork turned out to be my most deliberate and successful recording ever! Ain't music a strange and fascinating craft!
To call "Spinnin' Rock Boogie" a show-stopper is an understatement! It stayed in the UK charts for more than two months in a row and went to no. 2 on BBC Radio One's play list. It even hit the top ten in Sweden (which is quite an achievement in itself), and spread like wildfire all over Europe, topping one chart after another. Radio Luxemburg plugged it practically every hour of the day (and night).
The tune was played on every possible radio station and at the end of September, early October the record sold an impressive 4000 copies a day. Hank got an offer from BBC's "Top Of The Pops" to appear, but did not go for reasons explained before. Sonet in England did a promotion film that was shown on practically every TV channel throughout Europe, incl. Sweden. And Italian TV RAI used the song as a theme for a TV series called "70's Round". Close to the end of the year Hank was at the top of the UK charts and everything seemed to go his way and nothing could go wrong. With all this amazing success on his hands, other performers like Mike Berry (of "A Tribute To Buddy Holly" fame), Peter Eden (Shakin' Stevens producer) and Larry Brown (of "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" fame) frequently sent Hank material which they hoped he'd record. He also wrote a lot of material himself, which got recorded by Jerry Williams and Shakin' Stevens among others. To top the bill, the legendary SUN label (now in the hands of Shelby Single¬ton) decided to release it in the States on a nationwide angle. In early 1977 the album was released in gold vinyl, an extremely rare procedure at the time and previously only carried out by RCA for an Elvis album! In fact, they were both pressed at the same pressing plant in Philadelphia! So far, Hank's the only European that's been featured on "the Yellow SUN Records", the world's most prestigious roots rock label ever!!
Remarkable enough, when all this was happening, Hank held a regular eight-hour day job during the days. It was in the evenings he cut loose and created all this music that was selling like hot cakes. No follow-up single was issued and the next album "Rockabilly Gasseroonie" didn't appear until 1978. The last Sonet album "Hot Licks And Fancy Tricks", with its first 10,000 copies pressed in gold vinyl, was released in 1980.
During the late 70's and early 80's Hank bought a 8-channel studio in Örebro and began recording local talents. In the same premises he also sold music material like guitars, amplifiers and accessories, the major part being imported from USA or England. He also contacted a guitar manufacturer in Japan and had them make him a series of guitars under the Burnette logo and these sold extremely well.
A fourth album was planned by Sonet, tabbed "I've Got Rock", but due to heavy work, Hank never got around to get any new and fresh material cut, so it fell by the wayside. When the recording contract with Sonet was up for renewal it never materialized to a continuation. Swedish label Star-Club released their first album by Hank the same year -1980 - entitled "No. 1 Rockabilly (33-8006). In 1981 Star-Club issued two more albums, both re-issues of at the time deleted alburns. First came the old Southern Sound album "Spinnin' Rock Boogie" (33-8013) and second "Multisided" (33-8014) which was originally on the dutch Diwa label. Hank did his last recording in 1983, but Star-Club Records released "Melvin L. Rockbottom - Lunatic Boogie" (Crazy 33-CR 13) in 1985. This album consisted of previously unreleased material from the 60's and 70's. The same year Hank told journalist Mats Östberg:
-Music has always been and will always be a part of my life, but not to the extent that it becomes a necessity. Call it a hobby or whatever. It's just something I do because I like it, simple as that! I never really got around into making a business out of it and this is probably the reason why things happened the way they did. But it was a busy time. I could hear the phone ringing before I opened the door to my apartment and it kept on ringing for years, literally. Finally it got to the point where it was just too much. I got tired of being myself making all kinds of music and not getting the feedback a live performer gets from performing in front of an, hopefully, enthusiastic audience. I just lost the feel for it. I also had custody of my son and I just couldn't stick my head in the sand no more and run away from "the real life" surrounding me. I had obligations to tend to.
Yes, Hank had made up his mind and during the spring of 1984 he sold all the guitars he had bought over the years, the recording equipment and just about everything else that reminded him of music in any sense and quit the business. He held several other jobs during this time like lathe turn, milling-machine operator, fitter, caretaker and working as an engineer at a local radio station for a couple of years. Although he never even touched a guitar during this period, records by Hank, made up from his huge library of recordings, kept coming like a rapid stream of water. In 1989 Star-Club released the labels 5th Hank C. album with the title "Rock-Ola Ruby" (Hank 1973-74). Hank again:
-In the late 80's and early 90's a lot of the local radio stations wanted interviews and in spite of my impolite manners to get them off my back some got what they wanted. And suddenly, like somebody pulled out a plug, letters came flowing in from all imaginable corners of our globe, the telephone began ringing almost continuously, record companies wanted recordings and disc jockeys wanted interviews.
Hank didn't know what to do, he had not touched a guitar for years. At the same time his 18 year old son Josef had caught the interest of rock'n roll and blues so Hank bought him a white Washburn Eagle electric and a Marshall amp to match and things began to happen:
-I had not touched a guitar since 1984 and I got a tremendous kick out of my son Josef when he began playing good old rock'n roll and steamed up blues. I just had to get myself a guitar too and I did. My fingers felt stiff in the beginning but together we put the pedal to the metal and kept on rollin'! And, to my delight, I could feel the old familiar rock'n roll licks getting back into shape again and suddenly I realized what a waste the last 8 years of my life had been! Cause, I started out with music almost before I could talk and I sure as hell ain't finished yet!!
Hank's son has got the same taste in music as his dad and really digs stuff that's got old blues and rock roots stamped all over it. His favourites include a lot of the old blues legends, as well as a huge array of Sun and Chess artists.
Not to forget his rockin' dad, of course, which means the world to him. And today, together they do what they like most of all, kickin' ass playing good ole rock'n roll music all night 'til broad daylight.
Bo Berglind, Erik Pettersson & Hank C Burnette (www.americanmusicmagazine.com November 1995)
In 2001 "Don't Mess With My Ducktail" was re-released on CD by Darrow Entertainment/Bonnier Music, including eight bonus tracks, soon followed by "Rockabilly Gasseroonie" which had six bonus tracks, and in 2002 "Hot Licks And Fancy Tricks", also with six bonus tracks. A new CD, "Straight From The Hip" with twenty new tracks was also released in 2002. Now, 2005 Hank C Burnette releases his first Greatest Hits album, "Blast from The Past", twenty of the best tracks from previous albums, including four unreleased tracks.
Hank C. Burnette must rank as Sweden's most versatile recording artist - singer, musician, songwriter, producer, arranger - and his sound on sound technique is comparable to Les Paul and Dave Edmunds. Although when you take into account the fact that Hank's work is cut in his living room or make-shift garage - maybe it should be the other way round.
Ever since he cut some tracks with the Little Johnny Combo for a small Swedish label way back in 1960 Hank's material has cropped up on several labels over the years. The most important release to date being "Wildwood Flower" for the American Seagull label in Florida. It made No.7 in the Tri-State charts. It's a rocked-up version of the country music evergreen, and it's rock and roll that Hank's pretty well addicted to. He recently answered some questions about his recording activities and his love of the great fifties sounds. The following is a transcript of what he had to say.
Q...Can you recall your first interest in music?
HCB...Well, for as long as I can remember I've had a keen interest in music. This is probably a heritage from my parents. My mom used to appear at different meetings in her younger days, with another girl, singing and playing guitar. My grandpa used to build guitars and fiddles. My dad was a big Fats Domino fan. They bought me one of those toy guitars but my efforts on that box didn't sound too good, and it wasn't until I went to school that I really started to play properly.
Q...Was the guitar the first instrument you mastered?
HCB...No, not really. My first real professional instrument was a beauty - a big Magdeburger styled accordion with fancy pearly inlays and abalone buttons. I kinda dug that monstrous pump machine as the size of it made it hardly possible for people to see me when I played it - hidden as I was behind it. I used to swing into my version of the old perennial "Stovehook Waltz" in our kitchen most every Saturday night. My parents eventually bought me a more modern instrument though - a Hagström Granesso accordion, with a beautiful 'French mussette' type of tone to it. My hero then was Sweden's accordion king, Carl Jularbo. I really liked his unique and quite fantastic keyboard swooping. Later I got stucked on Swedish guitarist Sven Stiberg and his Trio, who played in a style that would be best described as an up-tempo mix of jazz and hillbilly (as it was called way back then), actually not a far cry from what Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant was doing in the States at the time. I also discovered (via a jukebox in a coffee shop in a nearby village) another Swedish musician, singer and composer by the name of Owe Thörnqvist, who performed his own very humorous and catchy songs, usually in a fairly up-tempo style reminiscent of what Lonnie Donegan and skiffle music would sound like years later.
Q,...When did you first become aware of rock 'n' roll music?
HCB...Well, I would say soon after we moved up north to a town called Umeå. I heard and dug Bill Haley like hell and played the living daylight out of his "Rock A-Beatin' Boogie" over and over again on a nearby coffee shop's jukebox. This eventually lead to the purchase of my first real guitar, a Levin acoustic and my first three chords to boot (D - G - A), which my mom taught me. I still thought Bill and The Comets were great, but when Elvis came along it kinda knocked me out of sight. I went and bought my first record for ten shillings from a classmate, and I didn't even have a record player then. The record was Elvis' "Blue Suede Shoes"/"Tutti Frutti". I used to turn the volume up as far as it would go (which wasn't much by today's standard) on the old tube driven Philips radio so that it would play as loud as possible and pick along to the records. In the beginning I used to borrow a record player and when I got my own I bought all the rock'n'roll records I could find. Elvis meant a great deal to me in those days for he was the main cause for getting me involved in rock'n'roll music and prompting me to enter into a musical career myself. Then as time went by I got to hear obscure artists like Hoyt Johnson, Mickey Hawks, Andy Starr, Sleepy LaBeef, Mac Curtis and eventually the King of 'em all (at least as far as Rockabilly is concerned), the Rockin' Guitar Man himself, Carl Perkins.
Q...Can you recall your first disc recording session - dates, line-up?
HCB...Why sure. Kind of hard to forget actually. We put down six tracks at about two in the morning of August 23rd, 1960. I had disbanded my own band, The Teddy Bears, by then and was playing lead guitar with Little Johnny & His Red Dynamites. We did Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little 16" and "Reelin' And Rockin" plus "The Saints Rock 'n' Roll", "A Mess Of Blues", "Guitar Boogie" and "I'm Feelin' Sorry". Johnny was on electric rhythm guitar and did all the vocals - he was a big fan of Chuck's and had a raw rockin' voice. The rest of the line-up was a guy named Allan on piano and another cat named Björn on drums.
We recorded the entire six tracks down at Johnny's place, on the second floor of an old two floors wooden shack just outside of town, in the middle of the night after a quite intensive two hour gig at a pretty wild teenage party. Recording equipment was a L. M. Ericsson reel-to-reel tape machine, which Johnny had borrowed from the radio store where he worked, plus a single (!) ribbon microphone that picked up both the vocals and all of the instruments! The guitar amp was a Hagström in the region of 30 watts and handled both the rhythm and lead guitars! It can't get more authentic and genuine than that, can it! To top it all I had to borrow a guitar that day, cause I was in the middle of swopping my trusty old Hagström Archtop for a solid body that week and was left with nothing to play on. And what I got/borrowed was a total disaster in itself! A battered old German made Hoyer Semi with strings so rusty (!!) that they must have been left on there prior to World War II! I thought I was gonna bleed to death the way my fingers started to ache! Anyway, a guy in Stockholm released all six tracks on a small 10" LP on his own Ewe label. No contracts were ever signed and up to this day I don't know how many copies he might have sold!
Q...How and when did your signing to Seagull Records come about?
HCB...In 1966 I sent a tape, just for kicks really, to a guy named Larry Stevens boss of the Blue Horizon label in Warrington, Florida. A week or so later back came a recording and songwriting contract, which I signed, and in February 1967 my first disc came out on the label.
Q...That was "Wildwood Flower"?
HCB...Nope, that came later. My first single for Larry was "Hank's Guitar Boogie Special" b/w "Hambone Shuffle", both selfpenned and recorded in my parents living room in 1962! My second release, "Hank's Wildwood Flower" b/w Buck Owens' "Together Again", was issued on the US Seagull label in August, 1969. Larry had dropped his Blue Horizon label because a few other companies were using a similar name and design. So he started Seagull and a subsidary, Kountry 44. I cut most of "Wildwood Flower" in 1964, but didn't add the lead guitar until '68. I was also busy at the time providing backings for several US artists including Louisiana Hayride star Don Hagen, Frank Darris (a terrific Marty Robbins impersonator from Phoenix, Arizona), steel guitarist Cal Price and up and coming songstress Gail Grimes.
Q,...You recently signed to a UK based label for the first time - can you give any details of your first release?
HOB...Sure. I have a single and an LP coming out pretty soon on Southern Sound Records. The single is "Slow Down", the old Jack Earls Sun belter, and the flip is Eddie Bond's "Here Comes That Train". The album is a 14 track affair called "Spinnin' Rock Boogie". There will be 7 vocals and 7 instrumentals on that one. "Spinnin' Rock Boogie" took me months to put together, pretty near killed me. This track is just about the weirdest thing I've ever done and is about 4 minutes long. It was in fact originally released on the US Seagull label (Larry must've been out of town when it happened, cause he really prefers the old school of strict country stuff and is a country recording artist and song writer himself). One of the vocals is "I've Got The Blues" which was penned by Hank 'Big Cat' Taylor of UK "Rock & Roll Collector" fame. Another track "Fury" goes back to early 1963 and was originally recorded by Rory Storm and his gang. I'm looking forward to its release.
NOTE; Both single and album should be available by the time New Rockpile No. 8 is issued (November 1st 1793). The single can be bought from Reddington's Rare Records, 20 Moor Street, Queensway, Birmingham, B4 7UH. The LP "Spinnin' Rock Boogie" can be ordered from Eddie Muir. Tracks are: Spinnin' Rock Boogie/I'll Be Around/Driftin'/Is It Wrong/Hands Off/Fury/Hank's Guitar Boogie Special/Pink And Black/Everybody's Movin'/Here Comes That Train (different cut to single version)/Rock Me/Ain't Got A Thing/I've Got The Blues/Rakin'n'Scrapin'.
Interview by: Eddie Muir, New Rockpile, England.
"What's that noise, it's comin' this way..a wild thumpin', like bats outta hell..can ya feel the ground tremblin' and sway..head fer th' hills, jump inta the well..pray to th' Lord, pay up your overdue debt..Whop-T-Bop..it's Hank C. Burnette!"
He was born in late 1944. He started to perform live with his own band in the summer of '58, at the tender age of 13. He stayed with it in different constellations and bands until 1962, when he made his last stage performance.
He then started concentrating heavily on so called "sound-on-sound" recordings, a technique he first became familiar with in 1960, when he cut a few tracks using two tape machines. Hank also started importing and selling hard to get Rock'n Roll records from the U.S.A on small obscure labels around this time, strictly on a set sale basis.
He had his first record under the Hank C. Burnette banner released on the Florida-based U.S "Blue Horizon" label in early 1967.
His 2nd release on the U.S "Seagull" label became a Tri-state chart topper and even hit Record Worlds Top 100. Several Nashville studios faught like mad to get him to sign contracts as a combined record producer, engineer and staff musician on an exclusive basis.
Remarks like "electronic wizard" and "musical genious" was thrown upon him by music trade biggies like Cashbox and others.
He stayed with it though and cut a truckload of 45's and albums for several independant European labels throughout the 70's including a couple of slices on his own Wildcat label and an exclusive Swedish EP release on the Blue Horizon label, for which he had been appointed General Manager for the European market at the time.
He also spent time supporting several U.S and European artists with backing tracks, amoung them Louisiana Hayride star Don Hagen, Marty Robbins impersonator Frank Darris from Tucson, Arizona, steel guitarist Cal Price and up and coming songstress Gail Grimes.
In 1974 he signed a long term contract with Sonet Records and (after upgrading his equipment and trying out some genuine true multichannel recording techniques for the very first time) had his first Sonet release, "Spinnin' Rock Boogie" pushed out worldwide in late '76.
It became an instant smash and swept to the very top of almost any imaginable hit chart there was incl. England, France, Australia, Germany, Spain, Saudi-Arabia (!), South America, Holland, Portugal, Belgium and what have you! It was considered in the trade and media press as (quote): "Simply the most original, amazing instrumental ever released"! BBC's Radio One and Radio Luxembourg, amoung others, had it on the top of their playlist's for more than two month's in a row.
In fact, the impact was so heavy that the legendary Sun label out of Memphis,Tenn (were Mama Presley's boy and a carload of other Rock & Country legends had kicked off their careers) eventually saw fit to urgently release the album, "Dont Mess With My Dutktail" (from which "Spinnin' Rock Boogie" had originally been lifted) on a nationwide U.S. basis in '77.
He even) took a place in the prestigious Guiness Book Of Records as the first ever artist to hit the music industry in such a tremendous way, considering the conditions he was working under.
Amoung the collectors of his records you can find famous names like Shakin' Stevens Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (of Led Zep fame) and John Peel (legendary BBC top notch D.J and top rated music writer). Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick fame even gave him one of his old :Hamer Explorer shaped guitars, with re-equipped original Gibson P.A.F pickups.
For the past 17 years he's been elected Scandinavia's No.1 Rockabilly Cat by a herd of rock magazines throughout Europe. And U.K.tradepapers like Melody Maker and others thought he was a newly discovered U.S. Rock & Country Star, born and raised somewhere in the Southern part of the States, even though he's never been outside of Sweden!!!
In the late 60's he even had a fan club going for him in the U.S.A., with well over 15000 members!
Several European trade papers has elected him the best and most influential original European rock'n roll artist ever. "Spinning Rock Boogie" was also used as a theme song for a very popular Italian TV series in the late 70's called '70's Round'. And almost every imaginable TV network in Europe has been after him, incl. BBC's "Top of The Pops", for personal appearances. And now, after a few years of selfinclined silence, "Hot Licks" Burnette is back on wax again on the independant Wildcat label with new gasseroonies like "Bop 'Til I Drop" and "Hip Shakin' Mama", etc...
You ain't heard nuthin' yet, man. The Wildman of rockabilly is loose again, so hold on to your breeches and fasten your seatbelts.The scat cat looner is out to getcha, ya betcha!! Hang it in baby, I'm gone, long gone....
Bengt "Boppen" Eklund - Wildcat Records - Sweden
This very well known song (written by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson Thompson and originally recorded by Brenda Lee in 1972) is one of my own personal favourites of all the instrus I've ever cut, at least as far as the ballad side of matters are concerned! I've always thought it's got a very beautiful melody and very nice chord change progression and it seems like it's almost impossible to make a bad version of it! My own version is extremely scaled down on purpose, so not to interfer too much with the melody. Cut in august, 1997 in the middle of the night, together with a song of a similar mood, "Crazy" (the famous Patsy Cline country ballad). And, once again, you don't need any high tech digital equipment to get pretty decent results. This track was cut on a 6-track Sansui cassette deck, using a Takamine acoustic and a Charvel electric, both run through a Jerry Donahue Sessionmaster preamp (terrific gadget!). And the Alesis SR-16 drum machine was manually triggered from a set of drum pads lined up like real live drums and played that way! Hope you like it...
The best version ever of "My Girl Josephine" (also known as "Hello Josephine") must surely be credited to Jerry Jaye and his brilliant HI label
version featuring session ace Reggie Young on guitar. Whatever happened to Jerry Jaye after this smasharoonie is a mystery, cause most of the stuff he cut afterwards was pretty blatant in comparison. Penned by Antoine "Fats" Domino, who's own original version is unbelievable lame (the best and most outragious rocker that Fats ever cut in his entire career is undoubtedly "I'm Ready", at least in my book!), but then I've never been a fan of the New Orleans side of 'rock', with it's pre-arranged brass arrangements and often 'sound-a-like' results. The only label that really
hit the target in that department was undoubtedly Specialty with it's huge rooster of screamin' rockers with a certain Mr. Penniman leading the way! Watch out for the intro and outro on this one, it may surprise you (in a funny kinda way, I hope, lol!). Rock on...
Here we go again with yet another homage to the great SUN coy (even though this one was originally released on the SUN subsidiary label,
Phillips Int'l)...Bill Justis' big selling instru hit, "Raunchy" (also covered by Billy Vaughan's Orchestra on the Dot label). Not much to say about
it other than it was included in the batch of 62 tracks I recorded in 1997 in my living room on a 6-track Sansui MR-66 cassette deck. Enjoy...
Time for some blues based offering....Austin blues addict (and Howlin' Wolf sound alike!) Kent "Omar" Dykes (front figure of the Austin based blues outfit 'Omar & The Howlers') is the man behind "Bad Seed" and did a terrific original version of it on the "Wall Of Pride" Columbia album of 1988 (which also included the hard boogie masterpiece "Rattle Snake Boogie", featured as part of a movie soundtrack the same year).
Yours truly's instru version is from my hectic august 1997 living room session (cut on a 6-track Sansui MR-66 cassette recorder!), which brought to life no less than 62 tracks in a row, using only a 12-string Takamine acoustic, a Charvel HM solid body (both run through a Jerry Donahue
designed Sessionmaster preamp) and a Alesis SR-12 drum machine triggered manually by a set of digital drum pads like a regular live drum set.
What a gig! The video is made up of quite heavy edited bits & pieces from the movie "Bad Boys", one of the most car crash crazy films ever made, I think. Enjoy...
As most of you seem to 'ignore' my ballad sides, according to the comments I receive (with a few exceptions, of course, which I'm very grateful for!!), here's another flat out rocker...my version of Jackie Lee "Jack The Cat" Cochran's old '56 Sims label bopper, "Riverside Jump" (I've also recorded "Hip Shakin' Mama", the flip side of his Sims single, which I'll most likely upload here later on). In fact, this must be the 3rd time, at least, that I've recorded this one, as it's such a likeable and easy song to record. The 1st version I did was completely different in structure and tempo compared to this one. But the 2nd version I did is an almost note for note exact same one as this one, minus the dog house bass which I added in the '80s. And by this time it may not come as any big surprise to you to learn that the basics of this track was laid down in the...'70s (my, oh, my..wasn't I creative during that decade!!). Stay wild....
The rockin' continues...this time I'm strolling down the lane of the world's most important roots music label EVER, the Yellow SUN Label out of Memphis, Tenn. The home and starting place of the most amazing rooster of roots music talent on the face of the planet!!!! Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee, Charlie Rich, Carl Mann, Rufus Thomas Jr., Dr. Ross, Charlie Feathers, Warren Smith, Billy Riley, Ray Smith, Bill Justis...the list goes on and on!! Not to mention the truckload of blues greats that Sam Phillips recorded (such as Howlin' Wolf, Sleepy John Estes, B.B. King, Walter Horton, Honeyboy Edwards, Little Walter, Earl Hooker, etc) and icenced to independent labels like 4 Star, Modern, RPM, Chess, Gilt-Edge, Trumpet, Duke, Checker, J-B, etc. Not bad for a small independent one man operation that once was described as (quote): "A hole in the wall completely surrounded by Cadillacs"!!
The track I've pulled out of my tape library for this upload is yet another little toe-tapper that I recorded in (you guessed it!) the '70s, the College Kids' (Wade Moore & Dick Penner) SUN rockabilly jumper, "Bop, Bop Baby"! Straight ahead one take only (on all accounts) and a fun one to stick your teeths into! Hope you get as much pleasure out of it as I did recording it! Get with it...
Hank C. Burnette - "The Heebie Jeebie Blues". A tribute to all the terrific blues men & women of yesterday, that laid down the foundation to all rock and popular music in general as we know it today! May they all rest in piece & always live in our hearts!Hank C. Burnette - "The Heebie Jeebie Blues"
