Tag: Roland Janes

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Music Music Blog

Jerry Phillips Remembers J.M. Van Eaton

J.M. Van Eaton receives a Founder of the Sound Award from Jerry Phillips in 2020 (Photo courtesy Ameripolitan.org)

Last Friday, on February 9th, drummer James Mack Van Eaton, aka “J.M.” or “Jimmy,” passed away at the age of 86, and with him were lost some of the last first-hand memories of Sun Records’ early days. Any fan of Jerry Lee Lewis knows Van Eaton’s work, for on the day that Lewis showed up at Sun with his cousin, J.W. Brown, ready for his first proper recording session, producer Jack Clement called up Van Eaton and guitarist Roland Janes to fill out the band, and the rest is history.

As described in Peter Guralnick’s Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll, the ad hoc quartet cut over two dozen tracks that day. After they’d played themselves out, Janes took a bathroom break, then emerged only to hear Van Eaton and Lewis playing on as a duo, indefatigable. As it turned out, that stripped down drums-and-piano version of “Crazy Arms” was Lewis’ first hit for the Memphis label. And that was just the beginning, with Janes and Van Eaton going to to accompany Lewis on many of his hits. Ultimately, Van Eaton would record with several other Sun artists, including Billy Lee Riley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich.

To reflect on the passing of one of Sun Records’ giants, I called on Sam Phillips’ son, Jerry Phillips, to share his memories of the man and his music.

Memphis Flyer: Did you know J.M. back in the day, when he was most active at Sun Records?

Jerry Phillips: I’ve known J.M. pretty much all my life. He started young at Sun and was I was young too, and over the years I’ve played with him and he’s played with me. You know, I was in Spain a couple of years ago at the Rockin’ Race Jamboree, a rockabilly festival. I started listening to the drummers, and you know, every one of those drummers was either trying to play like J.M. Van Eaton or they were playing J.M. Van Eaton licks. It wasn’t J.M. Van Eaton, but man, they were trying hard to be him.

He had quite a distinctive approach, didn’t he?

At the 2020 Ameripolitan Awards, J.M. got the Founder of the Sound Award, and they asked me to present it to him. In my speech I said, ‘I don’t know that Sun Records would have been the Sun Records it became without J.M.’s drumming.’ There was a definite sound that he had, and that’s what gave Sun a lot of its personality. I just don’t think we would have had the same sound or the same legacy had J.M. Van Eaton not been playing drums.

Just as my dad would say, ‘If you’re not doing anything different, you’re not doing anything at all.’ And J.M.’s drumming was completely different from anybody else’s that I’ve heard — except for the guys that are trying to imitate him. You never knew if he was going to do a roll, or what he was going to do. And he had that shuffle beat.

J.M. left full-time music behind for many years before coming back to the stage. Did he still have it when he got back in the game?

Oh, he definitely did. Probably 20 years ago, he brought a gospel group into the studio. And he played sessions with different people, just from kind of hanging around at Phillips Recording. Those guys that came out of Sun liked to just hang around. That’s what they did at Sun, they hung around.

Of course, you can’t leave Roland Janes out of the equation, either. Because J.M. and Roland were like a team. When Roland passed, they did a tribute to him at the Shell, and me and J.M. and Travis Wammack all got together and played.

J.M. eventually moved to the Tuscumbia/Muscle Shoals area and bought a house, and he always played quite a bit over there with different people. He played with Travis Wammack a lot. And I saw him and played with him more often there, since I was in the Shoals quite a bit because of our radio stations. We were better friends as adults, you know what I mean? And he just loved the Shoals area, and everybody there loved him.

He was just an extremely likable guy, wasn’t he?

I just can’t say enough about J.M.’s drumming, but also what a great person he was. I mean, I think he knew he was a great drummer, but maybe he didn’t. He never was one to say, ‘Hey, I’m a great drummer.’ But he just was. If you had J.M. on your session, you knew who was playing drums just by listening to him. And that was a signature Sam Phillips/Sun trademark, was that everybody over there sounded like themselves — and different. Tell me one drummer that J.M. sounded like!

Did you see or speak to J.M. soon before he passed away?

I did talk to J.M. the other day, I think it was a day before he passed away. We just had a little brief conversation. I told him how much I loved him and how important he was to everything. But he was pretty weak. He wasn’t really in the greatest shape, you know? Once his kidneys failed, he went downhill fairly quick. But up until that point, he was in pretty good health.

I’m gonna miss J.M. I really am. And I think J.M. was one of the most important people in the history of rock and roll music. I really do.

A celebration of life for J.M. Van Eaton will be held on Friday, February 23rd, at First Assembly Memphis, 8650 Walnut Grove Road, Cordova, from 6 to 8 p.m. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 2nd, at Cypress Moon Studios, 1000 Alabama Ave., Sheffield, Alabama. Call (256)381-5745 for details.

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Music Record Reviews

Impala Lives! Teenage Tupelo Soundtrack Enjoys Vinyl Reissue

CREDIT: Cover artwork by Rui Ricardo

Cover artwork by Rui Ricardo

The times I was lucky enough to work with Roland Janes at Sam Phillips Recording Service are burned into my mind’s eye, not to mention my ears. One such moment was helping out some friends in Impala, as they cut tracks for what would become El Rancho Reverbo, their debut full-length on Icehouse. What struck me at the time was the way the late producer, who by then was legendary for his role in early rock-and-roll, yet oddly under-recognized in Memphis, dug into the heart of each musical adventure. As arrangements were hammered out, Roland was right there, brainstorming with the band, leaning forward in his control room chair and listening intently. His focus and quiet enthusiasm was contagious, as was his way of stripping each composition down to its core. 

A similar energy must have pervaded the soundtrack they cut a year later, once again at Phillips under Roland’s guidance. Scoring Mike McCarthy’s Teenage Tupelo was an apotheosis for the band: If their previous blend of surf, crime jazz, and roadhouse R&B borrowed heavily from soundtracks of the past, here at last was a chance for those sounds’ cinematic potential to be realized. And the thrift-store mash up of pulp influences that informed McCarthy’s film perfectly matched the band’s aesthetics.

Bassist and producer Scott Bomar spoke with the Memphis Flyer’s Andria Lisle about the score  in 2005:

“I think Teenage Tupelo is the most accurate representation of Impala and what we were capable of doing,” Bomar says. “It really paved the way for what I did on Hustle & Flow. Mike knew these guys down in Mississippi who used to play with [Memphis rockabilly/country singer] Eddie Bond, so we had this pedal steel player and this piano player who we’d never played with before, and we had to create these two [tracks] that were supposed to be coming from a jukebox. So we had to re-create [the sounds of] a ’60s Tupelo, Mississippi, trucker jukebox. I like a lot of different types of music, and that’s what’s fun about working with movies. People want and need so many different types of music — a country song on a jukebox or maybe a polka.”

Indeed, as the 1995 soundtrack now enjoys a vinyl rerelease on Chaputa Records out of Portugal, it’s eclecticism is striking. Beyond the band’s usual mix of influences, there are touches of country in “Johnnie’s Drive-In” and “Tom’s Automotive,” spaghetti Westerns in “Tomb of the Tupelo Twin,” and even a jarring free-jazz moment in “Pinstripe (Capt. Crypt’s Theme).”  And the band’s crime jazz elements are given more space than ever, in numbers like “D’Lana Walks at Night,” “Rumble Suite,” and “Blue Light of Capricorn.”
Dan Ball

Impala recording with Roland Janes (third from left)

Through it all, Roland Janes’ subtle production touches, such as the tone of the percussion in “Woman in Chains” or the glorious mid-range of the piano in the country numbers, shine through. It is indeed an apotheosis of the band’s and the producer’s vision, and it’s heartening to see this, one of the greatest expressions of the ’90s Memphis scene, honored internationally in this gate-fold vinyl release.

Teenage Tupelo is available at the Electraphonic Recording website and local record stores.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Roland Janes Memorial Tribute Jam

On Monday, June 30th, friends and colleagues of the late Roland Janes will jam in his honor at the Levitt Shell. The free event is the work of Janes’ friend and collaborator J.M. Van Eaton. Both men were session musicians at Sun who became rock royalty when another day’s work resulted in “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” and unleashed the Killer on polite society. Friends from Roland’s life and career will honor him as a guitarist, an engineer, a businessman, and as friend. He was that and much more to so many. The list of invitees tells the tale.

Sun-era stalwarts George Klein, Travis Wammack, Sonny Burgess & the Legendary Pacers, and Hayden Thompson. Smoochy Smith, who moved to Stax after working at Sun, went on to write “Last Night,” the song that broke Stax nationally. Smoochy’ll be there.

Van Eaton and Janes were old friends and participants in the birth of rock and roll.

“Roland and I started at the same time in the music business,” Van Eaton says. “I was still in high school. Tech High School. Billy Riley had just got a record deal with Sun and I met Roland at the studio one day when I had my little school band in there. They heard me play and Riley didn’t have a band. So he started putting his band together and he asked me if I wanted to be a part of his band. Roland was the guitar player. The bass player in that band was Marvin Pepper. Billy hired him and that was the original Little Green Men for ‘Flying Saucer Rock n Roll.’ So I met Roland back in 1956, probably.”

Billy Lee Riley’s Little Green Men: Riley, Roland Janes, Marvin Pepper, and J.M. Van Eaton

Soon after, the backing band made history.

“We’d probably been together about two or three months and Jerry Lee Lewis walked in. He didn’t have a band. So they called us to the studio to back up Jerry. We thought this was an audition to see if he had any talent. Man, we cut this song called “Crazy Arms,” which was his very first record, and that took off enough that they wanted to do the second one. The second one was Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On. So we both played on that. To fast forward to when that kind of played out, Roland and I played in band together in Millington at Fleet Reserve. This was a club band. We got a picture. He had already started Sonic Studio by then. But we played three nights a week for five years at this one place out there. We were packing them in every night.There were four of us in that band, and three of us are still living. We’re gonna bring those guys in.”

Also on the bill are several artists who Roland produced. John Paul Keith was one of Roland’s last real sessions before his death last year. Jon Hornyak was one of many Missourians who found their way to Memphis to work with Janes. His band Interstate 55 will also play.

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Music Music Features

Recalling Roland

CREDIT: Dan Ball

Last week, Memphis lost Roland Janes. The legendary guitarist and producer was famous for his work with Jerry Lee Lewis and for his studio work at Sam Phillips Recording. Janes’ records will endure. His legacy as a musical mentor is profound. Few people experienced Janes as a teacher more than Scott Bomar, a Grammy-winning film composer, who (like Memphis musicians) learned to record and produce from Janes. Bomar’s success and, more importantly, his demeanor reflect Janes’ influence. Below, Bomar shares his memories of learning from one of Memphis’ greatest talents. — Joe Boone

One of the most pivotal moments in my life was digging a funky, yellow-labeled 45-rpm single out of a stack of records at my grandmother’s house when I was around 13. It was Travis Wammack’s “Scratchy,” one of the wildest, most unhinged guitar instrumentals of all time. It was from the past and the future all at the same time. It was hard to tell if it was from 1962 or 2102. I became fascinated with the sound of the record, and it sent me on a pre-internet fact-finding mission to find out everything I could about its creators.

I eventually found out about the record’s producer, Roland Janes, who had cut the record in the ’60s at his Sonic recording studio in a strip mall in Midtown Memphis. I began to connect the dots and discovered that Roland had been the in-house studio guitarist for Sam Phillips at Sun Studio and had played on numerous Jerry Lee Lewis hits, Billy Lee Riley’s “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll” (one of the lodestones of rock-and-roll guitar), “Raunchy” by Bill Justis, and Harold Dorman’s “Mountain of Love.” Roland had the magic touch.

My growing obsession with the Memphis instrumental sound of the ’50s and ’60s eventually led to the formation of 1990s band Impala. I was a band member. In the early ’90s, I was working at Select-O-Hits, the record distributor operated by the family of Sam Phillips’ brother Tom Phillips and was approached by Johnny Phillips to make a full-length Impala record. I knew that Johnny did all of his recording at Sam Phillips Recording on Madison (the ultra-swank studio Sam Phillips built after he sold Elvis’ contract to RCA), and Roland Janes was the in-house engineer. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

Working with Roland was not only a dream come true but also the beginning of a life-changing mentorship and friendship that lasted until his passing. With Roland at the helm, I experienced my first album session (Impala, El Rancho Reverbo), my first experience making music for a film (Impala, Teenage Tupelo), and my first record as producer (Calvin Newborn, New Born).

Roland always had the best advice, the best answers, and the ability to get the best performances from both raw talent and seasoned pros. From Roland, I learned more about the psychological aspect of producing records than the technical, though I did glean some of his knowledge of the latter as well. Roland’s sense of humor and wit were unlike anyone I have ever known. Roland would have musicians laughing and quickly forgetting any anxieties or pressure they may have been feeling, and, before they knew it, they would be getting takes down. Roland Janes, like his former boss, Sam Phillips, had a divine ability to work with talent and capture the precise moment of inspiration on tape.

Up until the past few years, Roland had been reticent to do interviews and share the bottomless wealth of stories he had. But being the intuitive person he was, I believe he knew he was in the twilight of his life, and he had begun to share more of his stories and himself — he even had a Facebook page. Fortunately, Roland lived to receive accolades from the Memphis music community that he had given so much to.

In 2006, I had the honor along with Knox Phillips, Jon Hornyak, and Craig Brewer to present Roland with plaques from the Recording Academy for his participation in three Grammy Hall of Fame recordings.

Last month, it was announced he would be inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame and would be receiving a brass note on Beale Street. Roland was praised in numerous articles and online posts by a new generation of musicians and fans he had touched, and he was recently featured in a large cover story in the Sunday Commercial Appeal.

Roland Janes’ essence and legacy are captured in the past six decades and in the future of Memphis music. I will never forget the things he taught me, the advice he gave me, his stories, and, most of all, his generosity and kindness.