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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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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.

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Louvin at Shangri-La

The Louvin Brothers were from Hanegar, Alabama, but, for a brief time in the 1940s, they called Memphis home. Brilliant harmonizers, the Louvins (Ira and Charlie) broadcast on WMPS and cut a record in Memphis before relocating to the other side of the state. They returned in ’52, holding down day jobs as post-office clerks while gigging on weekends and at night. (Their gospel sides for Capitol and MGM were favorites of Elvis Presley and his mother, Gladys.) But the Louvins uprooted again and again, moving to Knoxville and Nashville, where they found even greater success recording hillbilly laments such as “Knoxville Girl” and “When I Stop Dreaming.”

The Louvins have been long revered by the alternative set: Gram Parsons was just a teenager when Ira Louvin, the duo’s high tenor and mandolin player, died in a car accident, but soon after, Parsons began unearthing their classic country compositions “Cash on the Barrel Head” and “The Christian Life” for inclusion on albums such as The Byrds‘ Sweetheart of the Rodeo and his own Grevious Angel. By then, Charlie Louvin, who possesses a whisky-smooth voice and a mournful guitar style that mellows with age, was a well-established solo artist with a handful of top-selling country hits. His career has carried him into his 70s and through a resurgence of interest in Louvin Brothers material by such disparate artists as Emmylou Harris, Southern Culture on the Skids, Nick Cave, Uncle Tupelo, Johnny Cash, and The Raconteurs.

Charlie Louvin returns to Memphis this Friday, April 20th, for a free show at Shangri-La Records. He’s promoting his new eponymously titled album, an indie-rock-meets-country collision that includes contributions from Jeff Tweedy, Tom T. Hall, Will Oldham, and George Jones.

“I’m psyched,” says Shangri-La owner Jared McStay. “[Louvin’s] manager called and wanted to do it. They’re planning to film it for a documentary. It’s just another cool thing we can do here.” Showtime is at 6 p.m. For more information, visit Shangri.com, or call 274-1916.

Last fall, I was impressed when “Jump Back Jake” Rabinbach took over the microphone at Wild Bill’s, with a band that included local soul session legends Leroy “Flick” Hodges and Hubbie Mitchell. Now I can’t get Rabinbach’s self-released, five-song debut off my CD player. Recorded at Young Avenue Sound during the last two days of December, Already Sold harkens back to the blue-eyed country-soul sound perfected by Tony Joe White, Dan Penn, and George Soule. Rabinbach’s band, composed of musicians plucked from Third Man (formerly Augustine) and Snowglobe, hits an incredible groove, Greg Faison driving the group from a funky pocket and Paul Morelli and Nashon Benford holding down the horn section.

The self-produced CD epitomizes Rabinbach’s love affair with this town.

“I thought that between Big Star, Hi, Stax, Elvis, and Sun, there has to be something down here that’s fueling everybody,” says Rabinbach, a native New Yorker, who, with his girlfriend Eileen Meyer, moved to Memphis last year. He signed up for an internship at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music upon his arrival.

“I interviewed Jim Dickinson for the Stax archives, and those three hours changed my life,” he says. “I met Jack Yarber and Harlan T. Bobo, and I really identified with the way they jumped from style to style. I began to see myself continuing that tradition of weird Southern white boys — Doug Sahm, Tony Joe, Eddie Hinton — who play soul music.”

Rabinbach and Meyer formed Dirt Floor Films to shoot a documentary about their Memphis experience, which has the working title My Happiness: An Outsider’s Love Affair with Memphis Music.

“So far, we have 40 hours of footage. The most exciting thing we’ve done recently was a shoot with R.L. Boyce and Lightnin’ Malcolm. We’re doing fund-raising for live shoots, and we’re looking for some archival footage [of other musicians]. It’s weird making a film where I’m also the subject,” he muses, “but we wanted to capture the evolution of an outsider who immerses himself in this culture.”

Jump Back Jake and his band — which includes bassist Brandon Robertson and guitarist Jake Vest — will be playing at the Hi-Tone this Friday night, with Giant Bear opening the show. For more information, visit Rabinbach’s MySpace page, MySpace.com/JumpBackJake.