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| Ricky Nelson & James Burton; photographer unknown |
Burton, James [1939 - ]
James Burton was born in Minden, Louisiana on August 21,
1939, moved to Shreveport ten years later and became one of the defining
stylists of electric rock’n’roll guitar, playing mainly a Fender Telecaster yet
owning 200 other guitars. He worked his way through backing Slim Whitman and
others on the Louisiana Hayride while still virtually a child, escaping into
session work after playing a striking solo while still a young teenager on the
1957 Dale Hawkins hit ‘Suzie Q’. It was on RICKY NELSON’s records that he
became widely noticed and admired, playing a series of discreet yet inventive,
tantalisingly brief solos on Nelson’s big hits. It’s astonishing how short the
instrumental breaks were on pop singles.
In 1969 he
was asked to back ELVIS PRESLEY on his return to live performance, and stayed in
service through all the numbing, demeaning tours until Presley’s death, though
he was never free to impose either his flair or his restraint on this overblown
orchestral unit.
His
credentials were better respected on albums by Hoyt Axton, JUDY COLLINS, RY
COODER and others, and on the Gram Parsons albums GP and Grievous Angel.
After Parsons’ death he was a member of EMMYLOU HARRIS’ Hot Band (between Elvis
tours), touring and recording with her. He and the steel player Ralph Mooney
made the duets album Corn Pickin’ And
Slick Slidin’ in 1966 (CD-reissued in 2005), and five years later Burton
made his only solo album, which suffered under the title The Guitar Sounds Of James Burton, the sort of name normally
associated with albums by middle-of-the-road hacks, and catches Burton trying
haplessly to look early-1970s hip, in one of the world’s nastiest shirts. This
album was CD-reissued in 2001.
James
Burton’s connection with Dylan - aside from the mere rumor that Dylan had
wanted Burton in his band when he first ‘went electric’ in 1965 - is
that when the Never-Ending Tour came through Shreveport on October 30, 1996, the
veteran guitarist came on stage and played with Dylan and the band on five numbers:
‘Seeing The Real You At Last’, ‘She Belongs To Me’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, ‘Like A
Rolling Stone’ and the final encore item, ‘Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35’.
[James Burton: The
Guitar Sounds Of James Burton, A&M, US, 1971. James Burton & Ralph
Mooney, Corn Pickin’ And Slick Slidin’,
Capitol T 2872, US, 1966.]
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