”Dean Carter was a true oddity of ’60s rock. He was a singer-guitarist with the heart and much of the sound of a ’50s rockabilly wildman, yet he recorded music that updated that rockabilly spirit with ’60s garage rock and dashes of soul, and even a bit of psychedelia here and there. Carter didn’t put out a whole lot of records in the ’60s, and those he did put out were heard by few. Yet one of those singles in particular, 1967’s “Jailhouse Rock”/”Rebel Woman” (on the small Milky Way label), is highly valued by ’60s garage collectors, even if its rockabilly influence made it a little anachronistic. Carter also did a good deal of unreleased sessions of considerable quality, whether he was playing relatively straight rockabilly or his freakier hybrid of rockabilly with late-’60s sounds. Much material from those sessions came to light on the fine Big Beat 2002 CD release Call of the Wild.
Carter was born Arlie Neaville and began playing rockabilly in the late ’50s in Champaign, IL, where he remained based for much of the ’60s. He recorded for the Ping label in 1961 under his real name, on the more established Fraternity label in 1962 as Arlie Nevil, and then for Limelight as Dean Carter in 1964. That same year, he and Arlie Miller, a member of his band the Lucky Ones, started a home studio in Danville, IL to record both Carter and other musicians. The pair also ran the small Milky Way label, which released product by Carter and others. At times the sessions got pretty strange even by garage rock standards, with ukulele, accordion, dobro, and clarinet all heard in addition to the usual crunchy guitars on his outrageous cover of Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock.”
Carter went to the West Coast for a while in the late ’60s, recording a couple of singles in Washington State with Gene Vincent guitarist Jerry Merritt, for Merritt’s Tell International label. He returned to the Midwest at the end of the decade to resume recording with Miller, and went back to billing himself as Arlie Neaville on record. In the early ’70s, he went into gospel music, where he’s remained ever since.” [allmusic]
”He’s been described as “Jack Starr meets Johnny Kidd”, “a lysergic Conway Twitty” and “Elvis fronting the ’66 Yardbirds” but mere words can’t truly describe the unique sounds of the late, great Stud Cole!”
””The late, great Stud Cole’s 1968 promo only LP (only 100 copies made in 1968) with five bonus cuts gives Los Angeles’ ultimate loner icon a fitting tribute as his memory is perceived in the digital age. Starting off with the title track, Cole’s Burn Baby Burn sounds timeless, a welcomed escape from the modern glut of over produced, emotion-deprived recordings. Cole’s fusion of 60’s rock and gritty country still sounds years ahead of its time, his seductive singing style alluring, its tough boy approach fitting for the rock and country he creates.” [Alex Steininger]
”Lounge flavored garage, with rock-a-billy influences, Elvis-like vocals, and fuzz guitar, all over blues/psych mat’l. This is one unusual album, originally issued as a demo only in 1968. The artist’s real name was Pat Tirone, and he was a bartender from L.A.”
What to say about those two wyldmen weirdos of Rock’n’Roll? It’s a double dose of 60’s garage, r-billy/blues/psych lunacy and mayhem the way it shoulda be… or what? Anyways, I’ve already have posted these real cool cats, two wacko garage surfadelic favs and I do it again. If you like acts as Hasil Adkins and The Cramps this is for you. And yeah, check this one too – Kookie Cook [a friend of Dean Carter] Burn Baby Burn!
SURFADELIC 