Showing posts with label Guitar Trouble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guitar Trouble. Show all posts

Saturday, January 14, 2023

Happy Birthday, Tommy Conwell!

Happy Birthday, Tommy Conwell! [January 14, 1962] 

The best!

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Wednesday, September 14, 2022

If You Have Ghosts - Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers [1991]

Watch Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers cover Roky Erickson's "If You Have Ghosts" in their Guitar Trouble prime on video in 1991.






















Listen to an audio only version from the same year live in D.C.!


Wednesday, September 9, 2020

30 Years - Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers and Guitar Trouble


Released 30 years ago this month in 1990--Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers’ Guitar Trouble album!

Featuring I’m 17, Let Me Love You Too, Nice N’ Naughty and Rock With You.

Review the release of the band’s album through videos, interviews, and images from the 25th anniversary release entry on Audio Rumble blog in 2015.

Happy anniversary to TCYR’s Guitar Trouble! 🎸🎸🎸

Monday, July 15, 2019

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers Are Back!

Pop culture in movies, Netflix and generic radio stations tell us what we’re supposed to miss about the 80s. (Y’know, the same three classic rock songs on a loop.) 

Well, I’ve missed Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers—and I’m so glad this band is back with new music! 

And no record collection is complete until you’ve acquired this core five: 

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers 



Friday, January 11, 2019

Tommy Conwell - March 1991 interview, Mucchio Selvaggio magazine

Read this March 1991 interview with Tommy Conwell from an Italian rock magazine called Mucchio Selvaggio. Tommy talks about the new album, Guitar Trouble, Texas blues, and basically predicts the emergence of grunge in the 1990s. He's a musical Nostradamus!
 

Tommy Conwell
Interview by Stefano Mongardini 
Mucchio Selvaggio magazine, March 1991 

In the wake of artists like Robert Cray and Jeff Healey, you can also fit in Tommy Conwell, a native of Philadelphia, but hopelessly in love with the Texas aspect of blues music, laden with whiskey and playing nightly like he’s in some Lone Star bar.
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Q: While coming from Philadelphia your music seems much more oriented to roots (rock), especially Texas blues. Some tracks are reminiscent of The Fabulous Thunderbirds: I'm thinking of “Let Me Love You Too” and “Rock With You.” 
A: Right. The Fabulous Thunderbirds have been a great influence for me, especially the first two albums. I like that kind of music, I'm a big fan of blues, and particularly Texas blues: The T-Birds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Freddie King and Albert Collins. Texas blues has influenced most of today's young American blues artists. Stevie Ray's guitar has made many converts; so has Jimmie's (Vaughan). I count myself as one of those converts. But I also play the classic blues and try to put together different elements in my songs. 

Q:  "I'm Seventeen" talks about youth alienation—were you trying to be autobiographical? 
A: I started writing that song as a personal vision of someone who sees what a seventeen-year-old is today, from my point of view, that of someone over twenty years old. But much of what comes from that has autobiographical influences. This is how I mix my past and my present. 

Q:  What did you like most about some of the (other artists’) latest music releases? 
A:  (I’ve been listening to) the discs of World Party. I loved the last Replacements album, like most of their stuff. I have not listened to the last Billy Bragg; I had bought his previous album, Workers Playtime, on which there were some great songs. By the way I bought it right in Italy, near Milan station (laughs)...
Then there's that tribute album to Roky Erickson (Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye) and John Wesley Harding's version of “If You Have Ghosts" is just superb. I've listened to it I don't know how many times in a row. On that album, there’s also "Reverberation" by ZZ Top. 


Q:  Do you think there is still room in music for that kind of “dirty rock blues” like yours, while the majority of the audience is turning more and more blindly to the “FM” sound? 
A:  We have a place there, although it does not have much prominence in terms of rankings. Rock in my opinion does not do statistically well. It does not receive respect and due attention, and for this few artists dedicate themselves to it. As you know people want to be where the action is. But I think something will soon happen, I hope.
There's going to be a new rock 'n' roll. There will be a new wave because rock has reached the bottom, just like it happened in the 1970’s before the advent of the Sex Pistols or in the early '60s before the Beatles. These were two bands that brought it back in vogue and at the same time changed it. Something like this is going to happen, I'm waiting. I hope it will occur before I become too old to be a part of it (laughs). 


Q: The scene for rock music seems to more complex these days. For example, on the one hand this seems to be the ultimate years for a rediscovery of the blues by a wider audience; on the other, a band like the Del Fuegos just got their album dropped by RCA. 
A: It's nice to see that the blues is getting the right attention, because there are very good musicians like Jeff Healey, Robert Cray and Robben Ford. I don't know if (the blues) is just a fad, and while remaining a big fan of blues, I don't think that's what will change in rock. It will be a scream much louder like it was for the Sex Pistols or for the Beatles. When there was the first English wave and then the New Wave, the rock was badly reduced: in the years before the 1960s for example, think Frankie Avalon and Fabian, while in the 1970’s there was (artsy) rock, which had nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols helped everyone remember what the fuck the term “rock” meant. 

Q: What differences do you see, in retrospect, between the recording of your first album and that of Guitar Trouble?
A: With the first album I tried to do a lot and pay a lot much more attention. I wanted it to be contemporary, but that it was rock ‘n’ roll different from what the regular guy listens to on the radio, but still made it on the air. And that is still my goal today. My concern was being in a new place where I didn't know the rules. When you make the first album you want it to be perfect, and see that it's up to par. With Guitar Trouble, I wanted to do something more personal that would make us more recognizable. 

Q: Name the guitar players who have inspired you the most. 
A: Jimmie Vaughan both as a rhythm guitarist and as a solo guitar player, and in the sound and tone he gets out of the guitar. 

Q: There seems to be a lot of harmonica on your latest album. Is that Rod Piazza (The Mighty Flyers) who plays on Guitar Trouble? 
A: Rod Piazza is from Southern California and I had never met him before, but Pete Anderson (producer), knew him. We had contacted Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, but he wasn’t available. Also, Rod is a great musician; on a song like "Didn't Want to Sing the Blues," I asked him to play as Little Walter, while in "Nice and Naughty," I wanted a style closer to rock ‘n roll; along the lines of Kim Wilson. To be clear, all the white bluesmen, excuse the expression, are not the real thing. In one way or another we always end up as sheer imitations, compared to the originals. 

Q: "What Once Was" has a very nice acoustic guitar part--do you prefer this or the electric? 
A: It’s the first time I've played acoustics on a record. We’re primarily an electric guitar band. But I do want to try to play more acoustics, because there are many situations that require it. I like the sound of an acoustic at home, but I’m not an acoustic performer. I don’t think I like it. 


Q: How does the guitar pairing work with Billy Kemp? Do you play more rhythmic parts or solos? 
A: For Guitar Trouble, I played almost all the parts for the guitar. A friend of mine played on a few pieces. But when we play live, we like to change it up. There is a rapport of sixty/forty regarding solos. I play more because I've always done it since I used to play in bars for a beer. But it's nice to change it up rather than having just one person do the guitar solos all the time.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

FMQB Magazine Cover - 1990



Cover of FMBQ (aka Friday Morning Quarterback)—a trade magazine covering the radio and music industry in the U.S.—featuring Tommy Conwell. Dated September 7, 1990.


Monday, December 5, 2016

Audio - Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers - 1990 Encore Set

Audio of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers recorded live on November 13, 1990 at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. Simulcast live on Connecticut’s rock station, 99.1 WPLR. 

\

Audio concert:

- Workout (in progress)
* Encore *
- Jailhouse Rock
- Rock With You
- Here I Come 


Created by converting two (2) 12" reel to reel audio tapes off to a digital file. The beginning audio is semi-warped, most likely due to the 20+ years of the reels sitting on a shelf.

Monday, November 7, 2016

I'm Seventeen | Cover from France

"I'm Seventeen" -- or "J'ai 17 Ans" -- Tommy Conwell's song cover in French by HervΓ© Paul - acoustic version.
[Adaptation par Kent Cokenstock (p) HervΓ© Paul]


Friday, September 25, 2015

Guitar Trouble - Cyndy Drue on 25 years

Words on the 25th anniversary of Guitar Trouble from Cyndy Drue:
After the self-released "Walkin' on the Water" and then the debut on Columbia Records' "Rumble," Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers' third album, "Guitar Trouble," was a natural progression musically. 
"I'm Seventeen" was the catchy single that rip-roared its way into our psyches with hooks all over it. To this day, that song and many of his others still sound fresh."



Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers - 25th Anniversary of Guitar Trouble

Every day from Sept. 15-25, 2015, Audio Rumble celebrates the 1990 album release of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers’ Guitar Trouble with a retrospective featuring articles, audio, images, interviews, video and lots more!


  • Sept. 15 - You can hear Tommy Conwell  and the Young Rumblers' Guitar Trouble online in its entirety on YouTube.
  • Sept. 16 - A record review of TCYR's "Guitar Trouble" [demo] from AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine:
         "...the best moments are quite effective -- the title track, "Guitar Trouble," rocks like nobody's business, "Hard as a Rock" gets that heartland rock anthem right in a way "Rumble" didn't quite do, and "I'm Seventeen" does have a ragged heart. Tellingly, those are all compositions credited to Conwell alone, suggesting that he may have known what he was about better than his major label benefactors."
  •  Sept. 17 - Tommy Conwell promotional image - Columbia Records, 1990. 
  •  Sept. 18 - A second performance from Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers on The John DeBella Show in November 1990. The band rocks "Let Me Love You Too" -- go TCYR! 
  •  Sept. 19 - Covering Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers’ "I'm Seventeen" from Guitar Trouble is Swiss musician, Walti Huber, a folk singer-songwriter. 
  • Sept. 20 - Guitar Trouble advertisement, 1990.
  • Sept. 21 - Gus Van Zant, director of Good Will Hunting (1997) and My Own Private Idaho (1991), directed Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers’ music video for “I’m Seventeen” on location in Portland, Oregon.
  • Sept. 22 - Houston Chronicle Review - Nov. 11, 1990
         "Philadelphia's Tommy Conwell makes strides on his second album, Guitar Trouble. Thanks to the hippest producer in the land, Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakam, Michelle Shocked), Conwell distances himself from the commercial pop-rock of his debut and embarks on a detour into basic blues-rock that makes no apologies for being white, young and British, circa 1965. The result is cocky enough to overcome its stylistic limitations." [Three and 1/2 stars]
     
  • A Cyndy Drue WMMR radio interview with Tommy Conwell promoting "Guitar Trouble" in 1990.
  • Sept. 23 - Tommy Conwell video interview for Guitar Trouble.
  • Sept. 24 - The Pittsburgh Press - Nov. 20, 1990: "Tommy Conwell's Rumbling Pays Off"
  • Sept. 25 - Words on 25th anniversary of Guitar Trouble from Cyndy Drue.

    *Bonus* I'm Seventeen, Gun Van Sant and Cinematography

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers - Live Concert 1991

Concert soundboard recording (39 min, 42 sec) of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers from the Guitar Trouble tour at Peter Clark Hall in Guelph, Ontario in 1991. 

TCYR opened for Colin James for several dates in the spring of 1991.

Here’s the setlist:
  • Nice n’ Naughty
  • Guitar Trouble
  • Rock With You 
  • If We Never Meet Again 
  • I’m 17 
  • Let Me Love You Too 
  • I’m Not Your Man 
  • Workout


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Guitar Trouble (live) - Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers

Dude: Hey, DJ Caterina, tell me another one of your TCYR stories...

Me: Well, back in 1986, Tommy Conwell hired Rob Miller for the Young Rumblers and then put him on keyboards because, Tommy said, Rob was the better guitar player. 

Dude: Oh, come ON!!! 

Me: Yeah, interesting, right? But here's Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers live in 1990 playing Guitar Trouble with Rob Miller on lead guitar with Tommy. I just love the guitar duel going on here.

Dude: THIS IS AMAZING!

Me: Anyway, check it out, kids...

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Crawl - The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Tommy Conwell's Young Rumblers

Tommy Conwell on his musical influences [Guitar Trouble press release]:

“First I wanted to be Charlie Parker on guitar,” he muses of his early jazz and bebop years, “and then all I ever wanted to be was Jimmie Vaughan...” 

Jimmie will be inducting his brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this Saturday in Cleveland. ‪ In the meantime, enjoy two covers: 

- The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan - "The Crawl" in Austin, 
Texas, 1983

 
 

- Tommy Conwell's Young Rumblers - The Crawl [Ambler Cabaret, 1985] 

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers - December 28, 1990

Vintage video of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers live at Chestnut Cabaret - December 28, 1990.  It's just an 18-minute snippet of some songs - very incomplete, but it's still good stuff. 

- Nice 'n Naughty 
- Guitar Trouble 
- If We Never Meet It Again 
- I’m 17 
- Gonna Breakdown 

The video was removed by the original account, but I have a copy of this concert and TCYR's intro of "Gonna Breakdown" at the end... sounds so great!

 


Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The Pittsburgh Press - Tommy Conwell's Rumbling Pays Off [11/20/1990]

The Pittsburgh Press | “Tommy Conwell’s Rumbling Pays Off”
November 20, 1990
By Peter B. King 


          Philadelphia’s Tommy Conwell likes to strut across tabletops when he performs in clubs. Occasionally, he’ll even end up outside on the sidewalk, still coaxing wicked licks from his guitar.
          You don’t go to a university of rock ‘n’ roll performance to learn those moves. Where did Conwell pick up the tricks of his trade? From Dr. Harmonica, for one, the man to whom Conwell dedicated his new album, “Guitar Trouble.” And just who is Dr. Harmonica?
          “I was in his band for about two years, and he taught me a lot,” Conwell says over the phone from Philadelphia. “He was a heavy guy and played harmonica and told dirty jokes. He’d call himself ‘235 pounds of shakin’ bacon’ or…whatever he felt like saying on a particular night. He was funny.”
           Conwell, who performs tomorrow night at Graffiti, Oakland, says he has also learned from other blues and R and B performers like Albert Collins, James Brown, George Thorogood and Junior Wells.
          “In a blues show, a lot of the time a guy will do a crowd walk, and a lot of times there will be some funny stuff. So that’s what I try to do. The blues guys would always hold the guitar between the legs or behind their back – just crazy, that’s what I’m into.”
         Although he was raised in suburban Philadelphia, Conwell, now 28, came up through the same Newark, Del., college nightclub blues scene that spawned Thorogood and Dr. Harmonica. As a freshman at the University of Delaware, Conwell was an overzealous fan of Thorogood. “I’d see him at the bar in town, and from across the room I’d yell ‘Hey George!’ And he’d like totally ignore me. I hope that he doesn’t remember me from those days.”
          A few years after he pestered Thorogood, Conwell is as famous in his own right – at least locally. He formed the Young Rumblers and hooked up with Cornerstone Management, the same outfit that manages The Hooters. Rob Miller, the Rumblers’ keyboard player, was formerly a Hooter. Cornerstone also managed Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band until their breakup (Glen Pavone, former KRB guitarist, auditioned for the Young Rumblers but wasn’t hired).
          In 1986, Conwell released an independent LP that sold 70,000 copies – more than enough to pique major label interest. Columbia Records signed him, although Conwell denies published reports that they paid about $300,000. Conwell’s first Columbia album, 1988’s “Rumble” sold respectably, with “I’m Not Your Man” getting a lot of airplay. The album was a mix of pop, arena rock and more R&B-based material. On the just-released “Guitar Trouble,” Conwell says he tried to get a little more rootsy.
           “I think on this one I told myself that I’m just gonna do what I enjoy doing the most, and what our audience over the years has always enjoyed the most.”
          As he seeks stardom, Conwell also has been seeking autographs for his guitar. He’s collected signatures from John Lee Hooker, Keith Richards, Chrissie Hynde, Johnny Ramone and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others. Many of the autographs have been carved into the surface of his ax; Conwell keeps a knife in his guitar case for that very purpose.
           Conwell admits the high stakes in the music big leagues can make it tougher to have a good time with good-time rock ‘n’ roll.
          “Yeah, there’s all this money involved, and all these New York people. And boy, it can really take the fun out of it quick. I’ve kind of learned to just relax about that. Just because people are investing money in you, and they’re in New York, doesn’t mean you should kowtow to them in any way. Because then you might be ruining something that was special because it was innocent.”

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Do Right (live) - Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers



"Do Right" performed by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers at the Empire Concert Club in Cleveland, Ohio, 1990. Promoting their 2nd Columbia album, Guitar Trouble. Recorded live on 100.7 WMMS radio.