This two-fer CD release collects
Duane Eddy
's first two albums on one CD, 1958's
Have 'Twangy' Guitar, Will Travel
and 1959's
Especially for You
, and if you're looking for a handy template of the sound that made him famous, this does the trick as well as you could hope. The 24 songs from these two albums all follow roughly the same path --
Eddy
laying out bass-heavy, reverb-soaked guitar leads while an inconspicuous but indefatigable rhythm section keeps the beat behind him and a raunchy sax (usually played by
Steve Douglas
) wails along. It's not unfair to call
a one-trick pony, but dozens (more like hundreds) of pickers tried to capture the fine points of his style over the years, and none of them ever got especially close to capturing the laid-back but committed feel of
's music and the subtle dexterity of his picking. The audio on this set is superb, sounding as clear and deep as the original LP pressings with less noise, and the package includes four bonus tracks, as well as the original liner notes for both albums, new essays from
Gary Blailock
, and lots of photos and label scans. This isn't exactly the definitive
collection, but if you're looking for an introduction to his work, starting from the beginning with this disc is not a bad way to go. ~ Mark Deming