HOW HIGH THE MOON

Welcome to my latest blog entry which takes a brief look at one of my other interests... astronomy and astrophotography.

I have been a freelance photographer for more than seven years and during that time photographed many subjects including landscapes, architecture and wildlife. However, my main interest is working with models, both hobbyist and semi-professional. Over the years I have covered many styles... fashion, portrait, cosplay, swimwear, horror, pin-up, vintage, retro, lingerie and boudoir. I have worked with some wonderful models, most multiple times, and have been fortunate to have been published in a number of magazines. Other articles on my blog cover this in more detail.

A couple of years ago I purchased a new 150-600mm f5-6.3 Sigma lens which gave me the opportunity to pursue a new hobby, astronomy and astrophotography. Although only a beginner and with a lot to learn I have been pleased with my efforts so far.

My early attempts were images of full-moons, with mixed success and the three images below, all taken using my Canon EOS 77D and Sigma lens, are examples of my early efforts.

Flower Moon - May 2020

Full Moon - 30 November 2020

Snow Moon - 27 February 2021

I soon realised I needed to expand my knowledge of astronomy and astrophotography. One of the earliest pieces of information I discovered was that taking images of full-moons wasn't the best option, due to the fact that there is not much detail in the images and they looked very flat.

I wanted to achieve a well-exposed image where you could make out craters etc and soon learnt that to achieve this I should photograph the moon during other phases, such as crescent and half-moons, when it is less illuminated by the sun and when shadows help exaggerate the surface.

I bought a couple of books and magazines on astronomy/astrophotography from which I learnt a lot more about the night sky and capturing great images. 

Last year I purchased a telescope, a Celestron Nexstar 4SE, which would give me the opportunity to expand my interest, learn more about the night sky and capture better images by fitting my DSLR camera to the telescope.

My main interest is the moon and I knew when I purchased the telescope that it was more suitable for planetary rather than deep space imaging.

It took a while to understand how to use the telescope and I found alignment an uphill struggle, although it was made easier by the fact that I was only viewing the moon. It wasn't long before I had all the necessary pieces of hardware to connect my camera.

Having learnt about the different phases I avoided full-moons and started photographing at different times of the moons cycle... Waxing Gibbous, First Quarter, Waxing Crescent etc.

I made several attempts and most ended up being deleted but I soon took the image below which, although not perfect, I was very pleased with. It received many positive comments when I posted it on social media including some from members of a local astronomy club which I recently joined.

27 August 2021

At the present time I have only used the telescope to view and capture images of the moon. It is a steep learning curve and in the future I hope to improve my skills and attempt to capture images of other planets.

Recently I connected the telescope to my laptop making alingment much easier and I'm sure in the future I will be adding to my astrophotography kit.

My latest image, and personal favourite, was taken at twilight on 14 April 2022 and once again I was pleased with the results and the comments it received.

14 April 2022

I will never be an expert at astrophotography but will continue to watch the night sky and take photographs and hope one day to take that amazing shot that will make people go wow!

STANDING ROOM ONLY

Fifty years ago this month Elvis undertook his first tour of the year playing eighteen shows over fifteen days. He played to over 210,000 people during the tour which criss-crossed the States from Buffalo, New York to Albuquerque, New Mexico. In this article We look back at the tour, the months leading up to the concerts and the record releases, including the planned, although eventually cancelled, live album.

Back in January and February Elvis had played a month-long engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, his sixth season in the city since his comeback shows in August 1969. During the season a number of new songs were recorded live for possible inclusion on a future album including The Impossible Dream, Never Been To Spain, You Gave Me A Mountain, It's Over and the show-stopper An American Trilogy.

Released as a single in early-April, An American Trilogy, failed to achieve the kind of success they had hoped for when it stalled at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100. The sleeve advertised the Standing Room Only album stating it was a summer release and would be a live album. This, as we shall see later, never materialised and the live material along with those recorded at the March session would end up spread out over several singles and albums. There wouldn't be another single release until August, four months after the tour ended.

Around this time it has been mentioned that negotiations were taking place between Colonel Tom Parker and MGM for a new documentary film to be filmed in Vegas. The working title was Standing Room Only and there would also be a soundtrack album. MGM had agreed a fee of $250,000 (over $1.5 million today). The concept was later changed to a film covering Elvis on tour across the United States during his Spring Tour in April. Elvis would receive $1 million from the concert promoters (around $6 million today).

MGM approached two directors, Robert Abel and Pierre Adidge, who had worked on the Joe Cocker documentary Mad Dogs & Englishmen, which followed Cocker's tour of America in 1970. At first Abel was not that interested but a trip to Las Vegas to see Elvis in concert and a meeting with the star soon convinced him otherwise. Neither Abel or Adidge had been impressed with That's The Way It Is, feeling it was too staged. They would only work with Elvis if he acted naturally, to which he agreed.

They would film the opening show of the tour as a guide to the show and Elvis' performance as a preparation to the planned filming of four shows during the tour.

Before the tour started an RCA recording session was booked for late-March where Elvis recorded a number of tracks including Separate Ways, Fool, Always On My Mind, It's A Matter Of Time and Burning Love. Following the RCA sessions Elvis and the band spent the next two days rehearsing material for the upcoming tour.  They also recorded a 'mock studio session' for MGM to film for the proposed movie.

The tour, with ticket prices at $5, $7.50 and $10 and booked by Concerts West, opened with a sold-out show before a crowd of 17,360 at the Memorial Coliseum in Buffalo, New York. Elvis wore what was known as the Blue Nail Suit suit, one he would wear at several of the shows on this tour.

For those who have an interest in the various jumpsuits he wore on the tour this is some information... The Owl Suit (gaining its name from the fact that Elvis referred to the owl emblem during one of the shows), The Burning Love Suit (the same one featured on the Burning Love single, hence the name), The Pyramid (White Diamond) Suit, White Star (Firework) Suit, White Pinwheel Suit (also known as Lion Head Suit) and The Spectrum Suit (named after the venue he appeared at in November 1971) and, of course, several hundred scarves which he gave away every night!

The set-list for this and most of the other shows on the tour followed a similar pattern. To the strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from '2001: A Space Odyssey') Elvis hit the stage and launched into See See Rider. Songs recently tried out and recorded in Las Vegas were featured including Never Been To Spain and You Gave Me A Mountain along with many concert favourites from previous years like Proud Mary, Polk Salad Annie, I Can't Stop Loving You, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Suspicious Minds. Classic hits included Love Me, All Shook Up, Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel, Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog and Love Me Tender. Often asking for the house-lights to be turned up so he could see the audience Elvis would sing Funny How Time Slips Away. Two highlights of these shows were the recently recorded and future single Burning Love and the show-stopper An American Trilogy, his latest single.  Like most shows in the past couple of years he closed with Can't Help Falling In Love.

Reviews of the Buffalo concert were positive with comments like, 'Elvis still wields that old magic' and 'Presley magic still strong as record 17,360 turn out.' In his review in the Courier-Express, Thomas Putnam wrote, 'For a performer with a reputation for being somewhat extrovert, Presley seems remarkably shy, or at least his reluctance to exploit his appeal, which is certainly strong. His modesty is a fuel for the fan adoration. If he looked in the direction of some fans, they screamed, and Presley would look down, shaking his head, as if to wonder how the old response was still there.'

Concerts followed in Detroit at the Olympia Stadium, where 16,215 fans attended the evening show, the biggest crowd to ever see a concert at the 44-year old venue. Elvis' next concert in Dayton broke two records for attendance of 13,788 and ticket sales approaching $157,000 and apparently in a newspaper article it mentioned that the Colonel stopped counting when it reached $120,000!

The tour then headed south for two concerts in Knoxville, Tennessee and three shows in Virginia at Hampton Roads, Richmond and Roanoke. Back north for an evening concert in Indianapolis was followed by more concerts in the south at Charlotte and Greensboro, both in North Carolina, two shows each day in both Macon, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida.

JoAnna Moore, writing in the Jacksonville Times-Union, wrote, 'He was a glimmering figure: wisps of his greaseless shag hair brushed the collar of his white, silver and stone-studded, caped jumpsuit.' She went on to praise his performance, 'His extremely physical presentation was alive in each song and the audience reaction never subsided.'

Moving westward Elvis played shows at the T. H. Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas and the Convention Center Arena in San Antonio, Texas. The tour wound up with an evening show before a crowd of almost 12,000 at the Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Following his longest tour since the 1950s Elvis returned to Memphis for a well-deserved rest and preparations for his next tour, which would include his first live appearances in New York City.

Four of the shows were filmed by MGM for the documentary film, still provisionally titled Standing Room Only... Hampton Roads, Richmond, Greensboro' and San Antonio. Footage was also filmed backstage at various venues.

RCA also planned to record the show in Knoxville on 8 April apparently 'to finalise the album' and release their own recording rather than depend on those MGM made. Unfortunately technical issues meant the recording didn't go ahead. 

So what happened to the planned Standing Room Only album and the live and studio material recorded earlier in the year? There were obviously serious plans to release the album as it was allocated the catalogue number LSP4762.

It is unknown if the Standing Room Album would have featured a complete live concert from the tour or a mix of the live recordings from Las Vegas and studio recordings from March, a similar format to the That's The Way It Is album from a few years earlier.

However, future plans would see the album delayed and finally cancelled. In June Elvis was booked to play Madison Square Garden in New York and there was also talk of a satellite TV special from Hawaii later in the year.

When the decision was made to record the June New York concerts and release it a few days later as Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden, featuring an almost identical set list as the shows recorded on tour, it seemed logical to delay the Standing Room Only album from its original scheduled release date of September to October.

The original date for the Hawaii concert, which was going to be recorded and released, was November but at the request of MGM, who didn't want it to clash with the release of the concert movie, it was rescheduled for early 1973. This signaled the end of Standing Room Only. There were just too many live projects scheduled and the album was finally withdrawn.

In what can only be seen as bad management and a crazy commercial decision the strongest song, and #2 hit single, from the March studio sessions, Burning Love,  ended up on the budget release Burning Love And Hits From His Movies along with some of his worst ever movie songs. The same fate befell Separate Ways although RCA must have realised their earlier mistake and they dropped the And Hits From His Movies tag. Even so, releasing his strongest material on budget albums was a mistake when they could have still created a strong album that would have shown Elvis' current musical direction. Another missed opportunity.

In 2009 the FTD label released an album titled Standing Room Only which bought together the January/February live and March studio recordings together in a 2-CD set. A final track selection of the originally planned album is not known but this release gives the listener an idea of what could have been done. The album artwork was taken from an original mock-up in the RCA files.

It is interesting to note that the photo of Elvis, taken in Jacksonville during the April tour, was used on the cover of the At Madison Square Garden album.

However, material officially released from the March tour rehearsals and April concerts has been scarce with only the FTD release Elvis On Tour The Rehearsals and CD 4 of the Close Up set which featured the San Antonio concert.

It took the bootleggers to plug the gap and they have more than made up for this with all four concerts that were filmed/recorded and the rehearsals released on several different labels over the years. The most comprehensive bootleg release was issued by Amigo International, Elvis On Tour Deluxe Edition, which was a nine CD set featuring the four concerts, rehearsals and the complete interviews recorded for the film. Presented in a slip-case with a book with over 120 pages full of photos, memorabilia and accompanying text. 

Apparently FTD are planning to release a box set to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Elvis On Tour later in the year and in a future blog I will be looking at the movie, it's release and success along with a review of the FTD release.

Till then... 'Elvis has left the building, thank you and goodnight.'

TRIO - THE SISTERHOOD OF SONG

The album Trio, a collaboration featuring Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt was released on 4 March 1987, thirty-five years ago this month. To celebrate I am looking back at the recording, release and success of the album. The majority of the text in this article is taken from my book Linda Ronstadt-A Life In Music which was published back in 2009 although there is additional/edited text throughout. The illustrations have also been added for this article.

(Photographer: Robert Blakeman)

Sessions were held back in 1978, when Linda teamed up with fellow country stars Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, although they hadn’t gone smoothly and one of the reasons given at the time was problems finding enough time to record and work together. All three artists decided to wait until they could do the album justice.

In an article printed years later in USA Today, the three artists talked about the problems encountered. “The first attempt at recording eight years ago involved too many chiefs and not enough indians. So we had a pow wow between the three of us and said why don’t we wait until we can do it properly. Let’s weed out and get rid of some of the aggravations,” said Parton.

At the start of 1986, it seemed the time was right and in January they convened at The Complex in West Los Angeles to begin work on a new album under the direction of George Massenburg. A stellar group of musicians were on hand including Albert Lee, John Starling and Mark O’Connor on guitars, Herb Pederson on banjo, Steve Fishell on pedal steel and dobro, David Lindley on mandolin, Bill Payne on keyboards and Russ Kunkel on drums. Old friend Kenny Edwards was also on hand playing acoustic and electric bass. Sessions ran, on and off, through to November with additional recording taking place at Woodland Studios in Nashville and Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood.

Edwards had a lot of respect for all three artists: “I hadn’t been working with Linda for while when she called me for that. I remember clearly that between the three of them there was an awful lot of expertise in that kind of country music. One evening, after the session, I jammed with Emmylou until the small hours and she knew more songs than anyone I had ever met. Dolly was always sweet and in a good mood and the sessions went very smoothly despite the three stars having to make room for each other. Linda has always been very generous with other people whose talent she admired and was a big supporter of Emmylou in the early days of her career.”

(Photographer: Robert Blakeman)

Their sense of humour showed during the sessions and in USA Today in February 1987 producer Massenburg recalled that they “showed up one day in Tina Turner wigs carrying pink cassette players.” They did take the recording seriously though and in the same issue Linda talked about the project, “What we really have in common is the love of that music. We can do it for hours and hours and never get bored.”

Just prior to the album’s release in March a single was issued, To Know Him Is To Love Him backed with Farther Along. The a-side had been written by Phil Spector who had written the haunting track after seeing the words ‘To Know Him Was To Love Him’ inscribed on his father’s gravestone. The song was a 1958 number one hit for The Teddy Bears, who had named themselves after the recent Elvis hit. The group disbanded soon after although Annette Kleinbard, who sung the haunting lead vocal on the original, continued a career in music. Spector would go on to make a very successful career as a producer with his legendary ‘Wall Of Sound’ technique. The single, which at the time was the fastest charting record in the history of Warner Brothers (Nashville), reached #1 in the country charts, only her second single to achieve this. At the Country Music Association Awards, Phil Spector picked up the ‘Song Of The Year’ award, an unexpected surprise for him. A video promo was filmed and showed the three girls sitting by the fireplace in Linda’s home, laughing and joking while cutting out valentines. The film’s director was George Lucas, who was Linda’s boyfriend at the time, and he sent the girls roses - red for Ronstadt, white for Parton and pink for Harris.

Following the end of the sessions, and before the album’s release, Linda was kept busy with various concert appearances across the USA. On 13th October she appeared, alongside Parton and Harris, at the famed Grand Old Opry in Nashville where they performed ‘My Dear Companion’ a track from the forthcoming album. 

The long-awaited album, released on 4 March 1987, was a stunningly beautiful selection of traditional and original country material paying tribute to the harmony-laden music that played such an important role in the trio’s early careers. Parton remembered the album fondly in her 1994 autobiography Dolly, My Life And Other Unfinished Business when she wrote, “Of course, the Trio album, the one with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, was one of the crowning achievements of my career and something I am very proud of. I sounded better with those two incredible voices than I ever have, before or since.”

The opening track, The Pain Of Loving You was written and recorded by Parton and Porter Wagoner back in 1971 and had originally appeared on their Two Of A Kind album. The harmonies from all three artists, some great acoustic and steel guitar work from Harris, Albert Lee and Steve Fishell sets the mood for the rest of the album.

To Know Him Is To Love Him, was an ideal song for the three girls to tackle and it is easy to see why this track was chosen as a single, and why it reached the top of the charts. Harris takes the lead for the song which features some unusual backing from Ry Cooder on tremolo guitar and David Lindley on Kona Hawaiian guitar. It is interesting to note that Peter and Gordon recorded the song under the title To Know You Is To Love in 1965 and it became a top ten hit, the same Peter Asher who became Linda’s manager and producer. Harris is also the featured singer on My Dear Companion, a beautiful performance that would have not been out of place on her Roses In The Snow album.

Linda takes over the lead for three numbers. Recorded back in February 1932 Jimmie Rodger’s Hobo’s Meditation is really a man’s song but Linda does a great job and, as with many of her previous covers, makes the song her own. Hank Snow, the 'Singing Ranger', also recorded the song. I’ve Had Enough is a typical Kate McGarrigle track and over the years Linda had recorded many of her songs including Heart Like A Wheel and Talk To Me Of Mendocino. She is outstanding on Telling Me Lies, written by Linda Thompson and Betty Cook. The song earned the pair a Grammy nomination for 1987’s ‘Best Country Song (Songwriters Award)’ and they performed it on the show. The latter two songs are the only ones on the album to feature strings and these were arranged and conducted by David Campbell.

Those Memories Of You is mostly Parton, supported by some of the best harmony singing on the album. She is ably supported by excellent playing from David Lindley on mandolin, Mark O’Connor on fiddle and the Hawaiian guitar, this time played by Steve Fishell. This is a foretaste of Parton’s foray into bluegrass that culminated in her three excellent albums The Grass Is Blue (1999), Little Sparrow (2000) and Halos And Horns (2002). She also takes the lead on both Making Believe and Wildflowers and shines on both tracks. Wildflowers was semi-autobiographical with its story of a girl who leaves her mountain home to find success in the outside world.

The album closes with two traditional numbers, Rosewood Casket and Farther Along. The former, with just acoustic guitar, mandolin, dulcimer and acoustic bass is a sad song with a very sweet melody that is well suited to their voices. The track was arranged by Avie Lee Parton, Dolly’s mother, and it is probably from her that she learned the song. The song is performed by Parton with vocal support from Harris and Ronstadt on the chorus. It features some of the best singing on the album, at times Parton’s vocal sends shivers up the spine. The gospel track Farther Along, arranged by John Starling and Harris, features even less instrumentation with Albert Lee playing acoustic and high-strung guitar and Bill Payne providing all the keyboard work. Parton, Ronstadt and Harris take a verse each and join together on the chorus. The song is yet another stunning performance with beautiful vocal harmonies of which they should be proud. It is also a fitting close to the album.

During the recording of the album they spent a lot of the time discussing new outfits, especially the ones that were created by Manuel, a Hollywood designer, for use on the album cover. Linda is wearing a black skirt with a fringed top, Dolly is shown in fringed crimson skirt and matching top while Emmylou is dressed in black jeans, shirt and a pink jacket. The back of the album featured a black and white shot representative of the material on the album. They are all shown wearing lace dresses which has a turn of the century feel. Linda came up with the idea for the photo: “It was my idea to have us in Victorian dresses, because stylistically what we had in common was from the early part of the century. We have different figures and we all have different styles of dressing and we didn’t want to look like three people who’d never met each other.” The album cover images were taken by photographer Robert Blakeman. 

The inner bag contained caricatures of the three girls in their underwear along with various items of clothing that could be cut out and added. This was illustrated by Andy Engel based on Manuel’s designs.

Reviews were mixed. In Stereo Review (July 1987) Alanna Nash felt that Dolly Parton’s contribution was a major factor in the album’s success “...the most vibrant contributions are undoubtedly Parton’s. Not only do her two original songs - The Pain Of Loving You, which she wrote with Porter Wagoner years ago, and Wildflowers – pick up the pace, but it is Parton who finally breaks the album’s arch restraint with Alan O’Bryant’s Those Memories Of You, a strong and mournful bluegrass tune in the best Bill Monroe tradition.” She did go on to praise the production of the album as “a gorgeous sampler of female harmony singing and thrilling instrumental solos.”

In the July 1987 edition of Playboy, Robert Christagau wrote: “Trio is a literally thrilling apotheosis of harmony – three voices that have thrived and triumphed individually engaged in heartfelt co-operation.” Later, he says, in an echo of Nash’s thoughts, “Parton’s penetrating purity dominates the album as it once did country music history. The only one of the three who’s had the courage of her roots recently, Harris sounds as thoughtful up front as she does in the backup roles that are her forte. And while Ronstadt’s big, plummy contralto will always hint of creamed corn, she’s a luscious side dish in this company.”

“Trio, bad album full of woman-as-victim songs” ran the headline in the Gastonia, North Carolina Gazette. They felt the album was a disheartening mistake and that their voices never quite gelled! They picked out Linda as the major problem, feeling her voice was far too polished and the project should have been a duo. In closing they wrote: “Overall, Trio is severely flawed by misdirected emotions and an unfortunate mix of voices. The album is far less than the sum of its parts.” A harsh point of view and one that most of the the record buying public didn’t agree with.

At one of the Saturday night Grand Ole Opry shows, not long after the album’s release, many of the country greats had nothing but praise for the album. Hank Snow, a friend of Jimmie Rodgers, praised their version of Hobo’s Meditation, as did the Wilburn Brothers for Making Plans.

Although there was talk of a tour to promote the album Parton’s schedule, which included her TV show, put an end to any plans. It was unfortunate as a tour by three of the biggest artists in country music would have been a major event and would have taken the music of Trio to a much wider audience. Although there was no tour to promote the album there were several promotional appearances on TV featuring all three artists. On 13 March they appeared on The Carson Show and performed Hobo’s Meditation, Haunting Memories and their latest single To Know Him Is To Love Him. Other appearances over the coming months included Entertainment Tonight, where Linda talked about George Lucas’ involvement in the making of their video, the Today Show, Hollywood Insider and Solid Gold. Many of these shows featured the video and also clips from Parton’s own TV show Dolly when all three artists appeared.

The album spent an incredible 84 weeks on the country charts, with five spent at the top, while on the pop chart it reached #6 with a respectable 48 weeks in the top 200. The RIAA certified the album gold then platinum on the same day on 14 July. In the UK the album only managed to reach #60.

Three more singles were lifted from the album, and although none repeated the success of To Know Him Is To Love Him, they all made the top ten. In May Telling Me Lies became the first country single to be released on CD by Warner Brothers and this was followed in September by Those Memories Of You and then Wildflowers. All three made the country top ten and in terms of singles chart success Trio would remain Linda’s most successful album. More success followed at the 1987 Grammy Awards when the album was nominated in both the ‘Album Of The Year’ and ‘Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal’ categories winning the latter. Unfortunately Linda couldn’t attend the ceremony to pick up the award in person.

A second album, Trio II, was released in 1999. The twelve year gap between the two albums was caused by a number of problems and as this article is to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Trio I will not be covering this album here.

In 2016 a 3-CD set, The Complete Trio Collection, was released and featured both Trio and Trio II with a third disc bringing together twenty alternate versions and previously unreleased tracks from both albums. Of these no fewer than fifteen originate from sessions for the first album.

There are alternate takes of Wildflowers (a less traditional version), My Dear Companion (featuring a solo vocal from Emmylou Harris) and Making Plans (a solo vocal from Dolly Parton) and alternate mixes of I've Had Enough and Farther Along.

Previously unreleased songs included Pleasant As May, Where Will The Words Come From, Are You Tired Of Me, In A Deep Sleep, Grey Funnel Line and an acappella version of Calling My Children Home. Also featured is the gospel track You Don't Knock, co-written by Pops Staples and the compilers of the set left in a short bit of studio chat at the end of the song.  

Both Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and Mr Sandman had been previously released on Emmylou's 1977 album Blue Kentucky Girl and 1981 release Evangeline respectively. However, the version of Even Cowgirls... on her solo album has Parton and Ronstadt singing harmony, whereas on the Trio Collection they share verses. Another track, My Blue Tears, despite being listed as unreleased and from 1994 is actually from the early abandoned sessions featuring all three artists in 1978 and was originally released on Ronstadt's 1982 album Get Closer album.

Palms Of Victory, an outtake from the first album, appeared on Emmylou Harris' 2007 compilation Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems and for reasons unknown, was not included on The Complete Trio Collection.

I'll leave the final words to Emmylou Harris, "I first met Linda in 1973, and a long friendship was forged when we both realized our favourite 'girl singer' was Dolly Parton. We knew then we were destined to be soul sisters, but could never have imagined that only a few years later we would not only meet and befriend Dolly, but spend those glorious hours in each other's living rooms and in the studio harmonizing on songs we all loved - a welcome respite from the pressures of solo recordings. As a singer, nothing compares with the joy of adding your voice to those of others, especially when those voices happen to be Dolly's and Linda's. And I am so grateful to have been a part of such a unique experience."

JOHNNY CASH FANZINE

Today would have been Johnny Cash's 90th Birthday and to celebrate I thought I would look back at my work on the Johnny Cash Fanzine including some highlights, comments from family and friends when I ceased publication and an interview that I did a few years ago. I am also offering a special offer on the Fanzine.

I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that when I published the first issue of Johnny Cash-The Man in Black in December 1994 that it would run for almost twenty-five years.

Of course, it was down to the subscribers, the Cash family, band members, producers, photographers, management and record companies whose support made it all possible.

The decision to cease publication in 2019 was not an easy one to make and I wish I could have celebrated by reaching one hundred issues but alas it wasn’t to be. Health issues and a decline in membership signalled the end. However, I am proud of what I achieved and hope everybody enjoyed the journey with me.

I had been a Johnny Cash fan since 1969 and my first Cash album was At San Quentin. I was hooked and in the years that followed I collected all his albums on vinyl and began my library of Cash related books. My first concert was in 1979 at the Brighton Centre and since then I have seen him in concert many times including concerts in Portsmouth, Croydon and London. I was also fortunate to see the Highwaymen when they toured in 1992.

Music was a passion and I was also a big Elvis fan, going back to the early 1970s, and again had collected all his albums and books.

Trevor Cajiao, editor of the excellent rock and roll magazine Now Dig This had started an Elvis magazine, The Man And His Music, back in 1988 and unlike previous Elvis magazines this was a serious look at his career with great articles and reviews, not your usual poems, tacky photos and over the top fan stories.

In 1994 I realised that there was no longer a source of information on Johnny Cash in the UK and I had the idea of starting a magazine. It is thanks to Trevor and the Elvis mag that I went down the same road, planning on producing a serious magazine that would include newly written articles, honest reviews, rare images, interviews and much more. To ensure subscribers were getting fresh articles the aim was to write my own  and not fill the magazine with previously seen articles. Of course, I would include a few, but the majority of the 24-page issue would be previously unseen.

Working at the time as a graphic designer in the print trade producing the magazine would be a lot easier and in December 1994 I published Issue #1 of Johnny Cash The Man in Black.

The first issue included articles on 1969 and the San Quentin concert, the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference, American Recordings, Cash/Dylan-The Lost Album, Concert/CD reviews and much more.

Our early issues were 24-pages and printed in black & white but when increases in production and postage forced us to move to a digital magazine it gave us the opportunity to include colour and add an extra four pages.

Now for some highlights from my twenty-five years working on the Fanzine

• Interviewing people associated with Cash’s career including Lou Robin, Rosanne Cash, Bob Wootton, Reggie Young, Chips Moman, Jimmy Tittle, Kathy Cash, Cowboy Jack Clement, Johnny Western and many more.
• Building up a good working relationship with and the respect from Lou Robin, the Cash Family and record companies.
• All the friends I made over the past twenty-five years.
• Receiving advance copies of the latest Cash product… CDs, Books and DVDs.
• Working on various Cash CD projects including the Johnny Cash Outtakes 3-CD set.

• Attending the press launch at HMV in London for the release of Walk The Line on DVD.
• Being asked by the BBC to help on their Johnny Cash-The Last Great American documentary and although I didn’t get paid (no surprise) I was given loads of material on video, much of which has never been seen.

• Having the opportunity to see Rosanne Cash in concert on a number of occasions and the kindness she showed both Carole and I whenever we met her backstage.

• Having the chance to go on tour with Bob Wootton and his lovely family during four UK tours. The laughs we had backstage in the dressing room and the great concerts in Worthing, Croydon, Southampton and Hastings.

• Meeting Johny Western and his lovely wife Jo when they visited Brighton. We had a lovely meal and a long and enjoyable chat.

• Spending time with W.S. Holland in 1995 at his hotel and  the photos of us together… and him reading the best Cash magazine around.

• The opportunity to finally meet one of my music heroes. It was May 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall and Cash’s last concert here in the UK. I met him backstage where he signed a photograph for me and took time to have his photo taken with Carole and I, holding a copy of the Fanzine.

• Writing various articles on Johnny Cash for magazines including Record Collector, Get Rhythm and Vintage Rock, including being interviewed for their Cash special edition (see below).
• Writing my book on Johnny Cash’s career. I’ve Been Everywhere-A Johnny Cash Chronicle detailed his career in a day-by-day format covering tours, TV appearances, record releases and much more. I was so pleased when the book was nominated for an award - The 2002 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, unfortunately I didn’t win. It was also a highlight to receive a signed copy from John.

• Our 1998 holiday in Nashville and Memphis where we had the chance to visit many places associated with Cash including Sun Studios and The House of Cash.
• My invite to the Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute Concert at the Ryman Auditorium in November 2003. Having the opportunity to watch artists including Carlene Carter, Marty Stuart, Johnny Western, Steve Earle,  ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson and many more paying tribute to Cash. A moving event and one that did bring tears to my eyes during Rosanne Cash’s speech and her heartfelt performance of I Still Miss Someone and when all the family joined on stage to sing We’ll Meet Again. An amazing night.

Comments from Cash Family and Friends

Hi Peter. I am disappointed over the fact that the Fanzine will be shutting down. You have done an incredible job through the years in keeping the Cash image alive. I know that John and the Family have always been proud of your efforts. We understand that You and Carole have not been feeling well which makes keeping the Fanzine schedule even tougher. You are fine people and it’s been wonderful working with you – Lou & Karen Robin

Peter, I am sorry to hear of your retirement of the Fanzine, but grateful to you for your many years of love, devotion and fine reporting. I wish you all the best in the future, including a return to good health. Please know that you have the gratitude and good wishes of the entire extended Cash family! With love and warmest regards – Rosanne Cash

Peter, your dedication, love and hard work has never gone unnoticed or unappreciated from me. My gratitude to you for helping to keep his legacy and memory alive is immeasurable. On behalf of Jimmy and I and the entire family, we send you an enormous THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. Much love to you and Carole. Please keep in touch. Much love to you both – Kathy Cash

My dear Peter. It has been quite the ride, hasn't it?  No one has done more to protect the legacy than you. We all owe you so much for everything you have done. Thank you for your work, your heart and your personal kindness to me over these many years.  You are a special man. But the road does not go on forever, no matter how much we want it to.  As you close this final chapter, know that up ahead is still a wide open road. With respect and admiration – Mark Stielper

We are sad to see the end of the Johnny Cash Fanzine. You have done such a wonderful job for so many years. Thank you! – Jonathan Holiff

It’s sad but like so many things these days it’s inevitable. But the important thing to remember is that you have done splendid work over the years and it has been greatly appreciated by me and many, many others – Richard Wootton

Peter, we all grow older and some things have to slip away. Thank you so much for keeping the Johnny Cash name out in the public in such a great way for so many years along with the articles on many of us associated with the Johnny Cash organization and show. It has been a work of art and love and you are so appreciated. Blessings to you and your loved ones and please keep in touch from time to time regarding your books and anything else you might think I would be interested in. Blessings – Earl Poole Ball

PETER LEWRY on JOHNNY CASH

Jack Watkins (Vintage Rock)

Peter Lewry, music writer and photographer, is an authority on the music of Johnny Cash.  He has chronicled the day-to-day career of his hero in the book I’ve Been Everywhere and produced the quarterly e-magazine Johnny Cash - The Man in Black, which prides itself on going into more depth than the average fanzine.

When did you get into Johnny’s music?
About the age of 13 or 14. I was bought the Johnny Cash At San Quentin album for Christmas, about a year or so after it had come out. Around the same time the BBC broadcast three shows from the prime-time series he made for American ABC-TV. The guy had such charisma, I was totally hooked.
 
He did have a remarkable aura. When he sang that line “San Quentin, I hate every inch of you,” there’s real menace and loathing. There was a period when a lot of people actually believed he’d done time!
Yes, and they also thought the scar on the side of his cheek was a bullet wound. Actually, I believe it was just the mark left by a wart he’d had removed!
 
The film of the San Quentin show is incredibly powerful, with those cuts to the faces of the prisoners. Did that make an impression on you?
Not until I saw it some years later, but you’re right. You watch the film and when he sings that line in the song San Quentin and the crowd cheers …..I’ve always felt that one word from Johnny at that moment and there could have been a riot. The guard looks a little worried!

Apart from his charisma, what other memories do you have of The Johnny Cash Show?
The thing that sticks in my mind is the Come Along and Ride This Train section. I’d never seen anything like this on a TV variety show up to that point. You had the likes of the Des O’Connor and Andy Williams shows, but here was Johnny picking different themes like the American Indian, or the coal miners. He’d talk about the subject, there would be some old footage and two or three songs, and he’d open and close the segment with the Come Along And Ride This Train song.
 
Does Cash also deserve credit for drawing attention to the roots of American country music, at a time it was little understood, by featuring the likes of the Carter Family on his road shows and in his TV show?
I think once he teamed up with June Carter and eventually married her, it was always his intention to make it a family affair and bring the Carters to the forefront. He had Anita, Helen and Maybelle on the programme and this brought the Carter Family’s music to a wider audience. Maybelle’s guitar playing was hugely influential. You can hear it in the playing of Chet Atkins, for instance. But I must say that, as a singer, my preference was for Anita. She had the sweetest voice, by a long way. She’s very underrated. She recorded with Waylon Jennings, and her voice was outstanding on her duet with Johnny on the song Another Man Done Gone.
 
I suppose you could say Johnny Cash laid the bedrock for the Americana movement?
Yes, and he was one of the first country artists to do concept albums, such as Ride This Train, and Bitter Tears. That goes back to what I said about his TV shows. It was never just about the music. Some of those albums were like history lessons. I happen to believe everyone should listen to Bitter Tears.
 
Religious music also meant a lot to him. It was one of the reasons he quit Sun for Columbia, so he could record spiritual material. Does he have a following in the gospel field?
I’m not sure he did until he linked up with Billy Graham. Personally, I prefer his later gospel stuff like A Believer Sings The Truth and Believe In Him. However, I do love the early gospel music he did. I’ve always been a fan of Elvis’s gospel recordings, too.
 
Do you find Cash fans come at his music from different angles – some attracted by his Sun rockabilly connection, others via country or folk rock, and other, maybe younger followers, because they saw him at Glastonbury in 1994?
Yes, I talk to a lot of fans, and it always surprises me when you meet some who say they only like the Sun period, or others that they only like the work he did with Rick Rubin. There is this real split with a lot of his fans.
 
Is there a Cash album which you felt was unfairly judged at the time of release which is worthy of a revisit?
That’s an interesting question because, in The Man in Black magazine at the moment, we are running a series on old reviews of his albums. Overall, a lot of his Mercury material was underrated. But one album that I felt was unfairly hammered at the time was the Columbia album, Silver. He got a lot of criticism because it was produced by Brian Ahern, who had worked with Emmylou Harris, and he used a lot of modern recording techniques and electronic wizardry. It got panned because it didn’t sound like the Johnny Cash that everyone was used to, whereas I feel you can’t stay in one place. You have to move on.
 
Is there any Cash album that you feel has always been an overlooked gem?
If I had to pick one album that seems to have been overlooked it would be I Would Like To See You Again. Released in 1978 its major selling point was the inclusion of two songs featuring Waylon Jennings, There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang and I Wish I Was Crazy Again. Other great songs included That’s The Way It Is, Hurt So Bad and the humourous After Taxes. It is an album I play quite a lot.
 
And what are your all-time favourite Cash songs or albums?
My favourite individual song is Man In Black. The lyrics were written in 1971, but they are still relevant today, and they say everything about the man. My favourite from the Sun era is Big River, a very descriptive song, conjuring up images of the mighty Mississippi. And my favourite album is Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, the second album of his I owned after At San Quentin.
 
What did you make of Johnny’s films?
I think The Pride of Jessie Hallam was the best of them, a very good movie with a strong message behind it. And having Kirk Douglas as a co-star in A Gunfight was a help. It probably brought more out of Johnny as an actor than working opposite, say, Kris Kristofferson in the TV remake of Stagecoach. That had really been done on the back of the commercial success of the Highwayman album. Having the four stars, Johnny, Kris and Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in the one film was too much of a distraction from the storyline.
 
Your book I’ve Been Everywhere received personal affirmation from Johnny. What made you decide to write it?
I love reading the sort of information that tells you where an artist was on a particular day, where a song was recorded, that sort of thing.  The Cash recording sessions had already been done by his discographer John L Smith, but I knew the careers of the Beatles and Elvis Presley had been covered on a day-to-day basis. I thought Johnny deserved it as well. I’d been writing a lot of similar stuff for the The Man in Black, and I thought it would be sensible to bring it all together in book form. To gather all the information I approached everybody, including old fan clubs. Lou Robin, Johnny’s manager, was a massive help with things like tour dates.  I even managed to track down details of photo shoots he’d done for album covers. The book was first published in 2001, and when I updated it as an e-book in 2005 it had almost 1,000 additional entries. I’d love to find a book publisher for a further revision, but it would be an expensive project because it needs to be heavily illustrated. It got nominated for the ‘2002 Association for Recorded Sound Collection Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research’ first time around.
 
The golden age of the fan club was the 1970s. The Man in Black started in 1994, so you were a little late to the party

Well, there had been an earlier fan club publication Strictly Cash which I think ran into the mid-80s, but my influence was Trevor Cajiao’s superb Presley magazine Elvis The Man and His Music, the first one that examined him in terms of his music rather than what a great jumpsuit he was wearing. When I first started it, I’d get letters saying “Can you cover Cash impersonators?” or “Can you publish this poem I’ve written about Johnny?” and I just didn’t want to go down that road. So I do interviews with people who worked with Johnny, or family members. A recent issue had one with his daughter Rosanne Cash. I once did an interview with ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement which ran over twelve pages. I’ll take a song like The Battle of New Orleans and examine not just the recording, but also the background behind the lyric, often from the point of view of American history, which is so relevant to a man like Johnny. The age of of the fan club is over, thanks to the internet. It’s about more serious, in depth, magazines now. 

Fanzine Special Offer

I am offering a complete set of the Fanzine (all 93 issues) in PDF format for a very special price. Please email peter.lewry@ntlworld.com for more details. This offer is only open for a few days so don't miss out.