When country met rock ‘n’ roll, with a touch of rockabilly too…
The concept of “goin’ steady with the blues” fits perfectly with the general sense of yearning brought out on many of these early Righteous finds. Skeets McDonald’s music is a strange hybrid of styles that draws from his honky tonk roots, his flirtation with rockabilly after the second world war and a dalliance with country that made his record label beg him to entertain the idea of becoming the new Lefty Frizzell. But, perhaps the most telling influence on this record was the emerging rock ‘n’ roll scene which, must in the same way as with the early Elvis, was liberally offset by the hillbilly upbringing of this Arizona-born singer and songwriter.
The greatest music is always born in the strangest ways. Whether out of unexpected collisions of styles or the reinvigorating of long fermented traditional ideas. Somehow, a magical transformation makes the various parts into something new and thoroughly exciting. Skeets McDonald seemed to absorb sounds. He was a consummate live performer and his mix of genres allowed him to develop a sound that was simply unique and, as the ‘50s faded and the likes of Bill Haley and The Crickets began to find huge success, it looked likely the Skeets would break through with his genre-defying sound. Sadly, somehow, the world just passed him by.
Skeets McDonald’s biggest success had already been and gone. It came in the early ‘50s when he was still grounded in country music. His self-penned hit ‘Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes’ from 1952 looked set to catapult him to fame in the early ‘50s but he never quite repeated the success and as the rock ‘n’ roll bug bit he chose to steer his sound into a more contemporary vein.
Adding his very own unique guitar embellishments, that would later be part of Eddie Cochran’s sound with whom he’d tour, the much travelled Skeets embraced the late ‘50s and early ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll scene as he moved away from his country roots. Indeed, it was there that his sound would remain until his death from a heart attack in 1968.
The original ‘Goin’ Steady With The Blues’ album sits at a unique crossroads. It has the slur of the early rock ‘n’ roll crooners, a pianist that’s half honky tonk and half a subdued Jerry Lee and an incessant guitar groove that propels it forward. These 12 tracks caught Skeets at his finger clicking best while the additional eight tracks journey from the hollering primal rock ‘n’ roll of ‘You Ought To See Grandma Rock’ and ‘You Better Not Go’ and their respective B sides plus a couple of ‘cheeky’ novelty tunes from the early ‘50s. ‘The Tattooed Lady’ by Johnny White and His Rhythm Riders and ‘Birthday Cake Boogie’ by Skeets McDonald And Benny Walker are from an era where music was really somewhere else, the latter complete with a gorgeous rolling accordion solo and plenty of innuendo.
As the ‘60s commercialism and eventual psychedelic eruption forced hard gigging country stars and errant rock ‘n’ rollers into the shadows, the time for Skeets McDonald passed. But it’s pretty rewarding to have hunted down this album and been able to hear it, surely the work of another courageously obscure hero of the Righteous sound.
The original album
1 Goin' Steady With The Blues 2:05 2 Gone and Left Me Blues 2:25 3 Yard and a Half of Blues 3:00 4 You're There 1:58 5 Hawaiian Sea Breeze 2:01 6 Tomorrow Never Comes 2:26 7 Blues In My Mind 2:12 8 My Room Is Crowded 2:05 9 I'll Sail My Ship Alone 2:13 10 Lost Highway 3:05 11 I'm Sorry Now 2:12 12 Fort Worth Jail 2:24
The early singles
13 You Oughta See Grandma Rock 2:03 14 Heart-Breaking Mama 2:25 15 You Better Not Go 2:39 16 Don't Push Me Too Far 2:11 17 I’m Countin’ 1:59 18 Mean And Evil Blues 2:50 19 The Tattooed Lady 2:50 Johnny White And His Rhythm Riders with Skeets McDonald 20 Birthday Cake Boogie 3:08 Skeets McDonald And Benny Walker
