Duane Eddy: Road Trip

Old rebel gets re-roused.

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The return of Duane Eddy can only be a good thing. Now in his 73rd year, the original sultan of twang did as much as anyone to shift the guitar into the forecourt of rock’n’roll in the late 50s and early 60s.

Road Trip, his first album for nearly a quarter century, finds him teaming up with lifelong fan and co-producer Richard Hawley.

There’s no easy trading on past glories here. These 11 instrumentals are all spanking new, infused with a melodic spaciousness that allows the copper-bottomed beauty of Eddy’s playing to shine through. A familiar deep twang pervades the fantastically-titled The Attack Of The Duck Billed Platypus, but elsewhere it’s surprisingly delicate and understated.

Kindness Ain’t Made Of Sand and Bleaklow Air – the latter inspired by a tract of Derbyshire moorland – are unadorned and elegiac. But Eddy clearly isn’t resting up just yet. Both Primeval and Curveball are quaking rockfests with dirty piano and honking great sax.

Rob Hughes

Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2008, and sister title Prog since its inception in 2009. Regular contributor to Uncut magazine for over 20 years. Other clients include Word magazine, Record Collector, The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Telegraph and When Saturday Comes. Alongside Marc Riley, co-presenter of long-running A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. Also appears twice a week on Riley’s BBC6 radio show, rifling through old copies of the NME and Melody Maker in the Parallel Universe slot. Designed Aston Villa’s kit during a previous life as a sportswear designer. Geezer Butler told him he loved the all-black away strip.