The Bloody Nerve: Rock & Roll in Nashville? Whatever next?
“Hey, Paul, That is the best write up yet!”
The Bloody Nerve (@thebloodynerve), Nashville, USA, 15 December 2013.
Updated 16 December 2016.
And in my last post, I mentioned that the centenary of the world’s first recorded blues track, in 1914, was now just two weeks away. That record was, of course, the W.C. Handy-penned big-band instrumental, ‘The Memphis Blues’. Now, I’d like to tie these two concepts – Memphis, Tennessee, and mixed rock duos – together.
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| The 1964 sheet music for Tobacco Road |
Starting with Memphis, another Tennessee-flavoured track with a milestone anniversary this coming year is ‘Tobacco Road’, by the Mickie Most-produced Nashville Teens. The record turned 50 in 2014 and one of its session guitarists was Jimmy Page. If you don’t know the song, it’s a bit of rock history well worth a listen on the vid below:
introduce you to a combination of all four. They’re a hard-rocking male/female duo from Nashville, Tennessee, actually called The Bloody Nerve.
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| Stacey Blood, left, and Laurie Ann Layne: The Bloody Nerve |
Did the band choose their name they feel they’ve got a bloody nerve playing hardcore rock & roll in the heart of America’s country music capital? There’s probably a more rational reason, but should you be interested, why not ask them on their website. Here’s a link:
That commendable UK music site gigslutz.co.uk featured The Bloody Nerve as their “Unsigned Act Of The Week” only a couple of weeks ago. Gigslutz gives the band’s new three-song EP, “Red” an impressive review, predicting The Bloody Nerve could well be the next Nashville act propelled to stardom.
or thirty-somethings (well, that’s how young they look to me, anyway)? Marketed as a duo, Stacey Blood from Texas and New York’s Laurie Ann Layne certainly look the part of rock stars. They also sing better than many rock stars. Laurie Ann’s powerful voice sounds like the
Wilson sisters out of Heart but better. Their biography says they work and live together at their own Overbar Studios on the outskirts on Nashville and their band features Fresno drummer, Peter Wolf; Nashville guitarist, Danny Parks; Hollywood 60s session-player Bobby Blood on bass; and Stacey Blood’s fellow Texan, Terry Bayless, on keyboard.
If you’re interested in the way rock & roll grew out of blues, Volume Two of my Ebook ‘How Blues Evolved’ tells you all about it, especially rock & roll in the 1930s and 1940s.
In the USA, please follow this link:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=how+blues+evolved
Very interesting Paul, you have researched very well! I remember dancing to Tobacco Road performed by Sam Spade and the Gravediggers in the Newbold British Legion – those were the days!
Sure were, Keith. I recently found out Sam Spade and the Gravediggers were managed by Andrew Loog Oldham who later managed The Rolling Stones.
Small world, eh?