Link Wray – Link Wray …album review

I was really taken aback when I saw this album. I played it, expecting an instrumental, and when I heard a voice, I thought it was a different singer. When I think of Link Wray, I think of Rumble and instrumentals like that. I was surprised when I found this roots album by him, recorded in 1971. I want to thank Lisa for posting something that made me think of this rare Link Wray album.

After serving in the military, Wray contracted tuberculosis and lost a lung, which made singing difficult, and doctors advised him against it. Because of his breathing difficulties, Wray began to focus more on expressive and experimental guitar playing, leading him to become known for his instrumental hits. Wray was a Native American of Shawnee descent. He grew up in North Carolina. Wray later honored his heritage in his music, with songs like Apache and Comanche.

This album was recorded in a converted chicken shack. His brother, Ray Vermon Wray, helped produce it along with Bob Feldman and Steve Verroca. Instead of power chords and a leather jacket, Link traded distortion for Americana, funk, gospel, and storytelling. It was earthy, roots-driven, and deeply personal, almost a different artist altogether from the one I thought I knew. After being freed from label pressures, Link finally made the music he grew up with: gospel from church revivals, Native American rhythms from family heritage, country blues, and Southern soul.

There were still guitars, but now they sat behind the songs instead of smashing through them. Tracks like Fire and Brimstone, Juke Box Mama, and Ice People feel like they were born out of the dirt. The grooves are loose, almost like field recordings. His voice, rarely heard on record before this, carries a soulful and weathered sound. He didn’t sound like a rock guitarist trying to sing; he sounded like a weathered preacher who happened to play guitar.

You hear old-time country on Take Me Home Jesus, boogie on God Out West, and Native rhythms driving Black River Swamp. No other rock guitarist of his generation made anything remotely like this. Only one song retains his old tone, and that’s the intro to Tail Dragger. If anything, it pointed the way decades later for artists like Los Lobos and the entire alt-country movement. If you want to hear some authentic Americana, listen to this album.

Polydor gave the album a shot, but the public wanted Link the guitar guy, not Link the backwoods Americana prophet. Sales were modest, and critics were divided. However, like many records that were too authentic for their time, it grew in legend over time. Today, many fans call the 1971 album his true masterpiece

Black River Swamp

I was born down in the countryDown where the cotton growsTurnin’ off the main highwayGoin’ down that country road

There’s a place down in the countryWhere the pine trees grow so tallWalk across that old log bridgeStretching ‘cross Black River Swamp

I can hear them bullfrogs croakingIn the blackness of the nightCalling me back to my childhoodDown here in Black River Swamp

Saw my name carved on a big oak treeDown there by the fishing holeAnd the smell of old Black RiverWhere the waters are deep and cold

I can hear the hound dogs howlin’Chasin’ that old fox where I used to roamDown there in the countryCallin’ me to Black River Swamp

I can hear them hound dogs howlin’Chasin’ that old fox where I used to roamDown there in the countryCallin’ me to Black River Swamp

I was born in the countryDown where the cotton growsTurnin’ off the main highwayGoin’ down that country road

There’s a place down in the countryWhere the pine trees grow so tallGo across that log bridgeStretching ‘cross Black River Swamp

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

50 thoughts on “Link Wray – Link Wray …album review”

  1. Pingback: Link Wray – Link Wray …album review – MobsterTiger

  4. Great pick, Max, and thanks for noting “Rumble,” which is how I had heard of the name Link Wray before. Otherwise, I would have wracked my brain over it!

    This self-titled album sounds fantastic – very rootsy, very soulful! It definitely wants me to hear more of his music! Link Wray is another artist I’ll have to add to my growing pile of artists to explore!😀

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    1. Man…I’ve always loved his instrumentals…never did I dream he could sing! And…to have it be this really surprised me. One of the most shocking, to me, albums I ever found. I loved it becasue as you know I’m all about roots man…this is as roots as you can get.

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  5. This is great as my knowledge of Link mostly surrounds Rumble and his work with Robert Gordon. Their 1977 album was the first I heard of him. I do recall reading his father was a preacher, so maybe that image came honestly.

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  6. Interesting! I’ve heard the instrumental ‘Rumble’ for years but only learned who he was maybe 3 years ago via a movie about Native Indians in music. I never knew he sang too. This song is pretty good. Didn’t have hit potential mind you, but an evocative piece of Americana almost worthy of The Band

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    1. Thanks man…I never knew this existed before. Just a total surprise for me. I didn’t know the circumstances around him not singing…or if you could sing at all because of what he was famous for…I really am getting into this…down home music.

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  8. I had only heard of Rumble before this which I love too and posted on btw.
    I tell you what – that ‘Black River Swamp’ is fantastic. There’s so much going on it like mexican feel, gospel & bluegrass and the rhythm is like that of a slow locomotive and it’s absorbing. That’s an auto lock and load. Thanks Max.

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  10. This is a great album. I bought a 3 disc set on Amazon with this one, Be What You Want, and another one that escapes me now. I had come across something from them on a YouTube Playlist and had to check out more. Great music. Check out Be What You Want, it’s great too. Good post.

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      5. I was all mixed up the other day. Three Track Shack is the name of the whole set which includes: Link Wray, Mordecai Jones, and Beans and Fatback. Be Who You Want To is one I heard online after the fact and is a little more rock and roll. Sorry for the confusion. Right now I’m listening to a live Humble Pie set that just came up on YouTube Music under new releases. It’s called Sunset 1969 Live in Los Angeles. They do an acoustic version of the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love” and now “Shakin’ All Over”. Thought you might be interested.

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  11. Max, I knew this was coming but not so soon. Fabulous Find. Just finished listening to it. Good music, important lyrics, and the passion for the message comes through clear. “Ice People,” almost feels like prophecy listening to it.

    How horrible to lose a lung when you’re anybody, but when you are a singer, how devastating. I’m happy Link didn’t let it stop him. Thank you for looking for his music and researching his back story.

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    1. Lisa…this completely blew me away…first of all he is known for instrumentals…but find this roots album was beyond my hopes! Yea I’m really into rustic music right now and this fits perfectly. He meant everything he said…plus I didn’t know about his Native American past.

      Just horrible about his back story…but he overcame it with hit records….I’m still shocked he could sing.

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      3. I hope you do get a chance to see it. And I know just the doc on Leon you are talking about but can’t remember the name of it. That scene with the guy painting the pool full of scorpions was something else. And the George Jones song, of course. Leon… there will never be another Leon.

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      5. You are welcome, Max. Looking forward to what you find. I remember the first time I saw Jesse was as part of the ensemble that assembled for George Harrison’s Bangladesh convert.

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      6. Yes he was there…that is right. I’ve mostly read about him and read that Duane Allman idolized the guy and started slide because he heard Jesse with Taj Mahal…he was stunned by his playing and got Gregg to go out and get some apirin and he used that glass bottle they came in.

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      1. Yeah, I was wondering how many other musicians fell into this category over all the years. Players who also sang…but most folks might be unaware of their vocal talents. Definitely an interesting musician to be sure.

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  13. Pingback: Jesse Ed Davis – ¡Jesse Davis! …album review – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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