Various Artists
“Guitar Ace – Link Wray Tribute”
(MuSick)
All I know about Link Wray is the song from the opening of Pink Flamingo’s, “The Swag” as performed by Link Wray and His Ray Men, and all the music he composed for Tom DiCillo’s “Johnny Suede” in which Brad Pitt plays a painfully piss-poor guitarist/song-writer. “The Swag”, however, and all those Johnny Suede tunes don’t appear on this compilation of performers strutting out their Link Wray covers. If you’re unfamiliar with Link, then I’d describe Mr. Wray’s songs as sounding like Tennesee country gone surfing in Blues County, CA.
A Link Wray tribute is an obvious no-brainer since he influenced practically every guitar player playing today either directly or indirectly (six degrees of separation, ya know) from Sid Vicious to Dylan to Townshend to, ostensibly, every band on this lengthy 24 track tribute album. Highlights include the breezy opener of “Raw-hide” from Mystery Action as well as The Fleshtones rendition of “Soul Train”, Fifty Foot Combo’s take on “Slinky”, “I’m Branded” by the indomitable Southern Culture on the Skids and The Bambi Molesters cover of the impossible to fuck-up “Rumble.”
