Talking about my reverberation

A guitar pioneer with an unmistakable sound, DUANE EDDY is rocking back the years on his fab new album. Over the page, producer RICHARD HAWLEY explains how, and ace axemen pay tribute to the twang. By Terry Staunton

To the casual observer, the three men strolling through the junkyard on the banks of the Salt River near Phoenix, Arizona, may have looked like a trio of layabouts with time on their hands. Why were they so interested in the huge disused tanks that once stored water for farms? And why were they pressing their mouths up to the tiny round openings at the end of each tank and yelling “Hellooo!”, “Heeyy!” and “Yoww!”?

On closer examination, these grown men were not reverting to childhood, idling away a summer’s afternoon by larking about with debris on their doorsteps. Guitarist Duane Eddy, DJ and record producer Lee Hazlewood and studio engineer Jack Miller were, in fact, in the formative stages of creating rock’n’roll history, seeking out a landmark sound that would endure through generations.

Duane was already a local hero in the country duo Jimmy & Duane (with school friend Jimmy Delbridge), or as a sideman with Buddy Long’s Western Melody Boys, playing dancehalls and road houses in Phoenix, Tucson, and smaller stops across Arizona. Lee had other ideas, though, and was working on big plans for the guitarist he’d met during his day job spinning discs at the KYKC radio station. He was looking for a way to make the guitar the star.

“Lee really liked the way I …

by Terry Staunton
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