Lonnie Mack - The Wham Of That Memphis Man!

Ace’s Hip Pocket series of exact album repros continues with Lonnie Mack’s Fraternity album that showcased his two power instrumental hits, Wham! and Memphis. While these two tracks are worth the price of purchase alone, we also find several vocal tracks that prove that Mack was far from being just another instrumentalist. With vocal assistance from The Charmaines on Why, Baby What’s Wrong and Where’s There’s A Will, Mack sings with a power that totally belies his looks. The original sleevenotes describe his guitar playing as lowdown, dirty and twangy, which it is in parts, but he shows an even fuller range with his soloing on Susie-Q, setting the tone for many later rock guitarists. On the LP’s original Side One he tackled Hank Ballard’s I’ll Keep You Happy, and this welcome reissue shows how well he managed to do just that.