Jerry Cole is an excellent guitarist. Just the list in the liner notes of several dozen stars on whose records he played -- including
Frank Sinatra,
the Beach Boys,
the Byrds,
Phil Spector,
Aretha Franklin, and
Elvis Presley for starters -- is a testament to that. Being a good guitarist and making good records are different things, however. And while
Cole did make a lot of records on which he was the featured artist, many of them were quite run-of-the-mill instrumentals. They form the main diet on this 24-track collection of sides he played on for budget LPs on the
Crown label in 1960-1966 that were attributed to numerous different artists, including not just
Jerry Cole, but also
Jerry Kole,
the Stingers,
Billy Boyd,
the Scramblers,
the Hot Rodders,
the Winners, and even
the Blasters (no, not the
Blasters with the
Alvin brothers). While
Cole's playing is accomplished and spirited, it hardly pierces the arrow of the heart in the fevered, imaginative way that axemen
Link Wray and
Lonnie Mack could on many of their instrumental discs from the same time. That's not to say that everything here is as instantly dispensable as those budget
Crown LPs were no doubt thought of by the label itself.
Cole sometimes manages a tough, burning bluesy tone,
"The Green Monster" being an outstanding example, though that track (as well as some others) is kicked along by some gimmicky burning-rubber hot rod sound effects. And, as the title promises, there's twang aplenty, though a leaner, suaver, and bluesier sort than
Duane Eddy's. He also gets into some relatively early fuzz workouts on numbers like
the Stingers'
"Mustang," which has something of a
Davie Allan feel. You hunger, however, for a little more along the lines of the
Bo Diddley-styled
"Mojo," where it seems like he's stretching for something more adventurous, particularly when he dives into unexpectedly lowdown distorted fuzz. Much of the rest of this comp is coasting in the songwriting department (which was usually
Cole's department), as formidable a testament as the disc is to his versatile skills. ~ Richie Unterberger
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