The Bloody Nerve (@thebloodynerve), Nashville, USA, 15 December 2013.
Last month (6 November actually) I wrote a post about the scarcity of mixed rock duos these days. Apart from Sweden’s Roxette, I couldn’t think of any other male/female duo to hit the international big-time since the Eurythmics.
And in my last post, I mentioned that the centenary of the world’s first recorded blues track, in 1914, was now just two weeks away. That record was, of course, the W.C. Handy-penned big-band instrumental, ‘The Memphis Blues’.
Now, I’d like to tie these two concepts – Memphis, Tennessee, and mixed rock duos – together.
Starting with Memphis, another Tennessee-flavoured track with a milestone anniversary this coming year is ‘Tobacco Road’, by the Mickie Most-produced Nashville Teens. The record turns 50 in 2014 and one of its session guitarists was Jimmy Page. If you don’t know the song, it’s a bit of rock history well worth a listen on the link below:
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| The 1964 sheet music for Tobacco Road |
In some respects, the Nashville Teens had a bloody nerve describing themselves as teenagers from Nashville when they really hailed from that most genteel of places, Weybridge, Surrey, England, which is nowhere near Nashville, Tennessee, and one of the most expensive areas in the whole of Britain. And most of them probably weren’t teens either. I know for a fact Jimmy Page was 20 and the other session guitarist, the equally legendary Big Jim Sullivan, was 23.
Nevertheless, the Nashville Teens were a hard-rocking band at the forefront of the 1960s British Invasion, and ‘Tobacco Road’ deservedly enjoyed chart success on both sides of the Atlantic in 1964.
On the subject of hard-rocking bands, the city of Nashville, and of having a bloody nerve, allow me to introduce you to a combination of all three. They’re a hard-rocking male/female duo from Nashville, Tennessee who are actually called The Bloody Nerve. Did the band choose their name
because they feel they’ve got a bloody nerve playing hardcore rock & roll in the heart of America’s country music capital? There’s probably a more rational reason, but should you be interested, why not ask them on their website. Here’s a link:
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| Stacey Blood, left, and Laurie Ann Layne: The Bloody Nerve |
Silly me. The reason's obvious. The Bloody Nerve is a pun on Stacey Blood's surname. That penny took a long time to drop. However, let me continue ...
That commendable UK music site gigslutz.co.uk featured The Bloody Nerve as their “Unsigned Act Of The Week” only a couple of weeks ago. Gigslutz gives the band’s new three-song EP, “Red” an impressive review, predicting The Bloody Nerve could well be the next Nashville act propelled to stardom.
That commendable UK music site gigslutz.co.uk featured The Bloody Nerve as their “Unsigned Act Of The Week” only a couple of weeks ago. Gigslutz gives the band’s new three-song EP, “Red” an impressive review, predicting The Bloody Nerve could well be the next Nashville act propelled to stardom.
So who makes up this Nashville band of, if not teens, probably twenty-somethings or thirty-somethings (well, that’s how young they look to me, anyway)? Marketed as a duo, Stacey Blood from Texas and New York’s Laurie Ann Layne certainly look the part of rock stars. They also sing better than many rock stars. Laurie Ann’s powerful voice sounds like the Wilson sisters out of Heart but better. Their biography says they work and live togetherat their own Overbar Studios on the outskirts on Nashville and their band features Fresno drummer, Peter Wolf; Nashville guitarist, Danny Parks; Hollywood 60s session-player Bobby Blood on bass; and Stacey Blood’s fellow Texan, Terry Bayless, on keyboard.
They’re a top band and I especially like Stacey Blood’s raucous guitar playing on the three tracks. I also like the thought that the bass player is Stacey Blood’s dad although that hasn’t been officially confirmed. If true (and I think it is), that’s a nice touch. Sample The Bloody Nerve’s wares on:
As a nice little rock & roll afterthought, The Nashville Teens backed Jerry Lee Lewis on what many critics claim was one of the greatest rock & roll live performances ever captured on record. This was at The Star Club in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1964. Here’s link to just one of the tracks:
If you’re interested in the way rock & roll grew out of blues, Volume Two of my Ebook ‘How Blues Evolved’ tells you all about it, especially rock & roll in the 1930s and 1940s.How Blues Evolved in the UK is on the following link:
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