Reviewed by Dave Brassington The "English" Johnny Duncan (as opposed lo the later popular US country singer of the mid '70s) was an unique original. An American airman who gave British skiffle in 1957 arguably its finest hour with the magnificent calypso styled monster hit "Last Train To San Fernando", along with Cliff's "Move It", is seriously regarded in many circles as the best British recording of the 1950s. He was never able to repeat that hit. What Johnny Duncan did do was give great credibility to the concept of recording popular country music apart from the US Nashville variety! Johnny was a good singer who wasn't always blessed with the best accompaniment as some of his subsequent Columbia recordings bear out, but then some of his later recordings in the mid '60s for this label with Pete Saters playing banjo were great recordings and should have been hits. In this four CD box set. You get all Johnny's recordings for Columbia, Pye, Lucky and Decca. What immediately impresses you is that in his early days as a 'shiffler" gospel was well represented with some exciting and unusual arrangements, ie. "Press On" and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee", Johnny recorded three LPs for Columbia, 'Tennessee Songbook', a Hank Williams tribute album, and 'Beyond The Sunset', which would have been one of the very first British sacred Ips other than by a gospel artist. Sadly it has to be said that some of the LP tracks were not that well recorded and do sound a bit dated. But as someone who has fond memories of seeing this artist live (it seems he now lives in Australia) the box set to me is a treasure, bringing back to circulation some of the most exciting, innovative ever recorded. Highly recommended, the good outweigh the bad.
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I booked to see Lonnie Donegan at Farnham Art College, as it then was, only to find, on the night that Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys were replacing Donegan. Turned out that Donegan, turned solo performer, had flown off the day before for a short first, but successful, tour in the States. Duncan was really great that night and I became a fan immediately.
I was heavily into skiffle myself and his (Duncans') songs resonated with me so much that I learned and played a few myself for a while. Apart from Fernando, the song that I went for at that time was "Doin' My Time", an old prison Folk song from the deep South that should have been a hit. I always reckoned it was better than Donegan's "Rock Island Line"...it was just a while too late. What struck me later of both these performers was the high, almost yodel, projection of their voices, which seemed to carry the true emotion of the lyrics of their songs, which I tried to emulate, of course.