Mojo - The Music Magazine

There's still time to win MOJO's 50 Albums Of The Year. And you can do just that by picking your favourites via the link below. In the meantime, here are some T-Bone Walker, Richard Hawley and U Roy prepared earlier...

T-Bone Burnett (Ace Producer, Rolling Thunderer): "I'm doing a new television drama show for ABC called Nashville, and I've been to Nashville gathering songs from all these extraordinary young writers. We've recorded 56 songs so far. It's killer. All the characters in the show have musical back-stories, so I've been listening to lots of old stuff. If I had to boil that all down to what has stayed with me, I'd say Me And My Chauffeur Blues by Memphis Minnie on vinyl. That's a seminal piece and it's become hundreds of other songs over the years. The other thing would be Bob Dylan's first eight records on vinyl and in mono. If you put on She Belongs To Me from Bringing It All Back Home and then A/B that with a MP3 download, you'll see how much we've lost. I'm not anti-technology, but the last 50 years has sometimes been a backwards journey, you know? On the show, we're using Anita Carter's version of (Love's) Ring Of Fire. My wife is the creator of the show and she loves that song. Anita's version is pre Johnny Cash getting hold of it, so it's a lighter, much more feminine version. There's also a young guy called Sam Palladio who's from a English coastal town in Cornwall. He plays Gunnar Scott on the show. He came over here and sang I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me) by Ray Price. You'd think it was Hank Williams or Ray himself singing it, man. This kid will blow your mind."

Richard Hawley (psychedelic twang-star): "The best thing I heard this year was Honky by The Ho-Dads. It's one of the most fierce, vicious, fuck-off garage tunes I think I've ever heard. There's so little information on it - it's from 1963, I think Glen Campbell and The Wrecking Crew are playing on it. It's got a Fender baritone six-string bass with a tremolo on, through what can only be through the massive fuzz distortion of all time, and it's awesome, relentlessly fearsome. Imagine the most savage garage record, the one you really want to find, that you believe must exist somewhere - this is it! I thought I'd got 'em all. My brother-in-law Lee found it on a compilation called Titty Twist A Go-Go We DJ a lot, and we try and out-do each other - I'm the rocker and he's the mod - and he was going, 'I have found the tune of tunes.' So I bought one for £60 off eBay, but the funny thing was, I'd already bought the fucker in a box of 7" singles I bought in a crazed, bleeurrgh moment on tour. So I gave Lee the other one. It's one of Jimmy Page's favourite records of all time as well, apparently. New stuff? No. I've been DJ'ing a lot, and it's all about the seven-inch single isn't it? I love how democratic they are."

U-Roy (original toastmaster): "I think you could say that the best thing I've heard all year would probably have to be Put It Down by Brandy and Chris Brown. I like the production, and that kind of R&B singing style really appeals to me; I've always loved to listen to female singers like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, and I really like Brandy's delivery on the song. So you could say that I listen to all types of young people. When I'm listening to music on my own these days, I love to listen to some of the American singers, away from the reggae, because that is my occupation, but I listen to the American singers for my own enjoyment."

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