Record #79

Vocal hits remanufactured as brass instrumentals:

Nashville Brass Turns To Gold
Danny Davis And The Nashville Brass 

There are lots of styles and music which gives me a ‘pick-me-up’ and one of them is most certainly the sound of brass. I pulled this album out one morning to get me on the mood to cook and clean. Before I knew it I had flipped the vinyl a few times looking for nonexistent sides 3 and 4.

After listening you the album a few times over I checked out Danny Davis on wikipedia, which turned out to be a great read! The story of Davis pitching his idea of recording country with brass instruments to Chet Atkins with complete disapproval from the RCA executives in New York is classic. Personally, I love stories when someone is told that “it will never work” or in Davis’s case, country music fans “don’t like horns” / it’s a “terrible idea” to only have the story end a blazing success proving all the naysayers wrong. Props to Atkins for saying, “young fella, I run Nashville, go do it.”

Some quick tidbits on Danny and the Brass:

• 1969 Grammy: “Best instrumental group of the year.”
• Won five consecutive Country Music Plaques (CMA) in a row: 1969 – 1974.
• One of the first country music acts to have their own airplane: “Lady Barbara” (for Davis’s wife).

Side 1:

1. Java
2. Forever
3. Ol’ Red River Valley
4. Sixteen Tons
5. January Eighth (1972)

Side 2:

1. Honky Tonk
2. Melodie d’Amour
3. Riders in the Sky
4. El Paso
5. Flowers on the Wall

Here are the musicians featured on this 1972 album:

• Danny Davis, leader, flugelhorn
• Grady Martin, leader, electric guitar
• Floyd Cramer and Larry Butler, piano
• Bob Moore, bass and electric bass
• Buddy Harman, drums
• Ray Edenton, rhythm guitar
• Lloyd Green, steel guitar
• Curtis McPeake and Bobby Thompson, banjo
• Harold Bradley, electric guitar
• Bill Pippin, flugelhorn
• Bill McElhiney and Bill Pippin, trumpet
• Jim Hall, Rex Peer, Frank Smith and Roger Bissell, trombone
• Bill McElhiney, arranger-conductor 

Nashville Brass Turns To Gold

More albums and ordering information can be found at the official home for Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass.