Travis WammackArguably only Lonnie Mack made rocking guitar instrumentals
on an exalted par with those of Travis Wammack during the
mid-60s. The Memphis fret prodigy later distinguished himselfas a Muscle Shoals session ace before being hired as
Little Richard’s first-call road guitarist.WORDS BY BILL DAHL
S
pending more than a decade
as Little Richard’s preferred
guitarist from 1984 to 1995 gave
Travis Wammack ample time to marvel
at the rock’n’roll legend’s galvanic
energy levels. Every show was an
adventure. “He was unbelievable,” says
Wammack. “Little Richard would perform
for two people, or he’d perform for 20,000.
He was just a natural. We never had
a setlist. Man,
we would go
do these big
shows, not
knowing what
we were fi xin’
to do next.”
Wammack
fi rst picked for
Richard back
in 1970, when Travis was a recent addition
to the house band at Rick Hall’s FAME
Studio in Muscle Shoals. Richard breezed
into town to cut his comeback album for
Reprise, The Rill Thing, and Wammack
had a song for him, one that he and FAME
guitarist Junior Lowe had just penned.
“Little Richard and his entourage came
in the studio door, wanting to record.
Everything’s set up and I told him, ‘We
wrote a song a couple of weeks ago, and
we both agree it’d be great for you or John
Fogerty’. Richard, he said, ‘Well, I’m good
friends with John Fogerty. What’s the
name of it?’ I told him, Greenwood
Mississippi. He said, ‘Well, I’m a Southern
boy. I grew up in Macon, Georgia. I’d like
to hear it!’
“So I took him out in my pickup truck
and played the cassette of the demo that
we recorded for Greenwood Mississippi.
He loved it. Richard said, ‘I’m gonna record
that!’. So we went in and started recording
it. About 15 minutes into the session, I’m
looking at Richard over in the vocal booth
and he was kind of getting this discouraged
expression on his face. Finally, he came
out of the vocal booth, walked over to
me and said, ‘Travis, where’s that musicthat you were singing with in Greenwood
Mississippi?’ I said, ‘Well, Richard, that was
my demo track, just to pitch the song’.
He said, ‘I want to sing on that music track!’.
“So that’s what we ended up using –
my demo track of Greenwood Mississippi,
where I did all the backgrounds, guitars and
everything.”
The song was a No.85 US pop chart entry
for Richard that autumn, and Wammack’s
distinctive
guitar rang
throughout
The Rill Thing,
including on
the album’s
other charter,
Freedom Blues.
Something
about
Wammack’s fretwork stayed with Richard.
“I didn’t hear from him until about 1984,”
says Travis. “I was in the studio working,
and my wife hollered, ‘There’s a guy on
the phone that says
he’s Little Richard! He
wants to talk to you!’
So I got on the phone,
and automatically
recognised his voice.
“First thing he asked
me was, ‘Travis? Do
you think my music is
the devil’s music?’ ‘No,
Richard, when I hear
Tutti-Frutti or Good
Golly, Miss Molly,
I think of good times!’
I replied. He said, ‘Well,
I’m thinking about
starting back singing
rock’n’roll, and I want
you to put me a good
Southern rock’n’roll
band together. Get as
many of the players
from The Rill Thing
album as you can!”
There was anotheralbum on Richard’s horizon, this time with
a decidedly gospel fl avour. 1986’s Lifetime
Friend for Warner Bros was his fi rst major-
label release since The Second Coming
14 years earlier. Producer Stuart Colman
recorded it just outside London. “It was
the fi rst time that I went to Europe,” says
Wammack, who was joined by an all-star
cast led by keyboardist Billy Preston. The
album’s lead-off track was the thundering
Great Gosh A’Mighty! “To me, it’s probably
one of the greatest rock’n’roll gospel songs,”
says Wammack, who wrote or co-wrote
four of the album’s selections.
“We got over there, me and (bassist)
Jesse Boyce, and (Richard) did not like
any of the songs that the producer had for
him to record,” he continues. “So Richard
called me, and said, ‘Y’all can write me some
good gospel rockin’ songs, can’t you?’ I said,
‘Yeah!’ So that’s exactly what we ended up
doing.” Both The Rill Thing and Lifetime
Friend were recently reissued on CD by
Omnivore Recordings.LONDON WAS A
VERY LONG WAY
from Wammack’s humble
Memphis musical
beginnings. He began
playing guitar at the age
of just eight with help
from his dad. “He took
a pencil and a shoestring
and capoed it down
where my arms would
reach the neck and
everything,” he says.
“I taught myself. There
was nothing out there.
Merle Travis and Chet
Atkins were probably the
two top guitar players
back then. I just invented
my own style.
“One day I’m walking
down the street with my
guitar. This guy walks
up to me and he says,“About 15 minutes into
the session, I’m looking at
Richard over in the vocal
booth and he was kind of
getting this discouraged
expression on his face”MIC
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