The world is waiting

Jim C. has sent another post. Enjoy!:

In the mid '60s my future step-grandmother vacationed in Fort Lauderdale and brought back an autographed LP by the lounge act in the hotel where she stayed, and many years later I found it buried in the closet of the bedroom I occupied after my mom remarried. Ronnie Prophet played guitar and sang, usually hits of the day ("King Of The Road" on this album was probably typical), in a solo act that encompassed the mainstream pop of Dean Martin, the pop-folk of Trini Lopez and the crossover country of Roger Miller, Don Gibson and others (his show even included impressions of famous singers). He was one of many who worked in this idiom that blurred the distinctions between lounge-y genres, and he's reportedly still at it, working in Branson now. But what made him special was his staggering guitar work, which brings us to the track at hand. Here he is playing a version of "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise", throwing Les Paul-style go-for-broke improv over Travis-picked accompaniment as jaunty as Merle himself. If anyone out there is familiar with those two guitar icons, you probably know how difficult doing either one of those things would be, let alone doing both simultaneously! Anyway, his tasty whammy bar at the top sounds like he's playing for Ellie Mae beside the cement pond, but the best part of the track is when he switches pickups on his guitar at the end of the first chorus and suddenly you hear a police radio crackling from his amp.

Thanks Jim!