This is an incomplete, non-definitive guide to British (and Irish) country music, or at least the small sliver of it visible to me, here in the distant American colonies. There have been an awful lot of UK (and Irish) twangbands, dating back many decades, and many remain quite obscure, even on the fair isles. But I'll keep banging away and tracking down as many artists as I can find. As always, any helpful comments, corrections and suggestions are welcome.
This page covers the Letter "K"
Kentucky County "Silver Wings" (County Records, 197-?) (LP)
(Produced by D. Tompkins)
Not a lot of info about this compact British country band -- they recorded for a label in Bedfordshire, but the liner notes are pretty vague about where the lads themselves hailed from. The group included Ray Hine on lead guitar and vocals, Dave Nicholson (rhythm guitar), Jed Oatham (pedal steel and bass) and Pete Scott on drums. They play a lot of cover songs, the most recent seeming to be from around 1970 or so, including Kris Kristofferson's "Help Me Make It Through The Night," and "Is Anybody Going To San Antone," which Charley Pride recorded the same year. There is one original from the band, "Daddy Sing My Song," co-written by Hine and Nicholson.
Key West "Country Flavour" (Tank Records, 197--?) (LP)
John C. King "I've Been Around Enough To Know" (Pentland Records, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by Billy Peace & Stewart Shearer)
An Irish country singer, originally from the Belfast suburb of Holywood, County Down, John C. King found an audience over in Scotland, particularly in the Orkney Islands. King shuttled between Ireland and Scotland for a while, but eventually settled down in the highlands, where he established himself as a solid presence on the UK country scene. This is a robust set of commercial-sounding modern honkytonk, with professional, though slightly generic studio backing. Unfortunately, the musicians aren't identified, though the steel player in particular was pretty good, providing a strong flourish on the album's closer, a cover of Terry Allen's "New Amarillo Highway. An upbeat, gallumphing performer, King exudes a jovial presence throughout, best on the uptempo tunes, a little shaky on more complex melodic parts. The repertoire is great: covers of Chip Taylor, Buck Owens, a couple of Bob McDill songs, a couple more from Max D. Barnes, two from Merle Haggard, a nice version of Hank Thompson's "The Older The Violin, The Sweeter The Music." The only real misfire is his cover of Curly Putnam's "Wino The Clown," which is just not a very good song, but otherwise this is a pretty solid souvenir album... I suppose it's also worth noting that the title track had been a chart-topping hit for American actor-turned-country singer John Schneider. I'm not sure if John C. King had other vinyl releases, but at least two other albums (below) came out on cassette.
John C. King "King's Country" (Donside Records, 1987) (Cassette)
(Produced by John C. King)
John C. King "The King Of Oak Street" (Donside Records, 1991) (Cassette)
(Produced by James Hunter)
Yodelling Pete King "My Kind Of Country" (Tank Records, 1976) (LP)
Pete Kingsway "Two Shades Of Pete Kingsway" (Tank Records, 1976) (LP)
Methinks this is the same fella as "Pete King," above... especially since there are also yodeling songs on this fisc as well...
Pete Knight "That's Alright" (Tank Records, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Norman Stagles)
An Elvis Presley tribute album with backing by some of the country pickers in the Tank stable, including lead guitar by Tony Nelson and pedal steel by Slim Pickins.
