Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams
Should We Tell Him: Songs by Don Everly
Red Guitar Blue Music
25 August 2023
Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams met during Williams’ recording of his Lucky Star album in 2018; the duo bonded over a mutual love of the Everly Brothers and started talking about recording an album of songs by Don, whom Noakes felt didn’t get the appreciation he deserved as a songwriter. Things finally came together in 2022, the decision taken to avoid the well-known hits and focus on the more obscure gems, often hidden away as B sides or album tracks. Choosing their favourites from a songbook called Songs Of Don Everly (though many were credited to both brothers) acquired from his publisher in Nashville, they finally went into a Glasgow studio with their guitars and, Noakes mostly singing with Williams on harmonies, joined by bassist Kevin McGuire, Hilary Brooks on piano, Conor Smith on electric and pedal steel and drummer Signy Jakobsdottir, laid down the eleven tracks live over three days, the results being mastered at Abbey Road, and ultimately sadly proving Noakes’ final recordings.
Pedal steel keening, it kicks off with the slow walking rhythm of It Only Costs A Dime, taken at a slightly slower tempo (almost a minute longer) to the original, which appeared as the B side to 1965’s The Price Of Love. Going back to 1960 and the A Date With The Everly Brothers album, Sigh, Cry, Almost Die again slightly slows it to a country-waltzing pace with double bass, the same album also yielding a far slower-paced ballad take on That’s Just Too Much, while, even earlier, the title track, here with more of a Johnny Cash chug, was the B side to the 1958 hit This Little Girl Of Mine.
Another B side, this time from 1963’s Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby (though the 1964 Netherlands release saw them flipped), Hello Amy has Williams on lead behind the pedal steel rather than the original’s close harmonies. Despite a catchy chorus and poppy sway-along tempo, released as a single in 1965, I’ll Never Get Over You failed to chart in the US Top 100 (though it made it to 35 in the UK); the arrangement here extends the play time by about a minute and adopting a pedal steel honky tonk waltzing sway. Back in 1959, Since You Broke My Heart was the more R&B sounding B-side to their cover of Let It Be Me, here given a twang somewhere between Dylan and Orbison while another B side, this time to 1957 No 1 Wake Up Little Susie, carried along by the piano with Williams on lead Maybe Tomorrow has a false start, count in and almost twice the original’s running time, again given more of a country feel.
Although it doesn’t recreate the twangy guitar riff of the original, I’m Not Angry, the B side of 1961’s Crying In The Rain, still has that rolling scuffed R&B groove evocative of Little Latin Lupe Lu. It winds up with first; a piano-backed waltz-time ballad arrangement of I Wonder If I Care As Much, the B-side to their first hit, 1957’s Bye Bye Love, and finally, from the 1965 In Our Image album and again with an extended run time, the appropriately titled non-charting single It’s All Over (only ever released in the US and Netherlands) with its dappled drum beat, slow chiming guitar notes and one of the few to feature Phil on lead, Noakes’ channelling his husky world-weary resigned vocals. A genuine labour of love that should be embraced by fans of Noakes, Williams and The Everlys alike, the only disappointment being that there will never be a follow-up.
Pre-order ‘Should We Tell Him’ here