Jacen Bruce

Sun Album Jacen Bruce

Jacen first met Paul Burlison when Alison booked him and Rocky Burnette to play at Swindon Rock 'n' Roll Club in 1997. Paul suggested that Jacen and Alison should 'look him up' if they were ever in Memphis and when they visited the city in October '99 one of the first things Jacen did was to pick up the phone. Paul took the day out to show them his Memphis, he shared his memories of Sun Studios, Elvis, Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, pointing out the places he'd played and the gigs he'd seen. Jacen was to be recording at Sun Studios later that week, his plan was to round off the holiday with a jam session, covering some of his favourite Sun classics, nothing complicated, just a live session, recorded straight onto DAT. He thought the evening would be a memorable and personal souvenir of Memphis, but it was about to turn into something that was a great deal more... James Lott was due to play guitar but a road accident had left him with a damaged hand so while he was still able to engineer the session he'd arranged for a session guitarist to play in his place. Jacen decided to invite Paul along too, not only was Paul delighted to take part, he brought along some musician friends, Brad Birkaphal and Ron Perone from The Dempsey's. As they arrived at Sun Paul was delighted to see that the 'session guitarist' was none other than his great friend Ronnie Smith - Ronnie had played with Elvis in 1952 and 1953. Suddenly a casual jam session was turning into a once in a lifetime experience... This album is dedicated to the memory of Paul Burlison. Recorded Live at Sun Studios, Union St, Memphis Tennessee with legendary rockabilly guitarist Paul Burlison from The Johnny Burnette Trio, guitarist Ronnie Smith from Elvis's School Band and The Dempsey's from the film Walk the Line.