I Wasn’t Born to Rock and Roll cover

I Wasn’t Born to Rock and Roll

Roland White

Album · 1976 · Ridge Runner RRR 0005

I Wasn’t Born to Rock ’n’ Roll was first released by Ridge Runner Records of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1976. Roland White made it while he was a member of Country Gazette, and his bandmates play on it: Kenny Wertz on guitar and tenor vocals, Alan Munde on banjo (and lead guitar on “The Storms Are on the Ocean”), Roger Bush on bass and high baritone vocals, and, on six tracks, Dave Ferguson on fiddle. White plays mandolin and sings the lead on most of the songs. The tracks were cut at ATP Studios in Fort Worth.

White later recalled that the band was spending a couple of weeks in the Fort Worth and Dallas area when Ridge Runner owner Slim Richey, who was recording many artists and groups along with the Gazette, asked him whether he wanted to make an album. They chose songs from their live shows and worked up one new one, “The Storms Are on the Ocean.” Much of the material comes from the Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs repertoire: Lester Flatt wrote “I’m Head Over Heels in Love with You” and “If I Should Wander Back Tonight,” and Monroe wrote “Can’t You Hear Me Calling.” “Powder Creek” is credited to Roland and Clarence White. The longest track, “Marathon,” runs 7:38 and strings together pieces of six songs, among them “Nine Pound Hammer,” “Shackles and Chains” and “Sitting on Top of the World”; White said it came out longer than he had planned, and that the band made essentially one pass at it.

The album was issued in Japan on Trio Records (PA-6085), and Tompkins Square reissued it in 2010, with liner notes by Gene Parsons, new reflections from White and one previously unreleased song.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Kansas City Railroad Blues 1:45
  2. 2 The Storms are on the Ocean alt version 2:51
  3. 3 Head Over Heels alt version 2:34
  4. 4 Doorstep of Trouble 2:24
  5. 5 I’m Head Over Heels in Love With You alt version 2:55
  6. 6 Texas Gales alt version 3:39
  7. 7 I Saw Your Face In The Moon 4:01
  8. 8 Prisoner’s Song alt version 2:43
  9. 9 Marathon 7:49
  10. 10 Same Old Blues Again 2:50
  11. 11 Powder Creek 2:36
  12. 12 Can't You Hear Me Calling 3:01
  13. 13 She's Her Own Special Baby 2:22
  14. 14 If I Should Wander Back Tonight alt version

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