Tony Burke
Tony Burke started to get serious about rock and blues music in the late 1960s, avidly reading NME, Melody Maker and Rolling Stone, and in the 1970s Blues & Soul and Let it Rock, Black Music and Sounds – as well as frequenting Manchester's many record shops, market stalls, second hand shops and clubs in search of great music.
Charlie Gillett's Sound Of The City became his bible, along with John Broven's Walking To New Orleans and Mike Rowe's Chicago Blues which led to a voyage of discovery into blues, R&B and rock 'n' roll as well as discovering magazines like Blues Unlimited, Shout, Hot Buttered Soul and Whiskey Women and…, all magazines that helped him dig deeper.
Occasional reviews appeared in Blues Unlimited, articles and discographies (sometimes in conjunction with fellow fans/researchers) were published in the short lived Pickin' The Blues – which became Blues & Rhythm, The Gospel Truth in 1984. Tony became a regular contributor and its production editor – taking over the editorship in mid 1986 until the present day.
Besides Blues & Rhythm, articles, reviews and obituaries have appeared in Record Collector, Maverick, Vintage Jazz Mart and The Morning Star including his Global Routes feature, along with sleeve and booklet notes for reissue labels such as Charly, Ace, Route 66, Krazy Kat and others. In addition to all things blues and R&B, Tony has a predilection for Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart, the Byrds, Cream, Rory Gallagher, The Band, Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Van Morrison, Springsteen, Robert Plant, 1970s Pub Rock, 1960s and '70s underground rock, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Tony Allen, rockabilly, vintage country & bluegrass, western swing, alt.country/Americana, global and African music and collectable records.
57 articles
List of articles in the library
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, January 1987
LEE DORSEY, who died on December 1st, 1986, after a long and brave struggle against cancer and emphysema, will be best remembered in the UK ...
Memphis Slim: Obituary: Memphis Slim
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, May 1988
FOLLOWING RECENT reports of his serious illness, it came as little surprise to many blues fans that Memphis Slim sadly passed on of February 24th ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, August 1988
EDDIE "CLEANHEAD" Vinson, who died on July 2nd at the California Hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a coronary and cancer of the throat and ...
Robert Cray: Young Bob's Blues
Interview by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, February 1989
ON OCTOBER 24th, 1988, Robert Cray played a sell out gig at the Manchester Apollo. He was riding high and on this extensive UK tour ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, August 1990
BIG NICKEL PUBLICATIONS continue their unsurpassed service of providing a mine of information to R&B record collectors with another addition to its catalogue of books, ...
Champion Jack Dupree: The Joe Davis Sessions 1945-1946
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 1990
IT IS PERHAPS fitting that the last CD of the Month for 1990 features a bluesman who began his recording career half a century ago ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, February 1993
YOU'VE HEARD the records, maybe even bought the recent Bear Family nine-CD box set (The Complete Decca Recordings) – now read the biography. ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, September 1994
BLUES PIANIST and singer Eddie Boyd died on July 13th in Helsinki aged 79 on July 13th, in Helsinki, Finland, a city in which he'd ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 1999
ELLA MAE MORSE, whose 1942 hit 'Cow-Cow Boogie' became the first million selling disc for Capitol Records, died on October 16th at the Western Arizona ...
Charley Patton: Paramount Records and the Blues Twilight Zone
Report by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 2003
DISCOVERIES MAGAZINE in the USA has called it "the single most significant blues music related discovery – ever. It is so deep and vast there ...
Desperate Man Blues – Discovering The Roots of American Music
Film/DVD/TV Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2007
JOE BUSSARD, "King Of Record Collectors", would be an excellent contributor to the UK television series 'Grumpy Old Men'. ...
Ernest Stoneman: Ernest R Stoneman: The Unsung Father Of Country Music 1925-1934
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2009
JIMMIE RODGERS is normally identified as the "father of country music". However, in the booklet notes to this two-CD, 46-track set, Hank Sapoznick argues a ...
Various Artists: Take Me To The River – A Southern Soul Story 1961-1977
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2009
"WHILE MOTOWN targeted its super-slick beat at teenagers, the much tougher Southern soul issued on labels such as Stax, Hi and Goldwax from Memphis; Fame ...
Various Artists: Gastonia Gallop – Cotton Mill Songs & Hillbilly Blues
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2010
Piedmont Textile Workers On Record, Gaston County, North Carolina 1927–1931 ...
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, May 2011
ONE HUNDRED years ago, on 8th May, 1911, Robert Johnson was born – so expect to read a lot about Po' Bob, especially in the ...
Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings – The Centennial Collection
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2011
THIS IS THE complete Robert Johnson on one double CD – the lot, all 42 Robert Johnson recordings – including all thirteen alternate takes plus ...
Bill Sykes: Sit Down, Listen To This! – The Roger Eagle Story/Pat Long: The History Of The NME
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2012
THE LATE Roger Eagle was an enigma. Born in Oxford into a middle class family during the Second World War, like many others of his ...
Norman Jopling: Shake It Up Baby – Notes From A Pop Music Reporter, 1961-1972 (Rock History Ltd.)
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, May 2015
IN THE EARLY 1960s the U.K.'s music press was dominated by a small group of weekly papers, notably the New Musical Express, (aka NME), the ...
Richard Carlin: Godfather of the Music Business – Morris Levy (University of Mississippi Press)
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2016
MORRIS LEVY WAS born in 1927 and rose through the ranks of the U.S. music business starting by running a hatcheck concession in New York ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, December 2017
BACK IN THE mid-1960s, Wilson Pickett was one of my main men. A series of great singles waxed for Atlantic, including 'In The Midnight Hour', covers of ...
Garth Cartwright: Going For A Song
Book Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 24 March 2018
THE RETURN OF the vinyl album and record fairs teaming with "pre-owned" albums, 45s, CDs and even 78s has generated a new interest in the ...
Elvis Presley: D.J. Fontana, 1931-2018
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, August 2018
DOMINIC JOSEPH "D.J." Fontana died in Nashville on 13th June. He was aged 87 and was suffering from complications of a broken hip. From 1954 ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, October 2018
STAN LEWIS, (aka "Stan the Record Man"), died in Ruston, Louisiana, on July 14th, aged 91. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1927, he worked at his ...
Laurence Cane-Honeysett: The Story of Trojan Records
Book Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 15 December 2018
GROWING UP in the early 1960s in Manchester, with grandparents living in Moss Side, the infectious music of bluebeat and ska records newly imported from ...
Les Fancourt and Bob McGrath: The Blues Discography 1943–1970 (Third Edition)
Book Excerpt by Tony Burke, Eyeball Productions, February 2019
WELCOME TO the expanded and revised third edition of The Blues Discography 1943–1970. It is now 50 years since Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven first ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, March 2019
CLYDIE KING, who became one of the leading session and go-to back up singers during the 1970s, died on 7th January, aged 75. ...
Lazy Lester, Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo: Randy Fox: Shake Your Hips – The Excello Records Story
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2019
FOR MANY UK blues fans, Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon Records opened the door to Excello Records. ...
Various Artists: Texas Hillbillies – 1922-1937 Restored and Remastered
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, April 2019
NINETY-THREE sides of vintage and rare old-time music from the Lone Star state (mostly instrumentals) on a four CD set – culled from the record ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, May 2019
THE PIONEER OF "surf rock" guitar, Dick Dale died on March 16th aged 81. Born Richard Anthony Monsour on 4th May, 1937, in Boston, Dale developed a ...
Roy Orbison, Roscoe Shelton, Joe Simon: Fred Foster, 1931-2019
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, May 2019
FRED FOSTER, the founder of Monument and Sound Stage 7 Records, died on 20th February in Nashville, aged 87. Born in North Carolina in 1931 ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, May 2019
THOUGH HE only made 40 recordings, US blues artist Robert Johnson's legacy has endured for over eight decades and his songs are now part of ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, June 2019
NORTHERN SOUL favourite Lou Johnson died on 1stt May, aged 78. Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, Lou sang in gospel groups including the Zionettes ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 24 June 2019
BIG BEAR BOSS Jim Simpson holds a unique place in UK music business. A promoter, record producer, festival director, rock band manager and photographer, his ...
Tinariwen, Ali Farka Toure: Various Artists: The Rough Guide To Mali Blues
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 8 July 2019
THE CONNECTION between blues music and the African continent and how African slaves carried their music to the Americas has been well documented for almost ...
Quicksilver Messenger Service: Gary Duncan 1946-2019
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, September 2019
GARY DUNCAN, guitarist and vocalist of the San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service, died on June 29 at the age of 72 after suffering from a ...
Billy Bragg: Best Of Billy Bragg at the BBC, 1983–2019
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 24 October 2019
The radical pedigree of Billy Bragg's latest compilation release shows why he's in danger of becoming a national treasure, says Tony Burke. ...
Donnie Fritts, 1942-2019; Jimmy Johnson, 1943-2019; Larry "The Mole" Taylor, 1942-2019
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, November 2019
SINGER, SONGWRITER and piano player Donnie Fritts – a key member of the session musicians who shaped the sound of soul music recorded in Muscle ...
Jack Bruce: Sunshine Of Your Love: A Concert For Jack Bruce
Film/DVD/TV Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 5 November 2019
IN 2015, A DAY before the first anniversary of his death at the age of 71, an all-star cast of musicians gathered at London's Roundhouse ...
Various Artists: The Rough Guide To Country Blues/The Rough Guide To The Roots Of Country Music
Review by Tony Burke, Vintage Jazz Mart, Fall 2019
Two 25-track CD sets containing an excellent cross section of artists representing the best in 1920s and 1930s country blues and hillbilly music. ...
Little Richard, Billy Vera: Billy Vera: Rip It Up – The Specialty Records Story
Book Review by Tony Burke, Record Collector, January 2020
ONE OF THE most important independent post-war record labels, Specialty is up there with Chess, Modern/RPM, King, and Atlantic. ...
Frank Zappa: The Hot Rats Sessions
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 16 January 2020
FIFTY YEARS AGO, Frank Zappa declared (after Edgar Varese) that "the present-day composer refuses to die". How true, and half a century on from the ...
John and Colin Mansfield: As You Were – The True Adventures Of The Ricky Tick Club
Book Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, February 2020
THE RICKY TICK Club has a permanent place in the development of British rhythm and blues and rock music. I can't recall any decent history ...
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, March 2020
WAY BACK IN Blues & Rhythm 85 (published in January 1994), Tony Watson – in a special feature on the original Fats Domino Bear Family ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, April 2020
THE GREAT DEEP soul singer Doris Duke passed away on 21st March, 2019. The only mention I could find about her death is a reference on ...
Various Artists: Barrelhousin' Around Chicago – The Legendary George Paulus 1970s Blues Recordings
Review by Tony Burke, Blues & Rhythm, October 2020
BACK IN THE early 1980s John Stedman purchased a number of recordings made by George Paulus and released many of them on his JSP label. ...
Book Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 23 November 2020
MANCHESTER'S FREE Trade Hall was built on the site of the 1819 Peterloo massacre as a public hall celebrating the repeal of the Corn Laws ...
Various Artists: Excavated Shellac – An Alternate History Of The World’s Music
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 29 December 2020
SIX YEARS in the making, this download-only release consists of 100 tracks – all originally issued on 78rpm discs with a 186-page beautifully illustrated book, ...
Charlie Parker: The Savoy 10" LP Collection
Review by Tony Burke, Vintage Jazz Mart, Fall 2020
2020 MARKS Charlie Parker's Centennial and as part of the celebrations Craft Recordings have re-issued Parker's 10" Savoy LPs with restored original album artwork, detailed booklet ...
John Mayall: The First Generation, 1965–1974
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 7 January 2021
JOHN MAYALL turned 87 recently, and the Godfather of the British Blues – a national treasure – has a new 35-CD box set out featuring ...
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 19 June 2021
THE ORIGINAL Electric Muse was written by Karl Dallas (Melody Maker), Dave Laing (Let It Rock), Robert Shelton (New York Times) and Robin Denselow (The ...
Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Roy Milton, Billy Vera: Specialty Records: An Interview with Billy Vera
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, September 2021
As the Specialty label celebrates 75 years, Tony Burke talks to Billy Vera – singer, songwriter, and the author of Rip it Up: The Specialty ...
Various Artists: The Story of Trojan Records
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 14 September 2021
IN THE early 1970s the world's largest record company releasing Jamaican music, Trojan Records piled up hits in the UK pop charts with artists like ...
The Pretty Things: The Pretty Things: Live At The BBC, 1964-2018 (Repertoire)
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 11 November 2021
DURING THE 1960s British R&B boom the Pretty Things were the band the UK press loved to hate. Lead singer Phil May's shoulder-length locks were ...
Let there be rock, and roll: An interview with Jim Dawson
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, December 2022
There's perennial debate about what was the first rock 'n' roll record. Tony Burke asked music historian Jim Dawson for his new book's conclusion. ...
Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly, T-Bone Walker: Various Artists: The Rough Guide To Texas Blues
Review by Tony Burke, Vintage Jazz Mart, Spring 2022
ROUGH GUIDE/WMN have issued some excellent pre-war blues sets recently. This set features 26 sides cut between 1926 and 1937 from the Lone Star State – ...
Elvis Presley, Ike Turner: Peter Guralnick: Here Comes The Sun
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, February 2023
Peter Guralnick, co-author of the history of Sun Records, tells Tony Burke about the book. ...
Book Excerpt by Tony Burke, Hardinge Simpole Books, June 2023
This is Tony's foreword to Derek Coller's biography Big Joe Turner – Feel So Fine ...
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