Link Wray

About Link Wray

Link Wray is the self-titled 1971 album by pioneer Rock & Roll guitarist Link Wray. The music is an Americana blend of blues, country, gospel, and folk rock elements. This music is characterized by the purposeful use of simplified sounds to reflect the then-current vogue of blues and other roots music being used in many roots rock bands. Wray's guitar-work, composing, and vocals reflected modern rock influences. Despite publicity from radio stations and print media in the Washington area, the album did not do well in national sales. Some tracks from this album later surfaced on the compilation Guitar Preacher: The Polydor Years, and it was included in its entirety on 2CDs compilation Wray's Three Track Shack (Acadia/Evangeline Recorded Works Ltd./Universal Music, 2005) along with other "shack" recordings of '71 Beans and Fatback and Mordicai Jones. The Neville Brothers later covered "Fire and Brimstone" on their album Yellow Moon, as did Nick Cave and Ralph Stanley for the soundtrack of the film Lawless. The band Calexico covered "Fallin' Rain" as bonus track on their album Feast of Wire. Karl Blau covered "Fallin' Rain" on his 2016 covers album Introducing Karl Blau . The Neville Brothers also covered "Fallin' Rain" on their album Brother's Keeper more »