Paul Burlison (US)

1929 – 2003 In memoriam

American guitarist, born in Brownsville, Tennessee in 1929 and raised in Memphis. He played lead guitar in the Rock and Roll Trio with Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, and the pinched, distorted tone he got on the 1956 Coral sides - reportedly from a loose valve in his amplifier - is one of the most imitated guitar sounds in rockabilly. He went back to Memphis and left music when the trio broke up in 1957, recreated the group in the early 1980s with Johnny Black and Tony Austin, joined Rocky Burnette's revival band in 1990, and recorded a tribute album, 'Train Kept A-Rollin'', in 1997. He died of cancer in Horn Lake, Mississippi on 27 September 2003.