He began playing guitar around London, and going to the small jazz clubs springing up around the city. Donegan and his band essentially played live in the studio (there was virtually no overdubbing in those days), but the best record of their sound comes from a concert recorded at London's Conway Hall on January 25, 1957, which was later released by Pye. Rock My Soul (Oct - 1958) Wright, a jazz player devoted to Django Reinhardt, proved to be one of the best blues axemen in England at the time, while Ashman and Nichols made up an exceptionally tight rhythm section. Before long, he was working backwards from Josh White to Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and Leadbelly, among others, and by the end of the '40s, Donegan was as literate in American blues as anyone born in England. 2020, Rock - Released by Castle Communications on 1 sep. 2016, Folk - Released by Before 1962 Recordings on 17 sep. 2020, Rock - Released by Vantage Music on 4 okt. He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music. He was successful enough, however, to be brought over to America to appear on the Perry Como Show, followed by an appearance on the Paul Winchell Show. The next month he was at Abbey Road Studios in London cutting a song for EMI's Columbia label. by Bruce Eder. WebLonnie Lonesome Traveller. Heart surgery in 1992 slowed Donegan down again, but by the end of the year he was touring once again with Chris Barber. He'd left the Barber band by then -- though Barber continued to play on his records into the middle of the following year -- enticed into a solo career by offers of huge amounts of money to embark on a solo performing career. They found the record's rhythm to be infectious and its sound alluring in a way that no record by anyone from England ever had before. His ethnic mix was Scottish/Irish. Donegan was only paid a few pounds for the recording, and received no royalties. Dick Bishop - Guitars, Vocals In 1949, he was drafted into the British Army. The master of ceremonies at the show made a mistake in his announcement, introducing the American guitarist as "Tony Johnson" and the British banjo man as "Lonnie Donegan." In six months, "Rock Island Line" sold three million copies, 50 times the initial sales of the album it came from, an extraordinary figure in anyone's accounting. http://lonniedonegan.webs.com/pagelinkindex.htm,