Johnny Burnette Trio – Lonesome Train

In 1952, the Burnette brothers and Burlison formed a group called The Rhythm Rangers at the time. Johnny Burnette sang the vocals and played acoustic guitar, Dorsey played bass and Paul Burlison played lead guitar. For economic reasons, in 1956, the three young men moved to New York, where they managed to get an audition with the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour. They won the competition three times in a row, which gained them a place in the finals, a recording contract with Coral Records and they officially became The Rock and Roll Trio. They also gained a manager, band leader Henry Jerome, and a drummer, Tony Austin, who was a cousin of Carl Perkins. Most of the most well known recordings of the Rock N Roll Trio were recorded on Coral records with the Nashville “A Team” session musicians—Grady Martin on lead guitar, Bob Moore on bass and Buddy Harman on drums. Promotional appearances were arranged on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, Steve Allen’s Tonight Show and Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall, together with a summer tour with Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent. On Sunday September 9, 1956, they appeared as finalists in the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour at Madison Square Garden. Coincidentally, the same night the Trio was on the Amateur Hour (ABC-TV), Elvis made his debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Despite all of this activity, however, the three singles, which were released over this period failed to make the national charts. In order to cover their living …