I had not even heard of this album nor its creator six months ago and I only had a passing knowledge of Link Wray, Vernon's younger but more famous brother. Link tends to feature in 'best guitarists' lists, principally due to his 1958 instrumental hit 'Rumble' (on which Vernon played alongside their other brother Doug as the Raymen). Link has also featured on two great compilations that I've played a lot over the last couple of years (Country Funk on Light In the Attic and Delta Swamp Rock on Soul Jazz Records). But this is about Vernon.
I first read about Wasted in T. Klepach's appreciation of the album on the excellent Aquarium Drunkard blog (where incidentally I also first heard about Chris Darrow's Artist Proof, another 'lost classic' which will no doubt get a post of its own at some point and I would urge anyone to search it out). I was then reminded of it again when I saw Grayson Currin, who writes for Pitchfork and others (he recently wrote a great piece on Hiss Golden Messenger for Indy Week), rate it in his 'top five'. Seemed worth digging further.
The back cover is an illustration by Rick Cole who also took the front cover photograph. If that weren't enough, he played on the album too. The illustration depicts the Wray's "family recording studio, which had a number of temporary homes that included the family grocery store before coming to a temporary rest in a ramshackle shed on the family property in Accokeek, Maryland where it was famously dubbed Wray's Shack 3 Tracks." Klepach goes on; "[i]n the spring of ‘72 [Vernon] packed up the back wall of the recording shack and high-tailed it to Tuscon, AZ to “mellow out”. In Tuscon he rebuilt the recording studio renaming it Vernon Wray’s Record Factory after upgrading it to eight tracks from three. It was here that Vernon was able to put to tape his much mellower solo work released in two batches as “Superstar at My House” and “Wasted”. The former being released exclusively on cassette and 8-track tape, and the latter by Vermillion Records on vinyl in a run of about 400 copies sold only at shows in Tuscon. Both albums are extremely rare and prized." With his drawing Cole echoes the laid-back countrified feel of the songs within. Note too the '(+5)' in the credits after Wray's Shack 3 Tracks acknowledging the upgrade to 8-track!
Having been reissued on vinyl by Sebastian Speaks, William Tyler's Nashville-based label, I was surprised, but grateful, to find it in Drift Records in Totnes. Wasted is a record full of soul that has a wonderful feel. Ghostcapital gets it right: it "[b]rings to mind a Waylon-type Highwayman cutting a handful of lonesome, stoned-out 70s demos with ocassional help from the likes of, say, Lee Hazlewood." For more on Vernon, see here.
