“What turned out to be Rab Noakes’ final album, ‘Should We Tell Him: Songs by Don Everly’, is a genuine labour of love that should be embraced by fans of Noakes, Williams and The Everlys alike.”
RAB NOAKES & BROOKS WILLIAMS
SHOULD WE TELL HIM: SONGS BY DON EVERLY
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The plan to record SHOULD WE TELL HIM was hatched long before Rab Noakes & Brooks Williams actually got into the studio. Five years, to be exact. But for Rab Noakes it had been on his radar for many more years than that.
“I’ve long had familiarity with the recordings of the Everly Brothers,” writes Rab. “Although a number of the Everly Brothers’ big hits were written by Don (and others by acclaimed Nashville songwriters, especially Felice and Boudleaux Bryant), many others were B-sides and album tracks. There’s little doubt he doesn’t get celebrated enough as songwriter.”
Although Brooks knew of Rab’s music since his teenage years, the two didn't actually meet until Rab sang backing vocals on Williams' recording LUCKY STAR. From that moment forward a friendship was formed and a musical collaboration was born.
It wasn't until 2022 that Rab and Brooks began work in earnest on the Songs Of Don Everly project.
In deciding what to sing, Rab and Brooks avoided the bigger, more well-known hits and instead found inspiration in a spiral-bound mimeographed songbook called “Songs By Don Everly,” that Rab got from Acuff-Rose, Don’s publisher, in Nashville in the early 1980s.
They booked the musicians and the big room at Chem19 in Blantyre outside Glasgow for late September. There, Rab and Brooks, acoustic guitars in hand, surrounded themselves with Hilary Brooks on piano, Kevin McGuire on bass, Conor Smith on pedal steel and electric guitar and Signy Jakobsdottir on drums. With Paul Savage at the mixing desk, they recorded the eleven songs on Should We Tell Him: Songs By Don Every ‘live from the floor’ in three days, just as you hear them on the recording.
A little over a month later, sensing all was not well health-wise, Rab asked Brooks to see this recording to completion. To that end, Brooks, Paul and Hilary mixed the tracks at Chem19. Shortly thereafter Frank Arkwright mastered the tracks at Abbey Road Studios in London. The recording was releasedas a LIMITED EDITION CD and Download on 25 August 2023.
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“A genuine labour of love....”
“An fitting tribute...”