Link Wray was born on 2 May 1929 in Dunn, North Carolina and learned guitar at the age of eight from a carnival musician named Hambone. He moved to Norfolk, Virginia in the mid 1940s where he began playing in various hillbilly bands until going overseas to Korea with the US army, where he contacted TB.

Hospitalised, Link had a lung removed, before going back on the road playing lead guitar in a band with his brothers in the 1950s. In 1958 he recorded his influential instrumental hit ‘Rumble’ for the Cadence label. In the 60s he cut more instrumental hits for Epic and Swan until, tired of touring, he set up a 3 track studio on the family farm in Maryland where he recorded a slew of great atmospheric country rock tracks that eventually found release in the early 70s.

After working with Robert Gordon in the late 1970s, Link began an association with Ace Records in 1982. He recorded six albums for Ace over a ten year period to 1995. Link Wray, one of the most seminally influential rock’n’roll guitarists, lived quietly in Denmark with his wife and son until he died in November 2005. (TC)