RAMBLIN: When Derek & The Dominos played the Ryman Auditorium

Dec. 3—Sometimes musical stars align when musical artists who are great in their own right get together.

It can result in musical gold or awkward moments, depending the chemistry of those who are collaborating.

It brings me to mind of one of my all-time favorite albums, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" by Derek & The Dominos.

With Derek being a pseudonym for Eric Clapton, and the Dominos consisting of southern singer, keyboardist and songwriter Bobby Whitlock, Tulsa's own Carl Radle on bass and Jim Gordon on drums, they were a powerful musical force.

They became even more of a force when guitarist extraordinaire Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers volunteered to sit in and contribute his talents to their sessions as Derek & The Dominos recorded their first album at Miami's Criteria Studios.

Duane Allman already knew his way around Criteria Studios, since the Allman Brothers had recorded their album Idlewild South, which been produced and engineered by the famed Tom Dowd, who had also signed on to provide similar services for Derek & The Dominos.

Many music fans not familiar with the album — and even some who are — are surprised that two of the greatest blues-inspired classic rock musicians ever recorded an entire album together.

Well, almost an entire an entire album. Duane Allman joined Derek & The Dominos on all but three of the album's 14 tracks. They made so much music together that "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" became a double vinyl album upon its release.

And what an album it is. Clapton, Allman, Whitlock and Radle create a cascade of sound, with Clapton and Whitlock singing some of the most impassioned versions of their respective careers.

In addition to the title song, "Layla," the album includes a number of standout tracks, including originals written by Clapton and Whitlock, both separately and sometimes in collaboration.

A few standout tracks include the album opener "I Looked Away," along with "Bell Bottom Blues," "Tell the Truth" and "Anyday."

It also includes a handful of blues-based cover songs, including "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," "Keys to the Highway" and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman?"

This album includes the fiery 1970 electric version of "Layla," the song Clapton wrote for Pattie Boyd, then married to his friend, George Harrison, not the laid-back acoustic version featured on Clapton's later Grammy-winning "Unplugged" album from 1992.

While Allman added so much to "Layla" — that's him doing the slide guitar solos on the song — he was a guest on the album and did not join Derek & The Dominos as they embarked on a tour.

During their brief time together "Derek & The Dominos" U.S. shows included a performance on "The Johnny Cash Show," the variety television show that aired on ABC at the time.

They performed their version of the Chuck Willis song "It's Too Late," featuring some great call and response vocal interplay between Clapton and Whitlock.

I figured they chose "It's Too Late" to perform on the Cash show because it has a sort of country and blues vibe. "The Johnny Cash Show" did not originate from Los Angeles or New York, but from the stage of the original Grand Ole Opry, at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

Yep, Clapton and Company stood and performed on the same stage where most of the early country music greats had stood and performed, ranging from Hank Williams Sr. and Pasty Cline, to Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn and Cash himself.

At the time Derek & The Dominos performed on "The Johnny Cash Show" from the Ryman stage, rock and country music were not yet as intertwined as they would later become.

Of course, they had been intertwined from the beginning, with those early rock 'n' roll records by artists such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and others — and even some of those early Sun Records recordings by Cash himself — considered a fusion of country music and blues, along with a dash of rhythm and blues and gospel.

By the time Derek & The Dominos released their first album in 1970, the rock and country music camps were still sometimes a little hostile.

It wasn't that way, of course, in places such as Oklahoma and Texas, as well as California, at least among many of the then-younger music fans, many of whom embraced the music of artists ranging from Hank Williams to Jim Hendrix.

Still, some country music audiences were deeply musically conservative at the time, especially in Nashville. A Grand Ole Opry audience had infamously booed The Byrds only a couple of years earlier when they performed on the Opry from the stage of the Ryman Auditorium.

Apparently, the 1968 Grand Ole Opry audience that night took offense to the long hair sported by The Byrds — which is hilarious considering the long locks worn today by country music favorites such as Chris Stapleton and Jamey Johnson.

The Byrds had even purchased some of those colorful and rhinestone-encrusted Nudie suits— named for the suits' creator, Nudie Cohn — favored by such country artists of the era as Porter Wagoner and Hank Snow.

Not only that, The Byrds had just released a bonafide country music album, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo."

The Byrds' good intentions and even better music hadn't mattered to the fans in the Ryman Auditorium when they performed on the Grand Ole Opry though.

They were roundly booed, with some of the audience members sarcastically making "tweet-tweet" sounds.

Apparently, the Opry audience that night perceived The Byrds, based in California, as a bunch of long-haired hippies from the West Coast who shouldn't even be on the Grand Ole Opry stage. And they had even cut their hair shorter than usual for their Opry appearance!

This particular iteration of The Byrds consisted of longtime frontman Roger McGuinn on guitar, former bluegrass musician Chris Hillman on bass, Hillman's cousin Kevin Kelley as the band's new drummer and another new member, Gram Parsons — the subject of a recent "Ramblin' Round" column — on guitar, along with occasional piano and vocals.

Parsons angered the Opry powers that night, by changing the song The Byrds had been introduced to perform and substituting it with one of his own that he dedicated to his grandmother, "Hickory Wind."

Adding to The Byrds' Nashville tribulations, disc jockey Ralph Emery conducted a sarcastic interview with The Byrds on his WSM radio show.

I don't know if Clapton was aware that The Byrds had been booed at the Ryman Auditorium two years earlier, as Derek & The Dominos stepped onto the same stage to perform on "The Johnny Cash Show."

With the camera on Johnny Cash, you can hear Clapton playing guitar off-camera as Cash introduces the band.

"Hey, if you can detect some country blues picking in this song you're about to hear, you're right," Cash says to both his in-person and television audience.

Derek & The Dominos slide into the laid-back, but swinging groove of "It's Too Late" — showing they could bring the musicianship and impassioned singing that's on the album to their live performances as well.

They finished to a loud and enthusiastic ovation — the total opposite of The Byrds' reception on the Ryman stage just two years earlier.

Cash may have been a little concerned. He tells Clapton "I'm really glad to see the people here love you like they do," followed by another ovation.

"The people in your country and all over England really treated us great," Cash tells Clapton.

"Oh, we love your kind of music over there," Clapton said, telling how the British collect blues and country music records from the U.S. He tells how the blues and country pickers "influenced everybody."

"I think one of the best of them all is right here on this show, right now," Clapton said. "We should bring him on."

"I think so," said Cash. "Carl Perkins!"

It's great to see the look of awe and joy on Clapton's face as Perkins hurries onstage with his electric guitar and breaks into his song "Matchbox." He's joined by Derek & The Dominos and even Cash, who strums along on his acoustic guitar.

Perkins, Cash and Clapton switch off vocals and sing together on the chorus. After Perkins and Clapton each take lead guitar solos, the do a ripping double lead together.

It's a great rocking, country blues moment by a one-off trio: Perkins, Clapton and Cash, which concludes with big smiles all the way round.

I think Clapton's is the biggest.