Updates

• Added info on Jimmy Ford, thanks to Volker Houghton. • Extended and corrected the post on Happy Harold Thaxton (long overdue), thanks to everyone who sent in memories and information! • Added information to the Jim Murray post, provided by Mike Doyle, Dennis Rogers, and Marty Scarbrough. • Expanded the information on Charlie Dial found in the Little Shoe post.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Slim Dortch on Lightning Ball

Slim Dortch - Pappy (Lightning Ball LB-45-8501), 1993

Slim Dortch fascinated me right from the moment I heard "Big Boy Rock" for the first time. After long and intensive research, I was able to put up an article about him, which was published last year in American Music Magazine. Unfortunately, this disc is not included because I just discovered it. I bought it from a seller out of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

The songs on this 45rpm record are pure country music. Both "Pappy" and "Walking Through the Sand in Texas" were also included on Dortch's 1993 LP "Below the Dixie Line." All the tracks were recorded at Kennett Sound Studio in Kennett, Missouri, in 1993. As noted on the label, James Prince is playing lead as well as steel guitar with Dortch on vocals and rhythm guitar, Lee Barnes on bass, and Jeff Bost on drums. 

Another Lightning Ball single featured "Easy Street" b/w "Jim, the Truck Driving Man." Those titles were not included on the album. The Lightning Ball label was used prior to these 1990s releases in the 1960s by Dortch for two 45rpm discs. Thus, I assume this was his own label.

For further reading on Dortch, see American Music Magazine #133 (September 2013).

No comments: