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.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Herbert C. Woolfolk on Camaro

 
Herbert C. Woolfolk and the Stargazers - I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye (Camaro 45-3431), 1971
 
Born on October 25, 1932, Herbert C. Woolfolk hailed from Nesbit, Mississippi, which is located just a few miles south of Memphis and the Tennessee-Mississippi state border. Woolfolk made a couple of unreleased rock'n'roll recordings, which were cut "in Herbert's garage in his lovely home just outside Memphis in the late 50's" according to Cees Klop on his 1986 "Memphis - Rock'n'Roll Capital of the World, Volume 3" White Label compilation. Klop also further explained that Woolfolk backed up Stax and Fernwood recording artists during this period.

In 1964, Woolfolk released "Strenght of Love" / "Diamond of My Hear" on Tateco Records (Tateco #45-446) out of Senatoba, Mississippi (south of Nesbit). He was accompanied by the Rocketts on this disc, which included Billy Yount, Billy Hardison, Herbert J.C. Hicks, Rufus Waldron and Willard Speers. Band member Billy Yount also had a brother Harold, with whom Woolfolk would perform occasionally.

It seems Woolfolk stayed true to his rock'n'roll sound, as he released another marvelous disc in 1971 on Style Wooten's Camaro label. These were recorded with the Stargazers, the band of Woolfolk's friend Ken Lynes. Woolfolk gave the old Ernest Tubb song "I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye" an overall new sound and rocked his way through it with nice guitar work, a billowing organ and a dynamic background chorus.

Woolfolk died on October 11, 2013. A great portion of his recordings were issued by Cees Klop in 1986 on the "Memphis - Rock'n'Roll Capital of the World, Volume 3" White Label compilation. 

7 comments:

Apesville said...

from sleeve notes, Note any spelling errors are by Cees Klop : Memphis is known to all 50's music lovers and is a place that many want to visit one day. There was so much material made in those days that even today one can find something not known here. Herbert Woolfolk is one of those people that recorded at that time and of whom only one single was issued on Tateco records. Besides that he backed up many artists that visted Stax records in the early days and the famous Fernwood studios of Slim Wallace. In this studio the original Tateco release of Strenght Of Love / Diamond Of My Heart was recorded. The idea for the A side came from his brother-in-law & he liked the song but changed the tempo to a faster beat. Locally the record had good airplay & the fez (Few?) copies pressed went fast. The original Rockets are shown on the front cover had (from left to right) Billy Yount, Billy Hardison, Herbert J. C. Hicks, Rufes Waldron & Willard Speers as members of the band. Family member Billy Yount had another brother Harold Yount who recorded for himself. While Herbert help him out from time to time. Two Instrumentals are included here by harold Yount. Latter Herbert recorded a number of songs with his friend Ken Lynes & his group the Stargazers of which the early recordings are included here. Most of the material on this release was taped in Herbert's garage in his lovely home just outside Memphis in the late 50's with the exception of the songs done with Ken Lynes which were done a few years later in Memphis.

Apesville said...

Note Diamond of my heart is a ALT take on this LP

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Titan Gel asli said...

nice blog

anabolic rx24 asli said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

My dad was Ken Lynes of the Stargazers. I remember as a kid listening to them practice at either Herbert's house or Loman Craig's house. Loman was the keyboard/guitar player for the Stargazers and currently lives in Nashville. My dad, Ken Lynes, passed away January, 1990.
I remember they had released a 45 that had IF IT'S A SIN LOVING YOU (THEN I'M WRONG), I don't remember if it was the A side or the B side. It had the wives of the band members singing back-up.
I enjoyed your blog about Herbert, it brought back some good memories of listening to them.

Mellow said...

Hi there, thanks for the info. Any possibly to get more knowledge about Ken Lynes?