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.
Showing posts with label Memphis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memphis. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Allen Wingate a.k.a. Allen Page

Allen Page
1950s Moon Records promo picture

Between Moon and Sun - Between Sin and Salvation
The Story of Allan Wingate a.k.a. Allen Page

Cordell Jackson's Moon record label, and in particular Jackson herself, became a cult phenomenon in 1980s Memphis. And the label's most prolific recording artist was Allen Page, who has - unfortunately - found little acclaim since his records came out in the 1950s. However, he probably would have dismissed it being celebrated as a rockabilly hero as he became a preacher under his real name Allen Wingate. From the 1960s onwards, he found his satisfaction in traveling around the country and preaching the gospel.

Many other artists that recorded in Memphis during the 1950s and early 1960s came from the rural areas of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In contrast, Allen Lamar Wingate, to give him his full name, came from the city of Tampa, located on the sunny west coast of Florida. There, he was born on August 14, 1936. His mother Corrine Elizabeth Eiland would not marry his father Woodroow Wingate until about a month after Wingate's birth. Though, the relationship broke up soon after and they divorced a year later. During World War II, Wingate's mother worked at Tampa's ship yard to support the family. She had married Glen Burnside, whom she divorced in 1945, however.

In 1956, Wingate moved to Memphis, which was the place to be for rock'n'roll music. By then, he was probably already married to his wife Joann. Their oldest son James had already been born and Allen Lamar jr. followed in October 1956. By then, Wingate had started performing in Memphis night clubs under the name of "Allen Page" and had taken up composing songs with his wife, too. It was probably around the same time that he went into Memphis' Sun Studio and auditioned. A demo tape entitled "What Else Could I Do" with Wingate on vocals and guitar, backed up by upright bass and electric guitar, has survived. However, the audition went nowhere. Though, two of the songs Wingate and his wife had written were recorded by Ernie Barton in March 1958 for Phillips Int., "Stairway to Nowhere" and "Raining the Blues".

Following his unsuccessful Sun audition, Wingate came to the attention of Cordell Jackson, a pioneering woman in music business who had founded her own record label Moon Records shortly before. Wingate recorded his debut "Honeysuckle" b/w "High School Sweater" (Moon #301), both penned by him and Joann, in 1957 but without much success. This was not because Wingate wasn't talented; Moon Records was a local Memphis business without proper distribution and the recordings itself were too provincial for the national market. The record had enough exposure to stir a cover version, though: "High School Sweater" was recorded a couple of months later by Arkansas born singer Kenny Owens.

Cordell Jackson obviously had faith in the young singer, as she produced a total of four singles on him and the first three we released straight in a row. All of them were first-class Memphis rock'n'roll but none of them caught on. His "She's the One That Got It" was written by him for his wife. While Wingate was a talented songwriter and composed most of his recorded material on his own, he also cut Cordell Jackson's "Dateless Night" and "Oh! Baby". The latter, along with "I Wish You Were Wishing" (a song he recorded twice for Moon), was released on Moon #307 in 1960 and became not only Wingate's final single on the label but also the label's last release altogether. He had cut it with the Big Four, a group that had also recorded in its own right for Moon.

Billboard June 13, 1960, pop review

By then, it had become obvious that Wingate's moment to reach stardom as a rock'n'roll artist had passed. The hard-driving rockabilly that was produced under Cordell Jackson's supervision had definitely gone out of fashion by 1960. Wingate was heavy on alcohol, cigarettes and drugs by 1963 but one night in August that year, he found faith and - in his own memories - never touched any of it again. He became an evangelist and with companions like brothers Billy and Tommy Brown, spent much of the 1960s traveling the country and preaching the word of God. Billy Brown, who was also from Florida and had embarked on a country and rock'n'roll music career much like Wingate, had experienced similar set-backs and had drifted into alcoholism. He later told stories of such miracles as deaf ears opened, blind eyes could see, immediate healing, etc., that occurred while traveling with Wingate. Besides traveling the United States, Wingate's extended tours also took him to Canada, Mexico, and Panama.

Joann and Allen Wingate, ca. 1978
Taken from the back of their album "Beyond the Sunset"

Back to the music. Wingate recorded a four song EP of uptempo country gospel, including a version of Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light", in 1965. An accompanying LP was released simultaneously with more cuts. For a while, the Wingate family lived in Sharonville, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where a couple of recordings were made with his wife and his son James. Eventually, much of his family would take part in his recordings. At least two more LPs followed in the 1970s, which make up a total of four albums by Wingate known to me. Probably more recordings were done throughout the years and released on LP or cassette.

Wingate settled his family in the fall of 1975 in New Smyrna Beach, on the east coast of Florida, where he founded the New Smyrna Beach Church of God and served the community as its pastor until his death. Allen Wingate passed away on April 26, 1993, in his adopted hometown of New Smyrna Beach. He is buried at Sea Pines Memorial Gardens in Edgewater, Florida. He was survived by his wife Joann as well as eight children and 22 grandchildren.

Since 1975, Wingate's rock'n'roll recordings were re-released consequently in Europe. Collector Records released two of his Moon recordings that year on the "Super Rock a Billy, Part A" LP and since then, Wingate's songs have been reissued numerous times, including on LPs and CDs put out by Moon Records. Wingate's take on "I Saw the Light" saw also release on the 2018 "Hillbillies in Hell" compilation.


Allan Wingate performs "I've Found a Better Way" at the
Belleview, Mississippi, Church of God, ca.1980s

Discography

Singles
Moon 301: Allen Page and the Crowns with the Moon Beams - Honeysuckle / High School Sweater (1957)
Moon 302: Allen Page with the Deltones - I Wish You Were Wishing / Dateless Night (1958)
Moon 303: Allen Page - She's the One That's Got It / Sugar Tree (1958)
Moon 307: Allen Page with Sandy and Sue and the Big Four - I Wish You Were Wishing / Oh! Baby (1960)
No label No.#: Evangelist Allen Wingate - It's Different Now / I'm Counting On Jesus / I Saw the Light / At Calvary (1965)

LPs
No label No.#: Evangelist Allen Wingate - Beyond the Sunset: Songs from Me for You (1965)
The Evening Light No.#: Allen and Joann Wingate - He Set Me Free (1974)
The Evening Light No.#: Allen Wingate and the Family of God Singers - That Old Fashioned Salvation (1978)
Unknown label No.#: Allen Wingate Family Singers - All for His Glory

See also

Sources
45cat entry
Rate Your Music
• Discogs entries for Allen Page and Allen Wingate
Find a Grave entry
Rockin' Country Style entry
Gospel Jubilee entry
Information on Corrine Elizabeth (Eiland) Wingate on WikiTree
Allen Lamar Wingate, Jr., obituary
That's All Rite Mama: Evangelist Allen Wingate
• Various Wingate family members commented on Youtube videos of Allen Wingate's gospel recordings. Thanks for the information provided!

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Plastic Products - The Hub of Rock'n'Roll

Former Plastic Products Quonset huts at 1746 Chelsea Avenue in Memphis
Source: Google Street View

Buster Williams' Plastic Products Company
The Hub of Rock'n'Roll in Memphis


Many independent, small and private record labels from 1955 onwards used such big custom pressing services as Rite from Cincinnati or RCA's pressing plant from New Jersey. One of the smaller independent pressing plants was Buster Williams' Plastic Products from Memphis, who served the whole south in the early 1950s. Among the now famous record labels which pressed records at Plastic Products were Sun, Meteor, Hi, Fernwood, Atlantic, and many others.

Robert E. "Buster" Williams originally hailed from Enterprise, Mississippi, where he first worked as a peanut salesman while still in his teens and later owned a drug store. Williams was already an experienced business man when he set up Plastic Products in 1949. He had worked as a distributor for Wurlitzer jukeboxes in the Memphis area and by the end of World War II, had founded Music Sales distribution together with Clarence Camp (husband of Celia Camp, future co-owner of Home of the Blues Records) on 680 Union Avenue in Memphis. Soon after its founding, the company began distribution for many independent labels, including Gilt-Edge, Mercury, Excelsior, Exclusive, National, Sterling, among others. An office in New Orleans was established and Music Sales became a successful record distributor in the south and south-west.


Billboard ad from its March 9, 1957, issue. "Shipments made from PLASTIC PRODUCTS, Memphis, and SOUTHERN PLASTICS, Nashville.

A talented entrepreneur and engineer, Williams sensed that there was a gap in the record market and founded his pressing plant "Plastic Products Incorporated" in Memphis on 1746 Chelsea Avenue. On this property were four Quonset huts that housed the plant's offices, shipping and printing operations, compounding equipment and the actual presses. At the start, much of the used equipment was designed by Williams himself. Actually, it started with one Quonset hut but soon, Williams extended his operations and more huts were added. Plastic Products rapidly became the favorite plant among many independent labels in the south. When Sam Phillips founded Sun Records, he began using Buster Williams' plant as well as Music Sales for distribution.

Hi, Fernwood, Meteor, Stax, Atlantic, MGM, Chess, Holiday Inn, and many other, much smaller, labels pressed their records there, too. Williams, a self-made entrepreneur, knew the difficulties independent labels had to deal with and offered lavish credits for these companies. By 1956, Plastic Products was pressing for 49 different record labels and turned out more than 65,000 records a day. The plant therefore played an important role in the development of popular music, especially in creating and spreading rock'n'roll. Nearly all of the Memphis based labels would press their records at Plastic Products in 1959, though it made up only 10% of the whole outcome at that time.

The same year, Plastic Products was so busy pressing records that the orders exceeded the capacities of Williams' plant in Memphis by far. He built another plant in Coldwater, Mississippi (a little south of Memphis), which became known as Coldwater Industries. A third plant was built in the early 1970s near the Memphis Airport to manufacture 8-track tapes. Around the same time, Eastern Manufacturing in Philadelphia was acquired by Plastic Products as well.

Billboard September 12, 1970

By 1973, the end of Plastic Products was in sight. During the past years, Stax Records had become Plastic's biggest customer but when the label experienced financial problems, it could not pay the incoming bills from Plastic Products. A strike at Coldwater followed in 1975 and Plastic Products never received a majority of the sum the company had demanded from Stax. Finally, Buster Williams' son, whose interest lay rather in oil industry than in record pressing business, closed the pressing plants altogether.

Buster Williams passed away in 1992 at the age of 83 years. About a year later, his son sold two of the Quonset huts and later also sold the remaining two. In 2012, a marker was erected at 1746 Chelsea to keep the history of the "hub of rock'n'roll" alive. Some of Williams' children were present at the ceremony but according to Memphis part-time music historian John Shaw, the family is still reluctant to open up their archives which prevents a detailed history of the pressing catalogue.


Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Home of the Blues Records

Home of the Blues Records
On the Street Where Blues Were Born

I recently made contacts with ancestors of Ruben Cherry and Celia Camp, owners of the Home of the Blues label, a mostly overlooked Memphis record label. Both Cherry and Camp were influential figures in the city's music scene, though they are forgotten nowadays. During its years active in the 1960s, the Home of the Blues label released recordings mostly in the rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues genres. The label was active from 1960 until 1964 and had only limited commercial success. Though it was part of the development of southern soul music and an early nest of this music's forerunners.

The Beginnings
The Home of the Blues record label was founded by Ruben Cherry, who also operated the Home of the Blues record shop. Cherry, a native Memphian born there in 1923, had opened the shop in the mid 1940s after World War II and soon, it became a music institution in the city. Cherry was known for his eccentric behavior and colorful appearance. Located on Beale Street, which is still the city’s amusement alley with countless juke joints and bars featuring live blues music, the shop was named aptly “Home of the Blues” (with its slogan “on the street where blues were born”). Soon, it developed into a music hot spot for both black and white customers as the shop offered all kinds of musical genres. Some of the now famous personalities that entered Cherry’s store frequently were local DJ Dewey Phillips, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash (who also composed his song “Home of the Blues” inspired by the shop), or members of the Johnny Burnette Trio, including guitarist Paul Burlison.

The shop enjoyed financial help by Cherry’s aunt Celia G. Camp, who operated a jukebox and pinball machine distribution company called Southern Amusement Company in Memphis. Camp, who also held several other business interests, would eventually finance the Home of the Blues record label, too.

The Home of the Blues Record Company, as it was officially called, was founded on July 15, 1960, by Cherry and Camp, both being owners of the company. While Cherry was responsible for the creative part of the business, which included spotting and signing recording artists, Camp took care of the financial issues of the company. Though sharing the name, the record shop and the record label were separate businesses operated by Cherry (and Camp). Other people involved in the label were Arthur Baldwin as vice president, Max Goldstein as vice president of sales, Ray Meaders as promotion man, and Wolf Lebovitz, who joined the label as a company secretary, dealing also with some of its partner labels. Lebovitz was married to Celia Camp’s adopted niece Dorothy.

The Artists - The Recordings

The first artist to record for Home of the Blues was R&B singer Roy Brown, who had cut numerous discs for several labels before. His “Don’t Break My Heart” b/w “A Man with the Blues” (HOTB #107) appeared already in July 1960. Although Brown had been a successful singer with several chart hits in the 1940s, his debut for the Home of the Blues label did not reach the charts. Brown had a total of four releases on the label and in Brown’s own memory, his third single, a duet with Mamie Dell called “Oh So Wonderful” from early 1961, sold well at least locally. According to Brown, around 44,000 copies were sold in Memphis but due to missing distribution, failed to sell outside of the city.

By August, another singer had been signed to the label, namely Dave Dixon, whose recordings “You Satisfy” and “You Don’t Love Me No More” (HOTB #108) were released the same month but did not sell better than its precursor.

What became probably the label’s biggest success in commercial terms was a song by the 5 Royales, another R&B act that had enjoyed successful years in the early 1950s while recording for Apollo Records. Their “Please, Please Please”, released with the flip side “I Got to Know” (HOTB #112) in October the same year, reached #114 on Billboard’s “Bubbling Under” chart.

From 1960 until 1962, more artists recorded for the label and many of them were influential musicians in the blues and R&B fields. Larry Birdsong, Willie Mitchell (who made his first attempts as a producer for Cherry), and Willie Cobbs were some of them. Billy Lee Riley, who had recorded rockabilly for Sun Records in the 1950s, recorded a single for the label in 1961, as did Billy Adams, another former Sun recording artist.

By 1961, Cherry and Camp had worked out an agreement with the Vee-Jay record label to release Home of the Blues material also on the Vee-Jay label for national distribution. This deal soon transferred to  ABC-Paramount Records after the company purchased Vee-Jay. However, the output of Home of the Blues material on its partner companies remained very limited and did not add any success.

Cherry and Camp created a couple of subsidiary labels, including Rufus Records, Six-O-Six Records, 1st Records, and Zab Records. Only few singles were released on these off-shots and they remained without commercial success.

Demise

The label’s last release came nearly exactly two years after its debut in August 1962 with Jimmy “Louisiana” Dotson’s “Search No More” b/w “I Feel Alright” (HOTB #244). After a two years existence without a major chart hit, the Home of the Blues label came to an end. There could have been more recording sessions during 1963 and 1964 - and there were a few copyright registrations - but apparently the label did not release any new singles.

Around the same time, Celia G. Camp had divorced from her first husband Clarence Camp but had remarried a man by the name of Ward Hodge a year later. Hodge in turn was the manager of a female teenage singer, who recorded for the company’s 1st Records subsidiary when she was still underage. According to local Memphis part-time music historian John Shaw, the singer’s parents sued Ward and Celia Hodge, which – according to Shaw – “may have occasioned the label's closing”.

Cash Box magazine reported on November 24, 1967, that Ruben Cherry had moved his Home of the Blues record shop from Beale Street to 147 South Main Street due to urban renewal in Downtown Memphis. Three years later, in 1970, Celia Camp sold the Home of the Blues label, catalog and recording tapes to Wayne McGinnis’ Memphis Record Company. Unfortunately, the Home of the Blues master tapes were stolen from McGinnis’ office and have not turned up since. Ruben Cherry died in 1976 at the age of 52 years in Memphis. Celia Camp passed away in 1979. After their deaths, Wayne McGinnis in turn sold the company to British music enthusiast and entrepreneur Dave Travis in 1991.

In recent years, confusion has been raised to who the rightfully owner of the Home of the Blues material is. Steve LaVere, who is considered to be a rather dubious character in music business, claimed to have the rights to the label. As it turned out, Wolf Lebovitz, who was in the possession of numerous unreleased Home of the Blues tapes, assigned the rights to LaVere. Although LaVere managed to transfer the song catalog to his Delta Haze publishing firm before he died, Dave Travis had already bought the Memphis Music Company, including the Home of the Blues label, from Wayne McGinnis, emphasizing that his deal was legally set up with the person who inherited the rights to the label.

Home of the Blues sign in Memphis, 2023, marking the beginning of Beale Street.
The name "Home of the Blues" was adopted by the city of Memphis for marketing purposes.

Legacy
In contrast to other Memphis labels, the Home of the Blues label had been of little interest to reissue record companies and scholars in the past. In 1995, the Japanese P-Vine label released three CDs with Home of the Blues material. The British Stomper Time label, known for various reissue albums of Memphis music, released another two CDs containing Home of the Blues recordings. Most recently, German Bear Family Records has released two 10-track LPs with Home of the Blues material in 2021. The label is briefly mentioned at Memphis’ Stax Museum of American Soul Music as well as the Rock’n’Soul Museum, also located in the city.


While the Home of the Blues record label did not gain much national chart success, the recordings of the label bridged the gap between Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rhythm and Blues, and the development of Soul music in Memphis, Detroit and Philadelphia. However, it was probably Ruben Cherry’s record shop that had a much deeper impact on the musical education of many influential Memphis musicians, including B.B. King, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash. The latter not only borrowed the Home of the Blues name as a tribute for one of his songs, but also acknowledged the shop as an influence on him during his 1992 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech.

The Congress of the United States, in a motion brought by Rep. Steve Cohen, designated the phrase “Home of the Blues” to the city of Memphis, which uses it as the city’s nickname and slogan for music tourism promotion. It is also used for Beale Street and can be seen on the gates marking the street.


Recommended reading
• Howdy at his 45 blog has also two songs by Larry Birdsong on Home of the Blues. See here and here.

Sources
45cat entry
Ruben Cherry Find a Grave entry
• Tony Wilkinson: "Home of the Blues Label and Record Shop Story" (American Music Magazine #133), 2013
• Thanks to Bruce Frager, a relative of Ruben Cherry and Celia Camp, for providing additional material and for keeping the memory of Home of the Blues Records alive!

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Wayne Raney


Wayne Raney - King of the Talking Harmonica

"The Living Legends" was the title of one of Wayn Raney's later albums - a project he had done with his old pal Lonnie Glosson. The title was apt, Raney enjoyed great popularity during the 1940s and was especially popular in his home state Arkansas - even during his later years. He is one of those musicians that were responsible for popularizing the harmonica as an instrument, along with his aforementioned partner Lonnie Glosson or such performers as DeFord Bailey.

During the 1940s, Raney was part of the Delmore Brothers' band but also found success as a recording artist in his own right, scoring a big hit with "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me". While his earlier recordings were heavily influenced by the Delmores and therefore blues- and boogie-tinged, predominantly of secular content, he later switched to country gospel music. Raney was also a successful businessman, selling harmonica instruction books as early as the 1940s and later operating his own record pressing plant, recording studio, and record label called "Rimrock" in Concord, Arkansas.

Early Years in Arkansas
Wayne Raney was born on August 17, 1921, in a log cabin on a farm near Wolf Bayou, a tiny place in Cleburne County, north-central Arkansas. His parents, William Frank and Bonnie Cumie Raney, had a total of five children and at least his father's family lived in Arkansas since the 1850s. Times were hard in these isolated area of Wolf Bayou and work on the farm exhausting. However, young Wayne Raney was freed from heavy labor due to a foot deformity. Doctors expected he would spent his life in a wheel chair but Raney mastered it without even needing a cane.

Raney was drawn to music at an early age and became interested in the harmonica after watching a street musician playing the instrument. Since 1931, the Delmore Brothers from Alabama increased in popularity both over radio and on records and they soon became musical heroes for Raney. A year later, at age eleven, Raney traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to meet the Delmores in person. While being in Atlanta, Raney got the chance to record for Bluebird, RCA's low-budget label, but his two solo numbers "Fox Chase" and "Under the Double Eagle", remained unreleased due to poor sound quality.

First Steps and Rambling Years
He returned to Wolf Bayou but at age 13 (the exact year is unclear), the traveling bug bit him again and he made his way to the Texan-Mexican border town Eagle Pass, Texas, where powerful radio station XERP was located. Raney had been a steady listener of the station when he arrived in the city. He performed in a pool hall when the station manager head and hired him. Raney went on to work for XEPN and also recorded several transcriptions for it. From that point on, Raney traveled throughout the United States for much of the 1930s and 1940s, earning his living with radio work and life shows, being not only a harmonica wizard but also a talented singer. 

According to Raney, he worked in almost every single state during this time but always found time to return home and spend some time with his family, working odd jobs for a brief time, then taking off again. In 1937, Raney took a job with radio KWK in St. Louis, Missouri, where he met another proficient harmonica player, Lonnie Glosson. They soon teamed up and found themselves soon in Little Rock, Arkansas, to perform over KARK. This was the beginning not only of a lifelong relationship business and musical wise but also of a friendship. As business partners, they would establish a mail-order business for harmonicas and instruction books, which was boosted in popularity by airing on powerful border-town radio stations.

Their affiliation with KARK didn't last long, though, and Raney was back in St. Louis by 1939, performing with Cousin Emmy's show on KMOX. That same hear, he also frequently appeared on KMBC's Brush Creek Follies stage show in Kansas City, Missouri. During the late 1930s, Raney also worked the west coast and appeared on KFWB in Los Angeles with Stuart Hamblen. He even appeared in two short Warner Brothers western movies. In the early 1940s, he remained in the four-state radius Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee, working live stage shows with the Wilbur Brothers, a brother duo also from Arkansas.

Meeting the Delmores
In 1941, Raney married Loys Oleta Sutherland, a 16 years old girl from Drasco, Arkansas. The couple went on to have three children: Wanda, Zyndall, and Norma Jean. Loys and the children followed the family's patriarch and traveled with him across the country. By the time of their marriage, however, the Raneys where living in Covington, Kentucky, where Raney worked across the Ohio River at WCKY Cincinnati. It was during this time that he met the Delmore Brothers again and as they wanted to expand their act to a band, Raney joined them on vocals and harmonica. 

The connection to the Delmores proved to be fruitful as Raney began recording with them, the first time since the early 1930s. Although the exact date and place are disputed, it is likely that their first joint recording session took place in the fall of 1946 at either E.T. Herzog's studio in Cincinnati or in Chicago, and produced a wealth of recordings, including the Delmores' noteworthy "Freight Train Boogie". Raney was given the chance to record a song with him on lead vocals, "The Wrath of God", which saw release under the Delmores' name, however.


Wayne Raney, ca. 1940s

More sessions followed through 1947 and 1948, some of them under his own name but he was also recording as part of Lonnie Glosson's Railroad Boys for Mercury and as part of Grandpa Jones' backing group. In very late 1947, on December 1947, Raney held a session at KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas, with the support of the Delmore Brothers and the Luma sisters. This session produced some of his best and most well-known material, including "Jole Blon's Ghost" and "Lost John Boogie". The latter reached #11 on Billboard's country & western charts in 1948 and the same year, "Jack and Jill Boogie" placed #13.

By that time, Raney and the Delmore Brothers were living in Memphis, airing live over WMC. The Delmores had always been living in different cities, moving on from town to town where they found work and during this time, Raney would move with them. Therefore, recording sessions took place in different cities at different venues. The sound of Raney's King recordings was identical to the cuts released as by the Delmore Brothers, as the line-up normally consisted of Alton and Rabon on guitars and vocals (plus additional musicians such as Lonnie Glosson).

Raney's Way to the Top
On May 6, 1949, a session took place in Cincinnati (either at Herzog's studio or at King studio) that yielded several songs that were released either under the Delmores' name or under Raney's name on the King label. Among these songs was Raney's biggest hit, "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me", co-written by Raney and Glosson. The line-up included Raney on vocals, Alton and Rabon Delmore on guitars, Zeke Turner on guitar, Don Helms on steel guitar, Lonnie Glosson on harmonica, and possibly Louis Innis on bass. Released in June that year on King #791 with  "Don't Know Why" on the flip side, the song reached the #1 spot in Billboard's country & western charts, where it remained for several weeks.


"Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me" sheet music

The success of "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me" propelled Raney into the first row of country music stars. He made appearances on both the Louisiana Hayride and the Grand Ole Opry and was booked for an extended Opry tour with such stars as Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Minnie Pearl, Rod Brasfield, and Lonzo & Oscar. An offer to join the Opry as a steady cast member was turned down by Raney, a fact that likely prevented him from super stardom and a move that "may have been a mistake", as he later admitted.

The year of 1950 brought more sessions for Raney, both as a supporting musician and for his own releases. He held several sessions that year at Jim Beck's studio in Dallas, Texas, supported by the Delmore band, that resulted in a wealth of sacred material, which expressed Raney's great love for gospel music. Some of these recordings were released on London Records under the pseudonym "Lonesome Willie Evans". In October, he was back at King's recording studio in Cincinnati to record more secular material but a second hit eluded him, unfortunately.

Struggling with Rock and Roll
Raney would work with the Delmores for radio, live, and studio work until Rabon Delmore's untimely death in December 1952 from lung cancer. By then, their momentum as a country music top act had passed. Raney continued to record for King until 1955 and in November 1953, worked a couple of sessions with Lefty Frizzell as part of Frizzell's backing band. His last session for King took place on March 21, 1955, supported by a young pianist from Arkansas named Teddy Redell. Redell, who appeared frequently with Raney during the course of 1955, would later find acclaim as a rockabilly artist.

Also in 1955, Raney hosted his own TV show on KRCG in Jefferson City, Missouri, which also included his newly formed band (including Redell, Johnny Duncan, and Kinky King, among others). In late 1956, at the height of the rockabilly trend, Raney, who paved the way for rock'n'roll with his country boogie numbers, held a rockabilly tinged session for Decca that included "Shake Baby Shake", a song that later found its way onto several rock'n'roll reissues. In the years to come, Raney would concentrate on religious influenced material and a 1957 session, held at radio WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia, with the Osborne Brothers, marked the beginning of this era in his career.

We Need a Whole Lot More Gospel
In 1957, Raney returned to WCKY in Cincinnati and continued to sell song books and harmonicas on air successfully. That same year, Raney decided to switch sides and established his own Wayne Raney Studio in nearby Oxford, Ohio, operating the Poor Boy, New American, and Down Home labels out of it. In late 1957, Raney recorded "We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock and Roll)" and "Don't You Think It's Time", which saw release on Poor Boy #100 the following year and the former became a hit in the gospel hit. "We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus" was also recorded by several other artists in the years to come and became a minor standard.


Wayne Raney harmonica course, ca. late 1950s

Ironically, the second release on his Poor Boy label, which he ran with guitarist Jimmie Zack, was a rock'n'roll release by Norman Witcher, "Somebody's Been Rockin' My Boat" b/w "Wake Me Up", which became a favorite among rockabilly collectors. The next years saw Raney and his family recording numerous gospel songs at his Oxford studio, released on his own labels as well as on Starday.

Rimrock Records - "Arkansas's First and Only Record Mfg. Company"
However, by 1961, Raney decided to pack up things and move back to Arkansas. He discontinued his mail order business, the small labels he had established previously and bought a 180 acre farm near Concord, Arkansas, not far away from his birth place. On his farm, Raney raised Black Angus cattle and it seemed, he had turned his back on the music business. But his occupation as a full-time farmer only lasted for a brief time, as he built the Rimrock recording studio on his property the same year. The first session was held with his family shortly afterwards, recording a couple of gospel standards for one of his Starday EPs.

Raney recorded a great wealth of material over the next years, which saw release on Starday, his own Rimrock label (which he established at some point after 1961) and other small labels. He established Rimrock not only as a vehicle to produce his own recordings but released countless country music artists through his label, including recordings by Connie Dycus, Larry Donn, Teddy Redell, Walt Shrum, the Armstrong Twins, among many others. He leased out the studio to artists to record their material and custom-pressed it with his own pressing plant, the only one that ever existed in Arkansas. Raney manufactured records well into the 1970s for artists from Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri. He also founded his own publishing company Oleta, named after his wife.

In 1974, he sold his pressing plant to the struggling Stax Records company, which closed it not too long afterwards, and Raney moved to Drasco. He appeared on the popular TV show Hee Haw several times during the 1970s and often performed his his old friend Lonnie Glosson (with whom he had also recorded regularly throughout the previous decade).

In 1990, Raney published his autobiography "Life Has Not Been a Bed of Roses" and that same year, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, which costed him his voice following a surgery. Wayne Raney passed away January 23, 1993, at the age of 71 years. He is buried at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery Old in Ida, Arkansas. His wife followed in 2019. Raney was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1993.

Recommended reading
Sources
• Entries on 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Eddie Bond on Tagg


Eddie Bond - In From Stepping Out (Tagg 6406), 1964

Eddie Bond was a popular figure in Memphis in the 1960s and the 1970s. A singer, record label and club owner, promoter (and probably much more, too much to sum it up here), he was also called the "King of Memphis Country". He was born in 1933 in Memphis and began his career in the early 1950s.

At some point, he founded a band called "The Stompers", which included a very young Reggie Young, later famous guitarist and studio musician for countless recordings. The Stompers were, like many Memphis bands in that field, a crossover between western swing and more traditional country music. Bond is now infamous for rejecting Elvis Presley, who had auditioned for the Stompers. Different versions of this story circulate, however, and Bond later denied things went that way.

He first recorded for the Ekko label in 1955 and in 1956, he recorded what became the foundation of his later popularity among rockabilly fans. He signed with Mercury and cut a slew of now highly acclaimed rockabilly songs, including the rockabilly anthem "Rockin' Daddy" (a cover of Sonny Fisher's Starday recording). In the following years, he released countless records, continuing for Mercury, then for D, his own Stomper Time label, Wildcat, and then Coral.

Beginning in 1960, Bond also recorded for several Arkansas based labels, including United Southern Artists and Tagg Records from Plainview, a small town in central Arkansas. The Tagg label released a couple of records during the mid 1960s and our selection, "In from Stepping Out", is from 1964. The flip side was "Every Part of Me" and both songs were likely recorded in Nashville, produced by another Arkansas born singer, Teddy Wilburn. The recordings featured well-known musician Pete Drake on steel guitar.

Both songs had been previously released on Bond's own Diplomat label a year earlier. By then, Bond had gone back to performing country music, and this is a prime example of his style. The song was later recorded by Loretta Lynn and became a hit for her in 1968. Bond's recording was re-released again on Bond's Tab label that same year following Lynn's success with the song.

Bond continued to release single and long play albums throughout the decades and became part of the rockabilly revival movement. Several records with his old and new rockabilly recordings appeared both in the United States and in Europe and he did numerous gigs in Europe. He died in 2013.

See also

Sources

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Bobby Chandler on OJ

Bobby Chandler and his Stardusters - I'm Serious (OJ 1000), 1957

It is hard to tell why Bobby Chandler is overlooked and forgotten so largely, although he even had a chart hit in the mid 1950s. Many of his contemporaries, recording less with even lesser success, are remembered better than Chandler and his vocal group, the Stardusters.

Robert Harold "Bobby" Chandler was born on August 3, 1937, in Little Rock, Arkansas to Horace and Valeria Chandler. He had a brother, Billy, and a sister, Betty, who played piano and with whom he had a very close relationship. Chandler was influenced by all kinds of music, listening to country music, gospel, jazz, big band, and pop music.

While at Little Rock Central High School, Chandler formed a vocal group called the "Stardusters", patterned after the Platters. The line-up included Chandler, Bill Sharp, Bobby Blount, Bill Glasscock, and Bill Detman on guitar. The group performed at school events and other local Little Rock venues. About a year later, the Stardusters were discovered by Bill Biggs and Red Mathews, who operated Old Judge Music Publishing in Memphis and set up their own record label, OJ Records, in 1957. They chose Chandler and the Stardusters to be the first group on the label. They recorded "I'm Serious", a Quinton Claunch and Bill Cantrell penned song, and "If You Love'd Me", released around April 1957 on OJ #1000.

The success came unexpected and the disc sold well locally and "I'm Serious" made the Billboard pop charts a short time later, peaking at #38. The group went out on the road and appeared regularly in their home town Little Rock, becoming frequent guests at Steve Stephens' TV show on KTHV. "Any time he wanted to come on the show, I said, ‘Sure, come on down.’ I’d always make space available for him," Stephens, who was especially fond of Chandler's voice and talent, later recalled. They also performed on Wink Martindale's "Dance Party" TV show in Memphis. The group became so popular in Little Rock that when Ray Charles, already one of the top names in music by then, played the Robinson Auditorium in April 1957, the main spot was given to the Stardusters and Charles became the opening act.

"I'm Serious" was covered the same year by the Hilltoppers and saw release in various European countries in this version. Chandler and the Stardusters recorded a follow-up to their hit, "Shadows of Love" b/w Me and My Imagination" (OJ #1005), which couldn't repeat the success of its precursor. After a third disc for the label, their association with OJ ended. Though, among the many artists that recorded for the label, Chandler and the Stardusters were the most prolific and successful.

Chander cut one more record for Hi Records in Memphis, a label that had been in business for about a year by the time Chandler's record was released. However, success eluded this disc again and by 1959, he had grown tired of being constantly touring. "He was just a hometown boy, always was," remembered his sister Betty. When Chandler settled in Little Rock, marrying his high school sweetheart Kate Smith, he brought an end to the professional career of the Stardusters. However, they would reunite every year for the high school reunion.

Chandler went on to work for the City of Little Rock for the next 30 years, limiting his singing to a hobby. When he retired, however, he took up performing professionally again, though mostly in Little Rock and other Arkansas areas, and recorded a total of eight albums for Blue Chair Records.

Bobby Charles died unexpectedly from lung cancer on April 6, 2012, at the age of 74 years at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock.

See also

Sources

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Lance Roberts on Sun

Lance Roberts with the Gene Lowery Singers - The Good Guy Always Wins (Sun 348), 1960

For the last decades, Lance Roberts has been an unknown and mysterious name in rock'n'roll history. As Bear Family researchers put it, "nearly all the men and women to record for Sun have been documented exhaustively, but Lance Roberts remains murky" - until now. I don't want to claim to have unearthed his whole story but I managed to bring a little light into the shadowy career of Roberts.

He was born Kenny Arlyn Roberts on November 12, 1939, in Norman Park, Colquitt County, Georgia. At least his father's family had been living in the same South Georgia area since the early 19th century. Roberts' parents' first child died as an infant in 1935 but the couple were blessed with two more children, Kenny in 1939 and his sister Jane in 1941. Other details about Roberts' early life still have to be discovered.

Roberts' way into music business and his stroke of luck to record his debut for a major label are more riddles to solve. In 1959, Roberts, who had changed his name for performing purposes to "Lance Roberts" by then (possibly to avoid confusion with popular east coast country musician Kenny Roberts), recorded a total of four songs for Decca Records, all from the pen of the songwriting husband-and-wife duo Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. Roberts' first session took place on February 1, 1959, at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio in Nashville, probably with a line-up consisting of top Nashville studio musicians but details escape us on this issue, unfortunately. The results of this session, "You've Got Everything" and "Why Can't It Be So", were released in spring that same year on Decca #9-30891. Billboard was pleased with the "good, spirited style" of the songs and the disc saw also release in Italy on the Fonit label the following year. Noteworthy success eluded it, however.


Lance Roberts promo picture, 1950s

A second session was arranged for Roberts on June 11, 1959, at the same location, which produced "What Would I Do" and the song he is maybe best remembered for, "Gonna Have Myself a Ball" (Decca #9-30955). While his first disc was on the soft teen sound side of rock'n'roll with Roberts' vocal similar to Elvis Presley's, he turned to strong rock'n'roll on his second effort, especially for "Gonna Have Myself a Ball". The pair was released around August 1959 but again, sales were likely disappointing.

Since May that year, Roberts was under contract of Acuff-Rose's new management and promotion firm ARAC (Acuff-Rose Artists Corporation), headed by Dee Kilpatrick. He was in good company there, as the firm also managed several Grand Ole Opry stars like Roy Acuff, Don Gibson, Billy Grammer, as well as newcomer Roy Orbison and Boudleaux Bryant, with whom Roberts had already made acquaintance.


Billboard April 27, 1959, pop review

Billboard August 10, 1959, pop review


After Decca had dropped Roberts from its roster, he found his way to Memphis, where he managed to convince the studio executives of Sun Records of his talent. As Sun's owner Sam Phillips had resiled from recording work, it is likely that one of his producers saw enough potential in the young singer from Georgia to invite him to a session in the fall of 1960. In Phillips' new studio on Madison Avenue, two songs were produced on Roberts, "The Good Guy Always Wins" and "The Time Is Right", with vocal support by the Gene Lowery Singers. The latter song was co-written by now legendary Memphis figures Charlie Feathers, Quinton Claunch, and Jerry Huffman, who had performed in a band togther, and the top side was from the pen of Arkansas songwriter Bill Husky, who later operated Jakebill Records.

The songs were released on Sun #348 around October 1960. At the time of release, Roberts was still based in Norman Parks as Sun documents reveal that his contract was sent to an address there. The songs were promising productions in commercial terms, being on the edge of rock'n'roll and pop, but Sun Records' heyday had already passed and the disc sunk without much notice.

Billboard October 24, 1960, pop review


We lose track of Roberts for the 1961-1962 period but on January 19, 1963, Billboard reported that Lance Roberts had been signed to recording and management contracts by United Southern Artists, Inc., a record company based in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Likely spotted by the firm's A&R manager Carl Friend, Roberts cut his fourth single for the label that year, although details remain sketchy. Issued on United Southern #5-131, the disc comprised "It Was Fun While It Lasted" plus an unknown B side. An original copy of this release has yet to be found.

Roberts retained his connection with Carl Friend as more than a year later, both became heads of Joey Sasso's new Music Makers Promotion office in Nashville. This is the last hint we find on Roberts' career. At some point in his life, he changed trades and became a farmer. He married Patricia Wells in 1976, with whom he had five children.

We can say with some certainty that Roberts remained a lifelong resident of Colquitt County, Georgia, where he died on March 14, 2011, at the age of 71 years.

Discography

Decca 9-30891: Lance Roberts - You've Got Everything / Why Can't It Be So (1959)
Decca 9-30955: Lance Roberts - Gonna Have Myself a Ball / What Would I Do (1959)
Fonit SP 50216: Lance Roberts - You've Got Everything / Why Can't It Be So (1960, Italy)
Sun 348: Lance Roberts with the Gene Lowery Singers - The Good Guy Always Wins / The Time is Right (1960)
United Southern Artists 5-131: Lance Roberts - It Was Fun While It Lasted / ? (1963)

See also
The United Southern Artists label

Sources
45cat entry
Rockin' Country Style entry
Find a Grave Entry
Bear Family Records
Fonit single on Popsike
Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Bob McKnight & his Ranch Boys

Country Music from the Mid-South
Bob McKnight and his Ranch Boys

Bob McKnight and his Ranch Boys at WMC, 1940s
From left to right: Freddie Burns, Jimmie Smith, Bob McKnight, Ray Martin, Slim Sullie,
Herman "Horsehair" Buggfuzz


Among the Memphis country music acts of the 1940s, Bob McKnight's Ranch Boys were one of the few to make commercial recordings, although being not under McKnight's leadership by then. The Ranch Boys were a long lasting act from the 1930s until the 1950s but in contrast to such bands as the Snearly Ranch Boys, the Buckaroos, or the Memphis Four, the group never trained young aspiring musicians that later became rock'n'roll pioneers. Though, the band was well-known in the Mid-South due to their reguar broadcasts on WMC and likely influenced a lot of the region's future generation of singers and guitar pickers.

Byron Burton "Bob" McKnight was born September 20, 1908. He likely hailed from the small community of Tutwiler, Northwest, Mississippi. The town is also known for being the birthplace of blues legends Sonny Boy Williamson II and John Lee Hooker, although it is likely that Williamson was born elsewhere in Mississippi. McKnight possibly knew at least Hooker, as they were of nearly the same age (Hooker likely born in 1912). May it as it be, McKnight was blind already since his childhood days, although it is not known if he was born blind or if he lost his sight afterwards.

McKnight was born to Frank and Belle McKnight. the couple had a total of five children: James, Jewel, Byron, Mabel, James W., Francis, and Mildred being the youngest. The family lived in adjacent Sunflower County by 1920 (Tutwiler is located on the border of Tallahatchie and Sunflower counties) but had moved back to Tallahatchie County by 1930.

McKnight learned to play guitar as well as harmonica and, beginning in 1928, hitchhiked to Memphis on Saturdays to play harmonica on local radio. At some point in the early or mid 1930s, McKnight made the move to Memphis and around 1935, married Mary Cathleen Conn, who was born in 1917 in Koscuisko, Mississippi. When Wold War II reached the United States, Uncle Sam called. Although there exists an army draft card for McKnight, it is very likely he was rejected due to his blindness.

By then, McKnight had made the connections with other local musicians and at some point in the 1930s, he founded a group which became known as the "Ranch Boys". Exact founding date and original members are lost to time but probably by the advent of the 1940s, the group consisted of McKnight (vocals, guitar, harmonica, bass), Fred "Freddie Boy" Burns (guitar), Jimmie Smith (vocals, saxophone, fiddle, and other instruments), Ray Martin (accordion and other instruments), Slim Sullie (fiddle), and Ivey Peterson (bass), who also doubled as comedy character "Herman 'Horsehair' Buggfuzz".

McKnight and the Ranch Boys had found their way onto WMC as early as 1942 (according to a Billboard article), doing live shows over the station. WMC was a local Memphis outlet that had been in business since the late 1920s. It is possible that McKnight's shows were carried out to other stations through a regional network in the Mid-South. By 1946, the group was a cast member of the station's "Plough Dixie Jamboree", a live stage show which also included other local artists such as Rex Griffin, Billie Walker and the Texas Longhorns, Chick Stripling, and others. Other details on the show unfortunately escape us.

Peterson later left the group, switching to WSB'S Barn Dance in Atlanta, and was replaced by "Sneezeweed" and his horse Pinto. Jimmie Smith took over the bass part for the group. McKnight, since its founding leader of the group, left the music business in 1946. A member of the Memphis Lions Club since the early 1930s, McKnight established the Memphis Lions Club Sight Service, the first sight service for blind persons in Tennessee. He was already well-known during his musician days in the Mid-South but especially rendered outstanding services to blind person's acceptance from the 1940s onwards.

In the 1960s, McKnight worked for the Memphis Workshop for the Blind, an organisation connected with the city's government. In 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, McKnight's name appeared in FBI documents, as a suspicious conversation between McKnight and another person had been overheard by a man, who in turn reported the content of the conversation to the autorities. Alledegly, McKnight said that Martin Luther King "would not going to carry that march because he knew a boy from Northern Mississippi who would stop him [...]."

The sneaking suspicion was apparently laid to rest by the authorities, although further details on this issue escape us, too. McKnight continued his work for blind people and became the Downtown Lions Club's first blind president in 1972. Bob McKnight died on December 21, 1985, at age 77 after an illness that had lasted for months. He is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis. In 2015, McKnight's daughter Maddie Stanford organized a tribute variety show, "Bob McKnight and his Ranch Boys Old Time Radio Show", in Cedar Grove, Tennessee.

When McKnight left the Ranch Boys in 1946, Freddie Burns took over leadership of the band and guided them into the 1950s. Fred Lee Burns was born on February 1, 1914, in Booneville, Mississippi, to John Green and Sadie Isabel Burns. The Burns family was a big one as Freddie Burns had seven siblings and five half-siblings. By 1920, the family still lived in Prentiss County but by the outbreak of World War II, Burns was living in Memphis according to his draft card. In contrast to McKnight, Burns probably served his country during the war. At which point Burns joined the Ranch Boys is not documented.

Billboard February 18, 1950


Burns transferred the Ranch Boys to WHBQ, another Memphis station. This happened in late 1949 or early 1950. Shortly afterwards, in February 1950, the Ranch Boys cut their only commercial recordings, an eight track session that probably took place at WHBQ for Star Talent Records of Dallas, Texas.

Two 78rpm discs appeared in 1950, carrying four of the eight recorded sides. By then, the line-up had changed drastically. At that time, the group consisted of Burns, Jimmie Smith, Ray Martin, Speedy McNatt (steel guitar), Pee Wee Wamble (piano), who had been a member of Memphis' Swift Jewel Cowboys before the war and joined the Ranch Boys following the war's end, and other unknown musicians. The first record on Star Talent appeared in May 1950 with "I'm Just a Poor Unlucky Dog" b/w "You're Gone" (Star Talent #752). Featuring the harmony singing of Burns and Smith as well as Smith's mandolin work, especially the A side was a nod to the Delmore Brothers' style, who had been active in Memphis since the late 1940s. The second disc followed in late 1950 with "Juke Box Boogie" and the romping instrumental "Two Piano Boogie" (Star Talent #762). The later featured both Ray Martin and Pee Wee Wamble on piano.

Burns and the Ranch Boys possibly continued to play in and around Memphis during the 1950s but no activities could be found so far. Burns continued to be active as a musician and lived up to be 102 years old. Still at age 98, he could be found in a nursing home, pulling out his guitar and singing a song. He passed away April 29, 2016, and is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery East in Memphis.

Discography

Star Talent 752: Freddie Burns and his Ranch Boys - I'm Just a Poor Unlucky Dog / You're Gone (1950)
Star Talent 762: Freddie Burns and his Ranch Boys - Juke Box Boogie / Two Piano Boogie (1950)


Sources
Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• Find a Grave entries for Bob McKnight and Freddie Burns
Several Photos of the Ranch Hands on Flickr
45worlds 78rpm entry
• Official documents for Bob Knight and Freddie Burns accessed through Ancestry.com
The Jackson Sun: "Old Time Radio Show at Cedar Grove Opry on Saturday"
• Adam Komorowski: "Rockin' Memphis" (Proper Records), 2008, liner notes

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Doc McQueen

Rocking and Rolling at Hernando's Hideaway
The Story of Doc McQueen

The name of Doc McQueen is mentioned regularly when it comes to early Memphis music. Like fellow Memphis band leaders Clyde Leoppard, Bob Williamson, or Shelby Follin, his name today is mostly reduced to short mentions in literature or interviews and his efforts are otherwise lost in time, unfortunately. McQueen led a country band, which played a style that is hard to determine but certainly ranged between traditional country music, western swing, and even rock'n'roll. Similar to his aforementioned contemporaries, McQueen saw a lot of young talent pass through his group and many of those singers later made a name for them self. This is probably the first ever published biography of McQueen, pieced together from various interviews, census records, and other sources. It still has a lot of blankets, though, and I hope to fill these soon.

Junius Parks "Doc" McQueen was born on November 18, 1909, likely in Memphis but no documentation of his birthplace and his early life has been found so far. As a young man, McQueen married Allena Pruette, a girl from Moscow, Tennessee, a town near Memphis in the Tennessee-Mississippi border region. Around 1933, their son James Thomas was born and the 1940 census lists the family living on 1735 Lawrence Place in Memphis (as "Jeneis McQueen").

As guitarist Roland Janes remembered, McQueen was a banker by day and a musician by night. He played piano and by the early 1950s, had assembled a group that performed in and around Memphis. They soon landed a regular spot at Charles Foren's Hideaway Club north of Whitehaven on Highway 51 and soon gathered a local following.

In the following years, many musicians played with McQueens' band, including Billy Adams, Johnny & Dorsey Burnette, Paul Burlison, Roland Janes, Sonny Wilson, and many others. Many of these young talents later became more or less part of the Sun Records cosmos. Like Clyde Leoppard's Snearly Ranch Boys or Shelby Follin's Memphis Four, McQueen's band was a tin smith for young musicians and a possibility where they could earn experiences. At his house on 24 North Cooper, McQueen had semi-professional recording equipment that was frequently used by many musicians to try out things and likely make demo tapes.

It was at McQueen's house that Cordell Jackson, pioneering female Memphis rockabilly singer and owner of Moon Records, recorded her claim to fame "Rock and Roll Christmas" / "Beboppers' Christmas" in 1956 for her own label. It is likely that McQueen plays piano on both sides. Although McQueen was more rooted in country and swing, the trend of rock'n'roll had its affection on McQueen, who tried to led his own rock'n'roll combo at some point (but failed apparently). He also featured the trio of Johnny & Dorsey Burnette and Paul Burlison on shows until March 1956 and appeared with Sonny Wilson's Rhythm Rockers at times.


Sonny Wilson and the Rhythm Rockers at Hernando's Hideaway in Memphis, Tennessee
From left to right: Sonny Wilson, Glenn Allen, Billy Robley, Doc McQueen


Of all artists who performed with McQueen, Paul Burlison remembered him the best in interviews. In an interview with Vintage Guitar Magazine, he recalled: "Johnny and Dorsey started playin’ with Doc McQueen, who played piano and had a saxophone player – they had a song called 'Rock Billy Boogie' – playin’ at this place called The Hideaway, and they wanted me to leave Shelby Follin and start playin’ with them. So I did, first part of ’53." If the song "Rock Billy Boogie" already existed at this stage of the Rock'n'Roll Trio's career is iffy, Burlison's recollection could be a bit blurry on this issue. However, he continued: "Me and Johnny and Dorsey would do a portion of the show as a trio. Johnny would do some fast stuff, some honky-tonk songs, stuff like “Move It On Over,” and Dorsey would play slap bass and I’d put a boogie beat over it. Then Doc and the rest of the band would play the rest of the time."

If Burlison's memories are correct, the trio of Johnny & Dorsey Burnette and Burlison performed with McQueen for nearly exact three years. In March 1956, the trio decided to hit big time and traveled to New York City. "We kept playin’ with Doc McQueen ’til March of ’56. [...] We got so excited, we just took off, and when we got up to Brownsville, Tennessee I said, 'Hey! We didn’t even tell Doc!' So we stopped and I went to a phone booth and called him. I says, 'Doc, we’re not gonna be there this weekend.' This was like Wednesday. 'We wanted to let you know so you could get someone else. We’re goin’ to New York City to try and get on one of those television shows.' He said 'And do what?' I said, 'Man, we’re gonna play!' He just says, 'Oh. Well, if y’all make it big, let me know.'" The trio won the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and signed with Coral Records, immortalizing the Hideaway with a mention in their classic "Rock Billy Boogie", recorded for Coral in 1956.

McQueen stayed behind in Memphis and he might have learned of the trio's success from Memphis newspapers. He had tried his hand at songwriting as well and copyrighted at least four or five of his compositions, including "Jealous Lies from a Jealous Heart" (co-written with Thomas Neal "Hoot" Gibson, Jr.), "Don't Cry On My Shoulder", "Crying Begging", and "Be My Valentine", among others. It is unknown if any of these songs found their way onto record, however. Also, it's likely that McQueen made no commercial recordings under his own name or that he played as a session musician on other artists' recordings (apart from Cordell Jackson's).

Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1957


It is probable that McQueen kept on performing for the remainder of the 1950s and maybe even during the 1960s but assured information is missing, unfortunately. Doc McQueen died on August 12, 1990, at the age of 80 years. He is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis.

If anyone out there has more information on Doc McQueen, feel free to pass it along!

Sources
Official Census Documents accessed through Ancestry.com
Commercial Appeal: Memphis Christmas Music
Billy Adams on Bear Family
Find a Grave entry
• Entries at Copyright Encyclopedia for "Jealous Lies from a Jealous Heart" and "Don't Cry on My Shoulder"
Baker Rorick: "Paul Burlison - Train Keeps Rollin'" (Vintage Guitar Magazine, March 1998)
Catalog of Copyright Entries, Fourth Series (1978)

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Doc Williams and the Border Riders

Decades of Country Music
Doc Williams and the Border Riders

Doc Williams and the Border Riders, 1950s.
From left to right: Hiram Hayseed, Cy Williams, Marion Martin, Doc Williams
seated: Chickie Williams

Doc Williams is a familiar name with fans of traditional country music. Although Williams and his group, the Border Riders, never recorded for a major label or scored a series of hits, they were well-known throughout many parts of the United States and Canada thanks to their regular appearances on the WWVA Jamboree out of Wheeling, West Virginia. They stayed with the show for many decades, toured all over the south throughout their golden days and released numerous records on Williams' own record label, Wheeling Records.

Early Years
Doc Williams, the founder and leader of the Border Riders, was born Andrew John Smik, Jr., on June 26, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio. The child of Czech immigrants who came to the United States at the turn of the century, the family moved to Kittaning, Pennsylvania, located on the banks of the Allegheny River. Young Williams went to school in nearby Tarrtown. Music played an important role in his life right from the start. He learned to play cornet from his father and eventually taught himself to play guitar, harmonica, and accordion. At some point, Williams dropped out of school and worked as a coal miner for less then $1 a day.

The Border Riders Begin to Ride
In 1932, he returned to his birth town Cleveland and it was there that he really started his career in music. Already in Pennsylvania, he had performed at barn dances and also other venues in the Kattaning area with his brother Cy. In Cleveland, Williams joined Doc McCaulley's Kansas Clodhoppers and it was with this group that he became connected with the traditional old-time music of the West Virginia hills. Following his stint with the Clodhoppers, he soon branched out on his own and formed his first own group, the Allegheny Ramblers, which also included his brother Cy on fiddle and Curley Sims on mandolin, while Williams played guitar, harmonica, and sang. This was the foundation of what became the Border Riders; however, during the next years, the group underwent line-up and name changes as well. It was probably at that early stage that he adopted the stage name "Cowboy Doc".

Around 1935, the group moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they appeared on KQV and changed their name to the Cherokee Hillbillies. They also appeared on WHJB in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, during this time. However, the group changed names again when they met female singer Billie Walker and became her backing group, the Texas Longhorns. She left in 1937 for WWL in New Orleans and Williams and the band, now left on their own, decided to change names once more and became Doc Williams and the Border Riders.

An early incarnation of the Border Riders, late 1930s
From left to right: Curley Sims (mandolin), Big Slim (guitar), Cy Williams (fiddle),
poss. Sunflower (guitar), Doc Williams (guitar)


Riding to Wheeling

Williams and the group moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, which became his adopted hometown. Soon, the Border Riders began appearing at WWVA and in December 1937, had their first live appearance at WWVA's famous Wheeling Jamboree, a stage show that had been started by the radio station in 1933. Their performances on the station went well and by 1938, Doc Williams was already the most popular performer on the show. At the same time the Border Riders began appearing on WWVA, another vocalist by the name of Harry C. "Big Slim" McAuliffe joined the group. By then, the group consisted of Doc and Cy Williams, Cy's wife Mary (appearing as "Sunflower"), Curley Sims, and Hamilton "Rawhide" Fincher. A year later, Fincher had been replaced by comic Froggie Cortez.

Legend goes that the first fan letter Williams received was by his future wife Jesse Wanda Crupe, who hailed from Bethany, West Virginia. Addressed to "Buck Williams and the Border Riders", she requested the band to perform at a local barn dance (other source state she requested the band to perform at Reawood Dance Hall in Hickory, Pennsylvania). However, sources agree that when Williams first met his future wife, he called her "chickie" as he though she was a "cute chick". Love blossomed and the twosome married in 1939. Jesse Wanda Crupe became Jesse Wanda Smik and as she was beginning to appear with the Border Riders occasionally during this time (filling in for Sunflower), she became Chickie Williams. She would join her husband's act full-time in the 1940s.

The 1940s: Memphis, Return to Wheeling and World War II
In 1940, Williams moved his group to Memphis, Tennessee, where they appeared on WREC. While they made Memphis their home base, the Border Riders toured the Mid-South, playing in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi. Though, their stint in Memphis did not last very long. Williams was asked by Harry Stone to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville but Williams declined as his wife Chickie was pregnant and they moved back to Wheeling.

The years 1940 to 1942 saw Williams working in Yorkville, Ohio, where he operated the local airport as it was difficult to earn a living as a musician due to rationing. Aeronautics would be his passion for many years - he even would held a private pilot's licence eventually. However, Williams returned to Wheeling full-time after he had to close down the airport (his business partner had left to serve the country). At that time, the band included - apart from Doc, Cy and Sunflower - Jesse Porter and Smokey Davis. For some time during World War II, Williams appeared at WFMD in Fredericksburg, Maryland, and served a short time in the US Navy near the end of the war.

After the war: Doc Williams, the Entrepreneur
In summer 1945, Williams was discharged from the Navy, returned to Wheeling and resumed his career in music. He re-organized the Border Riders, which included by then Williams and his brother Cy, his wife Chickie and comedian Hiram Hayseed. However, the group was not on WWVA at that time as Williams had decisions to make. Since his beginnings in the 1930s, the old-time music that Williams was used to play had vastly changed and since the later part of that decade, had developed into the early forms of what we call today "country music". Various styles such as bluegrass, honky tonk and western swing had evolved from the mixing of traditional, rural old-time with different other genres such as jazz, blues, and other popular music styles. In the summer of 1946, Billboard reported that Williams was seriously thinking about transforming the Border Riders into a western swing unit, a popular country music style at that time.

He founded a cottage industry, opened a country store in Wheeling (right across the street from the Capitol Music Hall, where the WWVA Jamboree was held), and had published his first guitar instruction book already in June 1943 ("The Simplified By Ear System of Guitar Chords by Doc Williams"), which he sold on air and eventually disposed more than 200,000 copies. He also operated a civilian flying school at Scott Airport on Martins Ferry, Ohio, just a little south of his previous occupation in Youngstown.

On November 18, 1946, the Border Riders returned to broadcasting on WWVA after an abscene of about two years. The line-up had been consistent since the re-organization after the war and obviously, Williams had decided against a style change.


Billboard November 9, 1946


In 1947, Williams added another business interest to his stack. He became involved with the country music park scene in 1947, which was very popular in the northeastern states. On May 11, Williams opened the first season of his country music amusement park "Musselman's Grove" in Claysburg, Pennsylvania.On the bill that day were fellow WWVA artists the Davis Twins, Jake Taylor and his Rail Splitters (a business partner of Williams'), and Al Rogers. Always in search for new ideas and possibilites, Williams set up his own tent show in partnership with Toby Stroud, another longtime WWVA artist. Both singers toured Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York State beginning in May 1948.

Wheeling Records
On May 7, 1949, Billboard announced that Williams and the Border Riders had cut their first recordings for a new company, Wheeling Records. The Wheeling label was the brainchild of Williams and a reference to their adopted hometown. The first recorded songs were "Beyond the Sunset - You Should Go on First" and "Bright Red Horizon". The first, an aggregation of a poem and an old hymn,which became a hit for the group, was the creation of Chickie Williams. Their daughter Barbara later retold the story of the song in an 1970s issue of JEMF Quaterly: "Early in their marriage, she [Chickie Williams] read the poem, "Should You Go First and I Remain" in a book of poems, and thought that it expressed her feelings toward Doc very well. To surprise him, she had the Newcomer Twins, Maxine and Eileen (then members of WWVA's Jamboree), help her make a home recording — she recited the poem while they sang background. Doc thought the recording was a great idea, and encouraged her to continue working on it. She eventually decided to recite the reading to the accompaniment of the hymn, "Beyond the Sunset," which Doc's secretary, Jean Miller, had once showed her in a hymnbook. The song and reading was performed over WWVA, and got a tremendous response from listeners, upon which Doc decided to record Chickie."

Williams bought the rights to the poem from its author, Rosey Rosewell, and organized a recording session in Cleveland, Ohio, as Wheeling had no proper facilities to record. As for the recording date, late April or early May 1949 seems to be a good guess. Williams released the finished recording, backed by his own song "Bright Red Horizon" on Wheeling #1001. Great response from radio stations followed and Williams tried to lease the recordings to a major label. However, none of them were interested as they considered a hymn not commercial enough. Soon, they proved to be wrong as "Beyond the Sunset - You Should Go on First" became a #3 Billboard country hit. It was covered by such artists as Hank Williams (as Luke the Drifter), Elton Britt, Rosalie Allen, Buddy Starcher, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, and others. The original version of Chickie Williams was also released on the Canadian Pioneer label.

Suprisingly, despite the enormous success of "Beyond the Sunset", neither Chickie nor Doc recorded for a major label in the following years. Therefore, the unit released its further recordings still under the Wheeling brand, which eventually resulted in more than 30 different releases on the label. In Canada, Williams' records were released by Quality Records. The bulk of the releases on Wheeling were by Williams and the Border Riders, consisting of traditional material like "Red Wing", "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (one of Williams' favorites), or own compositions in old-fashioned style like "I'm Watching the Train Passing By", which became the opening track for their shows. The song had been written by Chickie Williams while they were touring Newfoundland in 1952 and they recorded it in December the same year.


Billboard May 18, 1968


The Later Years
The 1950 season was the last one for Williams to operate his Musselman Grove park. He then concentrated on touring with his band. Since the 1940s, Williams and the band had toured the Canadian areas also and became as popular there as in the United States. The band continued to work throughout the next decades, touring, recording, and appearing at the WWVA Jamboree. He began recording albums in favor of single records beginning in the 1960s and released several LPs since then.

While the sound of the Border Riders had not changed much until the early 1950s, it began to change then. Electric guitars and drums were added at some point and by the 1970s, the band was performing with electric bass, steel guitar, electric guitar and drums, amending their sound. However, they changed the sound carefully, retaining their old-time image. In the 1970s, the conservative Doc Williams often stated in public that he was against "suggestive" lyrics in country music and demanded singers should be moral role models.

In the later part of their careers, Doc and Chickie Williams were often part of homecoming shows and special editions of the WWVA Jamboree (then called "Jamboree USA"). Their daughter Barbara took over care of the business issues at a later point and even wrote a book about them. In 2009, they were inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and Doc Williams was named "West Virginia's Official Country Music Ambassador of Goodwill". Both Doc and Chickie Williams received many more honors throughout their later years, too many to mention.

Chickie Williams died November 2007 at age 88. Doc Williams followed her on January 31, 2011, at the age of 96 years.


Doc Williams and the Border Riders TV Show with Doc and Chickie Williams and including Ramblin' Roy Scott on electric guitar and Big Bill Barton on bass. This recorded TV show aired on WNPB, Morgantown, West Virginia, in the 1980s.

See also

Recommended reading
Continental, Ohio, posters
Second Hand Songs

Sources
Hillbilly-Music.com entry
West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
Ohio County Library
John Raby: "W.Va. Country Music Singer Doc Williams Dies" (Seattle Times), 2011
45cat and 45worlds 78rpm entries (beware of incorrect release dates)
• Barbara Kempf: "Meet Doc Williams: Country Music Star, Country Music Legend" (JEMF Quaterly #33, Part 1), 1974