A platform to present my ever growing record collection and publish research results on artists, labels, and shows from the American roots music field
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.
Melody Hall advertisement for shows in May and June 1963
If you were living in Springdale or Rogers, Arkansas, during the early 1960s, you were probably attending live music shows at one of the many local venues. One of those places was Melody Hall, a live music venue located on Highway 71 near Springdale, Arkansas, across A.Q. Chicken, a restaurant that is still in business today. It seems that the Melody Hall building was demolished and the place is now home to a gas station. The hall was only in business for a short time, approximately for two years, at least we found no mention of concerts outside of this time frame.
Although I tried to research the history of Melody Hall, the whole story of it remains blurry. We first find mention of this venue in 1961, when Billboard magazine reported that several top names in country music were booked by Russell Sims, a promoter and manager who worked with T. Texas Tyler early in his career and formed his own Sims Record label in 1953. Sims in turn was associated with Don Thompson, who owned KRMO radio in Rogers, Arkansas, and Cimarron record label in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sims worked for Thompson's Cimarron label for a short time and through this connection, he booked a couple of top acts into Melody Hall in 1961.
Billboard March 9, 1961
In March 1961, such acts as Ernest Tubb, Grandpa Jones, Floyd Tillman, Johnnie Lee Wills, Autry Inman, and Dub Dickerson performed there. Also performing that month were Leon McAuliffe and Marvin McCullough, both artists retained strong ties to Arkansas. McAuliffe, once steel guitarist for Bob Wills and at that time band leader of his own Cimarron Boys based in Tulsa, moved to Rogers, Arkansas in the 1960s, co-owned a radio station and performed in the western part of the state regularly during this time.
The Melody Hall continued to feature more top acts through the next two
years and we find mention of several stars through newspaper ads,
including Lefty Frizzell in April 1963, followed by Tommy Duncan and Stonewall Jackson in May, and Wanda Jackson in June. However, I wasn't able to spot any more mentions of Melody Hall after summer 1963 and it seems that the venue closed soon after.
If anybody out there has more information on Melody Hall, its owners, or musicians that appeared on its stage, please feel free to share your information with us!
Sources • Russell Sims Find a Grave Entry • Billboard articles (see depicted snippets) • Billy Parker, John Wooley, Brett Bingham: "Thanks - Thanks a Lot" (Babylon Books), 2021 • Larry Jordan: "Jim Reeves - His Untold Story" (Page Turner Books International), 2011, page 561-562
"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.
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.
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.
Russ Thompson and the Arkansas Blue Birds - My Arkansas Baby (Blue Bird BBS 601), unknown year
I was introduced to Russ Thompson's unique records years ago through the blogs of a record collector who called himself "Red Neckerson" or "Howdy" (see 45blog and Frances' Favorite 45s). Since then, Russ Thompson has caught my attention but I was never able to unearth any information on him. When I was given the possibility to purchase both of his 45s recently, I jumped at the chance.
From what I remember Red told me that Russ Thompson and his wife Paula were local Little Rock country music singers. His Blue Bird disc, probably Thompson's own label, was pressed by Wayne Raney's Rimrock plant in Concord, Arkansas, in the 1960s or 1970s. This release became a little underground favorite among collectors since it was posted by Red as "My Arkansas Baby" features a hot band. The other one, on Thompson's Russ, Paula imprint, was self-released by him and pressed by Monarch in 1969. It featured both songs from the Blue Bird release plus his version of the country classic "Wreck of the Old '97".
Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1970
The address on both records, 3901 East Broadway in North Little Rock, seems to have been Thompson's home at that time. The address houses a hardware store today.
If anyone has more information on Russ Thompson, feel free to leave a comment.
Discography
Blue Bird BBS 601: Russ Thompson and his Arkansas Blue Birds - Beautiful Arkansas Waltz / My Arkansas Baby Russ, Paula RPR 101: Russ Thompson and his Harmonica: Wreck of Old 97 / My Arkansas Baby / Beautiful Arkansas Waltz (August 1969)
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)
I bought this record not because I liked the music on it - actually, I bought it without ever hearing it - but because it is one of Ben Jack's productions from Fort Smith, Arkansas. It's surprisingly good, especially "Man and a Woman", the top side for me. Ben Jack founded his own Bejay label and recording studio in 1962, eventually also opening different music stores in Northwest Arkansas. On his Bejay label, Jack produced hundreds of local artists on both 45rpm and 33 1/2rpm formats.
Bobby Whittaker, heard here with a Buffalo Spring/Gordon Lightfoot soundalike "Man and a Woman", was probably Bobby Charles Whittaker, born on August 15, 1938, in Des Arc, Arkansas. He owned the Interstate Club and the Country Exit Club in Fort Smith and performed at both venues with his band. He passed away January 30, 2019.
Ken and the Goldtones - Squeeky (Jon-Ark JA-591), 1964
Ken & the Goldtones were a Southeast Missouri based group but the combo performed in a much wider range as far as as Chicago in the north and Mississippi in the south. The group was made up of Ken Mungle on rhythm guitar and vocals, Harvey Washer on lead guitar, Ted Long and Larry Turner on bass, Jarit Keith on sax, and Stan Mungle on drums.
It was Jarit Keith who contacted me some years ago (through this post) and told me the detailed story about the Goldtones. This resulted in an article about the band in UK Rock'n'Roll Magazine (March 2022) and a feature of the band's story on KASU's "Arkansas Roots" programm (Jonesboro, Arkansas). It was with sad feeling that I learned Jarit passed away November 7, 2022, at 81 years. I have thanked him many times for his support but I wish I could have thanked him just one more time. But Jarit was more than just an interview partner - he became a pen pal for many years. Rest in peace, my friend.
The Goldtones recorded for Joe Lee's Jon-Ark label in 1964. Originally intended to be a demo session, Lee took the tapes and released them on his label and "If Somebody Loves You" became a moderate success on radio in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. Live recordings of the band remain still unissued to this day.
The Goldtones disbanded around 1966 or 1967. The members went seperate ways and Jarit Keith remained active as a musician throughout the years. He was the last surviving member of the group.
Bobbie Jean / Ernie Barton Orchestra - Cheaters Never Win (Sun 342), 1960
Here we have an oddball recording. It was neither an odd sounding record nor was the material. It was, however, odd in terms of sound for Sun Records. Although the recordings released on Sun by the time Bobbie Jean saw her star shine on the label were dominated by teen pop and dripping choruses, her record was still a notch or two above them all, as far as it went for soapy sounds.
Bobbie Jean was actually Bobbie Jean Gladden, who married Sun Records artist Ernie Barton in the 1950s. She hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was born on November 12, 1927, to James Robert and Kathryn Gladden. Her father was a Circuit Court Clerk in Missouri and Arkansas at some point, and the profession as a legal practitioner had some tradition in the Gladden family, as Bobbie Jean later worked in the same field. At least since 1951, she worked as a lawyer in Little Rock and was first married to Harry Jackson Farrabee (marrying in 1949) but divorced from him eventually.
She probably became acquainted with Ernie Barton in the second half of the 1950s, as Barton arrived in Memphis probably in 1956. He had heard Elvis Presley and was convinced Memphis was the place to be. Blessed with some musical talent, Barton began to work with Sun Records in early 1957, initially as an recording artist but later on also as a songwriter, engineer and producer. When staff members Jack Clement and Bill Justis had left by 1959, Barton convinced Sam Phillips to let him work as a producer and manager of the studio.
By that time, Bobbie Jean had stepped into his life and she was a talented singer, too. Barton brought her over to Sun and recorded her in 1960. The song material consisted of an answer song to Jack Scott's big hit "Burning Bridges" entitled "You Burned the Bridges" plus a song written by Brad Suggs entitled "Cheaters Never Win", which Suggs had intended originally for Nat King Cole, according to his own accounts. You can clearly hear the pop approach on both songs but the string section is way overproduced and kills the record effectively. Apart from the strings, the recording featured a line-up of Sun session musicians, including composer Brad Suggs on guitar.
The coupling appeared on July 7, 1960, (Sun #342) but failed to sell (sharing the fate with Bobbie Jean's husband's records). It was not something that people would expect from Sun Records and upon release, it is reported that even some faithful Sun distributors were doubtful. Bobbie Jean recorded additional material at Sun, both demos and masters, but Sam Phillips refused to release anything more. Ernie Barton also recorded enough material worth an album and indeed, Bobbie Jean Barton requested that Phillips would release an LP of her husband's material, sending him legal threats, which he ignored and never followed her requests.
On August 13, 1960, Barton appeared at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, singing three songs: the then current Hank Locklin hit "Please Help Me I'm Falling", her own release "You Burned the Bridges" and the old favorite "Jealous Heart". On the show, she was accompanied by a local Hayride band, the Sons of Dixie. Barton must have been an odd sighting on the Hayride stage, as she was as much country as Dean Martin, and this seems to have remained her only promotion activity for the disc.
Ernie Barton left Sun in 1961 and recorded two more 45s, before moving to Midland, Texas. He died in 2002. In July 1960, there were approaches to disbar Bobbie Jean Barton, preventing her from practicing as a lawyer, which at some point actually proofed successful. However, she won her licence back in 1964. What happened to her afterwards is yet a question to answer. She passed away June 14, 1978, at the age of 50 years. She is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock.
Jimmy Dallas, a rather unknown name in country music history, was a long-time figure on the Kansas City country music scene. Beginning in the early 1950s, Dallas made numerous records for local labels, appeared on various radio and television stations, and performed regularly well into the 1990s. His story has not been told properly, however - possibly because Dallas always stuck to country music and therefore never came to the attention of curious rock'n'roll collectors.
Jimmy Dallas was born Keith Beverly Kissee on July 26, 1927, in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, located directly at the Arkansas-Missouri state border. While his father Benjamin Walter Kissee also hailed from Mammoth Springs, his grandfather originally came from Missouri. He had three more siblings and one of his brothers, Elmo Lincoln Kissee, also became a country music singer in Kansas City under the name of "Elmo Linn". By 1935, the Kissee family lived in the rural area of Afton, Fulton County, south of Mammoth Springs, where Dallas attended elementary school.
Jimmy Dallas, early 1950s Cowtown Jubilee promo picture
At some point after 1940, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and started his career in music probably in the early 1950s, adopting the stage name "Jimmy Dallas". By 1952, he was working with KCMO in Kansas City and was a cast member of the station's "Cowtown Jubilee", a live stage show much in the style of its competitor in Kansas City, "Brush Creek Follies". Dallas signed his first recording contract in early 1952 with the local Central label and recorded "Be Happy" b/w "(When You're) Singing a Hillbilly Song" (Central #001), backed by Al Phillips and his Frontier Four. A year later, Dallas recorded for another local record label, the Sho-Me label, and two records were released that year.
Local entrepreneur Dave Ruf had started the Westport label in Kansas City in 1955 and one of the first artists to be signed to the new imprint was Jimmy Dallas (his brother Elmo recorded for the same label subsequently). Around April that year, Dallas recorded two of his own compositions for Westport, "I'm No Good for You Anymore" b/w "Good Intentions" (Westport #127), released around May 1955. It was followed by two more discs in 1956 and 1957, including duets with Cathy Justice (a member of the Wesport Kids, another act on the label). Dave Ruf had also worked out an agreement with Bell Records executives, which lead to the release of Dallas' Westport recordings in Australia and New Zealand in 1958.
By 1955, Dallas had moved from KCMO to KIMO in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. The Cowtown Jubilee had moved to that station as well and was still on air by then with Dallas being still a cast member.
Billboard January 14, 1956
Contrary to many of his fellow country music entertainers, Dallas never got much into rock'n'roll, he always performed down home country music. In 1959, he hosted the "Jimmy Dallas Show" on WDAF-TV, which translated to KMBC-TV later that year. The show featured appearances by Dallas as well as other artists like the Country Styleers, Cherokee Johnnie and Mary Bee. Around the same time he also worked as a DJ on KANS in Kansas City. There was a break in Dallas' recording career after his stint with Westport and it was not until 1960 that a record by him hit the market again. This time, he got the chance to record for a major label, Decca Records. His only single for the label, "Hurtin' In My Heart" b/w "My Kind of Love" (Decca #9-31133), was his most unusual record, as it featured a slight teen pop influence and an updated, much more commercial and urban Nashville sound.
The Decca single saw the light of day in late summer of 1960 but obviously sold only disappointingly as it remained Dallas' only release for the label. A third song recorded for Decca, "Can't Win", remained unreleased. Another recording hiatus came for Dallas afterwards, this time for six years. The following years saw Dallas working around Kansas City, often as a DJ but also as a live act. He was back in the studio in 1966, when he recorded for Jim Ward's Edgewater, Colorado, based CLW record label, comprising "Nobody But You" b/w "Look at Me (CLW #6607). This was recorded with a vocal group called the Valley Trio and was likely produced in Nashville again. It had a great country chugger sound but unfortunately, was not made for the charts.
Another unheard single came into existence around 1968, when Dallas and his brother Elmo Linn worked with Bud Throne, who operated his own Throne label out of Independence, Missouri. Apart from backing up singer Sandy Sans, Dallas also recorded one solo disc for the label under the name of "Jimmy Dallis", "Web of Love" b/w "Every Body Says" (Throne #505).
The 1970s saw Dallas recording steadily for Triune Records and Graceland Records, two labels based in Hendersonville and Nashville respectively. By 1973, Dallas was program director of KBIL-AM, a country music radio station in Kansas City. In 1978, Dallas recorded his first, self-titled long-play album for the Kansa label, which also resulted in another single release that same year. Dallas stopped recording at the end of the 1970s. However, Kansa Records released a CD in Dallas' later years with many of his 1970s songs.
Billboard April 28, 1973
In the 1980s, Hobie Shepp, another Kansas City country music personality, reunited the surviving members of both Brush Creek Follies and Cowtown Jubilee shows. Arkansas Red, another performer on the Jubilee, remembered: "[I] worked with Jimmy [Dallas] on the old Cowtown Jubilee show at the Ivanhoe Temple in Kansas City back in the early fifties. Back in the eighties, Hobie Shepp of the Cowtown Wranglers [house band of the Cowtown Jubilee, e.g.] found me and invited me to come perform at a 're-union' show of all the old Brush Creek and Cowtown Jubilee people still around. That was the last time I saw Jimmy Dallas, or Hobie. It was great to see them all again... for the last time. Had some great memories of the Cowtown Jubilee, Dal Stallard, Tiny Tillman, Milt Dickey, and all the crew." Dallas opened his own bar on Highway 40 in Kansas City that lasted well into the 1990s. Dallas would also perform in his venue during these years. "[...] He was the show every nite and the place was packed on weekends. Super nice guy and great entertainer [...]," recalled his bookmaker.
Jimmy Dallas spent his last years in his longtime residence of Independence and passed away on September 28, 2004, at the age of 77 years. He left behind a wealth of country music recordings that still waits to be re-released properly.
Discography
See 45cat.com for a listing of Jimmy Dallas' 45rpm records (see sources section). Note that the LPs and Dallas' first record on Central Records are not included.
The hard rocking blues / boogie sounds of English rockers Foghat seem to be out of place for this blog but their musical roots, blues and 1950s rock'n'roll, are nothing but appropriate to feature this band here. As I developed a special interest in Arkansas music history, I thought it would be interesting to examine the personal appearances of one of my favorite rock bands in the Natural State.
Foghat was actually an off-spring of Kim Simmonds' Savoy Brown Blues Band, a group that had emerged in London in 1965. The line-up changed over the years and by the late 1960s, three of the members were part of Savoy Brown who later founded Foghat. It were "Lonesome" Dave Peverett on guitar and vocals, Tony Stevens on bass, and Roger Earl on drums. Thanks to a busy touring schedule, Savoy Brown became more popular in the US than in Great Britain, which presented the trio of Peverett, Stevens, and Earl with their first touring experiences in North America.
However, in late 1970, they decided to leave Savoy Brown (leaving Kim Simmonds as the only remaining member) and founded the band Foghat. With the addition of lead slide guitarist Rod Price, the group was complete. With Peverett's passion for 50s rock'n'roll and a guitar style reminiscent of Chuck Berry's as well as Price's great love for the blues, their hard rocking, stomping boogie blues sound was born. The band signed with American Bearsville Records and had their first self-titled album out in July 1972. It entered the US charts soon and a tour across the States was started. Eventually, the band relocated to the United States full time due to their ongoing success there. In Europe, the band was largely overlooked, although single and album releases were available in several European countries.
The "Foghat" album featured a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You", which had been recorded first by Muddy Waters in 1954 for Chess Records (a #4 Billboard R&B hit). Waters would record it again in 1968 for his album "Electric Mud". While the original was a slow number in the best tradition of the Chicago blues style, Foghat speeded it up and introduced it with a thumping bass run by Tony Stevens. The song was released as a single in the US and Europe with "A Hole to Hide In" on the B side and reached #83 in the US and #31 in Australia. "I Just Want to Make Love to You" became one of Foghat's signature songs that they played at probably every concert. In 1977, the band released a live album aptly entitled "LIVE" and the resulting single release was the live version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You", which peaked at #33 in the US and at #28 in Canada.
During the next years, the band enjoyed some chart success with their following albums and cut cover versions of rock'n'roll and blues standards for every record: Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" also for their debut (1972), Chuck Willis' "I Feel So Bad" for "Foghat (Rock & Roll)" (1973), Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush" and Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" for "Energized" (1973), Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" for "Fool for the City" (1975) or Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" and Tampa Red's "It Hurts Me Too" for "Stone Blue" (1978). Some of them, like "Honey Hush" or "Maybellene", became part of their routine live repertoire.
One of their biggest successes came in 1975 with their album "Foor for the City", produced by Nick Jameson, who also joined the band as a bass player from 1975 until 1976. The album's single, "Slow Ride", became a #20 hit that year in the US (even # 14 in Canada) and a minor rock classic.
Foghat was known to have a restless touring schedule, which made them one of the hardest working bands in the US and a popular live act. During their classic years, they played six concerts in Arkansas, all of them in Little Rock. "I Just Want to Make Love to You" was probably part of the set list for every of their gigs there. Here is an overview of their concerts in Arkansas:
• November 18, 1972: Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas • March 31, 1976: Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas • November 19, 1976: Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas • April 26, 1978: unknown venue, Little Rock, Arkansas • September 7, 1981: Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas • April 24, 1983: Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas
Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas 1950s postcard
Following their last concert in 1983, the band did an autograph signing at Hickey's Sports on Cantrell Road. Some of the songs they played included "Stone Blue", "Fool for the City", "Third Time Lucky", "Slow Ride", and of course "I Just Want to Make Love to You".
In 1984, Foghat disbanded. By then, line-up changes had occurred following the leaving of Tony Stevens in 1975 and Rod Price in 1981. The band reformed in 1994 and is active to this day under the leadership of drummer Roger Earl, who appears to be the only original member of the group nowadays. Dave Peverett has passed away in 2000, Rod Price in 2005 and long time bass player Craig MacGregor in 2018. Since the beginning of the new century, Foghat has performed two shows in Batesville, Arkansas, and one in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
1974 live appearance by Foghat on Don Kirchner's Rock Concert TV show, performing an extended version of "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (with parts of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" thrown in)
Red Yeager & Jack Danials - Tomorrow (Bejay 1344), 1970
Red Yeager, a popular country music singer in the Southwest regions of Missouri and in Northwest Arkansas, first came to my attention while writing about another act from the same area, the Reavis Brothers. Like the Reavis family, Yeager played the local venues of the Arkansas-Missouri border region, around the Branson entertainment scene and likely even south of Springfield.
Yeager was born Leonard Wayne Yeager on August 18, 1934, and actually hailed not from Missouri but from Bluff City, Arkansas. Born to Claude L. and Irma Yeager, he served in the United States Marine Corps as a young man.
By the late 1950s, Yeager had taken up music more or less professionally and managed to get his first release out in early 1960s. "Tears In My Eyes" b/w "Must That Someone Be Me" were recorded for the Capo label (CP-002), which was affiliated with Sundown Records from Pico, California. How Yeager ended up on a west coast label is a riddle still to solve.
Billboard March 21, 1960, C&W review
It was not until ten years later that a second disc appeared by Yeager, this time on Ben Jack's long running Bejay label from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Jack also owned a recording studio and it is probable that these tracks were recorded there. Yeager cut two classic country tracks, "Tomorrow" and "Send My Heart Back Home" (Bejay #1344), both duets with Jack Danials (likely a pseudonym or stage name).
It is likely that Yeager continued to perform well through the 1970s and 1980s but there is no documentation of such activities. Through my research of the Reavis Brothers, I made contact with Yeager's daughter but unfortunately, further correspondence with her fizzled out.
Red Yeager died December 30, 2015, at the age of 81 years in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Sylvia Mobley has been present on the Memphis, Arkansas, and Nashville country music scenes steadily during the 1960s and 1970s, though she never found the acclaim she deserved. She worked with some of the most infamous figures of these scenes, though never achieving much commercial success. Some of her early recordings are now favorites in rock'n'roll record collectors circles and original copies can fetch up some money.
Born Sylvia Mae Robinson on April 28, 1941, in Marshall, Searcy County, Arkansas, she was one of four children of Charles Herman and Lois Marie Robinson. At the time of her birth, her mother was only sixteen years old. Supposedly in the late 1950s, she married Billy Sigman, with whom she had a son, Carson Vail. Her marriage with Billy Sigman obviously did not last long, as she had remarried by the early 1960s. Her new husband was Justin Lee "Bud" Mobley, who stayed with her the rest of her life.
In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Mobley once was managed by DJ, singer, and band leader Jimmy Haggett, who enjoyed some popularity in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas. Haggett had ties to Memphis as he had recorded for Sun and Meteor during the 1950s and it is possible that he connected Mobley with the Memphis music scene. To start her career as a recording artist, Mobley made the trip to Memphis across the Mississippi River and got the chance to record for one of the smaller labels in the city, Wayne McGinnis' Santo Records. McGinnis had been an artist in his own right, cutting a superb rockabilly disc in 1956 for Meteor, and had created his own Santo label shortly before Mobley arrived on the scene.
In March 1962, her first single appeared with a romping country rocker entitled "All My Myself", backed by "If I Had You Again" on Santo #502. Judging from the publishing and songwriting credits on the record, her debut for Santo was recorded at Slim Wallace's Fernwood studio and leased to Santo afterwards. Signs of success are not reported for this record but soon, Mobley made herself a name in the local country music scene. Her searing vocals seemed to be perfect for country music.
Sylvia Mobley and the Cotton Town Jubilee band live on stage, ca. mid 1960s From left to right: poss. Bill Medlock, Jake Tullock, Mobley, Ken Burge, Johnny Duncan
By 1964, she had been discovered by Gene Williams, a local DJ, record label owner, and stage show host. He put Mobley on his Country Junction TV show that was broadcast from Jonesboro, Arkansas, and also gave her the chance to lay down some more recordings. Williams' right hand, Style Wooten, who later went on to become the "king of custom recording" in Memphis, produced another fine country rocker with her, "Every Time I See You", and the country weeper "Tell Me Clouds". Also involved in this production were DJ and singer Chuck Comer plus an unknown, Bozy Moore. The results were released on Wooten's Big Style label and distributed by Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee enterprise.
More or less simultaneously, Williams released "Are You Sorry b/w "Worried Over You" on his own Cotton Town Jubilee label (#113) in 1964 and followed up with a re-release of "Every Time I See You", backed with "I'm Not Alone Anymore" (Cotton Town Jubilee #115) in early spring of 1965. That same year, Williams paired Mobley with Memphis music stalwart Eddie Bond, who released a single on her on his Millionaire label, "Hearts Have a Language" b/w "In and Out of Love" (Millionaire #660S-0885). During this time, Mobley recorded songs from the pen of more or less familiar names. "Worried Over You" was written by Marlon Grisham (known in rockabilly circles for "Ain't That a Dilly" on Cover), "I'm Not Alone Anymore" by Chuck Comer, and "In and Out of Love" by Melvin Endsley, who also wrote the big hit "Singing the Blues" and was affiliated with Gene Williams at that time.
None of her singles so far had stimulated any success, which was probably due to the fact that promotion and distribution of the discs were limited on all labels. Around the mid 1960s, Mobley was still performing on the Country Junction TV show and recorded two more records for the Lake City, Arkansas, based Jeopardy label, which comprised songs penned by Leland Davis, an Arkansas based musician, and Glenn Honeycutt, a 1950s Sun Records artist.
By the late 1960s, she had made the move to Nashville, probably in order to give her career a boost in the capitol of country music. In 1969, she recorded a single for the once glorious Starday label, which had passed its heyday at that time already. In 1974, two more singles followed for the Villa label. In the mid 1970s, Mobley teamed up with famous guitarist turned producer Scotty Moore, lead guitarist for Elvis Presley and producer in his own right, and recorded a whole album for the Belle Meade label, "My Needs are You", which resulted also in a few more singles.
By 1976, after recording unsuccessfully for 14 years, it became clear that Mobley's chance of becoming a star had passed. However, she remained her ties with the entertainment industry, in a different sense though, and drove whirlwind bus tours across Nashville. She had one last album out on the Rays Gold label in 1984, entitled "Songs for Ma Ma".
In 2009, her husband died at the age of 76 years. Mobley, who had remained in the Nashville area, spent her last years at Elmcroft Assisted Living Facility and passed away July 10, 2017, at the age of 76 years in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
