Ray Smith on National

Ray Smith & his Pine Toppers - Hell's Fire / Born to Lose (National 5019), 1948

(Courtesy of Western Red from If That Ain't Country)

Although Ray Smith was a household name in New England's country music scene in the 1950s, he is pretty unknown nowadays. He is not to be confused with other artists of the same name, including "Rockin'" Ray Smith of Sun Records fame or rockabilly singer David Ray Smith.

Smith was born on June 25, 1918, in Glendale, California, a city near Los Angeles. Country music was not very popular in this region at that time, that wouldn't change until the 1930s. Though, Smith took up the guitar when he was eight years old and music became his passion. Smith's father wanted his son to study law but by then, country music's popularity grew and Smith tried his luck as a professional performer.

Smith joined a rodeo show that criss-crossed the country and it was through this show that he gained his first experiences as an entertainer. It is my assumption that Smith served during World War II but details on this issue escape me, unfortunately.

By summer 1945, Smith had made his way to New York City, where he began singing on WMCA. He also became part of a trio that played the local night clubs and was busy performing all around the city as well as the country music park circuit in Pennsylvania. That trio could have been Vaughn Horton's Pinetoppers, a band with which Smith made his first recordings, or the Rocky Mountain Rangers, another band that Smith was performing with. Vaughn Horton was a country music performer, songwriter, as well as a record producer and had connections in New York's urban country music scene. In February 1947, the Pinetoppers - including Ray Smith - recorded two sides that found release on Continental Records ("The Leaf of Love" b/w "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed", #8019). Although Smith went on to record solo for different labels throughout the years, he remained associated with the Pinetoppers.

Billboard May 22, 1948

Later that same year, Smith recorded several songs for the independent National label but only few of them saw release. The material consisted of popular country hits of the day, including such as "Born to Lose", "Remember Me", or "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again". Today's selections, "Hell's Fire" and "Born to Lose", the latter being of course the Ted Daffan hit song, was released on National #5019 around May 1948.

It was in New York City that a talent scout discovered Smith and in the end, he signed a recording deal with major Columbia Records. His first session for the label took place on April 1, 1949, in New York City. From the songs recorded that day, the label released "Waltz of the Alamo" b/w "Rainbow" in May 1949 (#20583). Another session followed the same year and a third one in 1950.

One of Smith's disc was the Christmas season single "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas", a traditional arranged by Vaughn Horton and one of the earliest recorded versions, as well as another Horton song that became a classic, "An Old Christmas Card" (Columbia #20604, 1949). "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" was also issued in Great Britain and Australia. Smith's "Daddy's Little Girl" (#20670) was one of  the DJs' top picks, reported by Billboard in March 1950, and showed promising sales. Though, it didn't reach the charts. Seven singles were released by Columbia in total and though it was reported by publications that Smith was a good-selling artist, Columbia saw no need to renew his contract.

In late 1950, Billboard reported that Smith had switched from Columbia to London Records. Most of his recordings for the label were released as by "Hank Dalton", a pseudonym the label also applied to Wayne Raney. Another seven singles were produced for London but chart success eluded Smith again. 

Probably his biggest success came with the Pinetoppers. While he had recorded solo during the years 1947-1950, he recorded during 1951 as part of this group, which produced one chart hit. Their "Lonely Little Robin", paired with "Hometown Jubilee" on Coral #9-60508, became a #11 C&W hit and a #14 pop hit. Possibly due to this success, Smith began recording solo for Coral and three discs appeared, including a cover of "Lonesome Truck Driver's Blues" (which is considered to be the first trucking song in country music).

November 11, 1950

In 1953, Smith joined the cast of WCOP's Hayloft Jamboree, a live stage show that toured the greater Boston region. This show also included other well-known names such as Eddie Zack, Rosalie Allen, Kenny Roberts (who also worked with the Pinetoppers), and the Bayou Boys (including Buzz Busby and "Cowboy" Jack Clement). Some of his last recordings were made during these years. In 1954, Smith cut two numbers with Vaughn Horton's band for the small Bridge label, "The Angel with the Golden Hair" b/w "Kur-Ink-A Tink-A Chink-A" (#18001).

Around early 1955, Smith left the music scene and would not perform until early 1957. He then teamed up with fellow singer Eddy Smith, performing around Garfield, New Jersey. Probably his last session was recorded in 1967 with the Pinetoppers for the Peer-Southern label. Ray Smith passed away on December 4, 1979.

Despite his moderate success as a performer and recording artist, Smith is largely forgotten today. German Cattle Records released a CD with many of Smith's National, Columbia, and London recordings. In 2010, another CD appeared that contained previously unknown SESAC radio transcriptions by Smith and a band known as the Rocky Mountain Rangers.

Sources
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• Entries at 45cat for Ray Smith and the Pinetoppers
• 45worlds/78rpm records entry
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discograhies entry
• George Vaughn Horton Wikipedia entry
• SecondHand Songs

Linda Flanagan on Razorback

Linda Flanagan - Street of No Return (Razorback 45-107), 1959

There was a time in the early to mid 1960s when it seemed that Linda Flanagan was heading for stardom. Obviously, she never achieved that, although working with such top names as Webb Pierce or Ernest Tubb, but she graced the world with a series of fine country singles. Her debut record on Razorback Records is featured in today's post.

Linda Flanagan hailed from Arkansas, although I could not find details on her birth place or birth date. Her father was Harold Flanagan, who was a local country music performer in his own right. A 1956 Cowboy Songs article mentions that she started her professional career at age 13 (although she started singing even earlier at age 3), which puts her birth date into the early 1940s. By 1956, she was performing over KFSA in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on both radio and television. She also dabbled in songwriting around this time, penning songs with Louisiana Hayride member Jimmie Helms.

From Fort Smith, located on the Arkansas-Oklahoma state border, she made her way to nearby Muskogee, Oklahoma, where she not only appeared on a local TV show entitled Big Red Jamboree, but also recorded for Carl Blankenship's Razorback label. "A Life That's Hard to Live" b/w "Street of No Return" (Razorback #107) was released in late 1959. The top side was co-written by the duo of Jerry Roller and Hershel Parker, the latter being also an Arkansas born singer and songwriter, who recorded a few singles in his own right and worked with Flanagan during this time frame.

From left to right: Linda Flanagan, Charlie Walker, Herschel Parker
at the 1956 Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Day in Meridian, Mississippi
(courtesy of Western Red)

Flanagan's next stop in her career was Nashville, Tennessee, where she was given the opportunity to appear on Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree. Likely from this appearance resulted a recording session on June 29, 1961, at the Bradley Film and Recording Studio with a top band behind her, including Grady Martin, Buddy Emmons, Hargus Robbins, and producer Owen Bradley. The result was only one song, "Pass Me By", which in fact saw release in 1962 on a various artists Decca album simply entitled "Midnight Jamboree" featuring different artists that appeared on the show. The LP was also released in the UK and New Zealand. Flanagan's "Pass Me By" was furthermore issued on a special DJ 45rpm with the flip side filled by Webb Pierce's "Sweet Lips". 

The release of the LP in the UK was to some historical importance. Not for Ernest Tubb or any of the other better known artists on the record but for Flanagan. At that time, the Beatles were making their first steps and the band's drummer Ringo Starr was introduced to Flanagan's "Pass Me By" by his best fried Roy Trafford, who was a big country music fan, owned the "Midnight Jamboree" album and was especially fond of "Pass Me By". He even learned it for performing and the song inspired Starr to take up songwriting and he wrote his own "Don't Pass Me By", similar in its lyrical content but otherwise different, as Starr put a piano boogie beat behind it. The song probably wasn't even a minute long and band mates Paul McCartney and John Lennon dismissed it as a "rewrite of a Jerry Lee Lewis B-side". The song, if you can call it even a song, never made it far but Linda Flanagan's recording was an early influence on Ringo Starr's songwriting.

Unknown to Flanagan back then, she tried to find her own way to success. A second Decca session was not arranged for her until October 3, 1963, this time at the Columbia Recording Studio but again produced by Owen Bradley. Four songs were recorded that day and released by Decca in late 1963 ("Hold on to Happiness" b/w "The Keeper of the Key", Decca #31569) and July 1964 ("There's Love All Around Me" b/w "Mama Kiss the Hurt Away", Decca #31647). However, none of her two singles released by the label seem to have caught on with the public.

Although Decca dropped her, the independent and much smaller Boone record label gave Flanagan a chance once more. She recorded for the label in 1966 and 1967, releasing two singles, but these did not chart either. She had one more record out in Nashville in 1970, a duet with Lex Thomas entitled "South Bound Train," which was produced by guitarist Howard White for Spar Records - again without much success.

She left Nashville in the early 1970s and worked the Western Lounge club in Creve Couer, Illinois, with her husband Pete Blue from 1973 until 1975. She held one more session in Nashville in late 1985, which resulted in another record for the tiny Password label. At some point afterwards, she dropped out of the music business but was still residing in Nashville as late as 2017.

See also
• Arkansas-Oklahoma Jamboree

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• Steel Guitar Forum
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
• Mark Lewisohn: "Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years" (2013), Crown, page 691

Cathy Collins on Whirlwind

Cathy Collins - This Tie That Binds (Whirlwind 1), 1970
This is really a mysterious release. Obscure label, obscure singer, obscure songwriter. Cathy Collins had a crystal-clear voice and two releases on Whirlwind, this being the first, and there was another disc on the infamous California based Rural Rhythm label, which could have been of another singer of the same name, though. That's it for Collins.

Billboard May 23, 1970

Both songs for this release were written by Elton Mitchell, who also penned two further tracks that were recorded by Collins for her second Whirlwind single. Mitchell is likely not the singer of the same name who recorded for a gospel label called Universal out of Denham Springs, Louisiana, in the 1980s. Further research on Mitchell resulted in the perception that Elton Mitchell is quite a common name.

Producer John Hurley is probably the best known person among the figures that were involved with this disc. He is best remembered as a songwriting partner of Ronnie Wilkins and both penned several tunes in the 1960s that became hits, including "Son of a Preacher Man" for Dusty Springfield or "Love of the Common People" for Waylon Jennings. They were both living in Nashville by the mid 1960s but left for California in 1970, so I assume this was one of Hurley's last productions in Music City USA. Which, in turn, leads me to the assumption that Collins' recording session took place there.

The Whirlwind label was based in Sheridan, located south of Little Rock in Central Arkansas. Little Richie Johnson, who was based in Belen, New Mexico, and who promoted and plugged numerous small labels across the country in the 1960s and 1970s as well as working with such stars as Willie Nelson, George Jones, or Merle Haggard, was involved with the label. Dalton Edwards, who is credited as a manager on Collins' releases, could have had a hand in it, too. Only four releases are known so far on Whirlwind and by 1971, the label seems to have folded.

See also

• Whirlwind discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records

Sources
• 45cat entry

• Discogs

• Wikipedia entry on John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins

Sammy Barnhart on OKeh

Sammy Barnhart - Get Off My Telephone (OKeh 4-18002), 1953

Sammy Barnhart's name could be seen on a few records during the 1950s, on Louisiana Hayride advertisements, and in programs of several radio stations. Though, he remained only a local fixture, most notable in Arkansas. This is my attempt to document the career of an artist that has fallen through the cracks and never gained the attention he deserved.

Samuel "Sammy" Barnhart was born on December 29, 1917, in Nacogdoches County, Texas (contrary to some sources that claim his birth state was Arkansas), to Levi and Lizi Eliza Barnhart. With two brothers and two sisters, he was the couple's second youngest child.

Barnhart started his career in the 1940s and had moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, by early 1947. By then, he had joined Alma "Little Shoe" Crosby's Cowboy Sweethearts, a group that appeared on local KLRA and were the main act on the station's "Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance". Also frequently on the bill was an act called "Union County Boys" that might have included Barnhart as well.

Approximately in 1948, Barnhart left Arkansas for a couple of years and headed south to Shreveport, where he performed on KWKH with the Union County Boys, which included such musicians as Ted Rains and Fiddlin' Rufus at one time or another, and they also appeared on the station's famous Louisiana Hayride show. He worked with such artists as Hawkshaw Hawkins during this time but left Shreveport in 1950. The next two or three years are a bit sketchy but we find him working with Tommy Scott's show in Denver, Colorado, around June 1953 with Jimmy Winters. This job did not last long for Barnhart though, as Billboard reported the next month that both men had left the show.

Billboard June 17, 1950

Barnhart moved east again and wound up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he worked at WNOX. Already in late 1952, he had signed a recording contract with Columbia's OKeh label and a session from December 8 that year at Castle Studio in Nashville yielded four songs, which saw release on OKeh the next year. The first of them appeared in the summer of 1953, comprising "Wedding Bell Waltz" b/w "Get Off My Telephone" (OKeh #18002).

Billboard December 5, 1953
Country & Western Artists' Directory

Barnhart returned to Little Rock in either 1954 or in 1955. By then, the Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance had been replaced by a live stage show entitled "Barnyard Frolic" and Barnhart became not only a cast member but also the emcee of the show. In addition, he could be heard on KLRA during the week. Barnhart was part of an all-star show featuring Elvis Presley in February 1955 and again in August 1955 at the Robinson Auditorium.

From 1953 until 1954, OKeh had released a total of four singles by Barnhart but none of them showed enough success to encourage the label to extend his contract. Following his affiliation with OKeh, Barnhart signed with Decca Records and held one session for the label on June 14, 1955, at Bradley Studio in Nashville. From the four songs recorded that day, only "I Don't Want It on My Conscience" and "Blue Mountain Waltz" (Decca #29640) were released around two months later. "Idle Hours" and "Honky Tonk Fever" remained in Decca's archives. It remained Barnhart's only session for the label.

After 1955, hints to Barnhart's musical career become rare. The last mention I could find was an advertisement in the New Oxford Item in its August 6, 1959, issue, announcing a personal appearance by Hawkshaw Hawkins and Barnhart, among others. According to his obituary, he spent most of his life in Cushing, Nacogdoches County, Texas, though this may not apply to the 1940s and 1950s. The obituary further mentioned that Barnhart was a welder as well as a construction worker and it's probable that he returned to these occupations after his music career. Apparently, he had worked for the Rusk State Hospital prior to his retirement in 1982.

Sammy Barnhart died on February 4, 1997, at the age of 79 years at his home in Cushing. He is buried at McKnight Cemetery in Cushing. His wife Ercil followed him in 2015.

Recommended reading

• Recordings by Sammy Barnhart on Honking Duck

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• Detailed history on Elvis Presley's Little Rock appearances on ScottyMoore.net

• 45worlds/78rpm entry

• Find a Grave entry

• Peter Guralnick: "Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing" (Hachette UK), 2020
• various Billboard issues

Little Shoe

Little Shoe (center) and her Cowboy Sweethearts, ca. 1946
at KLRA (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Source: Red Neckerson

Little Shoe - A Pioneering Female Country Music Singer in Arkansas

The female country music singer and band leader known as "Little Shoe" was a pioneering figure in Arkansas country music and radio history, as she organized one of the earliest country music live stage shows in the state. Her "Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance" ran from 1946 until the ending of the decade or even until the beginning of the next one - no assured information on its further history are documented, unfortunately.

She was born Alma Crosby on January 26, 1910, and it is mentioned by author Ivan M. Tribe that she was a niece to Cousin Emmy, another pioneering female country music artist. Little Shoe, like her aunt, learned to play banjo to accompany her singing.

In the 1930s, she was part of Frankie More's Log Cabin Boys and Girls that were cast members of the famed WWVA Jamboree out of Wheeling, West Virginia - her aunt Cousin Emmy was also briefly a member of this group. It is likely that she got her name "Little Shoe" around that time. More came to WWVA in 1936 and stayed there until 1941 and Tribe mentions in his book "Mountaineer Jamboree" that Little Shoe stayed full five years in the group (probably the longest serving member of all), which means she was with the group in the same time frame. From there, Little Shoe went to different radio stations across the country, including KMOX in St. Louis, Missouri, and then KMBC in Kansas City. During these years, she developed the idea of establishing her own live stage show but none of the radio stations she auditioned for believed in her concept.

Along the way, she founded a group that became known as the "Cowboy Sweethearts". The group included her future husband Charles Edward "Charlie" Dial (born March 3, 1917), who was a singer in his own right. At some point during these years, the group also featured a young Wayne Raney. Around the mid-1940s, Little Shoe and the Cowboy Sweethearts were heard over WJBC in Bloomington, Indiana, but soon, they moved south to Little Rock, where radio station KLRA liked her idea of a live stage show.

Billboard January 26, 1946

The Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance premiered in January 1946. In addition to the Saturday night live version, Little Shoe and her band also did three studio versions each day over KLRA. Crosby and Dial married in Lonoke, County near Little Rock around that time. They also hosted a children show on the station around the same time.

Little Shoe left KLRA in the late 1940s and it is likely that with her leaving, the Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance also came to an end. She also divorced from Charlie Dial at some point. Dial would go on to be a popular radio performer in the Memphis and West Memphis regions. He worked as a towboat pilot during the 1980s and worked for the Patton-Tully Transportation Company from Memphis. He could be found on the Mississippi River comanding the "Helen Tully" with three other crew members. Dial was killed on July 19, 1984, while on the Mississippi near Cape Girardeau, Mississippi, as another boat hit the Helen Tully. His body was not found until about a week later. He had married several times since his divorce from Little Shoe, being married to Juanita Dial at the time of his passing.

It escapes my knowledge what Little Shoe did after she left KRLA. Alma "Little Shoe" Crosby died on August 12, 1988. If anyone has more information on her or Charlie Dial, please feel free to pass it along.

See also
• Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance

Sources
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• various Billboard news items
• Charlie Dial Find a Grave entry
• Ivan M. Tribe: "Mountaineer Jamboree - Country Music in West Virginia" (The University Press of Kentucky), 1996, pages 49-50
• "Body of towboat crewman found after mishap on Mississippi River" (July 22, 1984), The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

Tommy Trent

The Dixie Fun Barn Dang at WAGA (Atlanta, Georgia), ca. 1947
with Tommy Trent (next to the microphone on the left)

Tommy Trent - Little Rock's Forgotten Star

Although Tommy Trent was a native Tennessee boy and made various stops during his early career, his biggest impact probably came when he settled in the early 1950s in Little Rock, Arkansas. There, he became one of those all-around music entrepreneurs - operating a record label, a live music venue, and performing in his own right.

Thomas Francis "Tommy" Trent was born March 8, 1924, in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. He was one of seven children of Dyo M. and Alice C. Trent and came into a musical inclined family. Trent would eventually learn to play guitar as well as bass and found also he had a talent for singing. His father died in 1935, when Trent was still a child.

Trent started his career in 1943 in nearby Knoxville, where he joined Mel Foree's Victory Boys and as part of this group, could be heard on the city's popular radio program "Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round". It was also during this time that Trent made his first experiences in a recording studio as part of Knoxville singer Pappy Gube Beaver's background band (which also included Chet Atkins on fiddle). Beaver recorded for Capitol in Atlanta in 1945. Knoxville was a tinsmith for future country music stars, including such as Chet Atkins, Red Kirk, Bill Carlisle, and Don Gibson, but Trent did not stayed too long there and set out on the road. He spent about three months with Paul Howard's Arkansas Cotton Pickers in 1944, performing on the famed Grand Ole Opry with this group, but soon left again.

By the summer of 1945, he travelled with a tent show and a short time later, he performed with a group known as the Dixe Fun Barn Gang on WPDQ in Jacksonville, Florida. This same group, including Trent, then moved to Atlanta, where they were heard on WAGA from September 1946 until December 1948 and also performed one-nighters in the surrounding areas. They had a show called the "Dixie Fun Barn", which centered around Trent, and was heard several days a week and was one of the most popular country music shows on the station at the time, according to author and Atlanta country music expert Wayne W. Daniel. After leaving WAGA, the group had a rather brief engagement at WQAM in Miami before they would return to Atlanta to perform on WGST for a couple of months (October 1949 until January 1950). During this brief stint, Trent also appear on the station's Georgia Jamboree live show.

Billboard November 29, 1947

During the next two years, Trent founded a new band and managed to land a spot on the famed Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport. Apart from the regular Saturday night broadcasts over KWKH, Trent took also part in the Hayride's tours across the south and appeared alongside such stars as Hank Williams. Along with Tommy Hill and Webb Pierce, he also hosted a nightly DJ program right after the Hayride.

In 1952, Trent and an unknown group of back-up musicians, which might have been his own band, went into KWKH's studio in Shreveport to record two songs: "Paper Boy Boogie" and "Sweetheart I Am Missing You". These recordings were, possibly with the help of record shop owner and talent scout Stan Lewis, released on Chess' subsidiary label Checker Records (#761) in September 1952. Lewis was an important personality in Shreveport's music scene and had placed such acts as Jimmy & Johnny with Chess, so it's eligible to assume this also happened with Trent.

Although Trent's first solo record did not make the national charts, it must have been a promising release as Texas Bill Strength covered "Paper Boy Boogie" for Coral the same year. Trent performed these songs also on his personal appearances and Hayride live recordings of both have survived in the show's archives. Trent was also captured live on the show singing Louis Innis' "No Muss, No Fuss, No Bother".

During his tours, Trent passed through many different places, including Arkansas, and in 1952, finally settled down in the Natural State's capitol, Little Rock. He began hosting a three-hour DJ show on local KTHS, a station that had moved from Hot Springs to Little Rock shorty before, and opened his own Hillbilly Park in the city around 1953. This live music venue, modeled after country music parks in the northeastern states, featured performances by country stars throughout the summer. By 1955, portions of those concerts also aired over KTHS under the name of "Arkansas Hayride". Local talent on these shows included such acts as Shelby Cooper and Gene Davis.

Billboard September 3, 1955

By late 1954, Trent and his band had introduced a show also on KATV, Little Rock's local television station. At that time, the band consisted of Trent on vocals and guitar, comedian Les Willard on vocals and rhythm guitar, Cotton Nixon on fiddle, J. D. Raley (later replaced by Leroy Brannon) on steel guitar, Max Fletcher on bass, Don Taylor on "solos" (as reported by Billboard, whatever that means). A short time later, Trent's brother Coy also joined the group, which was initially known as the Dixie Mountaineers and by April 1955 as the Country Playboys. Apart from performing and doing radio work, Trent also pursued other business interests and opened up a restaurant in May 1955, "Tommy Trent's Chuck Wagon".

Tommy Trent had not recorded since his Shreveport debut session in 1952 but he changed this four years later. With a band that included prominent Arkansas western swing fiddler Kinky King (who alternated between drums and fiddle) and soon-to-be rockabilly pianist Teddy Redell, Trent recorded "It's My Turn to Cry Over You" as well as "Truck Drivers Roll" at the KTHS studio. On the latter, Virginia Brannon took over lead vocals. Brannon was a member of Trent's band and went on to be his wife. Both songs were released in 1956 on the Little Rock based Camark label. This was still pure country music, although by 1956 times had changed, and although Trent was a bit late, he would change his music style on recordings to a more hard-etched sound later on.

In the early 1960s, Trent contiued to record for independent labels. His first record for Dan Mechura's Allstar Records, a label from Houston, Texas, that specialized in country music, was recorded in the spring of 1959 at KTHS and released the same year. The recordings featured his wife Virginia as well as Delores King on harmony vocals, Bill Dixon on lead guitar, possibly Bobby Pearl on steel guitar, Kinky King on fiddle, Teddy Redell on piano, and Mex Fletcher on drums. The results, "Just for Tonite" and "Storm of Love", were released on Allstar #7184. The A side was penned by Vriginia Trent, while the flip was a composition of background singer Delores King.

A second session for Allstar was cut in spring 1960 at KTHS with the same line-up, produced "A Mile to the Mailbox" and "Love Me" (Allstar #7198). The A side was a "medium-beater" (as Billboard put it) rock'n'roller, while its flip was a pure country side. Billboard placed the disc, which appeared around March 1960 in its "medium sales potential" review section and it's likely that it didn't sell better than the magazine predicted.

In 1962, KTHS was sold and became KAAY, which urged Trent to switch to KXLR, also based in Little Rock. Around the same time, he gave up his spot on KATV for a show on KTHV. By then, he had given up his Hillbilly Park in favor of a new live venue, Tommy Trent's Fun Barn, which was located on Pike Avenue in North Little Rock (previously known as "The Juroy"). This place featured regular live performances by local talent as well as top names on Saturday nights and was a popular spot during the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the names that appeared on these shows included locals such as Bobby and his Buddys, sisters Peggy & Patty Kuske, Robert "Bob Holladay, George Lyle & Laura Glenn, Bobbie Holdcraft, among others. The stars who passed through Trent's Fun Barn reads like a who's who of Nashville, including Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, the Carter Family, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, the Osmons, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Grandpa Jones, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ferlin Husky, Faron Young, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, Marty Robbins, Jim Ed & Maxine Brown, Conway Twitty, Roy Acuff, String Bean, and probably a lot more.

The Fun Barn live shows as well as Trent's TV shows were very popular in Arkansas. Testimony to that are countless people who remembered the shows fondly: "My mother Clarice Brannon Lawrence and Tommy Trent’s wife Virginia Brannon Trent were cousins and my parents took us kids to the Tommy Trent Fun Barn in North Little Rock, Arkansas, nearly every weekend to hear all the country singers and new talents that would play and sing there," recalled Lavonda Lawrence Roberts. Betty Holbrook remembered: "I remember watching and listening to Tommy Trent sing in the '50s." And Charles Jackson added: "As a small boy in Conway, Arkansas, in the early '50s, our family always listened to Tommy as he deejayed his radio program." These valuable memories came from French collector Xavier Maire, whose blog sadly went offline.

Trent re-recorded one of his aforementioned Allstar songs as "I Walk a Mile (to the Mail Box)" along with "This Week End", released in 1965 on the T Bar T label. T Bar T was likely Trent's own company and I assume the name stood for Trent's initials (T bar T = T-T = Tommy Trent). He also recorded Carolyn Dixon and Olen Bingham for his imprint.

Trent retired from the music business in 1970. He was the president of a Little Rock publishing firm in the 1980s. Tommy Trent died on July 5, 2003, at the age of 79 years in Bryant, Arkansas, a suburb of Little Rock. He was what I call a local music entrepreneur. Memphis had Eddie Bond, Abilene had Slim Willet, and Little Rock had Tommy Trent.

Discography

Checker 761: Tommy Trent - Paper Boy Boogie / Sweetheart I Am Missing You (1952)
Camark 501 Virginia Brannon / Tommy Trent Band - Truck Drivers Roll / Tommy Trent and Mountain Valley Trio - It's My Turn to Cry Over You (1956)
Allstar 7184: Tommy Trent - Just for Tonight / Storm of Life (1959)
Allstar 7198: Tommy Trent - Love Me / A Mile to the Mailbox (1960)
T Bar T 665T-0962: Tommy Trent - I Walk a Mile (to the Mail Box) / This Week End (1965)

See also
• T Bar T discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Find a Grave entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• 45cat entry

• Xavier Maire: Tommy Trent - From Paper Boy Boogie to A Mile to the Mail Box (Wayback Machine)

• Picture of Trent and the Dixie Fun Barn Gang at WAGA

• Dixie Fun Barn Gang at WFMU Boss Radio 66 blog

• Directory of Little Rock/North Little Rock theaters past and present

• various Billdboard news items

• Wayne W. Daniel: "Pickin' on Peachtree" (University of Illinois Press), 2001, pages 167-168, 185

Paul & Roy on Mercury

Paul & Roy, the Tennessee River Boys - Spring of Love (Mercury 6374-X45), 1952
When I first posted this record in 2012, I had no idea who the duo of Paul & Roy were. The internet was no help back then and it's still not today. This duo seems to be forgotten, although they recorded a slew of singles throughout the 1950s, the majority of them even for the big Mercury record label.

Paul & Roy were blind singer/guitarist Paul Boswell and mandolinist/singer Roy Pryor. They performed together for at least over a decade, starting likely in the late 1940s. They went on tour with Cowboy Copas through Canada around that time and it seems that they were quite cross-linked in the Nashville music scene. Philip Pryor, son of Roy Pryor, remembered so many now famous musicians that hung around with his father, it is astonishing the duo remained so obscure. Musicians like Benny Martin and Little Jimmy Dickens or radio personality/producer Noel Ball were only some of those names. Boswell also worked as a session musician.

Paul & Roy gained a recording contract with Mercury in 1951 and their first disc comprised "Every Dog Must Have His Day" b/w "You're All Alone, Tonite" (Mercury 6360). I once compared their sound to those of popular duo Johnnie & Jack, whose bluegrass-country-gospel melting was successful and influential as well. It is no surprise that Pryor and Boswell were friends with one of their brothers.

From their second release for Mercury, we feature their own composition "Spring of Love" from early 1952. This is another fine example of their sound and songwriting talent. Apart from writing most of their own material, Pryor also wrote or co-wrote songs performed by other artists. Country comedy duo Lonzo & Oscar used to sing Pryor's "Mama's on a Diet" at the Grand Ole Opry until they were told to omit the song as Pryor was not in the Musicians' Guild at that time. Pryor also co-wrote "I'll Keep Your Name on File" with George McCormick, who recorded it for MGM in 1957.

Paul & Roy continued to record for Mercury until 1953, releasing a total of six discs over two years. They would not record until 1959 when they made ties with Nashville entrepreneur called Mr. Pace, who was originally active in the pinball machine business, before starting out as a record label and publishing firm owner. Paul & Roy's two releases for Pace were two of the label's earliest releases but also remained their last sides.

Pryor and Boswell drifted into obscurity in the 1960s and only few seem to remember their recordings now. The British Archive of Country Music has released a CD in 2013 comprising their complete recorded output.

Discography
Mercury 6360: Every Dog Must Have His Day / You're All Alone, Tonite (1951)
Mercury 6374: Spring of Love / You’ve Been Cheating on Me, Darling (1952) 
Mercury 6406: Only Pretending / The Shape My Heart’s In (1952)
Mercury 70027: You Made the Break / The Way You Lied to Me (1952)
Mercury 70121: Don’t Ever Tell Me / Wicked Love (1953)
Mercury 70197: The Flower of Old Tennessee / I'm Lost Without You (1953)
Pace 1003: Meet the Lord Half Way / There Will Be No Disappointments (1959)
Pace 1004: Free, Twenty-One and Ambitious / I Wish You’d Be a Country Girl (1959)

See also

• BACM CD on Bear Family

Sources

• Thanks to Roy Pryor's son, to Paul Boswell's son and to Bob for sharing their knowledge and memories with me.

• Entries on 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm

Jim Atkins on Coral

Jim Atkins and the Pinetoppers - I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (from Dumas) (Coral #64147), 1953
(courtesy of Western Red of If That Ain't Country podcast)

Jim Atkins' "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy (from Dumas)" is one of my all-time favorite "hot country" songs with its twangy lead guitar, fast pace, and catchy tune. There has never been a comprehensive overview of Atkins' career, so I thought I'd change this. Although Atkins had a long run in the music industry, and with his brother Chet Atkins an even more famous relative, there were likely different men of the same name active in the business and it is sometimes hard to tell them apart. Therefore, as I went deeper and deeper into Atkins' life and career, there appeared mentions of men named Jim Atkins where it is not clear if it's the same man or simply another musician of the same name.

James "Jim" Atkins was born as the oldest son of James Arlie Atkins, a Tennessee native, and grew up in Luttrell, Tennessee. He and his wife had three more children, Nancy Niona (born 1918), Lowell Sylvester (born 1921), and Chester Burton "Chet" (born 1924). It was of course Atkins' younger brother Chet, who rose to fame as a guitarist and later as a producer and music industry giant, being one of the persons making Nashville what it is today. Their parents divorced at some point and married other partners, both giving birth to several half-siblings of Jim and Chet.

While their brother Lowell lived a civilian life, operating his own electric motor repair shop in Kokomo, Indiana, for many years, "Jim was the first to 'make it' in the music business," as Chet later recalled. Jim Atkins got his start as a professional musician in the mid 1930s on Chicago's WLS station and its famed National Barn Dance. Although he started out as a country music performer - old-time or mountain music, as it was then rather called - he was no stranger to other music genres. In 1939, still being based in Chicago, Atkins teamed up with guitar maestro Les Paul and Atkins became part of Paul's jazz trio, playing rhythm guitar on Paul's nationwide network broadcasts. He later also had a radio show with another guitar legend: Leo Fender.

Probably starting in the late 1930s, Atkins was the featured vocalist with Fred Waring's dance orchestra and remained with that group for about ten years. During World War II, the orchestra performed countless war bond rallies and entertained troops across the country. In addition, Atkins was heard on Waring's Chesterfield Time radio show that was broadcast widely through different networks. In the 1940s, Atkins also had his on radio show on WNEW in New York City.

Though, Atkins returned to country music and we find Atkins recording as part of his brother Chet's group in November 1947. Two sessions were recorded for RCA-Victor that month. Atkins would accompany his brother again in September 1951 during a session in New York City. A certain Jimmy Atkins recorded for the independent Continental label in 1949. If this is the same Jim Atkins is unknown to me at the moment.

By 1954, Atkins had moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he worked for radio WBRC, sometimes billing himself as "Uncle" Jim Atkins and accompanied by an all female group known as the "Barnyard Sweethearts". During his time in Birmingham, Atkins wrote several songs and was part of many country music shows, playing alongside such Alabama veteran performers as Jack Turner, Hardrock Gunter, or Happy Wilson.

Previously, Atkins had signed a recording contract with Decca's subsidiary Coral Records and his first disc for the label had appeared in 1950, featuring "T-E-X-A-S" b/w "When Evening Shadows Fall" (Coral #60136). It was not until March 1953 that his next release appeared. It coupled covers of Lattie Moore's "Juke Joint Johnnie" and Jay C. Flippen's "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (from Dumas)" (Coral #64147). Although this was "hot" music, at least for country music terms, Billboard wasn't too pleased with the performances and they passed without much notice and it became Atkins' last disc for the label.

Billboard C&W review March 7, 1953

In October 1954, Billboard reported that Atkins had become associated with Fairway Music Corporation and further, Atkins set up his own record label, Alfa Records. The first and only release comprised Atkins' recording of his own "This Doggone Fiddle" backed by "Two Ton Mama" by Tex Dixon, a singer that appeared on Atkins' radio show during this time. The record apparently sold well enough, at least in the Birmingham area, to prompt Coral to resign Atkins. In February the following year, it was announced that his recording of "That Doggone Fiddle" along with "You Can't Help Being Ugly" was scheduled for release on Coral but in the end, the release was cancelled to unknown reasons. Coral discontinued its country series that same year, which may have been a reason.

Billboard October 23, 1954

Atkins remained with WBRC in Birmingham at least until late 1955. Then, suddenly, Billboard stops to mention his name in its "Folk Talent & Tunes" column. By 1957, we find mention of Atkins working at WARF in Jasper, Alabama (just a little northwest of Birmingham). He had discovered a young singer named Hoyt Johnson, began managing him and connected Johnson with record producer Marshall Ellis in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnson went on to record for Erwin and RCA-Victor but the big success eluded this young singer. Atkins and Johnson even wrote songs together ("It's a Little More Like Heaven (Where You Are)", later recorded by Hank Locklin and, differently, by Johnny Cash as "You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven"). 

Atkins was probably also involved in bringing Tex Dixon to Marshall Ellis' attention. Dixon, an Alabama native, was part of Atkins' radio show at one time and recorded for several Memphis based labels during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. 

There was a Jim Atkins, spinning records for WAPE in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1958, who was possibly the same Jim Atkins that operated Arlingwood Records in Jacksonville. In May 1959, there appeared a Jimmy Atkins on a recording by Barry Etris on the Atlanta based Leo's label plus a certain Jimmy Atkins on the Verve label in 1967. However, I found no evidence that any of these men were the same Jim Atkins.

Atkins recorded again with brother Chet in 1958 and an album was planned to be released the following year on RCA-Victor, which didn't happen though. The recordings saw release in 1963 on a Canadian RCA Camden album entitled "The Guitar Genius", which was reissued by Sundazed eventually. The recordings were also included on Bear Family's large Chet Atkins box set.

What seems to be secure information is that Jim Atkins left the performing side of the music business but remained active with radio work. He surfaced in Denver, Colorado, in the 1960s, where he worked as program director of KOA as early as 1963. He retired in 1968 and not too long afterwards, an interesting record appeared on the Mountain of Colorado label in Denver featuring Big Jim with support by Jimmy Atkins' Hustlers. Coincidence? I'm not sure. The record seems to have been pressed around 1968/1969.

However, following his retirement, Atkins moved to Nashville in 1969 in order to work with his brother Chet again. In the spring of 1971, Jim Atkins was co-founder of FAME, "Famous American Musicians and Educators, Inc.", a company dealing with music education that introduced a special guitar teaching system. While Chet served as a chairman, Jim Atkins was named vice president of the company. The company lasted at least until 1973 and one of the last mentions we find of Jim Atkins is from October 1974, when Billboard reported that Atkins had appeared on the "Sunday Down South" show in Nashville. In March 1975, the Country Music Hall of Fame conducted an interview with Atkins, speaking about his career in music.

Jim Atkins died on January 6, 1977, from a heart attack while visiting his son in Denver. He was 64 years old. 

Discography

This discography shows records credited to "Jim Atkins" or "Jimmy Atkins". However, it is not assured that all of them are by the same artist. 

Continental C-1253: Scotty MacGregor - It's Santa Claus / Jimmy Atkins - Auld Lang Syne (1949)
Continental C-5115: Jimmy Atkins - An Old Christmas Card / Auld Lang Syne (1949)
Continental 11002: Jimmy Atkins with the Billy Mure Trio - (The Gang That Sang) Heart Of My Heart / On the Old Spanish Trail
Continental 11005: Jimmy Atkins - Engagement Waltz / One Raindrop Doesn't Make a Shower
Rainbow 50022: Jimmy Atkins - You Can't Take It with You / Gone Fishin' (1950)
Coral 60136: Jimmy Atkins with the Mullen Sisters - T-E-X-A-S / When Evening Shadows Fall (1950)
Coral 64147: Jim Atkins and the Pinetoppers - Juke Joint Johnny / I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (from Dumas) (1953) (also released in Canada)
Alfa 102/2: Jim Atkins and Dixie Range Riders - This Doggone Fiddle / Tex Dixon and Dixie Rangers - Two Ton Mama (1954)
Leo's 20011/2: Barry Etris / Jimmy Atkins - guitar, Uncle John Patterson, guitar - I've Met My One and Only / Faded Rose (1959)
Verve VK-10528: Jimmy Atkins with Johnny Smith Quartet - Land of the Velvet Hills / Shenandoah (1967)
Mountain of Colorado 1050: Big Jim with Jimmy Atkins & the Hustlers - Sunset Horizon / One Mistake Too Late (1968/1969)

Recommended reading

• Country Music Hall of Fame

Sources

• Secondhand Songs

• Discogs entry

• Hilllbilly-Music.com entry

• Hoyt Johnson biography on Blackcat Rockabilly Europe
• various entries on 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm

• Adam Komorowski: "From Boppin' Hillbilly to Red Hot Rockabilly" (2006), liner notes, Proper Records
• The Tennessean: "Jim Atkins, 64, Brother of Chet Atkins, Dies" (January 7, 1977)

• Unknown author: "The Guitar Genius" (1963), liner notes, RCA Camden Records

Hank Smith on Gilmar

Hank Smith / The Nashville Playboys - Heartbreak Hotel (Gilmar RX 120), 1956

How George Jones Became Starday's Elvis

By 1956, George Jones had landed his first hit in the country music charts, "Why Baby Why", and was Starday Records' rising star. He had recorded for the label since early 1954 but was still building his career. At the same time, rockabilly and rock'n'roll were taking America's music scene by storm. However, Starday had been mainly a country music label and Jones a country boy at heart as his producer and Starday co-owner Pappy Daily was. Though, Daily recognized the potential rock'n'roll was bearing, especially sales-wise.

In 1956, Dixie Records was introduced as a subsidiary of Starday and eventually served for custom recordings, potential original material and, beginning in January 1956, as a mail-order budget soundalike label. Daily coaxed several of his Starday recording artists into the idea of recording covers of the hits of the day, mostly country music but also some rockabilly songs. Jones was no exception and called into the studio. Short of money, he agreed to throw himself into a cover of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", which was released in late January 1956 and became an instant #1 rock'n'roll hit. Jones cut the song shortly afterwards, in March, at Gold Star Studio in Houston, Texas, and his version bears some raw power, much more primitive and energetic than Presley's original, with great support by Starday house musicians Doc Lewis on piano, Hezzie Bryant on thumping bass, and Hal Harris performing an aggressive lead guitar solo.

The recording first saw release on Dixie EP #502 (as an edited, shorter version) under the name of "Thumper" Jones. To say Jones didn't like to record rock'n'roll would be an understatement - he hated it. That's why Daily came up with the name "Thumper" - in order to hide Jones' real identity. Other songs from that EP were credited to Thumper Jones, too: "Blue Suede Shoes", which was in fact recorded by Leon Payne, and "Folsom Prison Blues", which had been cut by Benny Barnes. The longer version of "Heartbreak Hotel" was eventually leased to other budget companies and therefore appeared on a plethora of labels, including Tops, Gilmar, Record-Of-The-Month-Club, and probably some more.

Daily encouraged Jones to cut his own rockabilly songs and shortly after the session for Dixie took place, Jones was back at Gold Star in March to lay down "Rock It" and "How Come It", which were released in May 1956 on Starday #240 (again credited to "Thumper" Jones). These powerful rockabilly performances later became favorites among rock'n'roll music fans but remained a dark spot for Jones and didn't sell well back then, mainly because Starday, which was strictly a country label, didn't know how to promote it properly.

George Jones promo picture, late 1950s

Although Jones never recorded songs as frantic as his rockabilly performances for Starday, he cut a slew of other rockabilly songs that, in some cases, even cracked the charts. He did more sessions for Dixie that produced cover versions, including a rendition of Johnny Horton's rockabilly hit "I'm a One-Woman Man", and later cut rockabilly for Mercury, such as "White Lightning" (a #1 hit for Jones) or "Who Shot Sam" (#7).

In later years, Jones used to dismiss his 1950s rockabilly recordings and rumour goes that he cracked a copy of Starday #240 a fan handed him to sign. The songs, however, are still in circulation on countless rockabilly compilations and several reissues that gather Jones' rockabilly songs.

Sources

• Hank Smith entry on 45cat

• Dixie Records on 45cat

• George Jones Rockin' Country Style entry

• Starday Rockin' Country Style entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• Nathan D. Gibson: "The Starday Story - The House That Country Music Built" (University Press of Mississippi), 2011, page 34-36

Paul Howard

Paul Howard and his Arkansas Cotton PickersWestern Swing's Forgotten Visionary

Paul Howard's name, largely forgotten today and only remembered by hardcore western swing fans, should be listed in the Country Music Hall of Fame but unfortunately is not. His band, the Arkansas Cotton Pickers, was the first western swing orchestra to appear regularly at the Grand Ole Opry and brought the swinging, modern sounds to the Opy's listeners. The management of the show was as conservative as it gets, ignoring trends and changing styles in country music largely but Howard was given a spot nevertheless. Many musicians passed through his band - and some of them would develop into the genre's leading session musicians.

Paul Jackson Howard was born on July 10, 1908, on a farm near Midland, Arkansas, a small town not for away from the Fort Smith metropolitan area. Although raised on traditional old-time music and a fan of Jimmie Rodgers' blues drenched version of it, Howard was one of the first rural musicians to welcome the swinging sounds of western swing that came out of Texas in the 1930s. Jon Hartley Fox called Howard a "music visionary" in his book "King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records". Howard became not only a great fan of Bob Wills but also called him a friend eventually.

At age fifteen, Howard ran away from home and moved in with his sister in Kansas. For the next two years, he worked as a construction worker in Kansas, as a coal miner in Oklohoma and finally as a copper miner in Arizona. It was in Bisbee, Arizona, where he met a black man who taught him the first chords on the guitar. This led Howard to becoming seriously interested in music and he bought a guitar and an instruction book soon after. He started out as a performer in 1931, being heard on KOY in Phoenix, Arizona. However, he returned to Oklahoma in 1933 to work as a coal miner again to earn a living. Music was still on his mind and he soon landed a steady job with a movie theater in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he performed as a Jimmie Rodgers clone during intermissions and after the movies had ended.

Billboard July 20, 1946

Following his engagement in Fort Smith, Howard hit the road, working as a traveling salesman and a radio performer at once. In 1940, he stopped in Nashville and auditioned for George D. Hay and Jack Stapps, program director of WSM, and as a result, was given not only a spot on WSM but also on the Grand Ole Opry. He was still a solo singer at that time, which likely appealed to the conservative Opry management better than a large country dance band. At that time, the Opry had become the leading country music radio show in the United States and became manifest by the early 1940s. In 1941, Howard founded a band, the "Arkansas Cotton Pickers", which became probably the first western swing outfit that regularly played the Opry and featured as much as ten musicians at some point.

During the 1940s, many musicians that later became top names in Nashville went through the Arkansas Cotton Pickers. Guitarists Billy Byrd, Hank Garland and Grady Martin, bassist Bob Moore, steel guitarists Little Roy Wiggins and Sunny Albright, vocalist Nita Lynn - all of them and many more excellent musicians performed with Howard's band and gathered important experiences.

Billboard March 2, 1946

Howard remained the only western swing act during the 1940s' Opry and became a favorite with the listeners, though he began recording not until 1946 for the independent Liberty label from North Hollywood. The session took place in early 1946 and apart from Arkansas Cotton Pickers mainstays like Jabbo Arlington (guitar), also featured a young Billy Byrd and Owen Bradley on piano. "(You Left) A Red Cross on My Heart" b/w "I've Been Lonesome Since You Went Away" (Liberty #6) were two songs Howard later re-released by King Records.

The Liberty release brought Howard to the attention of Columbia Records and his first release for the label appeared at the tail end of 1946, "Oklahoma City" b/w "Somebody Else's Trouble" (Columbia #37204). Over a stretch of two years, Columbia released a total of six singles but none of them became a national hit. In 1949, Howard signed with King and recorded another ten songs for the label from Cincinnati, although these releases did not sell better either.

In 1949, while still recording for King but frustrated with the situation, Howard decided it needed a change and moved from Nashville to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he became a steady member of the Louisiana Hayride, the Opry's competitor that was much more open for modern and innovative country music sounds. His last recording session took place in Shreveport at radio KWKH, which was released on King. Howard stayed with the Hayride until around 1951 but could not find success there either.

Billboard March 2, 1957

During these years, Howard and his band toured extensively through Louisiana, Texas, as well as Arkansas and could be heard over different radio stations. In 1956, he went into promotion, though he continued as a performer as well. He returned to Arkansas, where he fronted a band and toured the state during the 1950s and 1960s. He disbanded his band in 1973 and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1981, where he continued to book shows and to work with with a bluegrass band. He also returned to Nashville once a year for the Old Timers show and was also a member of the Country Music Association.

Paul Howard died June 19, 1984, in Little Rock, Arkansas, of heart failure. He was 75 years old. That same year, German Cattle Records released an LP with a collection of his recordings. Two CDs followed in 2010 on the TRG label and in 2013 by the British Archive of Country Music.

Sources
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• 45worlds.com/78rpm entry
• SecondHandSongs
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Steel Guitar Forum
• Find a Grave entry
• Jon Hartley Fox: "King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records" (University of Illinois Press), 2020, pages 80-81
• Max M. Cole: "Western Swing at its Best" (liner notes), Cattle LP 57

Sources for Arkansas Cotton Pickers members
• Sunny Allbright
• Jimmy Byrd
• Bob Moore
• Nita Lynn
• Little Roy Wiggins
• Grady Martin
• Hank Garland
• Rollin Sullivan

Dixie Harper on Dude

Dixie Harper and Her All Golden Drifters - I Love You More Every Minute (Dude JB-1502), ca. 1947/1948
(courtesy of Sean Hickey)

Dixie Harper was one of the few country & western women singers that emerged out of Arkansas. There were several national known singers that were born in the Natural State and raised with its culture and, therefore, music. She left the state at an early stage in her life, became known in Fort Worth, Texas, with her band during the 1940s but remained on a regional level and finally laid her career to rest.

She was born Nora Mae Harper on March 27, 1918, to William and Julia Harper. According to official census records, the Harper family was living in the Pine Bluff, Arkansas, area in 1920 so it is likely that Harper was born there. However, information on her early life is scarce. She had at least five siblings and the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, at some point between 1920 and 1930. Harper, who was known to friends as "Dixie", married a man called Terry Day in the 1930s but had divorced from him again by 1940. The couple had one son, born in 1936.

According to her daughter, Harper decided to try her luck in music after the divorce but to all accounts, she first appeared as a singer not until early 1947, when she began as a solo act. Then, she founded her own band, the Bluebonnet Boys, in summer that same year. The line-up included Harper on vocals and guitar, Durwood Tonn on fiddle, David Baker on guitar, Slim Hensley on electric guitar, and J.L. Hodges on bass. The line-up changed over the years but Durwood "Durrie" Tonn seems to have been one of the few mainstays in the band.

On August 3, 1947, the band took part on a statewide contest for amateur string bands in Dallas, Texas, and although the Bluebonnet Boys were only performing together for about two and a half months by that point, they took first place and became the "Texas State Champion Fiddle Band". Although the outfit would perform under different names in the following years, their nickname was being used frequently (in different variations, though). 

For a brief time during late 1947, the band was performing as "Dixie Harper and her All Gold Drifters", sponsored by All Gold Flour. It must have been during this time that Harper and her band were recorded for the first time. On the Dude label, which was operated by Jim Beck out of his recording studio in Dallas, they recorded "Bubble Gum" b/w "I Love You More Every Minute" (Dude #JB-1502), credited to "Dixie Harper and Her All Gold Drifters". Judging by the name, the disc must have been released in late 1947 or early 1948.

Throughout the late 1940s, Harper and her group was performing regularly in different venues, including the Hilarity Club, Stella's Dine and Dance, the famed Dessau Hall in Austin, Texas, the Cowtown Rodeo events in Fort Worth, plus radio broadcasts in the city on such stations as KCNC. Harper was also part of the first ever television broadcast out of Fort Worth, a country & western show organized by Leslie A. Hoffman, an electronic manufacturer from California who was a pioneer in country music TV shows.

Harper and the band continued to record for Jim Beck as "Dixie Harper and her Blue Bonnet Brats", released on both Jimmy Mercer's Royalty label and on the Personality label. Their recordings consisted of traditional fiddle tunes such as "Soldier's Joy" or "Boil Dem Cabbage Down", as well as of covers of the country hit of the day, including their version of Hank Williams' hit "Lovesick Blues". They also cut some radio transcriptions in 1949 for KCNC.

By September 1950, Harper and the Bluebonnet Brats had changed from KCNC to KCUL, also based in Fort Worth. Harper also appeared regularly on local WBAM-TV, including the TV play "The Crossroads Store". During the next years, it seems she took a step back and became less active in music. It seems she stopped her radio appearances in 1951 and two years later, married Donald Louis Sparks, with whom she had two children. However, they divorced in 1959.

Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1967

While her activities as a performer had ceased during the 1950s, Harper decided in the early 1960s to resume her musical career and founded an all girl band that performed for about two years in the Fort Worth area. She also appeared with Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys when they performed in the city. However, in the midst of the decade, she decided to quit altogether and became a private duty nurse, working in this field until 1995. She kept singing as a sideline, appearing with different groups in her spare time.

In 1999, her health began to decline and since 2002, she spent her last years in nursing homes in Texas and Mississippi. Dixie Harper passed away on March 7, 2007, at the age of 88 years. She is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth.

Discography

Dude JB-1502: Dixie Harper and her All Golden Drifters - Bubble Gum / I Love You More Every Minute (1947/1948)
Personality P-28/31: Dixie Harper and her Blue Bonnet Brats - Devil's Dream / Soldier's Joy
Personality P-29/30: Dixie Harper and her Blue Bonnet Brats - Boil Dem Cabbage Down / Tennessee Wagoner
Royalty P38/39: Dixie Harper and her Bluebonnet Brats - Lovesick Blues / Wabash Cannonball (ca. 1949) 

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Find a Grave entry

• 45worlds entry