Home of the Blues Records

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The United Southern Artists label

Of the many small and local labels that were founded during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s in Arkansas, the United Southern Artists label out of Hot Springs was one of the longer running and prolific record companies. Since 2010, I am trying to research the history of this record label but still, its whole background remains foggy, although I have interviewed several original recording artists over the years. The recorded output concentrated on rock’n’roll and country music, the latter became eventually the label’s main genre.

United Southern Artists, shortened to United Southern one year after its formation, was founded on March 13, 1961, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a city with a population of nearly 30,000 habitants, located in the beautiful landscape of the Ouachita Mountains, and known for its many heat springs. Contrary to many local labels in the US, which where one-man companies operated out of its owners’ houses or garages, United Southern Artists was founded on a much more professional base. Billboard reported the founding in its March 20 issue and mentioned that Burton Wilton LeMaster (1895-1970) was president of the company and Carl Friend, a songwriter from Memphis, served as its A&R manager. The imprint was not only intended for releasing music but also for managing and promoting its artists. In unison, a publishing firm was formed to handle the music catalogue: Ouachita Music. United Southern had its offices in Suite 312 in Hot Springs’ Thompson Building, built in 1913 and still one of the city’s most prominent landmarks (nowadays known as the “Waters Hotel”). Although the company was equipped with own offices, it housed no own recording facilities and therefore had to rely on capacities of such recording studios as Leo Castleberry’s local studio or Echo Studio in Memphis.

Thompson Building in Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1910s

Daily business was handed over to LeMaster and Friend but the actual owner of the company remained in the background: John Wilbur Roddie. He was born in 1903 in Poplarville, Mississippi, was living in Hot Springs by 1950 and earned his living as a songwriter, publisher, author, and entrepreneur. At one time, he was vice-president of the National Garment Manufacturing Company and owned the Roddie-Miller Publishing Company. The latter published several songs recorded for the Hot Springs based Caesar and SPA record labels by different artists (partially written by Roddie). Roddie might have been involved in these labels, too, though this is an assumption only.

Billboard March 20, 1961

Speaking of SPA Records, this was a label associated with United Southern Artists prior to the actual founding of United Southern. SPA was likely operated by local country singer, TV personality and recording studio owner Leo Castleberry and/or John Roddie. The actual ownership is unclear at its best. In fact, Castleberry recorded for the label and his first release on SPA was “Teenage Blues” b/w “Come Back to Me” (SPA #100-10) in 1960. There were a few more releases on the label that year and the following, including a single by Memphis music stalwart Eddie Bond, “Only One Minute More” b/w “I Walk Alone” (SPA #25-1001) issued around November 1960. When United Southern was established a couple of months later, its first release was comprised of Castleberry’s recordings “Teenage Blues” and “Come Back to Me” as United Southern Artists #5-101. Original copies of the SPA release have often either the original label name blacked out or “United Southern Artists” overwritten on it. It is my understanding that Castleberry’s release was considered to be potential enough for the debut release of the new Roddie-Friend-LeMaster imprint and therefore was re-released. The SPA label in turn became dormant and Castleberry even went on to work as an A&R scout for United Southern.

There was another early 1961 release by Tiny Collins, pressed by RCA in 1961 and carrying the record number 6-101. This is quite odd as the 6-prefix would not be introduced to the label's numerical system until 1964. For now, my only explanation is that the number was assigned erroneously. 

Billboard November 27, 1961

The year of 1961 saw several more releases on United Southern. There was country music by Eddie Bond (probably brought to the label through Bond’s disc on SPA) and Ray Mitcham, pop music by Little Rock TV host Steve Stephens, as well as surf/rock’n’roll/garage rock by such groups as Beau-Hannon and the Mint Juleps, Dave’s Travelers, the Uniques, among others. The label experienced a minor success with Texas based country singer Hank Milton’s “Gatling Gun” b/w “As You Were” (#5-105, July 1961). Billboard reported in its August 14 issue that “Carl Friend, a.&r. director for United Southern Artists, Hot Springs, reports that Hank Milton’s new release ‘Gatling Gun’ b.w ‘As You Were’ is making big noise on KCUL, Fort Worth; KWAM, Memphis, and KDXE, Little Rock.” This mention, however, remains the only evidence of success for this single. Another regional strong seller was the Pacers' (former backing band of Sun artist Sonny Burgess) "New Wildwood Flower" b/w "The Pace". Bobby Crafford recalled in Marvin Schwarz' book "We Wanna Boogie": "'The Pace' was probably one of the best records we did, but United Southern Artists was the worst company we ever dealt with." However, Crafford didn't explain what that meant in detail.

The label released at least a total of 14 45rpm singles during 1961, though release information on certain discs is vague only. Even one of those, United Southern Artists #5-104 by the Uniques, was released in Australia through the Strand record label. It seems that the label pressed several releases still in 1961 but issued them not until early 1962. One factor for this could have been the leaving of Burton LeMaster. Tom Luce replaced LeMaster as president in January 1962. I assume the last months of the previous year were troublesome for United Southern as there could have been a fall-out with LeMaster, which ended in his leaving. This would explain why so many releases were pressed in 1961 but held back until early 1962. This is, however, nothing but speculation on my side.

The first release of the new year was probably Geannie Flowers with “There Oughta Be a Law” b/w “Lock, Stock, and Barrel” (#5-114). It also brought a completely new label design. Instead of the plain blue labels with silver printing and the label name printed in italic font, releases from #5-117 onward carried a white label with red printing and the label’s name depicted in a red italic font (shortened to “United Southern”), rounded out with a confederate flag.

United Southern continued to release recordings by local artists but with a much lower frequency. The estimated eight releases during the year 1962 included country and bluegrass music by the Sunny Valley Boys (featuring husband-and-wife duo Leon Tidwell and Myra Collins) and the Crystal Mountain Boys, and rock’n’roll by two groups known as the Galaxies and the Thunderbirds. However, the biggest success for the label that year was probably by Ricky Durham, who cut “Mr. Were-Wolf”, a song composed by local Arkansas band leader Bobby Garrett, and a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Raining in My Heart” (#5-116). Although I could not find any hints concerning the success of the single, it caught the attention of the bigger independent label Jubilee Records, which picked it up and re-released it on its “Jubilee Country & Western” imprint.

Billboard January 19, 1963

For the year 1963, only five releases on United Southern are documented so far. As rock’n’roll was fading by then, Carl Friend concentrated on country music acts, still the predominant music style in rural Arkansas. Pauline Boyette, Bob Land, Lance Roberts, and Dale Fox (with support by Memphis’ famous vocal group, the Gene Lowery Singers) recorded for United Southern during this year, as well as James Fred Williams, who cut a gospel EP disc for the label. In January 1963, Billboard also reported that Dan Emory was signed to a recording contract but no release by him has been found so far. One of the year's more successful releases was Russ Elmore's "Black Gold" b/w "Sittin' at the Table" (#5-119) (although already pressed a year earlier), which reached the #36 spot on KREM's charts in Spokane, Washington, in April.

While early releases from the label, especially those issued in 1961, turn up quite often, it seems that later discs were pressed in less quantities as they are harder to find nowadays.
By that time, the SPA label had been reactivated and released a few discs during 1963 with the involvement of John Roddie. It seems the high hopes he had for the United Southern label were crashed and the ambitious start of the company had developed into a restrained sideline business. While both LeMaster and Friend had reported frequently to Billboard at the beginning and had sent promotional copies to both Billboard and Cash Box, they ceased their communication with trade papers already in 1962.

In 1964, the executives at United Southern introduced a new four-digit numerical system, beginning now with a 6- and starting again at 101. This system replaced the old catalog numbers, which had started at 5-101. The first release in this new series was split for two artists, Bob Millsap and Peggy DeCastro, performing “Daugie Daddy” and “The Ring from Her Finger” respectively (#6-101). At least three more releases followed in 1964, the last known being by the Tradewinds, “A Boy Named Jerry (and a Girl Named Sue)” b/w “The Heart of the Month Club” (#6-104).

If there were more releases on United Southern is possible but doubtful as none have surfaced so far. By that time, the label had vanished from trade papers like Cash Box or Billboard. It is likely that the label had come to an end by late summer 1964 as Billboard reported on August 8 that Carl Friend and former United Southern recording artist Lance Roberts had taken new jobs with Joey Sasso’s Music Makers Promotion Network in Nashville, Tennessee. Ouachita Music, the label’s publishing arm, was still in existence by 1968, then based on 125 Albert Pike in Hot Springs.

During its three-years-existence, United Southern had released around 40 different singles, extended play records, even an album, and managed – although unconsciously at the time – to preserve local music culture.

After the discontinuation of United Southern, the executives of the label went separate ways. LeMaster moved to Louisiana around 1964 following his departure from United Southern. He had been born on December 16, 1895, in Oakland City Junction, Indiana, but grew up in New York State, and died on January, 1970, in a Jackson, Mississippi, hospital. He had served his country during World War I in the US Navy.

Carl Friend remained in the music business well into the 1970s, heading various music publishing and production companies. In 1964, he moved to Nashville, where he worked with Joey Sasso’s Music Makers Production and founded his own promotion business, Carl Friend Enterprises. In the late 1960s, he had some minor success as a songwriter. Various artists recorded his compositions, including Hank Williams, Jr., and Billie Jo Spears, who had a #48 country hit with “He’s Got More Love in his Little Finger”, co-written by Friend, Mack Vickery, and Bruce Roberts. While he was based in Little Rock in 1971, Friend moved back to Memphis the following year and co-founded Rivermont Music Productions with Bobby Burns. The firm was said to release a 15 volume “History of the States” LP series but never followed through with it, which eventually caused Friend legal disputes. He also founded two soul-oriented labels, Bluff City and Plush, and became president of Memphis based Casino Records, which enjoyed moderate chart success with artists like Jimmy Dean or Vic Dana.

John Roddie remained in Hot Springs after United Southern folded and likely stayed in the music publishing business, at least until the late 1960s. He died on December 11, 1980, at the age of 77 years. He is buried at Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Hot Springs.

Leo Castleberry continued to play TV and personal appearances in and around Hot Springs. He also operated the Torch and Castletone labels and died June 9, 2016, at the age of 84 years.

Discography
5-101 – Leo Castleberry: Teenage Blues / Come Back to Me (1961)
5-102 – Ray Mitcham: Initiative / Long Lonely Nights (1961)
5-103 – Steve Stephens: Pizza Pete / How It Used to Be (1961)
5-104 – Uniques: Renegade / Malaguena (1961)
5-105 – Hank Milton: Gatling Gun / As You Were (1961)
5-106 – Eddie Bond: This Ole Heart of Mine / Second Chance (1961)
5-107 – Dave's Travelers: Traveler's Rock / Movin' (1961)
5-108 – Beau-Hannon: It’s All Over / Brainstorm (1961)
5-109 – Dean Purkiss: Chivato / Alone Without Love (1961)
5-109 – Lloyd Marley: Fade with the Tide / Ooh Poo Pah Doo (1961)
5-110 – Jimmy Forrest: Night Train / Bolo Blues (1961)
5-111 – Earl Grace: Christmas Is Just Around the Corner / Santa Town (1961)
5-112 – Pacers: New Wildwood Flower / The Pace (1961)
5-113 – Ray Mitcham - Stood Up Again / I Can't See (1961)
5-114 – Geannie Flowers: There Oughta Be a Law / Lock, Stock and Barrel (1962)
5-115 – Thunderbirds: T Bird Rock / End Over End (1962)
5-116 – Ricky Durham: Raining in My Heart / Mr. Were-Wolf (1962)
5-117 – Galaxies: It’s All Over Now / Be Mine (1962)
5-118 – Sunny Valley Boys - My Son Calls Another Man Daddy / Teardrops, Teardrops (Please Stop Falling) / Myra Collins - The Hard Way / Divorce Denied (1962)
5-119 – Russ Elmore - Black Gold / Sittin' at the Table (1962)
5-120 – Dot Beck: Ed Went a-Courtin' / When Is Tomorrow (1962)
5-121 – Crystal Mountain Boys: Homin' Heart / A-Hangin' on the Vine (1962)
5-122 –
5-123 –
5-124 –
5-125 – Ramblers: Riverside Twist / Lonely Senorita (1962)
5-126 –
5-127 –
5-128 –
5-129 –
5-130 – Pauline Boyette: Parade of Broken Hearts / Footloose (1963)
5-131 – Walter Archie: The Joke's on You / Blue Autumn (1963)
5-132 –
5-133 – Lance Roberts: It Was Fun While It Lasted / ? (1963)
5-134 – Bob Land: Down in the Valley / Lost Soul (1963)

EPs
GLP 101 – James Fred Williams - Hold on to God's Unchanging Hand / Stay with Me Jesus / I Need the Lord / Every Child of God (1963)

6-101 – Tiny Collins - In the Meantime / Acapulco (1961)
6-101 – Bob Millsap: Daugie Daddy / Peggy DeCastro: The Ring From Her Finger (1964)
6-102 –
6-103 – Dale Fox & the Gene Lowery Singers - It Can't Be True / Call Me Again (1964)
6-104 – The Tradewinds - A Boy Named Terry (and a Girl Named Sue) / The Heart of the Month Club (1964)

LPs
LP 101 - Betty Fowler Four – 4 to Go (1962)

See also
• United Southern Artists discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records
• SPA Records discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records
• The Thunderbirds from El Reno, Oklahoma
• Merry Christmas! Earl Grace - Christmas Is Just Around the Corner
• The Sunny Valley Boys on United Southern

• Beau-Hannon and the Mint Juleps

Sources
• 45cat entry
• SPA 45cat entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Discogs entries for United Southern Artists and United Southern
• Find a Grave entry for Burton LeMaster, John Roddie, and Carl Friend
• Marvin Schwartz: "We Wanna Boogie: The Rockabilly Roots of Sonny Burgess and the Pacers (University of Arkansas Presss), 2014, page 154
• various Billboard issues
• Special thanks to those who provided additional discographical information: Johan L, Rocky Lane, DL, Ken Clee of the "Directory of American 45 RPM Records", Franck, and Bob

Zay-Dee Records

Southern Psych from the Zay-Dee label

Zay-Dee Records was the creation of DJ and radio engineer George "Gee" Whitaker, who came to Batesville, Arkansas, around 1963. Previously, he had been a rock'n'roll DJ on the powerful KSEL station in Lubbock, Texas, but his wife Doris originally hailed from Batesville, which took him north to the Natural State.

George Whitaker at KSEL, 1962
(from the back cover
of a Zay-Dee 207 reissue)

Whitaker took a job with KBTA as the station's studio and transmitter engineer. A year later, he decided to try his luck in the record business and set up Zay-Dee Records. The label's name derived from Isaiah "Zay" Dee Whooten, another DJ on KSEL. Whitaker fell in love with that name and apart from his label, also named his second child the same way. Whitaker's job at KBTA was wasn't well paid (he had to drive an ambulance part-time) but soon, a better opportunity came along when Whitaker's father bought KHOZ in Marianna, Arkansas, where he became general manager around 1966.

One of Whitaker's first productions was a record by the Marauders called "Bugg to the Road Runner" (Part 1 and 2), a live recording made at the Arkansas College. Another early single was by Jimmy Payne and the Jokers, an Arkansas rock'n'roll combo that had already recorded for the Bro-Ket label. Payne would go on to release further singles throughout the 1960s.

Zay-Dee became a favorite among record collectors decades later for psychedelic and garage rock jewels like the Paragons' "Black and Blue" or Suspension of Belief with "LSD". The latter's original master was mixed with an opera recording and sound effects by Whitaker (without informing the band) and while it became a favorite among nowadays psychedelic fans, it was dismissed by the group when the members received their copies.

By the late 1960s, Whitaker had moved back to Lubbock, where he released the final disc on Zay-Dee by Gabriel with the Seven Inch Reel. Afterwards, the label was laid to rest and Whitaker continued to work in radio (which he did at least until 2014). Some of the Zay-Dee recordings turned up on a compilation series entitled "Lost Souls", containing rare psychedelic tracks from Arkansas and compiled by Harold Ott. The track "LSD" was also used in the independent movie production "Jane Mansfield's Car".

See also:

• Zay-Dee discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records

• Jimmy Doyle Payne on Alley

Sources

• Harold Ott: "Psych of the South: the Suspension of Belief's 'LSD'" (Arkansas Times), 2014

• Harold Ott: "Psych of the South: the Paragons' 'Black and Blue'" (Arkansas Times), 2014

• 45cat entry

Eddie Bond on Tagg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See also

• Eddie Bond discography

• That Million Dollar Memphis Sound: Eddie Bond's Millionaire and Western Lounge labels

• Tagg Records on Arkansas 45rpm Records

Sources

• "You've Just Stepped In (From Stepping Out on Me)" Wikipedia article

Hank Harral and Caprock Records

The Big Beat from Big Spring

Hank Harral's Caprock Records

Among the many small labels that were scattered across Texas in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Caprock Records became one of the more prominent in later years. Its rockabilly and rock'n'roll recordings brought the label to the rockabilly revival fans' attention and resulted in White Label Records' 1981 compilation "Tank Town Boogie", which brought the label to a wider audience for the first time.

Caprock was one of several small West Texas labels - among them Gaylo Records (owned by Ben Hall), Bo-Kay Records (owned by Jesse Smith), and the Edmoral and Winston labels (owned by Slim Willet) - that emerged during the mid to late 1950s and captured the music and sounds of an era when country music was still deep-rooted in the region but rock'n'roll had certainly left an impact on the rural audiences. Moreover, the music and its lyrics represented the everyday life of the people that more than often was influenced by the booming oil industry.

Early Life of Hank Harral
The person behind Caprock Records was Hank Harral, a musician, composer and radio DJ. When Harral founded Caprock Records, he was already in his mid-forties. He was born Shallie A. Harral on September 2, 1913, in the small town of Albion, Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, near the tri-state area where the state borders of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas meet. Although Harral would spent most of his life in the Texas-New Mexico border region, he was always proud to be a "son of Oklahoma", a feeling he would later incorporate in his songs (such as "Oklahoma Land"). As a child, Harral was heavily influenced and fascinated by radio and therefore, it was no surprise that he later started a career in radio. Following the death of his mother, Harral moved to Corsicana, Texas, to stay with his grandmother, though this only lasted for a short time. In 1926, Harral moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he lived with his uncle, and two years later, at the age of 15 years, Harral had taken up the guitar and first appeared on radio stations KGRS (billed as "The Happy Yodeler") and KDAG. Later, he became known as "Hank the Cowhand" due to the cowboy songs he performed on air. Although living in different places during his life, Harral made his home base in West Texas and East New Mexico henceforth.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Harral performed with several groups, however details are sketchy so it could be that the following information is messed up. At KGRS, Harral got his own radio show and founded his own band, the Air Sweet Boys. Afterwards, a stint in Clovis, New Mexico, followed, where he first took a job at KICA as an announcer in 1933 and also worked at KSIG both as an artist and as an announcer. In addition, he performed with a band called the Texas Wranglers during this time. In 1947, he moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he found work with KSEL and became the station's program director.

Hank Harral, ca. 1950s
from the back cover of White Label WLP8831

First recordings in Lubbock
Harral not only appeared on local radio, he also began a career as a recording artist in the late 1940s. He had written several songs previously and in 1947, he decided it was time to record some of his own material. With a band called the Plains Riders, which included Lee Searsy on vocals and rhythm guitar, Clyde Perkins on lead guitar, Duke Baker on fiddle, and Tollie Stephenson on bass, Harral recorded six songs, all of which remained unreleased at the time, however. Another session two or three years later produced another four unissued tapes. Harral had also recorded a mysterious, earlier session around 1948 with Merl Lindsay and the Oklahoma Nightriders but details or any tapes have been lost over the years.

Finally, Star Talent Records from Dallas took some of Harral's recordings from a 1950 session and released them on 78rpm format. Billboard reported in June 1950 that Harral had signed with the label and mentioned previous recordings for Modern Records (though this seems to be a mistake). Credited to "Hank Harral and his Palomino Cowhands", "Dream Band Boogie" b/w "Dilly Dally Boogie" made up the first release on Star Talent #760. Harral was clearly influenced by the boogie craze that was going through country music in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His boogie oriented material did not only reflect the trends in country music at that time, it also foreshadowed the rockabilly and rock'n'roll music that would evolve a couple of years later.

Two more records appeared by Harral on Star Talent, including the noteworthy Korean War themed "When They Raised the U N Flag in South Korea" and another boogie number, "Red Barn Boogie" (a song Harral had recorded earlier but stayed unreleased). Another single followed for the small Tanner label in 1951 or 1952, before Harral took a break from recording.

Billboard December 16, 1950

The first half of the 1950s saw Harral work with several radio stations. In early 1951, he switched from KSEL in Lubbock to KTFY in Brownsfield, Texas, but changed stations again in May that year, airing over KWFT, Wichita Falls, Texas. He did not work there long, though, and moved to KCLV, Clovis, New Mexico around fall 1952. By March 1956, he could be heard over a little station out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, called KGRT.

The Big Beat on Caprock
Harral transferred to Big Spring, Texas, in early 1957, where he worked for KHEM, the only full-time country music station in that area. He presented the "Hank Harral Show" and the "Howard County Hoedown", two disc jockey segments (although Harral preferred the term "announcer"). After a break of five to six years from recording, Harral decided to set up his own record label, Caprock Records, which came into existence in 1957. The name derived from the Llano estacado, a mesa in the eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas areas, that also reached as far as Big Spring. The mesa is sometimes also simply called "Caprock".

Billboard June 24, 1956

The label was likely intended to serve as a vehicle to release Harral's own material (of 16 released discs, four were by Harral and he likely participated in more of them as a musician). However, he soon also found other local talent to record and release on Caprock. It fitted quite well for Harral that Ben Hall operated his Hi Fidelity House studio out of Big Spring, which served as a recording facility for many of the Caprock releases. Many of the recordings made for Caprock included the studio's usual session musicians, including Weldon Myrick on lead or steel guitar, Red Stone on rhythm guitar, and Ben Hall's wife Dina on bass.

The debut release of his new label comprised two of his own recordings, "Fabulous Oklahoma" b/w  "(There's a) Picture In My Heart" (#100), issued in late 1957. Although the label released only 16 discs over a three-year stretch, the output reflected local Texas music trends and tastes: dance halls' western swing, oilfield honky-tonk, and even rockabilly and rock'n'roll trenched material. West Texas western swing band leader Hoyle Nix had a total of three releases on the label, Jimmy Simpson recorded one of his infamous odes to the Texas oilfields, and releases like Durwood Daly's "That's the Way It Goes" (a Johnny Cash styled rockabilly song) or Max Alexander's "Rock, Rock, Rock, Everybody" represented the ongoing rock'n'roll craze. Harral even took a nod in the same direction with his "Tank Town Boogie", though performance and material could have been done eight to ten years earlier. In fact, "Tank Town Boogie" became probably both Harral's and the label's most popular song, as the boogie drenched piece also appeals to rockabilly collectors and became a prime example for oilfield folklore.

Max Alexander's plain but effective "Rock, Rock, Rock Everybody" from late 1959 marked the last release on the label and Harral closed Caprock in 1960.

Later years
Harral continued to work with radio stations in New Mexico and Texas after shutting down Caprock. However, he never made further commercial recordings. He moved across the border to New Mexico at some point in his later life and, although being old enough to retire, was working at a station in Roswell by 1984, doing shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Radio had remained his passion all of his life. He also served as secretary in the local Roswell Musicians' Union. In 1981, Cees Klop of Collector Records in the Netherlands had released a 15 tracks LP called "Tank Town Boogie", compiling some of the highlights of Caprock's output. If Harral was aware of this reisssue is not known.

Hank Harral died December 28, 1985, at the age of 72 years. He and his wife Shauna are buried at Mission Garden of Memories Cemetery in Clovis, New Mexico. In 2010, the British Archive of Country Music released a CD containing Harral's complete solo recordings, including his unreleased material from the late 1940s.

See also:

• Hoyle Nix on Caprock

• Jimmy Haggett on Caprock

Recommended reading

• Hank Harral with the Plains Riders and his Palomino Cowhands (BACM CD)
• Joe W. Specht: Oil Patch Songs from the Permian Basin, Part 2" (Permian Basin Petroleum Association Magazine), 2014

Sources

• Entry at Texas State Historical Association

• Caprock Records entry at Rockin' Country Style

• Entries at 45cat, 45worlds 78rpm and 45worlds vinyl albums

• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• Entry at Find a Grave

• Sheena B. Stief, Kristen L. Figgins, Rebecca Day Babcock: "Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and from the West Texas Oilpatch" (University of Oklahoma Press), pages 161-163, 2021

• Joe Carr, Alan Munde: "Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas" (Texas Tech University Press), pages 74-76, 1997
• Phillip J. Tricker: "Hank Harral with the Plain Riders & his Palomino Cowhands" (British Archive of Country Music), liner notes, 2010

Atomic Records

Hayloft Frolic and Rural Rockabilly on Atomic

Main Street in Jackson, Tennessee, ca. 1910

After some ventures into other fields of Southern music, we return to our little series about small Tennessee based labels and continue with a record company from one of the true birthplaces of rockabilly music: Jackson, Tennessee. The city is best remembered in music history as the birthplace of Carl Perkins but moreover, had a lively country and rockabilly music scene during the late 1940s and 1950s.

One of the record labels that turned out local recordings was Atomic Records, which was operated by singer Curley Griffin's father, about whom nothing is known, unfortunately. The company came into existence in 1955 and mainly served as an outlet to release Curley Griffin's own recordings.

Advertisement for a show
at the Jackson Armory
featuring lots of local talent.
The Jackson Sun, June 30, 1954

Early Life of Curley Griffin
Malcolm Howard "Curley" Griffin was born on June 6, 1918, likely in the growing town of Jackson, Tennessee, in Madison County. For long, only snippets of information were available on Griffin, which changed not until 1994, when an article by Claes-Håkan Olofsson appeared in American Music Magazine. With the help of Griffin's son Ron and Carl Perkins, Olofsson had reconstructed Griffin's career. Griffin was born with only limited eye-sight, son Ron later claimed his father had only ten percent vision. Griffin attended a school for the blind and soon became interested in music. His heroes were Bob Wills, Slim Whitman, and of course Hank Williams. In school, Griffin had some fiddle playing lessons but eventually took up the guitar, which became "his" instrument.

Due to his bad vision, it was hard for Griffin to earn a living with a usual day job, although he helped his father Watt Lee Griffin (who worked as a traveling salesman but also obviously had other occupations), building houses in the eastern part of Jackson. However, music became a major income for Griffin and by the 1940s, he fronted a country music band and had adopted the nickname "Curley" for performing purposes (most likely due to his curly hair). Likely by that time, he had already married Jimmie Helen Frasier Dunbar, who also appeared with his various bands and with whom he eventually had eight children. By 1940, Griffin lived on 778 East Chester Street in the south of Jackson, judging from a Jackson Sun newspaper clipping from October 30 that year.

By the late 1940s or early 1950s, Griffin and his band had a 15 minutes radio spot over local WDXI, where he was in good company, as artists like Carl Perkins and his brothers or Ramsey Kearney were also performing on the same station. It was there that Griffin first met Perkins, with whom he became friends and would write two hit songs. Perkins remembered Griffin singing in a Hank Williams style, being only limited in singing but very enthusiastic. 

The Founding of Atomic Records
In 1955, Griffin's father Watt, who seems to have been a kind of an entrepreneur, became interested in the recording business and therefore, set up Atomic Records. The label would mainly serve as an outlet to release Watt Griffin's son Curley's recordings and was possibly set up due to the lack of independent record labels in the city. In fact, Atomic was the first of several labels that emerged out of Jackson, releasing records by local bands. Other Jackson based labels would not come into business until the founding of Jimmie Martin's Jaxon label and Lamarr Davis'/Lonnie Blackwell's Lu imprint two years later.

According to Dave Travis' liner notes to his Stomper Time CD "Hot Rockin' Music from Tennessee, Volume 2", the first two recordings for the label were made by Curley Griffin in Nashville, Tennessee. "Gotta Whip This Bear" and "Just for Me" came from this session and featured Griffin's son Ron on lead guitar. They were released around fall 1955 on Atomic #300, pressed only on 78rpm format. After the record's release, Carl Perkins later recalled, Griffin came visiting him with his record, obviously enthusiastic about his debut release, and Perkins approved it.

Griffin followed up his debut with "I've Seen It All" b/w "Magic Moon" (Atomic #302), which were again two straight country music performances. There are no sales figures reported but it is likely Griffin's disc did not sell much as Atomic was strictly a local label.

Sheet music for Carl Perkins' "Boppin' the Blues".
From the collection of Steve Palfrey.

Boppin' the Blues and Dixie Fried
In the meantime, Griffin's friend Carl Perkins had made his way to Memphis, Tennessee, and had secured a recording contract with Sam Phillips' Sun record label. In late 1955, Perkins recorded "Blue Suede Shoes", a song that became a smash rockabilly hit in early 1956. Griffin was captured by the new sound that Perkins performed, wrote "Boppin' the Blues" and showed Perkins the results. Perkins in turn liked what he saw and "picked out a line or two that he had", arranging the song around Griffin's lines that Perkins thought were good. Though songwriting credits went to Perkins and Griffin, it is doubtful if Griffin was ever paid appropriately, although Perkins paid him a few hundred dollars in advance. The song eventually reached #9 on Billboard's C&W charts and #70 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Another song of Griffin's that was recorded by Perkins was "Dixie Fried", a tune with its lyrics based on the raw honk-tonk culture of the south that both Griffin and Perkins were experiencing in and around Jackson. Perkins turned it into a slice of hard-egded honky-tonk rockabilly and while the song became a disappointment in contrast to "Blue Suede Shoes" (peaking at #10 C&W and no entry into the Hot 100), it became some kind of a rockabilly anthem for later generations of rockabilly music fans.

Griffin's Got Rockin' On His Mind
While Perkins became famous nation-wide, appeared on TV but also had to struggle with the dark side of fame, Griffin remained in Jackson. Inspired by Perkins' cat music, Griffin recorded "You Gotta Play Fair", a fast rockabilly with an unmistakably rural charm, which was released on Atomic #303 with "Love Is a Wonderful Thing" on the flip side at some point during the year of 1956.

As Griffin's career in music was closely associated with Carl Perkins, rumors circulated ever since the rediscovering of Griffin's recordings that Perkins played lead guitar on some of the Atomic recordings. Griffin's most popular song to date became "Got Rockin' on My Mind", another backwoods rockabilly song, that was released in early 1957 with the bluesy and equally primitive "Rock Bottom Blues" on Atomic #305. Again, there are people insisting that Perkins played guitar on both tracks but there are no evidences Perkins played on any of Griffin's tracks. Ron Griffin claimed he was the lead guitarist on his father's last two releases (Atomic #303 and #305) and W.S. Holland, drummer with Perkins at that time, never knew Griffin made any recordings. Perkins, however, mentioned in an interview that "Rockin' on My Mind" was recorded at WDXI with himself and his two brothers, a statement that was not confirmed by any other close associate of either Perkins or Griffin.

Rex Hale and the End of Atomic
The definitive answer to this question will probably never turn up and we rather continue the story of Atomic Records, which is near its end, however. The last known release on the label was recorded by a country band known as Rex Hale and his Tennessee Valley Boys, who cut "A Hobo Life" (a rather pre-rockabilly style country traveling song) as well as "Traded My Freedom", a Curley Griffin composition. Rex G. Hale (1927-1968) had another record out on the misspelled Rythm record label from Nashville, Tennessee, recorded with the equally misspelled Rythm Masters. "Down at Big Mama's House", likely inspired by the minor R&B standard "Down at Big Mary's House", and "Darn Dem Bones" had the same rural charm that Curley Griffin's and Hale's Atomic recordings had, although his Rythm disc finds Hale in up-tempo form. Hale originated likely from a small place outside of Jackson and is buried in Mifflin, Chester County, not far away from the city.

Later years of Curley Griffin
Hale's charming country performance was the last (known) release on Atomic and it is likely that Griffin's father shut down the label soon after. His son Curley had limited success in the late 1950s as a songwriter, composing a few songs that were recorded by other artists. Jerry Jeter recorded Griffin's "Blue River" and "I'm Writing the End" for the Fort Worth, Texas, based Bluebonnet label and Tony Snyder cut another two of his tunes for the local, Jackson based, Westwood label, "They Call It Puppy Love" and "Fool for Jealousy". Although Griffin was described by Carl Perkins as a busy songwriter, his skills in this field were limited. He will always be remembered as being the co-writer of "Boppin' the Blues" and "Dixie Fried", although his contribution to both songs can be regarded as rather marginal

Griffin had to fight health problems during his later years and eventually lost a battle with cancer on October 1, 1970, at the age of 52 years.

Discography

300: Curley Griffin - Gotta Whip This Bear / Just for Me (1955)
301: 
302: Curley Griffin - I've Seen It All / Magic of the Moon (1955)
303: Curley Griffin - You Gotta Play Fair / Love Is a Wonderful Thing (1956)
304: 
305: Curley Griffin - Got Rockin' On My Mind / Rock Bottom Blues (1957)
306:
307: Rex Hale and his Tennessee Valley Boys - A Hobo Life / Traded My Freedom (ca. 1957)

Note: The matrix numbers of #302 and #307 suggest that they were recorded/mastered around the same time.

Sources

• Claes-Håkan Olofsson: "Curly Was a Good Friend of Mine" (American Music Magazine #62, 1994), reproduction of the AMM article on bopping.org

• Find a Grave entry for Curley Griffin

• Find a Grave entry for Tommy Griffin

• 45cat and 45worlds entry for Atomic Records

• Rockin' Country Style entry for Atomic Records
• The Jackson Sun, October 30, 1940, page 6

New Star and Gaylord Records

New Star and Gaylord (Goodlettsville, Tennessee)
Pamper Music and Its Labels

In our little series spotlighting smaller Tennessee based record labels, the New Star and Gaylord labels were a bit different compared to the other companies we have documented. New Star and its sister label Gaylord belonged to Pamper Music, one of Nashville's hottest music publishing firms in the early 1960s. Therefore, this is not only a story about these record labels but also about Pamper as well. Much has been written about Pamper and its staff songwriters like Hank Cochran, Harlan Howard, and Willie Nelson but little attention has been paid to the two labels that were founded to handle not only the publishing rights to songs but also to release the recordings independently. Many future Nashville stars recorded for these outlets but chart success largely eluded both companies.

The Founding of Pamper Music
In order to explore the activities of New Star and Gaylord Records, we have to go back in time to the founding of Pamper Music. The founding date of Pamper is usually given as 1959. Though, the roots of the publishing firm run back to summer 1955. Claude Caviness, a baker from Rivera (now Pico Rivera, Los Angeles), California, and turned record producer, had started his Pep label that year but initially relied on song material for the first two releases that was published by American Music. Caviness' wife, who went by the stage name Marilyn Kaye, was a singer (though not a good one) and Caviness was looking for a hit for her. Ralph Mooney, at that time already a well-known steel guitarist in California's country music scene and acquaintance of Caviness', suggested to establish also a publishing arm to handle original material. In addition, Mooney brought in his compositions "Crazy Arms", which he had written along with befriended songwriter Chuck Seals, as the firm's first work. Caviness took the name Pamper from a shampoo company tube he noticed in a bathroom. Pamper Music was born.

Billboard May 21, 1955

In the summer of 1955, Caviness brought his wife, along with Pep recording artist Kenny Brown and Brown's Arkansas Ramblers in the studio to cut a duet version of "Crazy Arms." Coupled with the Seals composition "Throw a Little Wood in the Fire" as a solo performance by Kenny Brown, the disc appeared in June 1955 on Pep #102. Despite Kaye's limited vocal abilities, "Crazy Arms" gained some airplay, especially on WALT in Tampa, Florida, from DJ Bob Martin. Martin played the song to Ray Price, who in turn recorded the song in 1956 for Columbia and turned it into his first #1 country hit. Many cover versions were cut over the years, including one by Jerry Lee Lewis, who recorded the song at Sun Records for his debut release. 

"Crazy Arms" did not only support its writers Ralph Mooney and Chuck Seals with a lifelong financial income but must have also boosted Pamper Music's financial situation. Caviness continued to operate Pep and Pamper out of Rivera and recorded several local artists, including Buck Owens. However, the years 1956-1958 are only sketchy documented. It was probably not until late 1958 that Ray Price and James H. "Hal" Smith, a Nashville based fiddler and booking agent, decided to join the venture. The official founding date is given as January 1, 1959, by Kent Henderson in the CMA's Encyclopedia of Country Music book.

Pamper Moves to Music City, U.S.A.
Hal Smith had played in various bands before, including Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys and Carl Smith's Tunesmiths (along with his wife Velma, who was a studio musician herself). With Smith and Price being Nashville based, therefore headquarters of Pamper moved to 119 Two Miles Pike in Goodlettsville, twenty miles north of Nashville, where Hal Smith owned a small building. Caviness' own headquarters on 9652 Winchell Street in Rivera served as the company's West Coast office. In 1959, Pamper signed country music singer Hank Cochran to a songwriting contract. Cochran had started his career in 1955 with Eddie Cochran as the Cochran Brothers and was living in California at that time. He moved to Nashville in January 1960 and discovered another young but failing singer-songwriter at the infamous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge: Willie Nelson. The latter presented Pamper with its first Nashville era hit: "Four Walls", recorded by Faron Young. With such additions as Nelson and Harlan Howard to its roster, Pamper developed into Nashville's hottest music publisher in the early 1960s. Cochran and Howard's "I Fall to Pieces", recorded by Patsy Cline, or "Crazy", from the pen of Willie Nelson and also recorded by Cline, became two more chart stormers.

Billboard December 31, 1960

New Star and Gaylord
Soon after Pamper Music took off, the owners decided to expand their activities in the music business by forming their own record labels. Obviously, Caviness' Pep label in Rivera was not considered to be a proper outlet for releasing own productions. Pampers' move to establish labels on their own was clever but by no means was the company the only music publisher in Nashville with this strategy. Acuff-Rose had founded Hickory Records already in the 1950s and such rivals as Cedarwood or Tree would follow the same path. The publishers were eager to gain more control in the recording process, artistically but moreover financially. It is profitable to publish a hit song - but it is even more profitable to put it out on disc on its own.

Billboard November 3, 1962

Billboard December 15, 1962

Billboard February 9, 1963

The first of the two labels was New Star. While the founding of Gaylord has been documented in the press very well, the New Star label was largely ignored and we have no insight in its creation therefore. It is even uncertain if the label was a direct subsidiary of Pamper but it is obvious that the companies were somehow associated. It appears that the first known New Star release came out in 1961 by Buck Owens. An overdubbed version of his rockabilly favorite "Hot Dog" b/w "Sweethearts in Heaven" appeared on the label (New Star #6418). The recordings were obviously drawn from Claude Caviness' catalog, as they both first appeared in 1956 on his Pep label.

Ginger Callahan followed up with "A Sinful Soul" b/w "In Love Out of Love" (New Star #6419). Both songs were composed by Callahan and no need to say that they were published by Pamper. New Star released more singles until at least 1969 without much notice from the press, including recordings by such more famous artists as Dave Dudley, Chuck Howard, and David Price, among others. From 1966 onward, steel guitarist Howard White, who had turned to song plugging, promoting and publishing since 1964, was in charge of production for the label.

In contrast to the silent live of New Star, Gaylord Records was created with much more fanfare in late 1962. On November 3, 1962, Jack Maher reported in Billboard that "[...] Pamper Music and its affiliate Gaylord Music have signed a deal with Monument Records to produce and distribute disks. The deal is being negotiated between Pamper-Gaylord topper Hal Smith and Monument President Fred Foster. The label has tentatively been named Gaylord Records and first product will probably be issued around the first of the year. [...]" 

The first release on Gaylord appeared (contrary to what was written in above mentioned Billboard article) already in November 1962 by Linda Manning, "Johnny Kiss and Tell" b/w "Thanks a Lot for Everything" (Gaylord #6425). The disc was reviewed by both Billboard and Cash Box in December but was not mentioned in the various reports that Billboard carried in late 1962 and early 1963. This honor went to Hank Cochran's "Yesterday's Memories" b/w "When You Gotta Go (You Gotta Go)" (Gaylord #6426), which was announced in Billboard's February 9 issue to hit the store shelves around February 15, 1963.

Billboard April 16, 1966

During the years 1963 and 1964, recordings by Manning, Cochran, and David Price and others appeared on Gaylord. Rusty York's rendition of "Sally Was a Good Old Girl", written by Harlan Howard of Pamper, was released on both New Star and Gaylord. Billboard reported on this issue: "Pamper Music's Hal Smith, who also operates Gaylord Records, Monument affiliate, has acquired the  Rusty York master on Newstar label of 'Sally Was a Good Old Girl'. It was released this week through Monument." This brings me to the question if New Star was a Pamper affiliate at all? Nevertheless, it would be too coincidental that all New Star releases carried song material published by Pamper, shared the same numerical system as Gaylord for some time, and was located in Goodlettsville.

Claude Caviness left Pamper in the mid 1960s, which caused the company to lose its West Coast office. As a replacement, Hal Smith worked out an agreement with Joe Allison from Los Angeles, also owner of his own publishing firm Nashville Music (although much smaller than Pamper at that time), and new offices were opened in April 1966.

The End of New Star and Gaylord
The high hopes never materialized into record sales, at least almost none of the issued discs on New Star or Gaylord reached Billboard's C&W charts. The only one hitting the charts was Hank Cochran's "A Good Country Song" (Gaylord #6431, #25) in 1963. 

In the spring of 1968, another of Pamper's original founders turned his back on the company. Ray Price sold his 43 percent of shares to the company's staff writers Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran. Also remaining with Pamper were Hal Smith and R.B. Parker, the latter being the attorney for the company. Apart from New Star and Gaylord, Pamper had acquired Bobby Bobo's Boone record label out of Union, Kentucky, in 1968. Boone released discs until summer 1969.

Billboard April 13, 1968

While Gaylord was already discontinued in late 1963 or 1964, New Star Records kept on releasing discs until 1970. By then, Pamper had been taken over by Tree International Publishing, losing its independence in April 1969. New Star's last few releases were produced already under Tree's ownership and supervision. With Tree acquiring Pamper, all compositions went over into Tree's catalog and are now part of Sony/ATV.

In the 1980s, Hal Smith sold the property at 119 Two Miles Pike. The building was subsequently used as an animal hospital but was demolished in 1994 in favor of a new building for the hospital that suited the purpose better. Shortly before, Hank Cochran acquired the gear out of the building's garage, in which Willie Nelson had written one of Pamper's top hits, "Hello Walls". Nelson had recorded a slew of demos of his songs while signed to Pamper. These tapes were finally released in 2018 on a CD entitled "The Pamper Demos".

Many of the key figures of Pamper/Gaylord/New Star have already passed away, so it is difficult to document the history of these companies in detail. Hal Smith died September 2008 at age 84. Hank Cochran followed in 2010 and Ray Price in 2013. Claude Caviness is probably no longer with us, too, although details escape us on this issue. The only surviving person would be Willie Nelson. So, Willie, or anyone else out there who worked with Pamper, share your memories with us!

Discography

• See entries on 45cat of both Gaylord and New Star for comprehensive discographies.

Sources

• Various Billboard issues (see depicted articles)
• Country Music Hall of Fame: The Encyclopdia of Country Music (Oxford University Press, 2012), page 403
• Michael Kosser: How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A. (Hal Leonard, 2006), pages 71-74

• Rockin' Country Style

• Find a Grave entry for Hal Smith

• Gaylord and New Star entries on Discogs

• Nashville Musical History Tour Facebook page

• Hank Cochran on hillbilly-music.com

• Ralph Mooney Wikipedia entry

See also

• Hank Cochran picture gallery

• Willie Nelson: Things to Remember - The Pamper Demos

• Country Music Hall of Fame: Photo of Hoyt Scoggins, Claude Caviness and Pauline Parker