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

Marvin McCullough on Boyd

Marvin McCullough - Mayby My Baby (Boyd BB-3383), 1961

Tulsa has been a city full of music for long and it was especially a hot bed for western swing music since the 1930s, mainly due to the presence of Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys and the various bands that developed out of it, led by Wills companions like his brother Johnnie Lee Wills or his former steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe. One of Tulsa's later stars was singer and DJ Marvin McCullough, who enjoyed great popularity in the area in the early 1960s.

McCullough was born on September 13, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama, and collected his first experiences in the radio business on Alabama stations WGAD out of Gadsden and on WANA in Anniston. Nothing else is known about this early stage in his career.

Probably his first recordings were made in the mid 1950s with the Acme record label from Manchester, Kentucky. Today, the label is best remembered for its traditional bluegrass, gospel, and country music releases and it is probable that McCullough's first sides were in a similar style. Acme #1210 was his first release and coupled "I Think I'm Falling in Love with You" with "I Can't Tell My Heart". It was followed by Acme #1215, two religious song performed with support by the Keck Brothers, "The Bible in Song" b/w "My Lord Is Coming Home from Heaven". Although these cuts seem to be McCullough's earliest recordings, no exact release date has been documented or can be traced as Acme releases are hard to date.

In 1950, McCullough joined the staff of KWHN in Fort Smith, Arkansas, near the Arkansas-Oklahoma state border. He remained with the station for five years but also had a very popular morning program in 1953-1954 on KFSA in Fort Smith. In 1955, switched to KRMG in Tulsa, which broadcast out of Leon McAuliffe's Cimarron Ballroom. By 1958, McCullough was appearing regularly with Gene Mooney's Westernaires, a local Tulsa western swing combo that was around for many years, appearing in Northeastern Oklahoma and Northwestern Arkansas. McCullough formed his own band in 1961.

By the early 1960s, McCullough had become the top country music DJ in town. By then, he performed western swing, the predominant style in that region. Billy Parker, steel guitarist and band leader himself, remembered that at one time in the early 1960s, McCullough had three shows daily: one in the morning, a lunchtime show (a slot he had taken over from Leon McAuliffe), and a midnight show. "People would come in as a studio audience and watch him when he was on the radio. The studio room probably had seats for 40 people, but there was never enough room. People would standing around against the walls. Even on his midnight show, he had a studio full," remembered Ira "Rocky" Caple, McCullough's steel guitarist and band leader in his own right, in a 1990s interview with John Wooley.

In 1961, McCullough began recording for local Oklahoma labels, first for Carl Blankenship's Razorback label from Muskogee, located near Tulsa. Blankenship had been a DJ on KWHN in Fort Smith, too (McCullough knew him likely through their mutual days at the station), and had booked Mooney and the Westernaires into several places during the late 1950s. McCullough and his band released "Bitter Tears", sung by Jimmy Hall, and "Sawed Off Shot Gun", an instrumental spotlighting the steel guitar skills of Rocky Caple. 

Billboard May 15, 1961, C&W review

His most popular record came that same year with a song called "Just for a Little While", which saw release in May on the Boyd label (#BB-3383) from Oklahoma City. Both the A side and the B side, "Mayby My Baby", were written by successful songwriter Eddie Miller. "Just for a Little While" was a top seller and saw national distribution by United Artists. Following the success, Boyd released another single by McCullough in 1961.

Billboard November 6, 1961

Capitol Records, which had a noteworthy country roster with the likes of Buck Owens, Ferlin Husky, Tommy Collins, Hank Thompson, Wanda Jackson, and many more, saw enough potential in McCullough to sign him to a recording contract. Though, only two records without significant success saw the light of day on the label. The first came out around September 1962, comprising "Just Inside Your Arms" and "Where Else Could I Go" (Capitol #4820) from a May or June 1962 session. A November session the same year remained unreleased and McCullough's next single was not released until August the next year, "Stranger In My Arms" b/w "'If' Is a Mighty Big Word" (Capitol #5030). For most of the material, McCullough relied on Eddie Miller's songwriting talents.

The unsuccessful run at Capitol seems to have stopped McCullough's career as a recording artist but he continued to work as a DJ. He began working for KFMJ (Tulsa) in 1968 and worked as the station's music director.

In 1971 or 1972, McCullough returned to Alabama and continued to work in radio. "I believe Marvin came to Anniston, Alabama, because his parents were retired there," remembered Fred Azbell, who was a 22 years young radio DJ in the early 1970s, and whom I found through my researches on McCullough. While Azbell was the nighttime announcer on the station, McCullough took over the afternoon shift. Azbell continued: "I got to know Marvin when I worked with him at WANA in Anniston [...]. He had a really wild lifestyle and could not maintain his pace without help from amphetamines. He made more money doing radio remote broadcasts than most people made all week in radio. He was a born entertainer. I was only about 21 or 22 in those days and I always got a kick out of his stories of working in Tulsa."

McCullough played ocassional gigs in Anniston but obviously had stopped recording. "He had lots of old recordings on the Capitol label. He would always claim they were a brand new release, though it was obvious that they were old," Azbell recalls. McCullough's life would take a serious turn, when he went to jail in 1975, as he had shot WANA morning announcer Randy Carter at a gas station between Anniston and Oxford late one night. Apparently, he did not spent too much time behind prison bars: "I have no idea how he beat that attempted murder charge. [...] He was definitely in jail for a while. I don't know the whole story but a mutual friend visited him in jail in Talladega and said he was in pretty bad shape," retells Azbell the story. "I have no idea where he went after that," he concludes.

McCullough was out already the following year and continued to work as a DJ. Though, he had to change stations and wound up on WKSJ in Mobile, Alabama. Though, this was probably for a short time only. Unfortunately, there is no documentation about how he spent the following years.

McCullough had a stroke in 1991, by then he was in his mid 50s. In the late 1990s, he had returned to his old stomping grounds, the Arkansas-Oklahoma border region, and hosted a gospel music radio show in Oklahoma. His turbulent life came to an end in 1998 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, just two weeks after his wife had died.

Discography

Acme 1210: Marvin McCullough and Band - I Think I'm Falling in Love with You / I Can't Tell My Heart
Acme 1215: Marvin McCullough and the Keck Brothers - The Bible in Song / My Lord Is Coming Back from Heaven
Razorback 45-113: Bitter Tears (with Jimmy Hall) / Sawed Off Shot Gun (with Rocky Caple) (1961)
Boyd BB-3383: Just for a Little While / Mayby My Baby (1961)
Boyd UA-345: Just for a Little While / Mayby My Baby (1961)
Boyd BB-111: Are You Still in Love with Me / Pillow To My Right (1961)
Capitol 4820: Just Inside Your Arms / Where Else Could I Go (But to Her Arms) (1962)
Capitol 5030: Stranger In My Arms / "If" Is a Mighty Big Word (1963)

See also

• Gene Mooney on Rocket

Recommended reading

• SecondHandSongs

Sources

• 45cat entry and 45worlds/78rpm entry

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Gospel Jubilee entry

• Discogs

• Praguefrank's Country Discographies entry

• Billy Parker, John Wooley, Brett Bingham: "Thanks -  Thanks a Lot" (Babylon Books), 2021
• Special thanks to Fred Azbell and John Strauss for providing their memories and recollections about Marvin McCullough.

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

Roy Hogsed on Capitol

Roy Hogsed - I Wish I Wuz (Capitol F1721), 1951
(courtesy of Sean Hickey of Winslow, Arkansas)

Although Roy Hogsed's style and several of his recordings were historically significant, foreshadowing the rockabilly sounds of the mid 1950s, he remains a rather unknown figure - even among proficient collectors and scholars. Today, Hogsed is best remembered for recording "Cocaine Blues". Although his up-tempo version was not the first recording of the song, it set the pattern for following versions and helped making the song a minor country classic.

Roy Clifton Hogsed was born on December 24, 1919, in Flippin, North Arkansas, to Harles and Vida Hogsed. The couple had a total of six children and father Harles being a fiddler and banjo player, started teaching all of his kids instruments in order to establish a family band. This was in the early 1930s and young Roy was taught to play guitar by his uncle Clem. When the band was ready, it included guitars, fiddles, and mandolins, and began playing local dances. But their family act soon performed at school houses and then also traveling tent shows and fairs. Finally, they traveled around in a self-built Ford mobile home, playing wherever they could. They became known as the "Arkansas Hillbillies". Their constant life meant dropping out of school, having no formal education, although their father engaged a black woman to teach his children.

By the late 1930s, the family band started to fell apart. The eldest sister Fleeta married and young Roy dropped out of the band, too. His other siblings went back to school, while he worked as a butane truck driver. Hogsed met Willie Marie Gilliam, whom he married in 1940 in Flippin. In the following years, he worked various jobs in Texas and Oklahoma, then served a year in the US Navy during World War II but was discharged due to health issues.

Following the war, Hogsed worked for a couple of months with a band called the Dixieland Troupers at WJDX in Jackson, Mississippi. But soon, like so many Arkies and Oakies during the 1930s and 1940s, Hogsed set out and moved to California, hoping to find better living conditions. These immigrants brought their music tothe west coast as well, and when Hogsed settled in the San Diego area in 1946, he found a lively country music scene.

Roy Hogsed promo picture, late 1940s or early 1950s

In San Diego, he first worked as a bus driver but soon, joined Wayne Williams' Happy Cowboys as a guitarist. This job did not last long either and Hogsed founded his own group with Casey Simmons on bass and Dutch born Jean Dewez on accordion. They became known as the Rainbow Riders or simply as the Roy Hogsed Trio. Simmons was soon replaced with Rusty Nitz and the trio worked club dates in the area. Only being a trio without a drummer, it was hard for Nitz to keep the beat strong in the loud clubs, and therefore developed a heavy slap bass, which became a trademark of the trio's sound.

Billboard June 7, 1947

In May 1947, Hogsed and the boys started making records for Charles Washburn's Coast label. Their first release came out in June that year with  "Daisy Mae" b/w "Red Silk Stockings and Green Perfume" (Coast #261). Four more releases followed on Coast till April 1948 and it was already his second release on the label that featured "Cocaine Blues". It was one of three versions that appeared in 1947 (along with W.A. Nichols' Western Aces with Red Arnall on S&G and a slightly different version by Billy Hughes). Hogsed's version was not the first; in fact, the song was based on the folk song "Little Sadie" and was recorded as early as 1934 by Riley Puckett as "Chain Gang Blues". Today, the song is best remembered through Johnny Cash's versions, who first recorded it as "Transfusion Blues" and performed it live in 1968 at Folsom Prison, which was released on the memorable "Live at Folsom Prison" album.

Hogsed's Coast records came to the attention of Capitol Records, the west coast's only major label back then, and when Coast folded, Capitol signed Hogsed to a contract. The label re-released "Cocaine Blues" in May 1948 (#40120) and the song reached #15 on Billboard's C&W charts. Ken Nelson, Capitol's A&R chief, remembered the furor the song stirred when Hank Thompson insisted to record it some ten years later. With explicit references to drug abuse, the song was still extraordinary back then. More records followed on Capitol, though Hogsed's first releases on the label were drawn from older Coast sessions. Hogsed, Nitz, and Dewez recorded their first session for Capitol on July 20, 1949, at the Capitol studio in Hollywood.

Today's selections were recorded on June 19, 1951, at Capitol Recording Studio in Hollywood with a band consisting of Hogsed's brother Jasper on guitar or fiddle, Denny Drazkowski on accordion, Rusty Nitz on bass, and Thomas Mills on drums. Released on Capitol F1721a month later but it didn't chart. Billboard and Cash Box both reviewed the single on August 4, 1951, and while Cash Box was fond of "I Wish I Was", Billboard called "Free Samples" "mediocre" and "I Wish I Was" a rendition that "doesn't do it justice".

Although Hogsed recorded several fine and style-wise noteworthy recordings like "Snake Dance Boogie", none of them were hits and by 1954, Capitol had lost faith in Hogsed and dropped him from its roster. This brought an end to Hogsed's rather short-lived career as an recording artist.

Hogsed and his band, which featured a completely different line-up already by 1953, continued to work live dates in San Diego during the 1950s and 1960s. The fact that Hogsed made his home base in San Diego and not in Los Angeles, west coast's own country music capital, may have been a reason that Hogsed never broke through nationally. In 1962, he suffered severe injuries after hitting a light pole with his car. Curiously enough, he had been chased by a police car since he had run four red lights and drove too fast.

Nevertheless, Hogsed continued to work as a musician until around 1969 when he quit the business altogether. He took a day job afterwards, working as a welder for San Diego Gas and Electric until his untimely death. Hogsed committed suicide on March 6, 1978, at his home in Vista, California, leaving his five children and his wife Willie, who passed away a year later in Texas.

Sources
• Wikipedia entry
• Roy Hogsed on Bear Family
• Hillbilly-Music.com
• Discogs
• SecondHandSongs.com
• Entry on 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

Alden Holloway on Dixie

Alden Holloway - Blast Off (Dixie 45-2020), 1959
This record ranks among the more expensive 45s, if you find it on ebay, a collector fair or something like this. Lucky are those who found it left alone in a box of other 45s at a flea market. The highest price I saw was 455 USD. However, the late and great Alden Holloway died at the very beginning of this year and gone is the chance now to interview him about his musical career.

Born Alden William Holloway on January 26, 1925, in Moko, Arkansas, he was interested in music already as a child. He had his first appearance at the age of five years on the counter of a local store. In addition, he also sang in the church choir. Holloway became an accomplished musician and played guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and steel guitar.

By 1944, Billboard reported he was a DJ on KNET in Palestine, Texas. Why and when he came to Texas is not known. Back in Arkansas, Holloway had met his future wife Polly at Salem High School. When Polly and her family moved way up north to Washington State, Holloway followed his high school sweetheart and they were married in September 1944.

By the  early 1950s, he had his own band and appeared on local radio stations such as KPKW (Pasco, Washington) and KWIE (Kennewick, Washington) as "Shorty" Holloway. Already in 1951, he released what became his debut record on the 4 Star custom label Northwest Records (in 4 Star's "Other People" series). Based in Richland, Washington, this was likely also Holloway's home at that time. The disc featured "I'm a Married Man" and "If I Can't Be Your Lover" (Northwest #OP-118). Until 1956, four more discs on the Northwest label followed, making it a total of four discs. The first three of them were manufactured in the 78rpm format but when Holloway released "Beaumont Blues" and "Rabbit Ears" (Northwest #OP214) in 1955, the 78rpmm format had become outdated, therefore Holloway issued this and its follow-up "Woodpecker Love" b/w "Red Rose of Arkansas" (Northwest #OP-263) on 45rpm discs.

The late 1950s saw Holloway releasing the records he is best remembered for today. Being previously a stone hard country musician, he now tried his hand at rock'n'roll. Holloway and his band, now called Tri City Boys, cut "Loving Is My Business" (written by Holloway) and "Chiquita" probably in 1958 in their home state Washington. They sent the tapes again to a custom pressing service, this time Starday Records in Houston, Texas. It was released on Starday 714 around June 1958 and I assume, there weren't much more than 1.000 copies pressed. His next single definetly became Holloway's claim to fame, at least in the rockabilly collectors scene. "Blast Off" b/w "Swinging the Rock" (Dixie 45-2020) are two great guitar driven rockers from 1959. The lead guitarist on both songs was to all acounts Holloway.

For the next decades, Holloway kept on performing in the Tri-City area of Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland with personal gigs as well as radio and TV appearances. Nevertheless, to suppot his family, he held down regular day jobs, for example working at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the Alaska pipelines. He appeared with such stars as Little Jimmy Dickens, Porter Waggoner, among others and also continued to record. He had his own recording studio in the basement of his house and in the second part of the 1960s, he released two 45s on the Big Sound label.

Holloway's talents as a musician surfaced in different ways. Apart from recording and personal appearances, he would also host countless jam sessions at his house. Though he played different string instruments, the guitar became his main instrument. He played different double neck guitars and one of them was displayed in 2015 during an episode of PBS' "Antiques Roadshow".

On the private side, he had two children with his wife. In 2022, Polly Holloway was still living in the Tri-City area.

On January 1, 2013, Alden "Shorty" Holloway passed away at Kadlec Medical Center. He was 87 years old. Holloway is buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Richland, Washington.

Discography

Northwest OP-118
Shorty Holloway and his Prairie Riders
I'm a Married Man (Holloway) / If I Can't Be Your Lover (Let Be Your Pet) ()
OP-153 / OP-154
1951

Northwest OP-149
Shorty Holloway and his Prairie Riders
Cotton Pickin' Boogie (Holloway) / Why Can't I Go Back (Holloway)
OP-124 / OP-215
1953

Northwest OP-201
Shorty Holloway and his Prairie Riders
I Want to Squeeze You (S. Holloway; C. Tucker) / Pray Pray (S. Holloway)
OP-326 / OP-327
1955

Northwest OP214X45

Shorty Holloway & his Prairie Riders

Beaumont Blues (Alden Holloway; C. Tucker) / Rabbit Ears (Bert Wells)

OP-360 / OP 361

1955

Northwest OP-263-45
Alden Holloway and his Prairie Riders
Woodpecker Love (Alden Holloway) / Red Rose of Arkansas (Alden Holloway)
OP-470-H / OP-471-H
1956

Starday 45-714

Alden Holloway and his Tri City Boys

Chiquita (Floyd Hogien) / Loving Is My Business (Alden Holloway)

A / B

1958

Dixie 45-2020

Alden Holloway

Blast Off (Alden Holloway; B.R. Thomas) / Swinging the Rock (Alden Holloway)

2953 / 2954

1959

Big Sound No.#

Alden Holloway

Walking the Blues Away (Polly Holloway) / Oklahoma Sweetheart (Polly Holloway)
20949 / 20950 (Rite)

1967

Big Sound U-23849M
Shorty Holloway (and the Variety)
You've Gotta Live It Right (Dewey Long) / Count Me Out (Dewey Long)
A / B

There are a couple of more songs which Holloway recorded, including "Butterflies in My Heart" and "Telephone Blues", which cannot be traced back to a certain release.

Sources
• Find a Grave entry
• Hillbilly-Music.com
• Obituary at Hillbilly-Music.com
• Entries at 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm

Melody Hall

Melody Hall advertisement for shows in May and June 1963

If you were living in Springdale or Rogers, Arkansas, during the early 1960s, you were probably attending live music shows at one of the many local venues. One of those places was Melody Hall, a live music venue located on Highway 71 near Springdale, Arkansas, across A.Q. Chicken, a restaurant that is still in business today. It seems that the Melody Hall building was demolished and the place is now home to a gas station. The hall was only in business for a short time, approximately for two years, at least we found  no mention of concerts outside of this time frame.

Although I tried to research the history of Melody Hall, the whole story of it remains blurry. We first find mention of this venue in 1961, when Billboard magazine reported that several top names in country music were booked by Russell Sims, a promoter and manager who worked with T. Texas Tyler early in his career and formed his own Sims Record label in 1953. Sims in turn was associated with Don Thompson, who owned KRMO radio in Rogers, Arkansas, and Cimarron record label in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sims worked for Thompson's Cimarron label for a short time and through this connection, he booked a couple of top acts into Melody Hall in 1961.

Billboard March 9, 1961

In March 1961, such acts as Ernest Tubb, Grandpa Jones, Floyd Tillman, Johnnie Lee Wills, Autry Inman, and Dub Dickerson performed there. Also performing that month were Leon McAuliffe and Marvin McCullough, both artists retained strong ties to Arkansas. McAuliffe, once steel guitarist for Bob Wills and at that time band leader of his own Cimarron Boys based in Tulsa, moved to Rogers, Arkansas in the 1960s, co-owned a radio station and performed in the western part of the state regularly during this time.

The Melody Hall continued to feature more top acts through the next two years and we find mention of several stars through newspaper ads, including Lefty Frizzell in April 1963, followed by Tommy Duncan and Stonewall Jackson in May, and Wanda Jackson in June. However, I wasn't able to spot any more mentions of Melody Hall after summer 1963 and it seems that the venue closed soon after.

If anybody out there has more information on Melody Hall, its owners, or musicians that appeared on its stage, please feel free to share your information with us!

Sources
• Russell Sims Find a Grave Entry
• Billboard articles (see depicted snippets)
• Billy Parker, John Wooley, Brett Bingham: "Thanks -  Thanks a Lot" (Babylon Books), 2021
• Larry Jordan: "Jim Reeves - His Untold Story" (Page Turner Books International), 2011, page 561-562

Wayne Raney

Wayne Raney - King of the Talking Harmonica

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wayne Raney, ca. 1940s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wayne Raney harmonica course, ca. late 1950s

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

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

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

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

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

Recommended reading

• SecondHandSongs

• Echoes of the Ozarks: Up with Jesus, Down with Rock'n'Roll

Sources

• Biography on Official Delmore Brothers Website

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas

• Country Radio Seminar

• Find a Grave entry

• Entries on 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm

• Rockin' Country Style entry 

• Praguefrank's Country Discographies entry
• Wayne Raney chart singles

Bob McKnight & his Ranch Boys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billboard February 18, 1950

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

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

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

Discography

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

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

Doc McQueen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1957

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

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

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