Carl Smith RIP

Country music star Carl Smith died on Saturday, January 16. He was 82 years old.

Smith started his career back in the late 1940s and got a recording contract with Columbia in 1950. During the 1950s, he was one of the most succesful country music artists with such hits as "Hey Joe", "Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way", "Loose Talk", "Back Up Buddy" among others. His first wife was June Carter, with whom he had a daughter, Carlene Carter, and later married singer Goldie Hill (who died in 2005). Smith was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

One more legend is gone...

New Bear Family & Smith&Co releases

Bear Family and the Dutch label Smith&Co recently anounced their new CD releases for the month of Febuary. There are great discs. Look what's coming up:

Bear Family
1. Big Jeff Bess - Tennessee Home Brew: a CD containing Bess' complete recordings he made in the late 1940s, early 1950s. Bess was a Nashville country music scene personality during these years and gave many later artists such as Chet Atkins or George McCormick a start.

2. Jimmy Donley - The Shape You Left Me In: complete recordings 1957-1960 by Donley, who was a great swamp pop singer and penned many tunes for Fats Domino.

3. Jimmy Edwards - Love Bug Crawl: Edward's 1957 rockabilly hit "Love Bug Crawl" is familiar with most rockabilly fans. Bear family issues now his complete recordings for Lamp, Mercury and RCA.

4. Johnny Horton - The Fantastic: A vinyl LP containing some of Horton's early rockabilly recordings.

5. Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Starclub: Lewis' legendary live recordings at the Starclub in Hamburg, Germany, at which also the Beatles played.

6. VA - A Girl Named Johnny Cash: tribute songs to country stars sung by such artists as Gordon Terry, Merle Haggard and others.

7. Live at Town Hall Party: three new DVDs containing six episodes from the famed Town Hall Party show out of Compton, California.

8. Also scheduled but out of scope for me: Christine Kittrell, Toni Sailer, Robert Mitchum, Smiley Lewis, Jack Elliot.

Smith&Co
1. VA - Great Rock'n'Roll Instrumentals Vol.2: a collection of rock & roll instrumental songs famous and obscure artists.

2. VA - Great British Rock'n'Roll Vol.4: more rock & roll from the UK.

3. VA - Great Bristish Skiffle Vol.4: containing classic skiffle recordings from the 1950s, also originally from the UK.

4. VA - Great Rockabilly Vol.4: the fourth edition of this wonderful series, featuring Gene Vincent, Johnny Cash, Johnny Burnette, Carl Perkins, Art Adams, Vern Pullens and more.

Anni & Gerda / The Benicarlos on Decca

A rare Decca 45 released in Germany, probably in the 1950s. There are plenty of Anni & Gerda records for sale on the web, but I cound't find anything about them on web. The flip was a song by the Benicarlos called "Blauer Himmel, weiße Wolken" ("Blue Sky, White Clouds"), which also appeared in the 1958 film "Die Landärztin". The group was primary a studio vocal act that backed other artists and recorded also solo. They consisted of the Corner Trio (which were present on every session) and Rolf Simson, who sang with them once in a while. Also some other studio singers were at one time or another part of the Benicarlos. They recorded for Decca and Telefunken (affliated with Decca). I found a discography of their songs here.

Download

track list:
Anni & Gerda - Komm doch wieder
Die Benicarlos - Blauer Himmel, weiße Wolken

New Cash album

During the Christmas Time, Universal Music England declared that there will be a new Johnny Cash album featuring never before published songs from his later American Recordings years. The new album entitled "American VI: Ain't No Grave" is scheduled for release on Febuary 23, 2010, at least in England. The record will contain ten previous unreleased songs by the Man in Black.

2010!

A Happy New Year to everyone and all the best for 2010!

Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your holidays. I will probably resume posting in the new year.

See ya folks,
mellow

Ric Cartey RIP

The Old-Timey day has to wait til tomorrow. Got something more important to tell you folks. Ric Cartey, famous for "Scratchin' On My Screen", "Born to Love One Woman" or "Young Love", died on August 5, 2009. The rockabilly artist and songwriter was born on January 18, 1937, in Atlanta and recorded his first sides for Stars Records out of his hometown. He then switched to RCA Victor and recorded such songs as "Oooh-Eee", "Heart Throb" (written by Tommy Spurlin), "Born to Love One Woman" (written by Don Johnston) or "Mellow Down Easy". His song "Young Love" was recorded by Sonny James, Tab Hunter, the Crew Cuts, Nat Stuckey and many more.

Read here more.

Something about The Dixie Harmonairs

I bet nobody knows this group. I also know nothing about the group...

The Dixie Harmonaires were a Rockabilly group that recorded two songs for the small Dixie label out of Covington, Kentucky (which was not associated with Starday's Dixie Records). When you look at the labels of the 45s, you will see that the records were rudimentary manufactured. However, the Dixie Harmonaires had their first single out with "Hi Yo Silver" (the flip side as well as catalog number or release date of this single are unknown), which was the only recording re-issued later. A second release followed with "Honey Hush" b/w "Rock Around the Clock". You see that they recorded Rock & Roll classics; the "Hi Yo Silver" was indeed a remake of "Honey Hush" (heavily inspired by the Johnny Burnette version). The Rockabilly Hall of Fame page of "Rock Around the Clock" files the recording as late 1950s/early 1960s.

If anyone has more info on the Dixie Harmonaires, please pass it along. Go to Terry Gordon's RCS site for label shows, re-issue info and song samples.

Rockabilly Duos

Thought it is time for another selfmade comp... This was an idea I had long ago and on the weekend, I compiled the songs and made the covers. No liner notes this time, IMO it's not neccesary. Hope you like it.

Download

track list:
1. George and Earl - Done Gone
2. Jimmy and Johnny - Can't Find the Door Knob
3. Mike and Jim - Baby Don't Knock
4. Wade and Dick - Bob Bob Baby
5. Jimmy Lee and Wayne Walker - Love Me
6. Mike and Jim - Dungaree Cutie
7. George and Earl - Stop, Look and Listen
8. Farmer Boys - Cool Down Mame
9. Jimmy Lee - Look What Love Will Do
10. Tom Tall and Ruckus Tyler - Don't You Know
11. Jimmy and Johnny - Knock on Wood
12. Farm Boys - My Baby Done Left Me

Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning

Some awesome blues by guitarist Bob Heaton. I posted a recording of this three weeks ago. Check it out. The earliest recorded version goes as far back as to 1928 (to my knowlegde), when Blind Willie Johnson cut it for Columbia.