The Ballad of Big Style Wooten

The Ballad of Big Style Wooten

King of Memphis Custom Recording

I want to express my gratitude to Micheal Hurtt, who did a great job researching and writing the liner notes to the 4CD compilation "The Soul of Designer Records." A great portion of information came from those highly interesting notes, while I nevertheless did a lot of research on Style Wooten on my own. I also want to thank Gene Stewart for sharing his memories with me.

Style Wooten was a busy record producer and studio owner during the 1960s and 1970s in Memphis. His beginnings in the music business reach back to the early 1960s, when he worked with Gene Williams, then independently produced his first discs, and ended sometimes in the late 1980s. His most successful outfit was his Designer label, which focused on custom gospel recordings but he was not limited to one musical style. His output during those years is immense and a complete discography of his labels is still missing. To collect all of his produced records would take years, not to say decades.

According to Wooten's son Jason, he was "a giant of a man, standing six-foot-six and with a full, furry beard and a wax-tipped handle bar moustache." Wooten's life was as colourful as this description. He was born Jesse Corbett Graham on January 17, 1921, in Woodlawn, Tennessee. His mother, a Native American, was named Zula Graves and his father originally hailed from Scandinavia. His name remains unknown to this day. Why his last name was Graham and not Graves remains another mystery, as his son Jason admits: "[...] I don't know how we got Graham from Graves." It was a hard life for Zula Graves back then, since Native Americans weren't very well respected in the United States during those times. Though, she was friends with Hazard Wooten, whose family owned a tobacco farm. The family soon adopted Zula and her young son and they took the surname Wooten.

The Wootens were a very musical inclined family and would gather around to perform together. They taught Style, as he billed himself, to play piano, guitar, bass, drums, organ, mandolin, and fiddle. It is not reported how talented he was on all these various instruments but his son remembers, however, that "[...] he was a super musician" and that "[...] He could play every instrument imaginable but I don't know how because his hands were huge; they were like the biggest hands I've ever seen in my life." Roland Janes later told Michael Hurtt, anyhow, that Wooten "didn't know a thing about music."

During the 1950s, Wooten earned his living with different businesses. He would run Wooting Trucking and did some other odd jobs with Reverend Bell during this time. After his trucking company closed, Wooten went into the music business. He founded a band and began playing country music and bluegrass in clubs. He would play bass fiddle in this outfit but subsequently switched from performing to managing other bands.

3635 Allandale Road in Memphis today

As it was with many of his activities, Wooten managed bands for some time and then set his mind on other things. At that time, he was residing on 3635 Allandale Road in Memphis and around 1964, he met DJ, TV host and entrepreneuer Gene Williams, who owned the Cotton Town Jubilee label in West Memphis and was a disc jockey at KWAM. Williams would do custom recordings at the station's studio and Wooten was his right hand, as Roland Janes remembered. He first assisted Williams in producing Bob Taylor's "If I Had Back What I Used to Have" b/w "Walking the Street" (Cotton Town Jubilee #107), still under the name of "J.C. Wooten." 

The accurate date when Bob Taylor's record was recorded is not known but it can be assumed it was in late 1963 or early 1964. On April 25, 1964, Wooten placed an enquiry with Billboard:

A.&R. MAN WITH OWN PRODUCTION and publishing company, plus talent roster and distributor contacts, desires connections with a Southern recording company, Style Wooten, 3635 Allandale, Memphis, Tenn. Ph. 324-4640.

Wooten decided it was time for his own record labels and started Big Style and Eugenia as well as Stylecraft Publishing. Probably his first two own productions were singles by Sylvia Mobley and "Cowboy" Slim Dortch. Mobley was born in 1941 and first recorded for Wayne McGinnis' Santo label in Memphis. She then cut "Are You Sorry" and Marlon Grisham's "Worried Over You" for Gene Williams (Cotton Town Jubilee #113, ca. 1964). In 1964, Wooten gave her another try and Mobley laid down two of her own compositions, "Every Time I See You" and "Tell Me Clouds," released on Wooten's Big Style label (Big Style #102). He was still assisted in production by Bozy Moore and Chuck Comer, a radio DJ, songwriter and one time business partner of Gene Williams. Williams, in addition, took over the distribution of the disc and re-released "Every Time I See You" in 1965 with a different flip side, the Chuck Comer tune "I'm Not Alone Anymore" (Cotton Town Jubilee #115).

Henry Pierce "Cowboy Slim" Dortch was exact twenty years older than Mobley and already a veteran performer by then. Born in 1921 in Tennessee, Dortch performed on various radio stations in his early career. He soon settled down in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, but it seems he made the occasional trip to Memphis during the 1950s and 1960s. It is likely that Dortch made his first recordings for Wooten during one of those trips in 1964. If Wooten recorded Dortch already at Roland Janes' Sonic studio (which he would use always from that point on), is not documented. Being strictly a country musician, Dortch nevertheless belts out "Big Boy Rock" on his first sesssion, a rock'n'roll collector's dream nowadays. Coupled with "Mailing My Last Letter," Wooten released both songs on his Eugenia label (Eugenia #1001) in 1964. Probably that same year, Dortch recorded more tracks under the supervision of Wooten, including "Sixteen Miles" / "The Black Rose" (Eugenia #1001, number used erroniously twice by Wooten) and "Over at Uncle Joe's" / "Stop, I'll Walk with You" (Lighting Ball #100). You can clearly identify Travis Wammack's lead guitar playing on these sides, who recorded a lot at Sonic Studios during this time, as he recollected. Yet another record of Dortch, "A Long Time" / "Broad Tennessee", was produced by Wooten, since his Stylecraft Publ. was credited on the label. The RCA-Victor account number 729S can be found on the label. Interestingly, Wooten's account eventuelly would be 718S.
 
Wooten followed Gene Williams' pattern to produce custom recordings for everyone who paid for it. The artists came to Wooten, paid him a certain amount of money and he organized a studio session, recorded them and took over all the production and manufacturing. Artists payed 425$ for a recording session, mastering and the pressing of 500 or 1000 copies of their record. In some cases, if Wooten sensed a "hit," Wooten also signed a contract with the artists, carrying all the costs and marketing the disc in addition. What started as a small venture in early 1964, soon grew to Memphis' largest custom recording service. In 1964, the Style label was set up by Wooten, followed by Allandale and Tentay in 1965. The first disc released on Style was "Lonely Street" / "Let's Start Our New Love Affair" (Style #45-1920). Style Records was the first outfit to feature a typical fancy label design. Style #45-1922 by Billy Raye, featuring "Charles the Blues" / "How Was I to Know," was likely Wooten's last co-operation with Gene Williams. Both songs were published by Cotton Town Music and Williams was mentioned on the label as the producer. Around the same time, Wooten began an collaboration with veteran Memphis musician Roland Janes. Janes had opened his Sonic Recording Studios in 1961. Previously, his activities included being a staff musician at Sam Phillips' Sun Records, lead guitarist in Jerry Lee Lewis' and Billy Lee Riley's groups, a producer and owner of Rita Records. In 1964, Wooten came along and began renting Sonic studio for his custom recordings. As Janes remembered, "I charged Style practically nothing for the studio. He'd bring those groups in there, they'd come in from Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis, all over the place. Every weekend we'd cut maybe five different groups. He'd cut four songs on each group, he'd put a single out and then he'd hold one in the can. What they'd do, they'd pay him a little bit at a time, then when they had enough money to press a record he'd go 'head and press the record, give 'em X number of copies [...]."

In 1967, Wooten moved from Allandale Road to 3373 Park Avenue, where he would establish his own studio. The new facility had two modern studios with Wooten doubling as the studio's manager and chief engineer. The custom recording venture, now called variously "Wooten Recording Company," "Style Wooten Productions," or "House of Wootens Productions," attracted more and more singers and groups. In line with the location change, Wooten also set up other labels: Camaro in 1967, Designer in 1968, and Pretty Girl and Wooten in 1969. At the same time, Wooten introduced Pretty  Girl Publishing as an alternative to Stylecraft. The majority of the label names had some kind of a meaning to Wooten. He had a passion for cars - especially of small cars, as his son remembers, which is quite remarkable for a six-foot-six standing giant of a man like Style Wooten. Hence the label names Camaro and Torino. Allandale was obviously named after the street he once lived on; Big Style, Style, and Wooten were named after the man himself, J'Ace was a reminiscence of his son Jason. Some labels were also devoted to particular musical genres. Pretty Girl, for example, was exclusively designed for female country singers, while Designer was used for black gospel recordings.

Roland Janes, prob. 1950s

Especially the Designer imprint was used frequently by Wooten. Between 1968 and Designer's demise in 1978, more than 500 different releases appeared on that label. The majority of the groups came from all parts of the United States in order to record for Wooten. In many cases, it was the groups first (and only) recording session. They came from Missouri, Michigan, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Milwaukee, and even California. Since Wooten did not influence the groups regarding musical issues, all of his productions are historial documents of how southern music - rock, country, gospel - was performed in those times. It was pristine and pure music. This not happened with the Designer recordings but with all recordings Wooten produced. "[...] He didn't cheat nobody; he treated everybody right. He felt that he was performing a service and he was. He didn't do business the way most people would do it but that didn't mean he wasn't a fair guy," Roland Janes remembered. He continued: "[...] But Style, he was great. He would give them their freedom: it was their record and he would let 'em cut it."

If artists had no own backing band or needed help with the arrangement, Wooten brought in studios musicians he frequently worked with. Those included Eddie Slusser on guitar (who had worked with Kenny Owens in the late 1960s), Gary Draffin on bass, Pat Gibson on keyboard, and Gary Adair on drums. Adair and Draffin also helped Wooten to get his own studio running.

Gene Stewart, who recorded the first version of Billy "Crash" Craddock's hit "Rub It In" for Camaro, recalls about Wooten: "As I remember, I knew someone who had gone to Memphis, Tennessee, and cut a record with Camaro Records which was one of Style's labels. He indicated that it was relatively cheap to make a 45 RPM there, so I called Style and asked him the cost of two songs. I had been singing the rock song 'Rub It In' for several months and crowds at the country shows went wild over the song - so I decided I would record it." Since he needed a another song to fill in the B side, Stewart composed "I Feel the Need to Cry" and travelled to Memphis. They cut both songs one morning probably at Sonic: "I took my drummer with me to sing harmony and Style got a group of studio musicians to back us on the two songs and we recorded both songs in one take! I sold thousands of copies at country shows but Camaro had no distribution at all to radio stations so I did a personal mail out to some selected radio stations myself," recalls Stewart. Craddock's version would peak at #1 of the US and Canada country charts in 1974. Similar to others who worked with Wooten, Stewart remembered him being "quite a character," as he puts it. Back home, Stewart also encouraged James Fields  to record for Wooten, which he did indeed. 

At some point, Wooten was joined by Charles Bowen, who assisted in production at numerous sessions. Stan Neill also worked with him on and off. Neill also produced other sessions for Dan Craft across the border in West Memphis. Roland Janes closed down Sonic in 1973 (or 1974, according to other sources) and Wooten moved all of his operations to his own gear at 3373 Park Avenue.

3373 Park Avenue in Memphis, where Wooten established his own studio.
The building is housing the "Church of God" now.

3109 Park Avenue today

At the tail end of 1973, Wooten changed locations one more time and relocated down the road to 3109 Park Avenue. In 1974, he also married his wife Jo Ann with whom he had one son, Jason. In 1978, he closed down all of his operations for unknown reasons. Rumour goes that he was crowded out of business by rival record producers. However, Wooten was also a severe alcoholic and his wife Jo Ann divorced from him that year. He quit his recording service and began working at MIFA in Memphis, where he served as a custodian and was living in their office house until about 1987. He was back at producing in 1985 already with his Four Winds label. One of the artists on this label was his old companion Reverend Douglas Bell from the 1950s.

Wooten married again and moved with his new bride Ann to Mississippi, where she hailed from. Wooten continued to produce records and ran Stylecraft Music as well as his labels Style, Styleway, and Good News right until his death. Style Wooten died on February 8, 1998, in his sleep. He is buried at the Bethel Cementery in Leake County, Mississippi. Interestingly, his birth date on his gravestone is given as January 17, 1919, and not 1921. 

In 2014, Big Legal Mess Records acquired the rights to re-release the complete Designer catalog and issued an extensive 4CD compilation with 101 tracks from Wooten's black gospel label. Most recordings came from the extensive collection of Bruce Watson at Big Legal Mess. The highly interesting booklet to this set was written by Michael Hurtt.

Label overview

• Allandale

• Big Style

• Camaro

• Designer (Part I - Part II)

• Eugenia

• Four Winds
• Hazel

• Horseshoe

• J'Ace

• Jamboree

• Majesty

• Pretty Girl

• Style

• Tentay

• Torino

• Tri-State

• Wooten

• Zonia

Location images from Google Street View
Special thanks to Gene Stewart

Mike Thomas on TPA

Mike Thomas - From California to Las Vegas (TPA 63-625)

The TPA label was owned by Jack Covais, a lyricist and violinist originally from Italy. He immigrated to New York City in his youth and founded Tin Pan Alley Publishing in 1941, in order to publish his own works. By 1953, he had founded his own label Tin Pan Alley, which recorded hundreds of song-poems during the 1950s and 1960s. It was a song-poem label, which means that writers could send in their poems for a fee to the record company, which set it to music and recorded it by one of their (mostly obscure and unprofessional) artists. The writer received a copy of the record in exchange. Some companies used previously recorded music backing tracks to overdub the singer later on. Thus, sometimes countless different poems were set to the same backing track. Tin Pan Alley's recorded output, in contrast, was mostly on a relatively high level regarding recording technique and musical quality.

After Jack Covais' death sometimes in the 1960s, it was first operated by his brother and then by Covais' newphew Sal Covais, who continued the company under the name of TPA in Sarasota, Florida.

Of Mike Thomas, nothing can be found. He was featured on countless Tin Pan Alley/TPA discs. "From California to Las Vegas," however, stands out as probably one of his best works for TPA. A garage rocker from the 1960s par excellence, it featured some nice harmonica backing during the intro and a long, wild guitar solo.

Read more about Tin Pan Alley plus a discography at songpoemmusic.com.

Suzanne with the Band-Aides

Suzanne with the Band-Aides - You May Never Know (Liberty F-55313), 1961

Obscure and certainly an oddball in recorded music, Suzanne Mullins' "You May Never Know" is nevetheless a fascinating piece of rock'n'roll. Not much is known of Suzanne Mullins, whose soprano voice didn't fit the rock'n'roll genre very much. Though, the strange mix of the great backing and her unusual voice makes "You May Never Know" such a great recording.

It was probably in 1960, when Mullins cut her two compositions "Unchained But Unforgotten" and "You May Never Know" for the Atlanta based Trump record label. At that time, she was still in her teens. Both tracks were produced by J.H. Mullins, who was - referable to her age - likely her father. "Unchained But Unforgotten" b/w "You May Never Know" was released in late 1960 on Trump #002, credited to "Suzanne with the Band-Aides." The identity of these musicians remain unknown.  Billboard mentioned the disc in its December 31, 1960, issue in the "Limited Sales" segment of the pop review field. 

Although the single only received a moderate rating by Billboard, it seems it was a good seller at least locally. Soon it caught the attention of Liberty Records and saw national release on the label in early 1961 (Liberty F-55313). Billboard reviewed it again on April 3, 1961, this time with a better rating. Despite its early signs of success, the record went nowhere.

Trump gave Mullins another try and released "Cryin' Room (I'm Gonna Get a)" / "They Said I'd Recover" (Trump #005) in December 1961, this time under the name of "Suzanne and the Full-House." Even a third single, "Absence Makes the Heart Forget" / "I Won't Stay," appeared on Trump. Nothing came of it and Mullines vanished from the scene.

In 2014, about 40 tapes by Mullins and the original masters of Trump #002 were discovered by anonymous guys, who call themselves "odysseysoundstudio" on the internet. My attempt to contact them and find out more about the tapes failed, unfortunately. There is a Odyssey Sound Studio located in Chicago but I wasn't able to contact them. The national Liberty release was pressed by Sheldon in Chicago, so there's a good chance the master tapes were still stored away somewhere in the Windy City. On my copy of the record, the Liberty matrix number is stamped next to the original Trump matrix number, etched into the wax (T-136/T-137).

Down the Mississippi Line

• Christie - Yellow River

• Christie - Down the Mississippi Line

CBS 4911 (German pressing), 1970

I picked this one up last month at a flea market. "Yellow River" of course is the hit song everyone knows but the real gem here is side two with "Down the Mississippi Line." A real great song, I hope y'all enjoy it, too. I wrote some info on Christie some time ago, so I won't go into detail here. "Yellow River" reached #1 in the UK, #2 here in Germany and #23 in the US. The record featured here is a German pressing, released in April 1970 on the CBS label.

Also visit Jeff Christie's website, some great photos there.

The Humming Bees from Texarkana

The Humming Bees - Blessed are the Pure in Spirit (Universal Artists UAR 1006), 1967
I bought two of the Humming Bees' records from Mack Stevens in Texas, including this one. The Hummbings Bees were, to all accounts, a black gospel group from the Texarkana, Arkansas, area. Their style was much in the vein of the many bands recorded by Style Wooten in Memphis, although they never made it onto one of Wooten's labels, as far as I'm concerned.

The Humming Bees were likely formed in 1949. They were active in the Texarkana area and also across the border in Texas, as an Paris, Texas, newspaper snippet from 1956 suggests. They still (or again) performed in 1990, celebrating their 51th anniversary. The Humming Bees recorded twice for their own custom label Humming Bee(s), first in 1960 and then in 1964. They followed up with at least two discs on Universal Artists.
Universal Artists Records was a local venture from Texarkana and only sporadically active from 1967 until about 1976. Later releases carried no catalogue number, just the Rite matrix numbers. Most of the material issued on the label was gospel, apart from some country and rock'n'roll. Also, Universal Artists was somehow associated with the Humming Bees, since the label on the Religious Five's disc reads "Universal Artists Records - Hummming Bees - Texarkana, Arkansas presents".

Universal Artists Discography

(all records pressed by Rite)

1001: Bill Gentry - Baby What'ya Say / If You Want My Love (1967)
1002:
1003:
1004: Vycounts - Can't You Tell / I Need You Tonight (1967)
1005: Vicki Scott - I'm Not a Toy / I Just Lost Your Love (1967)
1006: The Humming Bees - Jesus Steps Right In / Blessed Are the Pure in Spirit (1967)

#: The Humming Bees - Jesus Has Done So Much for Me / Send It On Down (1972)
#: Willie Gulley, Jr. and the Bright Stars - Take a Little Time to Pray / Too Close (1975)
#: S. V. Hale - He Won't Leave Me Now / Pass Me Not (1976)
#: The Religious Five - Guide Me Over / I've Been Changed (1976)

House of Joan

Johnny Albert and Bobby Wayne - Roll Clean Out of Your Life (House of Joan No.#), 1962

This is possibly another piece of radio personality Bobby "The Wizard" Wayne's career in music history, of which I didn't know when writing about his life in 2012. There are some indications that lead me to the conclusion this could be the same Bobby Wayne, although it is not confirmed yet.

Bobby Wayne started his career as a DJ on local Charleston, West Virginia, radio stations. He recorded a thrashing slab of rock'n'roll in 1962 for the local Bonita label ("Swing Train Twist" / "Twistin' Swing Train", Bonita #45-1313). Wayne would spin records on various stations across the USA until his death in 1990.

The House of Joan record was pressed in 1962 by Rite Record Productions in Cincinnati, like Bobby Wayne's Bonita disc. Label design, especially color and font types, are very similar. In addition, both records must have been pressed very close to each other since the matrix numbers are very close: House of Joan had 7585/7586, Bonita had 7589/7590.

Unfortunately, I cannot spot any link between neither Wild Bill Graham and Bobby Wayne nor between the Johnny Albert and Bobby Wayne. Wayne left for Cincinnati in either late 1962 or early 1963 for a short while. So there was a short time frame when Bobby Wayne and Wild Bill Graham could have met in Ohio and recorded this song.

Wild Bill Graham was a drummer and band leader from Columbus, Ohio. He probably first recorded in 1956 for Cliff Ayres' Emerald label out of Fort Wayne, Indiana ("Mama Chita" / "Sinbad Blues", Emerald #2010). In 1958, he recorded with Paul Rey the R&B song "Good News Baby" on Canto Records (Canto #CN-45-31458). This label was also from Ohio. 

Billboard R&B review, May 12, 1956.

By 1967, Graham had founded the Escalators and performed regularly around Columbus. As Tim Fleischer, member of the Edicates, put it: "Wild Billy Graham and The Escalators were a black soul band with a brass section and they were about as funky as it gets. We opened for them a couple times. They released a record called Ooh Poo Pa Do in ‘67 (I think) which became a big regional hit." This particular hit record was in fact was "Oop-Poo-Pa-Doo," which was originally released on Nassau Records from Columbus. Coupled with "East 24th Ave," it was the label's first single (Nassau #100). Nassau was operated by WVOK DJ Bill Moss, also called "The Bass Hoss" and "Big Nassau Daddy." He was a colourful person and business man, also running "Nassau Daddy's Pit Bar-Be-Que" for some time. Graham's single became a regional hit and was picked up by Atlantic in late 1966 (Atlantic #45-2372). It was also distributed by Atlantic in Canada and the UK. Wayne Lowery, son of the Escalators' lead singer, recalls: "Used to hang out at Uncle Billy's house with my sisters [...]. Used to watch the band practice on many occasions and saw them play one of the little stages at the Ohio State Fair a couple of times." See here for two pictures of Graham.

Wild Bill Graham and the Escalators

Johnny Albert was also a local Columbus musician. He performed jazz with Bobby Shaw in the 1950s under the name of "Chickadee and Chickadoo." See here for a picture of Albert and Shaw.

See also: Interview with Tim Fleischer with 60sgaragebands.com

Tommy Tucker on Hi

Tommy Tucker - A Man in Love (Hi 2014), 1959

I won't go into detail here on Tommy Tucker's life and career because an upcoming feature on him in American Music Magazine in the near future will do this. Anyway, some of you may know this song, some may not. "A Man in Love" is a really beautiful track that was also recorded by Nick Lowe. Personally, I consider Charlie Feathers' demo recording of it as one of the best recordings Feathers did. The simplicity of it just speaks for itself.

Tommy Tucker

Tommy Tucker was a local Memphis artists and friends with Charlie Feathers. They would perform together on occasion at bars and clubs during the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes also with Ramon Maupin. In the early 1960s, Tucker was also a regular guest on Gene Williams' "Cotton Town Jubilee" on KWAM in West Memphis. 

He started his recording career in the late 1950s in the newly founded Hi record label and released his first disc in 1959, comprising "A Man in Love" and "Loving-Lil," the latter being an excellent Memphis cashalike song from the pen of Charlie Feathers and Jerry Huffman. "A Man in Love" was written by Charlie Feathers, Quinton Claunch, as well as Bill Cantrell and possibly dates back to the mid-1950s, when the trio was working at Sun Records. Feathers had recorded a demo of this song in 1958 at Royal Studio with just his guitar and him singing. Tucker's version featured a vocal chorus and a banjo picker, thus it had a certain Johnny Horton feel to it.

After another single on Hi, Tucker switched to RCA-Victor and recorded "Return of the Teenage Queen" / "Since You Have Gone" for the label. Both songs were also released in Australia and New Zealand. Tucker kept on recording for various small Memphis labels, including XL, Pen, Western Lounge, and others. He also left behind several unreleased tapes. Tucker died in 1985.

Broken Lines review

It has been five years since Hank Becker, John Oaks, and Todd Wilson, better known as "The Rubber Knife Gang," have released their last album "Drivin' On." Now, in 2015, the group is about to complete their third album "Broken Lines." Not officially issued yet, I was able to check it out last week as one of the first apart from the band itself.

"Broken Lines" has essentially everything that made "Drivin' On" so fascinating: catchy and beautiful melodies, clever lyrics and, last but not least, the unique harmony singing. There are songs to sing along with, songs to dance to, songs to dream to. And although the Rubber Knife Gang stays true to its sound, the three musicians nevertheless have added a couple of new elements to their music. This time for example, there are several calm songs, more striking chord patterns and riffs.

In contrast to "Drivin' On," the tracks on "Broken Lines" have a deeper, melancholic feeling to it. Though, the band is able to catch the "feel good" mood on their songs, for example on "Draw the Line." One of the album's hightlights is "House of Fire," on which banjo and guitar seem to rise in higher spheres. The listener feels like being transfered into another age. Possibly into the times of the ancient Egypt? Or perhaps to the hills of Tennessee? I don't know for sure, which doesn't matter at all. The easy and cushy sound of the band is also well presented with "Siren Serenade." On a couple of tracks, for exaple "Damn You December," also percussion is used, which adds much to the sound. On "Gone Away, " the group sounds a little bit like the bluegrass version of JD Wilkes' Dirt Daubers and suprised me with long and virtous instrumental passages.

My conclusion: "Broken Lines" is a worthy follower to "Drivin' On" and an advancement of the Gang's music to be sure. My conclusion is as precise and clear as the band's music: I'll recommend this album to every Americana fan out there!

Hap Records

The Story of Hap Records

Happy Herbert and the Mountain City Recording Studio

The city of Chattanooga, located in Southeast Tennessee on the banks of the Tennessee river, has been home to radio stations and local country musicians from the 1930s up to the 1950s. Radio stations like WDOD, WDEF, and WAPO featured country music acts - WGAC even hosted the "Tennessee Hayloft Jamboree" in the mid-1950s. By 1960, there had been some small record labels but none of them were professional companies. Herbert Schleif's Hap record label was likewise semi-professional but its recorded output was - compared to other labels - immense.

The Dome Building in Chattanooga

"Happy" Herbert Schleif, a clothing store owner and part-time country music promoter in Chattanooga, established the "Mountain Recording Studio" in early 1960. He was living outside of Chattanooga in a house near Daisy, Tennessee (renamed Soddy Daisy in 1969). His studio was located on the corner of East 8th Street and Georgia Avenue in Suit 3 of the Dome Building, which was built in 1892 for the Chattanooga Times and it seems that it later housed also offices by other businesses. Billboard reported on April 25, 1960, that Schleif had just "launched the Mountain City Recording Studio there in partnership with Carl Allen." Who Carl Allen was remains unknown at this point. Schleif was friends with local musicians Peanut Faircloth and Norman Blake, who performed in a bluegrass band called "The Dixieland Drifters" since the mid-1950s. The Dixieland Drifters would become Schleif's first act to record.

At the same time Schleif started his studio, he also set up his own in-house label Dub Records and his own publishing firm Mountain City Publishing Company. The Dixieland Drifters, then consisting of Howell Culpepper, Charlie Evans, Norman Blake, and Peanuts Faircloth, had recorded previously an unissued session for Sun Records in Memphis and several discs for Murray Nash's BB label in Nashville. The group was approached by Schleif and recorded "I Can't Do Without You" and "Cheating Love" at his studio. Both recordings made up the initial release on the Dub label (Dub #1001) in June 1960. It is interesting to note that Schleif did press the record on both 45 and 78 rpm format. At that time, most companies stopped pressing the ancient 78 format and concentrated on 45 and 33 rpm records. Also, be aware that this is not the same Dub label owned by Foster Johnson in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Dixieland Drifters, 1961: Howell Culpepper, unidentified,
Houston "Buck" Turner, Norman Blake

Dub seems to have been only a short-lived venture. No other singles appeared and by June, Schleif had already formed a new outfit he called Hap Records. Schleif was said to "[...] always [have] a delightful grin on his face," hence his nickname "Happy" and the label's name. Raif Faircloth, Peanut Feaircloth's son, however, remembered it was a acronym for Herbert and Peanut. According to him, Faircloth was involved in the Hap label and was a co-owner. He remembers regarding the Dixieland Drifters: "[...] My memories of the Dixieland Drifters were mainly going way out Lookout Mountain, past Plum Nelly to the Blake home place when they'd rehearse. It was dad, Hal, Charlie and Norman at that time."

Hap's first release was by female vocalist Gloria Ramsey, whose "Good Poppin' Daddy" b/w "My Love" (Hap 7998-5/7999-6) appeared approximately in May 1960. Probably recorded at Schleif's studio, its record number yet escaped the later chronologial numerical system of the label. The next three releases, to all accounts released during that same year, are still unknown to me. Hap #1003 was by country music singer Kirk Hansard, who recorded Peanut Faircloth's "Johnny Collins" and the Webb Pierce/Danny Dill song "Two Won't Care." Billboard reviewed the single on August 29, 1960, in the C&W field. Born in Flatrock, Alabama, Hansard had recorded earlier for Dot in 1956 and continued his work as a recording artist for Bethlehem (1962), Columbia (1963-1967), Chart (1968-1969), and Kapp (1970). While recording for Hap, he was based in Knoxville and worked the Mid-Day Merry Go-ROund show on WNOX as well as the WWVA Jamboree out of Wheeling, West Virginia.

Gene Woods, who appeared on WBCA in Cleveland, Tennessee, recorded for Schleif "Afraid" / "The Ballad of Wild River" (Hap #1004, 1960). For the label's next release, Schleif coupled "You Won't Fall in Love" / "Will Angels Have Sweethearts" (Hap #1005) by the Dixieland Drifters, who had recorded both titles likely in summer or early fall that year at Mountain City studio. The record appeared around October. "You Won't Fall in Love" was a song composed by Fletcher Bright and his wife Marshall, while the flip was a band's original. Bright performed with the band at that time occasionally. He recalled that "[...] it was an old 45 single. I think Norman Blake was on the dobro, Peanut Faircloth was singing. My late wife Marshall wrote the words, borrowing heavily from a Jimmy Van Heusen tune ('It Could Happen to You'), and I supplied the melody. I was playing with the Dixieland Drifters at the time."

At that time, singer and songwriter Houston "Buck" Turner had joined the group. Turner had performed and recorded with Tani Allen's band in the 1950s and also played the clubs in the region with his own band. He secured a songwriting contract with Murray Nash's Ashna Music Publishing in Nashville and used the Dixieland Drifters for his recordings. The first record with Turner's recognizable participation was "Bongos and Uncle John" / "How Big A Fool" (Hap #1009) in the spring of 1961. While "Bongos and Uncle John" was penned by Charlie Evans, Norman Blake, and Howell Culpepper, "How Big a Fool" was a Buck Turner/Gene Woods song. 

This particular record surrounds some inconsistencies. The song was re-released in June 1962 by Murray Nash on his Do-Ra-Me label (Do-Ra-Me 1412) under the name of "Uncle John's Bongos" with a different flip side, "Walk Easy." The latter song had been recorded and released by the Dixieland Drifters already in 1958 on Nash's B.B. label. Likely due to promising sales, the 20th Fox label picked it up and issued it again in late 1961. The fact that it was first released on Hap suggests that it was also cut at Schleif's Mountain City studio. Murray Nash, however, claimed that all of the Dixieland Drifters recordings he was connected with were done at his studio, Sound of Nashville. It adds to the confusion that a guy called Norm, nephew to a woman called Marylove Matthew, claimed his aunt was the owner of the studio and that he was present at the recording session in Nashville. His memory on this issue was probably a bit weak. But who was Marylove Matthew? And how was she involved in running the studio? Further research on her remains abortive.

Buck Turner and the Dixieland Drifters, however, stayed with Nash to produce their following records. Nash gave "Uncle John's Bongos" one last try in the spring of 1962, coupled with "The Best Dressed Beggar in Town." The Drifters broke up around 1963, while Turner kept on performing around Chattanooga. Schleif continued Hap well into the 1960s, recording and releasing at least some 70 records, mostly country and bluegrass. One of the Hap singles featured his wife Viola with "The Voice of the Americans." Both Herbert and Viola are now deceased but their descendants remember them still today with fondness. Buck Turner died in 1999, Peanut Faircloth in 2010.

"Happy" Herbert Schleif's recorded legacy still has to be unearthed and reissued in a proper way. Many of the recordings still have to be found, a detailed research has to be made. I promise I'll do my best to give Schleif the recognition he deserves.

Discography

7998-5/7999-6: Gloria Ramsey and Sound Dealers Orchestra - Good Poppin' Daddy / My Love (1960)  
1000:  
1001:  
1002:  
1003: Kirk Hanserd - Johnny Collins / Two Won't Care (1960)
1004: Gene Woods - Afraid / The Ballad of Wild River (1960)
1005: Dixieland Drifters - You Won't Fall in Love / Will Angels Have Sweethearts (1960)  
1006: Alan Marlo - Sleepy Time Girl / ? (1960)  
1007:
1008: James Padgett - Gonna Rock the Ocean Waves / ? (1960)  
1009: Dixieland Drifters - Bongos and Uncle John / How Big a Fool (1961)
1010: Wally Hester - Rock'n Roll Jump-Stick / ? (1961)
1011:  
1012:  
1013:  
1014:  
1015: Sand Mountain Playboys - Wild Bill / ? (1961)  
1016: Chuck Cain - Blue are the Tears I Cry / ? (1961)  
1017: Arlie & Charlie - Johnny Reb Get Your Gun / ? (1961)
1018: Earl Scott - Opal Lee / ?  
1019:
1020: Lonnie Smith - Jonah / ? (1962)
1021: Warrior River Boys - My Love Song for You / Five String Ramble  
1022:  
1023:  
1024: Yellow Jackets - There's No Telling / ? (1962)
1025: Jim Taylor and the Yellow Jackets - Zemo / ?  
1026-1059:  
1060: Viola Schleif & Cathy Chapman - The Voice of the Americans / ?

801: Arnold Sanford - I Know How Lonesome (Old Lonesome Can Be) / You Can Do Allright with Me (1968)
802:
803:
804:
805: Marvin Thomas and the Playwrights - Call of th Whippoorwill / (The Legend of) Johnny Collins (1969)
806:
807:
808:
809:
810: Ron Gordy & the Nashville Tennesseans - Boogie Woogie All Night Long / ?

Cash McCall on Topic

Cash McCall - My Friend Johnny (Topic 8010), 1965
Not connected with the blues musician of the same name, country singer Cash McCall was an uprising talent during the mid-1960s in the music scene. What predicted him from being a star is lost to history. He had a string of releases on independent labels but national success eluded him. However, he built but a reputation as a local radio stalwart in his Michigan home.

In 1963, Billboard reported that a British country artist named Cash McCall recorded for Ember Records in the UK. He is also probably the same who had a string of releases in Italy but is not connected with Cash McCall on Topic.

Today's featured Cash McCall was born Larry Thomas Maske on April 16, 1939. He probably hailed from Michigan and started his career in the early 1960s, playing locally around Jackson, Michigan, as a guitarist, bassist, and singer. He used the stage name "Cash McCall" for his musical activities, probably unaware of the other performers that used the same pseudonym. McCall also worked as a DJ by 1964 on WIBM in Jackson, before switching to the city's WJCO in November that year. The station underwent a change at that time and changed its programming to a country music format. McCall had a morning as well as afternoon show and soon became the station's program director. During his career, McCall would perform with several bands. At that time, his group was called the Greenbacks.

McCall started his recording career in 1962 on the Memphis Executive label with "The Ballad of Billie Sol" b/w "Breaking Up" (Executive #1019, September 1962). Both songs were co-written by local Memphis singer Jay Rainwater. The disc seems to be out of place location-wise but I found no other hints about a fourth artist of the same name.

In 1965, McCall began recording for Bill Brock's Topic Records in Nashville. His first single coupled "Once in Every Lifetime" and "My Friend Johnny" (Topic #8010), which appeared around October. Later that year, he followed up with "In Time" / "My Best Friend" (Topic #8014). Both "In Time" and "Once in Every Lifetime" were "predicted to reach the Hot Country Singles Charts" according to Billboard but seem to have failed in the end. In May 1966, "Don't Give Me a Chance" appeared on Topic #8022, which was promoted by Topic as a "smash country hit" in Billboard. Around the same time, "Shoot Low Sheriff" on the Sincere label was released (Sincere #BB-833-6).

McCall eventually left WJCO but returned to the station in early 1971 to his early morning slot. Around the same time, the Greenbacks disbanded and McCall formed a new group called "Free Soil." By 1974, he was backed by the Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboys and started a tour with them through Canada that summer, booked by Cat Billue Enterprises. Billboard reported on October 12, 1974:

SIOUX STE. MARIE, Ont. - Country music reached new dimensions this week when Cash McCall & his Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboy Band began perform behind a strip act here. Strippers heretofore had not been known to the strains of country music. McCall and his group are at the Lock City Hotel here, where the show is taking place.

McCall and the Stardust Cowboys toured Canada well into the next year. Michael Kirby, one of the band's musicians, recalled in 2023: "I played keyboards in the Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboys in late 1974 into 1975, having met the band in Northern Ontario, playing in a different band, when their guitarist and drummer quit. 'Cash" and Johnny recruited me, and I called my drummer friend Jim back in Toledo. [...] We were only together for six or so months, but the adventures during that time play a prominent role [in my upcoming book]." 

McCall and his bands toured extensively but eventually returned to Jackson. In the 1980s, he continued to work for WJCO radio and TV as well as performing around town in bars and jam sessions. By that time, he had achieved good reputation among fellow radio men and musicians alike. "Always the teacher, he mentored young performers but also warned of the dark side of the business. He mentored us in an old falling down farmhouse converted into a radio studio, always playing classic country. [...] By this point in his life, he did most jobs at the station including custodian. He was selling ads, had a morning and afternoon show, and played live until 2 a.m. many nights. The performer spent years jamming at local night spots like the Eagles Clubs. We always wondered when he slept!" recalled Parrish L. Stahl in McCall's obituary.

Cash McCall passed away on May 16, 2016, at the age of 77 years at Allegiance Health in Jackson County, Michigan. 

Discography

Executive 1019: Cash McCall - The Ballad of Billie Sol / Breaking Up (Sept. 1962)
Topic 8010: Cash McCall - My Friend Johnny / Once in Every Lifetime (1965)
Topic 8014: Cash McCall - In Time / My Best Friend (Nov. 1965)
Topic 8022: Cash McCall - Don't Give Me a Chance / The Picker's Story (May 1966)
Sincere BB-833-6: Cash McCall - The Fool in Me / Shoot Low, Sheriff (Sept. 1966)

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Obituary

• Parrish L. Stahl: "'Cash' McCall Fondly  Remembered" (The Exponent), 2016