New Star and Gaylord Records

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

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

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

Billboard May 21, 1955

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

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

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

Billboard December 31, 1960

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

Billboard November 3, 1962

Billboard December 15, 1962

Billboard February 9, 1963

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

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

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

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

Billboard April 16, 1966

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

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

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

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

Billboard April 13, 1968

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

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

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

Discography

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

Sources

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

• Rockin' Country Style

• Find a Grave entry for Hal Smith

• Gaylord and New Star entries on Discogs

• Nashville Musical History Tour Facebook page

• Hank Cochran on hillbilly-music.com

• Ralph Mooney Wikipedia entry

See also

• Hank Cochran picture gallery

• Willie Nelson: Things to Remember - The Pamper Demos

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

Shelby Follin and the Memphis Four

Shelby Follin and the Memphis Four

During my research on the Snearly Ranch Boys, I was newly intrigued by another country music band, Shelby Follin and the Memphis Four. A rather unknown act like Doc McQueen or Bob Williams' Mid-South Playboys, I was able to puzzle together and create a short biographical sketch on Follin. Additions or memories on this act are highly appreciated.

Shelby C. Follin was born on April 23, 1916, in Mississippi. Details on his life are scarce but what we know is that he served in the Marine Corps during World War II in South Pacific and after his discharge, became a Tennessee highway patrol officer. Eventually, he became a special officer at Memphis Municipal Airport (now Memphis International Airport).

Kansas City Times November 29, 1951

By the late 1940s, Follin had assembled a little country band that was called “Shelby Follin and the Memphis Four”. In later literature, which mentions Follin, it was often simply referred to as “The Shelby Follin Band”. The group played Ernst Tubb like honky-tonk music around Memphis and in January 1952, Follin and the band landed a spot on local radio station KWEM, hosting a 30-minute program each day (before Howlin’ Wolf’s slot).

Billboard May 24, 1952

Guitarist Paul Burlison was a member of the band from around 1950 until the band’s break-up around 1954. Pianist Smokey Joe Baugh joined the band in 1952, playing with them for about a year before switching to Clyde Leoppard’s Snearly Ranch Boys.

The band disbanded around 1954. They left behind no recordings, as they were out of business before the Memphis recording industry had developed – the only significant labels being Sun and Meteor but they were blues and rhythm & blues based prior to 1954, likely being reluctant to commercially record amateur country music. The only possibility of recorded documents of the Shelby Follin Memphis Four would be live on-air tapes of their regular KWEM broadcasts but there are no tapes known and, to be honest, it is doubtful there ever existed some.

Being only part-time musician, Follin retained his day job at the airport until his sudden death. On January 27, 1959, Follin and a friend were driving in their car from a hunting trip in Olive Branch, Mississippi, a little south of Memphis, when Follin missed a curve and the car hit a tree. Follin was instantly dead, his friend survived. Shelby Follin is buried at Oak Hill Church of Christ Cemetery near Corinth, Mississippi.

Sources
Various books, online entries and liner notes mention Shelby Follin but mostly only refer to him in association with Paul Burlison or Smokey Joe Baugh.

• Find a Grave entry
• Tales from the Woods
• Dorsey Burnette biography on Bear Family Records

Bonnie Lou on King

Bonnie Lou - Wait for Me, Darling (King 45-1365, 1954)

Bonnie Lou was a star of WLW from the 1940s up to the 1970s and had a few hits in the 1950s, mixing country with R&B on many of her recordings for King Records. Apparently, she was one of the first women to sing rock'n'roll or rock'n'roll tinged songs. Today we feature one of her country releases for the label.

She was born on November 27, 1924, in central Illinois as Mary Joan Kath. She spent her early years in Towanda, Illinois, but when the family's home burned down, they relocated to Carlock, where Kath's father worked as a farmer. She was interested music already as a child and initially learned violin before taking up the guitar at the age of eleven years. Influenced by such cowgirl singers as Patsy Montana or the Girls of the Golden West, she learned to yodel from her grandmother (who originally hailed from Switzerland and had immigrated to the US).

In 1939, at age 15, Kath had her first radio appearances under her given name and also soon played public appearances. A year later, she was part of Bill Barlow's Kentucky Ramblers and upon finishing high school in 1942, she moved to Kansas City a year later, where she appeared on radio KMBC as "Sally Carson". She played such programs as the Dinnerbell Round-Up and the station's big live stage show, the Brush Creek Follies.

In 1945, Kath transferred from KMBC to WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it was there that she took the stage name "Bonnie Lou" (which she got from fellow WLW performer and station executive Bill McCluskey). At WLW, Kath featured her own band, known as the Trailblazers, and soon became a regular performer on the station's successful Midwestern Hayride. Her popularity grew through the years and in 1953, she signed with the local independent label King Records. Already her first release, "Seven Lonely Days" b/w "Just Out of Reach" (King #1192, March 1953), became a #7 country hit.

Billboard June 19, 1954

Kath had a follow-up hit that same year with "Tennessee Wig Walk" (#6) but was absent from the charts the next two years. "Wait for Me, Darling", an uptempo country side, was recorded May 30, 1954, at the King Recording Studio with an unknown band. King coupled the song with another recording from the same session, "Blue Tennessee Rain", and released it on King #1365 in June 1954. However, the disc did not reach the charts.

Billboard June 26, 1954, C&W review

Despite her popularity on the Midwestern Hayride and guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, her next hit came not until fall 1955, when her "Daddy-O", a R&B flavored country number, reached #14 on Billboard's charts. She had another hit with "La Dee Dah" early in 1958, a duet with fellow King recording artist Rusty York. Her records were also released in Europe, including successfully in England. Two of the reasons that she never achieved enduring chart success may have been the facts that WLW did not let her take off from the station to go out on tour and promote her records and, to her own account, that she mixed country and R&B genres, so people did not know which style she was actually singing.

Sheet music for "Daddy-O"

After her King contract expired, she signed with local Fraternity Records, as she did not want to leave Cincinnati, and released two unsuccessful singles, including the rock'n'roll number "Friction Heart". In the following years, she would also record for Todd, Studio 4, and Wrayco. When television became more popular than radio, she made the transistion from WLW to its TV counterpart WLWT and starred in the TV edition of the Midwestern Hayride until its ending in the 1970s. She also became part of various other TV programs of the station, including the Paul Dixon Show. After Dixon's death in 1974, she semi-retired from TV and music business, only performing occasionally.

She hosted a country radio show on WPFB in Middletown, Ohio, during the 1980s. Mary Joan Okum (she had married her second husband Milton J. Okum in 1966) aka Bonnie Lou passed away December 8, 2015, at the age of 91 years in Cincinnati.

Sources:
• Hillbilly-Music.com
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• 45cat entry
• Wikipedia

Linco Records

Good Times in Fayetteville
Ernest Tucker and the Preservation of Rock'n'Roll

Our journey through the green lands of Tennessee takes us a little west, about 130 miles to be more precise. We stop in Fayetteville, a city that has not much to brag about. With 7,000 habitants, the city is the largest in Lincoln County and also its county seat. The highlight of the year is the Lincoln County Fair in Fayetteville. Back in the late 1950s, the city had a population around 6,800.

Fayetteville was the home base of local DJ Ernest Jackson "Ernie" Tucker, who was a radio personality on WEKR for many decades. He was born on May 31, 1923, in Lincoln County to Elmer A. and Ina R. Tucker. Ernie Tucker was musically inclined as he learned to play the fiddle and mastered the instrument on a high level. He married Grovene Dyer from Fayetteville in 1946 and eventually began working as an engineer and disc jockey for the local radio station WEKR.

Billboard January 18, 1960

Tucker decided to form his own record company, which came into existence in the spring of 1959 in form of Linco Records. He also set up Linco Music to handle the publishing of original song material. But before Tucker was able to release recordings on his own label, he formed a short affiliation with blues and R&B guitarist Jimmy Liggins. Liggins formed his Duplex label in 1958, releasing the first record by Mattie Jackson and Ervin "Big Daddy" Rucker that were produced by Tucker in January 1957 in Fayetteville. In extend to that, Tucker continued his association with Liggins as he was involved in more of the early Duplex releases. The first discs of the imprint even had a Fayetteville address on the record labels.

By May 1959, Tucker had gone back to running his own label. The debut release on Linco was the raunching "Swing It Little Katy" b/w the country tune "The Last Bouquet" by an act called Clyde Owens and the Moonlight Ramblers. Owens recorded for a plethora of labels from the late 1950s until the 1980s, including for the Great and Chart imprints in Nashville.

Billboard June 16, 1962
Was this a mistake by Billboard or was Ernest Tucker
really distributing DJ copies for Sun Records?

Billboard June 29, 1963

Tucker recorded a slew of local rock'n'roll talent for Linco, including Curtis Long, Hollis Champion and Clayton Hillis. Their recordings became minor cult favorites among rock'n'roll collectors nowadays. Copies of particular releases can be worth 200-400 $ (or more, depending on what you are willing to pay).

After Tucker released the Johnson Boys & the Jay Dees' record record in late 1960, Linco fell dormant until 1962. Then, suddenly, Tucker revived his operations to record Charlie Waggoner, a Fayetteville native, who was a member of the Rocky Mountain Jamboree from Denver, Colorado, at the time of his Linco recordings. The most notable of his four cuts for the label was a 1963 country rocking version of the old song "One Eyed Sam", that was also recorded by such artists as Eldon Baker & his Brown County Revelers (Vocalion, 1938), Tommy Spurlin & the Southern Boys (Perfect, 1956), Tex Williams (Capitol, 1960) and more recently, by Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan on their album "Happy Hour" (2005).

Neither of Tucker's productions became a hit nor were even near to be a hit. But they were preservations of authentic, unique music. Tucker closed down Linco, at least the label but possibly not the publishing arm, in 1963 after Charlie Waggoner's last single. There was another, later, Linco label from Greensboro, North Carolina, which is not connected to Tucker's label, however. Ernie Tucker continued to work for WEKR during the next decades and, being an accomplished fiddler, won the 1973 Athens Fiddler's Contest.

Ernie Tucker passed away April 19, 2010. There has not been a proper reissue of the Linco recordings, although Cees Klop devoted a LP to selected Linco recordings (White Label 8808 - Rock-a-Billy from Tennessee, Vol. 2, 1979). A compilation featuring Tucker's complete recordings is still missing, however.

Discography

45-1313: Clyde Owens and his Moonlight Ramblers - Swing It, Little Katy / The Last Bouquet (1959)
45-1314: Curtis Long and the Rhythm Rockers - Hootchey Cootchey / After All (1959)
45-1315: Alton Delmore - Good Times in Memphis / Thunder Across the Border (1959)
45-1316: The Four Sons (The Johnson Boys) - Little Rock / Midnight Sun (1959)
45-1317: Hollis Champion and the Secrets - Old Red Devil / Conscience Be Our Guide (1960)
45-1318: Danny Carmichael - Duck Wobble / Fast Train (1960)
45-1319: Clayton Hillis and the Rocket City Rockettes - Rocket City Rock / Don't You Know I Love You (1960)
45-1320: The Johnson Boys / Vocal by the Jay Dee's - With a Vanessa / Mystic Madonna (1960)

45-502: Charlie Waggoner - Dying Love / Just Like Before (1962)
45-503: Charlie Waggoner - One Eyed Sam / An Old Memory (1963)

Sources
• Ernest Tucker obituary
• Linco Records discography at 45cat
• Linco entry at Rockin' Country Style
• Blue Eye: Ervin "Big Daddy" Rucker

Recommended reading
• That's All Rite Mama: Roger Wilcoe on Unicom

Happy Birthday Luther Perkins!

 In Honor of Luther Perkins
(January 8, 1928 - August 5, 1968)

Today would have been Luther Perkins' 94th birthday. Perkins, who was a member of Johnny Cash's band, the Tennessee Two, right from the start in 1954 until his untimely death in 1968, was an integral part of the Cash sound and the success of Johnny Cash. Cash, Perkins, and Marshall Grant started playing gospel music in Memphis, Tennessee. Their musical skills were limited, yet they had a passion for the music. In addition to Perkins' rudimentary skills on the guitar, his instrument was a bit beaten-up. This led him to keep it simple and stick to picking the bass strings of the guitar and muted them with his right hand. The "boom-chicka-boom" sound was born. It was simple but effective.

On stage, Perkins was shy and seemed emotionless due to his fear to make a mistake. During the years, his skills on the guitar improved and he became much better than in 1955 (which can be spotted on recordings and live performances) but his fundamental sound remained the same.

I have chosen a couple of live peformances from the early years of Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two (or Three, with the subsequent addition of drummer W.S. Holland) that show not only Perkins' uncomparable style of "performing" but also the perfect imperfection of these young musicians that producer Sam Phillips always searched for.

So Doggone Lonesome - Grand Ole Opry (1955)
Introduced by Little Jimmy Dickens and Hank Snow. The gamblers in front of the band are Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys.


Folsom Prison Blues - Town Hall Party (1959)


Big River - Star Route (1961)
Introduced by Charlie Williams.


Bonanza - Grand Ole Opry (1962)
Introduced by T. Tommy Cutrer.


Ring of Fire - prob. Jimmy Dean Show (1964)
Introduced by Jimmy Dean.

Jeffrey Halford & the Healers – Beware of Worthless Imitations, Volume 1 review

„Beware of Worthless Imitations, Volume 1“ is not a exactly a new release. First of all because it was already released in 2020 (we received a promo copy not until recently) and secondly because it is a compilation of old material, spanning the years 1999 until 2019. Jeffrey Halford is a Texas born but California raised singer, musician, and songwriter who has criss-crossed the United States with his band, the Healers, for more than 20 years now. This “Best of” album not only promises to include “songs that had the magic” – it does have the magic.

With a voice reminiscent of Hank Williams III and a style that is a cross-over between Williams and Shooter Jennings, Halford is right on point with his Americana, country-rock style. The opening track “Bad Luck” is a killer and sets the right tone for the album. “Creole Moon” and “Radio Flyer” (the latter featuring Chuck Prophet) are of more staid nature but quite enjoyable. Noteworthy, the music sounds authentic and “live” on all tracks.

More highlights on the 20 track CD include the bluesy “Satchel’s Fastball” (a collaboration with the Gospel Hummingbird), “Watching the Trains” featuring great electric steel guitar work, “In a Dream” (dominated by an organ played by no other than Augie Meyers of Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados fame), “Rainmaker” with an Doors-like intro, “North Beach” or the western-flavored “Deeper Than Hell”.

This is a great album for Americana fans and highly recommended!

Stash - Walk the Walk review

Hiding behind the band name “Stash” are no others than Ted Russell Kamp, Rich McCulley, and Joey Peters. All of them are well-known figures in Los Angeles’ Americana scene and have worked with big names in the business. So this is a bit of a super group for west coast Americana terms. We recently reviewed Ted Russell Kamps’ solo album “Solitaire”, which saw release earlier this year. But “Walk the Walk” comes along fast, though not on every track, tighter, different.

The first track “Smoke and Mirrors” is a mid-paced number, though this remains an acoustic atmosphere due to the presence of acoustic guitars and a banjo. “Catch Me If You Can” is of a total different approach. It certainly rocks and features a nice harmonica solo. Its follow-up, “Queen of the Highway”, is again different altogether. A great country song that easily could have been from a 1970s Waylon Jennings album.

“One Step Ahead of the Law” is a nod to Kamps’ old band mate Shooter Jennings in parts and another great track. Other highlights include “One Track Mind”, “What I Need” and “By Your Side”. The “Hey, Hey, Hey” song’s intro sounds like Katrina & the Waves’ big hit “Walking on Sunshine” and is likely what the band describes as “power pop”.

This is another high-class outing from Ted Russell Kamp’s portfolio. Recommended for Americana and outlaw country fans.

Good News

Good News
3109 Park Avenue

This was another label associated with Style Wooten, though it seems not to be fully controlled by him. The only known release has "Olive Branch Gospel Productions" printed on the label., which was one of Wooten's companies. Olive Branch is a city south of Memphis across the Mississippi state border.

45/7277: Jessie Clerk - Our Pastor / I Said Ode to Willie Joe (1977)

Joe Vestich - Steal the Wind review

American born singer-songwriter Joe Vestich has been active in music since the 1960s. Coming from a Croatian family, he began playing music at age nine and formed a duo with his brother Mark in the 1960s. In 1986, Vestich relocated to Finland, which has been his home base ever since. He was and still is an appreciated performer and recording artist there and has recorded his new album “Steal the Wind”, which was released in August 2021.

Judging from the front cover, Joe Vestich with a stetson hat and a guitar in front of a beautiful mountain view, one might expect an album a la John Fogerty’s Blue Ridge Rangers project. In addition, the opening track in fact underlines this expectation. “Paradise” is a Eagles-type song and comes along nicely, although Vestich’s voice trembles at times a bit.

Next up is “The Darkest Night”, which has a very different approach with its bluesy, dark feeling. An organ and a horn section support Vestich’s band. The title track “Steal the Wind” is another Eagles soundalike but a very good one. The album continues with one enjoyable country song after another. At times, Vestich’s voice has shades of oversubscription (heard on such titles as “Razor Red Sky”) and you can hear Verstich’s age in his voice.

This might go for 1970s country music fans as well as lovers of John Fogerty or the Eagles.

Gene Woods' Friddell Records

Gospel, Country and Rock'n'Roll from the Wild River
The Story of Gene Woods' Friddell Records

View on Ocoee Street in Cleveland, Tennessee, ca. 1960s

We continue our little journey through the backwoods lands of rural Tennessee and stop by in Cleveland, Tennessee. Cleveland is located in the southeast of Tennessee near Chattanooga, not far away from the Tennessee-Georgia state border. The city has a population of around 47.000 today but was much smaller some 60 years earlier, when Cleveland gave home to only 16.000 habitants in 1960.

Cleveland was once home to a small record label, Friddell Records, which was operated by local singer, songwriter and entrepreneur Eugene “Gene” Woods. Born in 1930, Woods took up at the guitar at some point and likely started out as a local performer. He could be heard over Cleveland’s own WBCA radio and already at age 28, in 1958, he tried out as a businessperson and founded Gene Woods Enterprises. Part of this company became his record label Friddell Records.

The honor of the first release on Friddell went to David Beatty, who was a Lee College student at that time. Beatty hailed from Ferriday, Louisiana, and comes from the family that presented many talented musicians to the world: Mickey Gilley, Jimmy Swaggart, Carl McVoy, and, last but not least, Jerry Lee Lewis. According to Beatty’s own recollection, he, Lewis, Gilley and Swaggart were playing in a loose teenager band, performing religious material at church events and political rallies. Accordingly, they had their first and only “secular” performance in 1949 at a talent contest of the Ferriday High School, bringing the audience to ecstatic reactions with their rendition of the Sticks McGhee R&B hit “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee”. In Jerry Lee Lewis’ memory, he performed this song with a country & western band at a car dealership in 1949. May it as it be, Beatty left Ferriday in 1955 to join the ministry and moved to Cleveland, Tennessee, where he enrolled at Lee College.

The first release on Friddell comprised “It’s Different Now” and “I Praised the Lord” by Beatty on Friddell #100. A follow up was released that same year on Friddell #104 with “There’ll Be a Crown for Me” (partially written by Gene Woods) and “Welcome Home” (a Beatty original). While at Lee College, Beatty recorded another disc, “I Just Got Off the Devil’s Train” b/w “It’s Alright” (Noel #100), which may or may not have been associated with Woods.

The second release was recorded by a rock’n’roll combo named the Orbits. For Friddel, they cut “Hyena” and “My Rosa-Lee”, which became Friddel #102. During the 1950s, there were several bands that used the name “Orbits” and it is said that the Orbits that recorded for Friddel also recorded a slew of unissued tapes for the Missouri based Jan record label. These were compiled on the 1991 White Label LP “Missouri Rockers, Volume 2”. However, I could not find any hint to underline this statement.

Billboard February 15, 1960

Next up was Gene Woods in his own right, recording two originals “I’m Having a Hard Time to Forget” and “Tho I’ll Pretend”, accompanied by a band called the Tune Twisters and released in late 1958. Two more records by other artists followed before Wood would release another of his own recordings. By 1958, Woods had become acquainted with Chattanooga based singer-songwriter Houston “Buck” Turner, who was also a member of the Tune Twisters. Turner and Woods had written a song, “How Big a Fool Can You Be”, which was recorded by Woods and the band along with “Why Should I” for release on Friddell #108 in October 1959. The record became a good regional seller. Houston Turner would later be part of a regional bluegrass band, the Dixieland Drifters, and used this band to demo his songs as well as recording professionally with them. Their recordings included a version of “How Big a Fool”.

Probably the last two releases of Friddell were issued in 1961 by Woods. Possibly through the connection of David Beatty, Woods released two discs by Beatty’s cousin Jimmy Swaggart, who had become a newborn Christian by then, too. Swaggart recorded four songs for Friddell, including Beatty’s composition “It’s Different Now”.

Billboard August 1, 1960
(note that Billboard reports Woods is recording for Dub
although it was actually Hap)

Already in September 1960, Woods had a release on Happy Herbert Schleif’s Hap record label, “The Ballad of Wild River,” a song written by local DJ Marshall Pack to go hand in hand with the filming of the movie “Wild River”. The film starred Montgomery Clift and was mainly shot in Cleveland. The release on the Chattanooga based Hap label again bears possibly the involvement of Houston Turner, whose band, the Dixieland Drifters, also recorded for the same imprint. The record soon became a good seller and eventually entered Billboard's "Hot C&W Sides" charts on October 10, 1960, on #25. By November 7, the song had risen to the #7 spot. For both Woods and the small Hap label, it was an immense success.

However, "The Ballad of Wild River" remained Woods' only chart entry. He continued to perform regionally and spent most of the 1960s recording for Chart Records out of Nashville. He also had releases on Choice and Mallard. In the 1970s, he could be also seen on local television.

Gene Woods died in 1996 and is buried at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Cleveland. His wife Imogene followed in 2015.

Friddell Records Discography
See also 45cat for an (incomplete) discography of Friddell Records and a likely complete discography of Gene Woods. Also visit Small Independent Rockin' 45rpm Labels.

100: David Beatty and the Harmonettes - It's Different Now / I Praise the Lord (1958)
101: Voice of Salvation Quartet - Since I Believed / Give Me Time (1958)
102: The Orbits - Hyena / My Rosa-Lee (1958)
103: Gene Woods and the Tune Twisters - I'm Having a Hard Time to Forget / Tho I'll Pretend (1958)
104: David Beatty and the Continental Quartet -There's Be a Crown for Me / Welcome Home (1958)
105:
106: The Crowe Brothers - Jane / I Need You Baby (1959)
107:
108: Gene Woods and the Tune Twisters - Why Should I / How Big a Fool Can You Be (1959)
200: Jimmy Swaggart and the Harmonettes - At the End of the Trail / I'll Never Be Lonely Again (1961)
201: Jimmy Swaggart and the Harmonettes - It's Different Now / Jimmy Swaggart - Meeting in the Air (1961)

Sources
• David Beatty biography
• Gene Woods entry on Find a Grave
• Friddell Records entry on Rockin' Country Style
• Friddell Records entry on Gloryland Jubilee
• Dead Wax post on Gene Woods and Friddell