Updates

• Added info on Jimmy Ford, thanks to Volker Houghton. • Extended and corrected the post on Happy Harold Thaxton (long overdue), thanks to everyone who sent in memories and information! • Added information to the Jim Murray post, provided by Mike Doyle, Dennis Rogers, and Marty Scarbrough. • Expanded the information on Charlie Dial found in the Little Shoe post.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys

Bluebonnets and Country Music
The Story of Clyde Chesser and his Texas Village Boys

Promo picture of Clyde Chesser (center) and the Texas Village Boys
for KCEN-TV's Blue Bonnet Barn Dance, ca. 1953-1954
(from the archives of KCEN-TV)

I was always intrigued by the legacy of Clyde "Barefoot" Chesser and his Texas Village Boys since I first learned of them years ago. The Texas Village Boys were a Central Texas based western swing group, led by radio and TV personality Clyde "Barefoot" Chesser. Unfortunately, the group only made few recordings that likely did not represent its wide repertoire, consisting of western swing numbers, traditional country songs, rock'n'roll influences, gospel material and recitations as well as the occasional pop tune. The Texas Village Boys were the main act of a local TV show, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance, emceed by and centered around Chesser.

The information given in this text came from various sources as Chesser was never the subject of intense researches. Much info could be drawn from the back of Chesser's 1960s Austin Custom LP, written by Ray Poole and Don Boyle (of Austin Custom Records). Various other sources, such as Hillbilly Researcher Al Turner or specific literature, provided other useful hints and info that I was able to puzzle together and form the first in-depth examination of Chesser's career.

Early Years
Clyde Odell Chesser was born on August 19, 1929, in Tahoka, Texas, south of Lubbock, but grew up in the tiny community of Oglesby near Waco. Chesser's family was racked with the hard depression years of the early 1930s and such luxurious things as radios were not affordable. Chesser did not even know what a radio was until one of the family's neighbors obtained one. He was instantly fascinated with the new medium and absorbed as much literature about radio technology as he could. Young Chesser was determined to be on the air waves someday.

Barefooted first steps in radio
As a teenager while attending high school, Chesser founded a country group and in his senior year, his dream became true as he earned a spot on local KWTC in Waco. However, this undertaking only lasted for a few weeks but Chesser did not give up. He auditioned at KWTX in Hamilton, Texas, where the executives found him good enough for his own DJ show. This was approximately in the late 1940s. By 1950, Chesser had started the Central Texas Hillbilly Hayride, a live stage show from Hamilton that aired over KWTX. The show was emceed by Chesser and he soon managed to book some of the big names in country music for the Hayride.

It was during Chesser's early days in radio that he got the nickname "Barefoot". The reason why he earned that name is lost in time but Chesser started appearing barefooted on personal appearances, as it was demanded by his listeners. He later remarked: "I've always tried to give the folks what they want... so barefooted I went."

Blue Bonnets and Texas Villages
In the spring of 1951, Chesser was drafted and spent his military time in Germany. While serving his country, Chesser worked for the Armed Forces Network, broadcasting country music programs. He returned to the United States in 1953 and resumed work quite soon. It was at that time that Chesser assembled a group of musicians that became known as "The Texas Village Boys". Television had become popular while Chesser was away and again, he first saw the new medium in his neighborhood, being equally fascinated with it like he was with radio in his childhood. Chesser went to KCEN-TV in Temple, Texas, a station that had just made its first broadcast in November 1953, and the station's manager Harry Stone was instantly impressed not only by the Texas Village Boys but also by Chesser's colorful character. He realized the potential and thus, a TV show called "The Blue Bonnet Barn Dance" was created. The show centered around Chesser and the Texas Village Boys with additional local guests appearing on the show, including Wanda Gann, Mike Post, Larry Nolen, Jim DeCap, the Diamond Twins, and others.

The Blue Bonnet Barn Dance started in November and was an overnight success with the audiences. The show made the Texas Village Boys popular around the Temple and Waco areas, playing theaters, school auditoriums, and other venues. However, Chesser was actually not part of the performing troupe. He emceed the shows, managed the band and promoted their appearances. Eventually, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance expanded as several other stations carried the show, making it popular not only in Central Texas but also numerous other regions in the Southwest.


Billboard June 5, 1954

The early line-up of the Texas Village Boys included Arnold Williams (vocals/guitar), Gaylon Christie (steel guitar), Okie Davis (vocals/fiddle), Eddie Spradley (vocals/fiddle), and Alvin Berry (bass). In the mid 1950s, the band made a couple of recordings for small, local labels. Probably the first of them was for the local Waco based Telecraft label, comprising "Would I Be Satisfied" b/w "I'm Sorry for You Darling" (Telecraft #101/102). The former had been written by Chesser already in the late 1940s.


The Kerens Tribune
February 1, 1957

Beginning likely in late 1954, Chesser and the Texas Village Boys recorded for Central Records, a subsidiary of the Waco based gospel label Word Records. The group recorded several numbers for the company over a three-year stretch, including some religious material. The first release featured "Give the Devil a Little Rope" and "I Wish" (Central #102/103), which enjoyed some popularity in Central Texas, according to a July 1955 Cowboys Songs magazine issue.

In 1955, another disc followed on the Central label, which might be Chesser's most popular one. "Let Jesus In" b/w  "If Jesus Came to Your House" (Central #117) was obviously of sacred nature and the latter one became Chesser's most popular number. It was a recitation he had previously done on the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance and the crowd reaction after the show was so overwhelming that Chesser put it out on record. The disc enjoyed some success and led Chesser to copyright it in January 1956, although it was originally not written by him - he had spotted it in a newspaper. The notes on Chesser's 1960s album give us the following information: "He [Chesser] had in his possession a number called 'If Jesus Came To Your House,' which one of his viewers had clipped from an old magazine and sent to him. This magazine paper showed signs of being very old due to its discoloration. Clyde realized the powerful message and thought carried in the words of this composition but due to its length, he kept pushing it back week after week for nearly a year, feeling it was just too long for television. One afternoon while being rushed and needing a piece of material for a Saturday night show... Clyde very hurriedly rehearsed this number remarking: 'the sponsor will get mad because this thing is just too long.'" It was not and became a success, both on TV and on record. The success of Chesser's performance inspired stars like Red Sovine, Porter Wagoner, and Tex Ritter to cover it as well. Also more unknown artists like Danny Williams, Joe Martin, the Mighty Skylights, Lucky Cordell, and the Upchurch Family recorded "If Jesus Came to Your House" (though Chesser was mostly not credited).

It seems that Chesser and the Texas Village Boys focused on their sacred material when recording for Central as there appeared two more discs on the label with religious content. Their third Central release featured "A Mail Order from Heaven" (another Chesser recitation) and the country gospel classic "I'll Fly Away" (Central #F-118). Especially the latter is a nice country gospel with harmony singing, great lead guitar picking and hand clapping. By then, Arnold Williams had left the group and been replaced by guitarist Ken "Kenney" Frazier, who possibly can be heard on this record providing the Merle Travis styled licks. Frazier had performed previously with such artists as Charlie Adams, Johnny Gimble, and Larry Butler and would go on to perform with Buddy Knox and Jimmie Heap.

By 1956, a drastic change had occurred to the Texas Village Boys. While much of the original line-up had been on duty in 1955, a year later, none of them performed with the band anymore. Steel guitarist Gaylon Christie, who had been about 19 years when he joined the band, founded a rock'n'roll group called "The Downbeats" (which also included Ken Frazier) in 1958 and cut several rock'n'roll discs for Texas labels in the late 1950s and early 1960s (including Jimmie Heap's Fame label). He eventually returned to country music and enjoyed a long career in local radio and music. Chesser presented a brand-new edition of the Texas Village Boys: Leon Rausch (under the name Leon Ralph) on vocals and guitar, Curtis Williams on electric guitar, Frankie McWhorter (as "Frankie Quarter") on vocals and fiddle, Lou Rochelle on steel guitar, and Tex Compton on bass. Both Rausch and McWhorter would join Bob Wills' act in the 1960s. Williams had been replaced by Daniel Screwball by early 1957.

The new line-up recorded another single for Central on December 1, 1955, at Clifford Herring's Sound Studio in Fort Worth, this time a cover of Leon Payne's "Lost Highway", which had been immortalized by Hank Williams in 1949, and "Smudges on the River", again a narration by Chesser (Central #F-119, ca. 1956). In the Texas Village Boys' version, "Lost Highway" became a great piece of western swing and ranks among the group's best recordings. However, it would also be their last one - although the group recorded possibly to more songs at the same sessions, which seem to be lost, unfortunately.


Billboard September 5, 1960
Chesser moves on
Although Chesser and the Texas Village Boys were Temple and Waco based, they also held down a steady TV gig on KFJZ on Fort Worth, Texas, since the mid 1950s. Leon Rausch left the band and began working with Bob Wills in 1958. The years 1957 until 1960 are only sketchy documented but it seems that Chesser found his way into promotion during this time. Billboard reported on September 5, 1960, that Chesser had gone into partnership with entrepreneur Don Murphy, organizing and promoting shows at the Music Hall, Coliseum and City Auditorium in Houston, Texas. Their first show featured well-known artists Martha Carson and Porter Wagoner. It was also reported that Chesser was commercial manager of KWBA in Baytown, Texas (near Houston) at that time.

Chesser kept another incarnation of the Texas Village Boys alive in the late 1950s and early 1960s, featuring Don Ricketson on steel guitar. However, it seems that he disbanded the band at some point in the early 1960s and with the ending of the band, the Blue Bonnet Barn Dance went off the air, too. During this time, Chesser was working as a promotion man in both Austin and Houston. By 1962, he was with station KOKE in Austin, where he also promoted big country shows featuring such stars as Little Jimmy Dickens and Roy Drusky but also emceed the "Go Texan" show in Houston a year later.

By then, Chesser had assembled a new band, which he named the "Kountry Boys". With this group, he recorded a whole LP of his recitations entitled "If Jesus Came to Your House" that was released on the Austin Custom label in 1962 or 1963.

Later years
I did not find any mention of Chesser after 1963 so it seems that he retired, at least from the public side of the business. However, an entry at the Country Music Hall of Fame website indicates that he resumed his performing career at a later point. An interview with Chesser was conducted in 1987 by John W. Rumble that is now part of the CMHoF collection.

Clyde Chesser passed away October 7, 1996, at the age of 67 years. He is buried at Bellwood Memorial Park in Temple. Chesser was more than just one of the many country music DJs in those years. His band, the Texas Village Boys, featured several musicians that were later noted and went on to perform with top names in the music industry. His work as a promoter gave not only young talent a chance but also brought big names into the Central Texas areas and entertained thousands of people.

Recommended reading
Secondhandsongs: Cover versions of "If Jesus Came to Your House"
Country Music Hall of Fame entry

Sources
Hillbilly Researcher blog (back cover notes of Chesser's LP)
Entry at Find a Grave
• Entries at 45cat and 45worlds
• Entry at hillbilly-music.com for Clyde Chesser and Blue Bonnet Barn Dance
Steel Guitar Forum
Wired for Sound: Leon Rausch & texas Village Boys on Central 119
Leon Rausch entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Frankie McWhorter, John R. Erickson: "Cowboy Fiddler in Bob Wills' Band" (University of North Texas Press), 1997, page 67
• Jean A. Boyd: "The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing" (University of Texas Press), 2010, page 110
• Various Billboard news items

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Jimmy Dallas on Westport

Jimmy Dallas - I've Got a Right to Know (Westport 45-131), 1957

Jimmy Dallas, a rather unknown name in country music history, was a long-time figure on the Kansas City country music scene. Beginning in the early 1950s, Dallas made numerous records for local labels, appeared on various radio and television stations, and performed regularly well into the 1990s. His story has not been told properly, however - possibly because Dallas always stuck to country music and therefore never came to the attention of curious rock'n'roll collectors.

Jimmy Dallas was born Keith Beverly Kissee on July 26, 1927, in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, located directly at the Arkansas-Missouri state border. While his father Benjamin Walter Kissee also hailed from Mammoth Springs, his grandfather originally came from Missouri. He had three more siblings and one of his brothers, Elmo Lincoln Kissee, also became a country music singer in Kansas City under the name of "Elmo Linn". By 1935, the Kissee family lived in the rural area of Afton, Fulton County, south of Mammoth Springs, where Dallas attended elementary school.


Jimmy Dallas, early 1950s
Cowtown Jubilee promo picture
At some point after 1940, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and started his career in music probably in the early 1950s, adopting the stage name "Jimmy Dallas". By 1952, he was working with KCMO in Kansas City and was a cast member of the station's "Cowtown Jubilee", a live stage show much in the style of its competitor in Kansas City, "Brush Creek Follies". Dallas signed his first recording contract in early 1952 with the local Central label and recorded "Be Happy" b/w "(When You're) Singing a Hillbilly Song" (Central #001), backed by Al Phillips and his Frontier Four. A year later, Dallas recorded for another local record label, the Sho-Me label, and two records were released that year.

Local entrepreneur Dave Ruf had started the Westport label in Kansas City in 1955 and one of the first artists to be signed to the new imprint was Jimmy Dallas (his brother Elmo recorded for the same label subsequently). Around April that year, Dallas recorded two of his own compositions for Westport, "I'm No Good for You Anymore" b/w "Good Intentions" (Westport #127), released around May 1955. It was followed by two more discs in 1956 and 1957, including duets with Cathy Justice (a member of the Wesport Kids, another act on the label). Dave Ruf had also worked out an agreement with Bell Records executives, which lead to the release of Dallas' Westport recordings in Australia and New Zealand in 1958.

By 1955, Dallas had moved from KCMO to KIMO in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. The Cowtown Jubilee had moved to that station as well and was still on air by then with Dallas being still a cast member.


Billboard January 14, 1956
Contrary to many of his fellow country music entertainers, Dallas never got much into rock'n'roll, he always performed down home country music. In 1959, he hosted the "Jimmy Dallas Show" on WDAF-TV, which translated to KMBC-TV later that year. The show featured appearances by Dallas as well as other artists like the Country Styleers, Cherokee Johnnie and Mary Bee. Around the same time he also worked as a DJ on KANS in Kansas City. There was a break in Dallas' recording career after his stint with Westport and it was not until 1960 that a record by him hit the market again. This time, he got the chance to record for a major label, Decca Records. His only single for the label, "Hurtin' In My Heart" b/w "My Kind of Love" (Decca #9-31133), was his most unusual record, as it featured a slight teen pop influence and an updated, much more commercial and urban Nashville sound.

The Decca single saw the light of day in late summer of 1960 but obviously sold only disappointingly as it remained Dallas' only release for the label. A third song recorded for Decca, "Can't Win", remained unreleased. Another recording hiatus came for Dallas afterwards, this time for six years. The following years saw Dallas working around Kansas City, often as a DJ but also as a live act. He was back in the studio in 1966, when he recorded for Jim Ward's Edgewater, Colorado, based CLW record label, comprising "Nobody But You" b/w "Look at Me (CLW #6607). This was recorded with a vocal group called the Valley Trio and was likely produced in Nashville again. It had a great country chugger sound but unfortunately, was not made for the charts.

Another unheard single came into existence around 1968, when Dallas and his brother Elmo Linn worked with Bud Throne, who operated his own Throne label out of Independence, Missouri. Apart from backing up singer Sandy Sans, Dallas also recorded one solo disc for the label under the name of "Jimmy Dallis", "Web of Love" b/w "Every Body Says" (Throne #505).


The 1970s saw Dallas recording steadily for Triune Records and Graceland Records, two labels based in Hendersonville and Nashville respectively. By 1973, Dallas was program director of KBIL-AM, a country music radio station in Kansas City. In 1978, Dallas recorded his first, self-titled long-play album for the Kansa label, which also resulted in another single release that same year. Dallas stopped recording at the end of the 1970s. However, Kansa Records released a CD in Dallas' later years with many of his 1970s songs.

Billboard April 28, 1973

In the 1980s, Hobie Shepp, another Kansas City country music personality, reunited the surviving members of both Brush Creek Follies and Cowtown Jubilee shows. Arkansas Red, another performer on the Jubilee, remembered: "[I] worked with Jimmy [Dallas] on the old Cowtown Jubilee show at the Ivanhoe Temple in Kansas City back in the early fifties. Back in the eighties, Hobie Shepp of the Cowtown Wranglers [house band of the Cowtown Jubilee, e.g.] found me and invited me to come perform at a 're-union' show of all the old Brush Creek and Cowtown Jubilee people still around. That was the last time I saw Jimmy Dallas, or Hobie. It was great to see them all again... for the last time. Had some great memories of the Cowtown Jubilee, Dal Stallard, Tiny Tillman, Milt Dickey, and all the crew." Dallas opened his own bar on Highway 40 in Kansas City that lasted well into the 1990s. Dallas would also perform in his venue during these years. "[...] He was the show every nite and the place was packed on weekends. Super nice guy and great entertainer [...]," recalled his bookmaker.

Jimmy Dallas spent his last years in his longtime residence of Independence and passed away on September 28, 2004, at the age of 77 years. He left behind a wealth of country music recordings that still waits to be re-released properly.

Discography
See 45cat.com for a listing of Jimmy Dallas' 45rpm records (see sources section). Note that the LPs and Dallas' first record on Central Records are not included.

Recommended reading
Sources
• Official Census documents retrieved through Ancestry.com

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Hank Harral and Caprock Records


The Big Beat from Big Spring
Hank Harral's Caprock Records

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billboard December 16, 1950
The first half of the 1950s saw Harral work with several radio stations. In early 1951, he switched from KSEL in Lubbock to KTFY in Brownsfield, Texas, but changed stations again in May that year, airing over KWFT, Wichita Falls, Texas. He did not work there long, though, and moved to KCLV, Clovis, New Mexico around fall 1952. By March 1956, he could be heard over a little station out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, called KGRT.

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

Billboard June 24, 1956

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

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

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

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

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


See also:

Sources
• Sheena B. Stief, Kristen L. Figgins, Rebecca Day Babcock: "Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and from the West Texas Oilpatch" (University of Oklahoma Press), pages 161-163, 2021
• Joe Carr, Alan Munde: "Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas" (Texas Tech University Press), pages 74-76, 1997
• Phillip J. Tricker: "Hank Harral with the Plain Riders & his Palomino Cowhands" (British Archive of Country Music), liner notes, 2010

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Jeffrey Halford & the Healers - Soul Crusade review

In contrast to Halford's last release, which was a best of album with older material from previous albums, "Soul Crusade" contains eleven new tracks recorded by Halford and his band, the Healers.

The album features an authentic and lively sound, something that was also typical for Halford's earlier records. The album starts with "Another Skyline", a soulful, calm, and enjoyable song. It is followed by "Take It Slow", featuring humorous lyrics at a slightly faster pace. But it doesn't gets much faster on the rest of the album, many of the songs are pleasant but you're waiting for the real highlight. If there's something that comes close to being a highlight, it's "Devil", featuring a dirty, electrified slide guitar intro that also keeps the song moving. 

"Soul Crusade" is top quality in terms of performance and recording but lacks the definitive song here. Though, recommended to Americana/alternative country music fans.

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Gene Mooney on Rocket

Gene Mooney with the Westernaires - Trouble with the Blues (Rocket 45-911), unknown year

Gene Mooney, a cousin to famous steel guitarist and composer Ralph Mooney, led a country and western swing band for many years, it seems. He is not quite a well-known name in historian or collector circles. He recorded around a handful of records in the 1960s and 1970s and appeared steadily around Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the same time frame.

Mooney was born Eugene H. Mooney on November 21, 1926, in Borger in the northern corner of Texas, not too far away from the state of Oklahoma. Apparently, he made the move to Oklahoma at some point in his life and began a career in music. By the late 1950s, Mooney fronted a local country and western swing outfit he called "The Westernaires" that appeared around Tulsa and other areas in Oklahoma. By Novemver 1958, Mooney and the band became regulars at Leon McAuliffe's Cimarron Ballroom. In addition to his personal appearances, Mooney also appeared on local radio and in August 1960, Mooney took over a morning DJ show over KMUS in Muskogee, Oklahoma. His band became a long-running act in the Tulsa area and over the years, featured many different musicians, including well-known steel guitarist Billy Parker.


Billboard October 20, 1958
Marvin McCullough was a local Oklahoma
DJ that regularly appeared with Mooney
during the late 1950s. McCullough later replaced
Leon McAuliffe and Johnnie Lee Wills
on local radio.
Mooney's first record release probably came in early 1962 on the short-lived Flat-Git-It label, featuring "Half a Chance" b/w "Talking to My Heart" (Flat Git It #701). The label was actually based in California and also featured releases by brothers Fred and Cal Maddox of Maddox Bros. & Rose fame.

In 1972 and 1973, Mooney had two releases on the local Tulsa based Merit Records and somewhere in between - or even before the Flat-Git-It release - his Rocket disc came into existence. Rocket Records was a custom label from Nashville, Tennessee, that issued discs in the late 1950s and probably early 1960s. Mooney's release featured "Trouble with the Blues" b/w "No One" (Rocket #911) but no release date can be given or estimated, as the Rocket releases followed no systematical pattern.

Since at least 1971, Mooney and the Westernaires sometimes appeared at Cain's Ballroom, a now legendary venue in Tulsa known for appearances by western swing stars such as Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan. At that time, the ballroom was still owned by Jim Hardcastle, who sold it to a 83-years old lady named Marie L. Myers in February 1972. Myers had shown up one night at Cain's and obviously fell in love with Mooney's singing. "She went down there one night and asked him to sing 'Hello Darlin'' to her. That was it," remembered Hardcastle how Myers and Mooney first met. Myers bought the venue and made Mooney and the Westernaires the house band of the ballroom. From Hardcastle's statements, it seems that she made the decision on her own to buy Cain's, although she later said that Mooney talked her into buying the place.

Freddie Hart played Cain's early in 1972 - he had been still booked by Hardcastle - and Mooney and the Westernaires were supposed to be Hart's background band that night. Hart had sent records to Hardcastle to learn for Mooney and the band. The night Hart performed there, the place was packed but as it turned out, Mooney and the band had only practiced Hart's big hit "Easy Lovin'", believing the rest of the set list would be easy enough to handle with improvisation, which was not the case and made Hart mad.


Catalog of Copyright Entries 1973

However, under Myers' ownership, only few people attended Cain's when the Westernaires played solo, although Myers kept it open every Saturday night with Mooney and the band performing. There may have been more than one reason for the small crowds that attended. One reason was missing promotion. Though she got better advice from Hardcastle, Myers never advertised on local newspaper. In addition, it seems that Mooney was not a favorite of the audiences. Hardcastle recalled Mooney singing "a different type of country song" and although he seemed to be not a bad singer, his style of singing appeared not to be a crowd-drawer.

Mooney left Cain's in late 1973 to unknown reasons. Several witnesses indicate that Mooney's and Myers' relationship was more than business-based (whatever that means), it seems that they perhaps had a fall-out over some issue. What Mooney did after he left Cain's is unknown. Myers sold the venue not long after Mooney's departure to Larry Shaeffer, a part-time steel guitarist who had auditioned earlier unsuccessfully for Mooney's band and managed to establish the ballroom as one of the city's top live music venues again.

Gene Mooney passed away June 14, 1982, in Tulsa at the age of 55 years. He is buried at Cookson-Proctor Cemetery in Cookson, Oklahoma.

If anyone has more information on Gene Mooney, please feel free to contact me.

Sources
45cat entry
Find a Grave entry
• John Wooley, Brett Bingham: "Twentieth-Century Honky-Tonk" (Babylon Books), 2020
• Billy Parker, John Wooley, Brett Bingham: "Thanks - Thanks a Lot" (Babylon Books), 2021

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Chris Murphy - Two Rivers Crossing review


Chris Murphy is not what you would call a southern fiddler or a pure bluegrass musician. He has been influenced by different music styles, ranging from country to pop, from classic to folk and has released more than 20 records so far.

Among his many recorded works and collaboration, his new EP “Two Rivers Crossing” has to be one of his most down to earth and sparse productions. Listening to it, it often reminded me of the early 1920s and 1930s string band recordings, sometimes even featuring only Murphy’s singing and violin (he’s not calling it fiddle but violin). The opening track “Early Grave” as well as the track “The Wolves of Laredo” are reminiscent of Fiddlin‘ John Carson’s early recordings. However, modern touches are present everywhere on the record (“Long Ago” for instance) – Murphy combines southern fiddling with modern lyrics. The record closes with “Shantallow”, an instrumental with maritime flair that comes along more like a shanty than an old-time fiddle tune.

This will go for both traditional listeners and open-minded folk and world music fans. Nice melodies and sparse but pleasant arrangements with violin to the fore.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Hoyle Nix on Caprock

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - Coming Down from Denver (Caprock 45-105), 1958

Today's selection from our little Hoyle Nix series features Nix' third and last release on the Caprock label from fall 1958. Nix and the West Texas Cowboys are in good form here and present two solid western swing performance in their usual manner.

Caprock Records had been founded nearly a year earlier by DJ and country music singer Hank Harral. Nix and his band recorded a total of three discs for the label, all of which were recorded and released during 1958. They used Ben Hall's studio in Big Spring, Texas, for the sessions, which was a welcomed possibility for the band, as it was their home base and not far away from their regular gigs at Nix' Stampede Club in Big Spring.

"Coming Down from Denver" is a lively instrumental and was recorded, along with its flip side, the vocal number "My Mary", at Hall's studio at some point in 1958 with Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Little Red Hayes on fiddle, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, Loran Warren on banjo, Dale Burkett on piano, and John Minnick on bass. A drummer could have been present at the session, (possibly Kenny Lane), though this is not documented. The band differed to some extend from the line-up that would record for Bo-Kay Records the next year as Red Hayes, Dale Burkett, Loran Warren, and John Minnick had left and were replaced by other musicians.

A Nix original, "Coming Down from Denver" was later also recorded by Nix' mentor and friend Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys for Wills' "For the Last Time" sessions in 1973.

See also
Hoyle Nix
Hoyle Nix on Bo-Kay
• Hoyle Nix on Winston

Sources
Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
Entry at 45cat

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Hoyle Nix on Winston

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - She's Really Gone (Winston 1059-45), 1961

This was Hoyle Nix' last record for some years - seven years, to be exact. Since 1949, Nix had been recording steadily for small Texas labels: Star Talent, Queen, Caprock, Bo-Kay, and at the beginning of the 1960s for Slim Willet's Winston label. Willet had established the label in 1957 as the follow-up to his shortly before defunct Edmoral imprint. The name was a reference to Willet's real first name: Winston.

Hoyle Nix had recorded a single for Winston that same year before this one came out, "My Love Song to You" b/w "Sugar in the Coffee" (Winston #1057-45). More or less instantly after this first disc hit the market, today's selection "She's Really Gone" b/w "Cornflower Waltz" was released. Both numbers were set to a slower pace and sounded definitely out of time - but it was clear that Nix wasn't looking to sound like what the teenagers back then wanted. While "Cornflowers Waltz" was the instrumental flip side, Nix and his brother Ben shared vocals on a slow but charming "She's Really Gone".

Billboard October 9, 1961

The songs were recorded in August 1961 at Ben Hall's studio in Big Spring, Texas (also Nix' home base). Hall, a country music singer and songwriter in his own right, is best remembered today for penning "Blue Days, Black Nights", which was recorded by Buddy Holly. The line-up for Nix' recordings that day included Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on vocals and rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, "Little" Red Hayes on fiddle, Mancel Tierney on piano, Larry Nix on bass, and Kenny Lane on drums. Released the following October, Billboard rated the disc as "moderate sales potential" without any comment.

See also:

Sources

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Hoyle Nix on Bo-Kay

Hoyle Nix and his West Texas Cowboys - Ida Red (Bo-Kay K-108), 1959

Following my in-depth story on Texas western swing band leader and longtime Bob Wills companion Hoyle Nix, we continue to explore Nix' career and recorded works. The first installment of this litttle series features his first Bo-Kay release from 1959, which finds Nix and the band in top form with their rendition of the old fiddle favorite "Ida Red". It had been recorded more than 20 years earlier by the master Bob Wills himself (although there existed several recordings prior to Wills' take) and therefore became a standard in western swing.

"Ida Red" originally was a traditional fiddle tune played by string bands all over the south. Even early version featured lyrics, which were exchangeable however and the verses were unrelated to each other. The origins of the song are still unknown to this day. The first recording was made by Fiddlin' Powers & Family on Victor #19343 from 1924 and other early versions included those by Dykes' Magic City Trio, Riley Puckett, and Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers. These versions featured traditional string band arrangements but when Bob Wills took the tune in 1938, he partially set lyrics from an 1878 song called "Sunday Night" by Frederick W. Root to it and re-arranged it as a western swing song. Released on Vocalion #05079 in 1938, it became a hit for Wills. He recorded a new version entitled "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" in 1950 for MGM, which reached #10 on Billboard's C&W charts. The following years, cover version popped up by several artists, primarily in the country and western swing fields and "Ida Red" became a favorite especially in the latter genre. It also served as an inspiration for Chuck Berry's first hit "Maybellene" (1955), one of the first rock'n'roll hits and an influence on rock'n'roll and rock music in its own right.

It is well-known that Hoyle Nix toured and performed frequently with Wills during the 1950s and 1960s, so "Ida Red" certainly was part of his repertoire for some years by the time he recorded it. It was his second disc for the local Texas Bo-Kay label, which had been founded by Jesse Smith in 1956 in Lamesa, Texas. Nix and his West Texas Cowboys recorded "Ida Red" as well as its flip side "La Goldrina Waltz" at some point in 1959 at radio KPEP's studio in San Angelo, Texas. Present that day were Nix on vocals and fiddle, Ben Nix on rhythm guitar, Eldon Shamblin on lead guitar, Dusty Stewart on steel guitar, Millard Kelso on piano, Louis Tierney on fiddle/saxophone, Henry Boatman on bass, and Larry Nix on drums. 

Released in 1959 on Bo-Kay #K-108, the disc was likely a good seller locally and regionally but never stood a chance for wider distribution. Today, original copies of Nix' Bo-Kay singles can be found frequently at yard sales and such around Lamesa, Odessa, Big Spring, and surrounding areas.

See also
The Bo-Kay label

Sources
Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
Entry at 45cat
'Ida Red' entry at Wikipedia

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Hoyle Nix

Hoyle Nix & his West Texas Cowboys
King of West Texas Western Swing

Hoyle Nix, ca. 1950s
From the back cover of White Label LP 8831

When regarding the whole country music universe and its entire history, Hoyle Nix is a longer footnote in music history. Nix was not a national known star but like it was common back in those days, he was a regional celebrity. And he performed with famous and important western swing artists of his time, like the great Bob Wills. Nix played western swing in Wills' style, though a bit more crude in its approach.

William Hoyle Nix was born on March 22, 1918, in Azle, Tarrant County, Texas, to Jonah Lafayette Nix and his wife Myrtle. Both of Nix' parents hailed from Texas; his mother from Cross Plains (southwest of Abilene) and his father from Parker County near Fort Worth. The couple eventually moved to Azle, now a suburb of Fort Worth. A year after Nix' birth, the family relocated roughly 250 miles west to Big Spring, Howard County, back then a growing city with a population of about 4.000, located near Midland and Odessa. 

Nix' father was a fiddler and his mother a guitarist, so they were a big, early influence on Nix, playing the old-time music of their generation at community gatherings. At age six, Nix took up the fiddle, too, and learned his first tune. In the early and mid 1930s, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys rose to fame, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, and along with such acts as Milton Brown's Musical Brownies, established a new sound that became known as "western swing". It was a combination of the old-time fiddle music (that had also influenced Nix as much as Wills) with strong jazz and blues arrangements. Wills became the main influence on Nix, who considered Wills as "the finest fiddler he ever heard."

In 1936, Nix married Rosy Maude Davidson, the first of his five marriages, and son Larry was born in 1940. He was followed by Jody in 1952, Hoylene in 1957, and Robin in 1959. Both Larry and Jody later joined their father's band. 

Although music was on his mind right from the childhood onward, Nix did not found his own band until he and his brother Ben formed the West Texas Cowboys in 1946. The band was patterned after Bob Wills' Texas Playboys band with fiddle, guitar, steel guitar, bass, drums, and at times even horns. Nix and the band began playing locally and regionally around Midland, Odessa, Big Spring, Lubbock, Abilene, and San Angelo. They soon gained popularity in the region.

In 1949, it was time for Nix and the West Texas Cowboys to cut their first record. The opportunity came along in form of Talent Records, a smaller Dallas based label that also released discs by such Texas country music figures as Ben Hall, Sonny Burns, Johnny Hicks, Hank Harral, Slim Willet, and countless other artists. The first release featured "I'm All Alone" b/w "A Big Ball's in Cowtown" (Talent #709), which became also the most notable from this era. Nix had adopted an old minstrel negro song, variously known as "Big Ball's in Town" or "Roll on the Ground", that had been recorded earlier by artists of different genres (including old-time musicians), first in 1896 by Billy Golden. However, Nix was the first to register his jazzy western swing arrangement as his own work. The song was recorded by Bob Wills years later, giving credit to Nix, who became known as the composer - although he was only the arranger of the now popular western swing version.


Billboard August 27, 1949

The years 1949 and 1950 saw four more releases by Nix and his band, now under the newer imprint of Star Talent Records. In 1952, Nix met his idol Bob Wills for the first time in Colorado City, Texas, and both bands shared the stage that evening. Soon, the West Texas Cowboys and the Texas Playboys began touring together, sharing the stages of the dusty Texas dance halls for much of the 1950s.

Billboard July 22, 1950

In 1954, Nix and his brother Ben built their own dance hall outside of their adopted hometown of Big Spring on Snyder Highway. It opened on May 8 that year and drew a crowd of 1.1000 attendees the first night. Nix decided upon the name "The Stampede" for his dance hall and it featured the West Texas Cowboys but also other acts and became a popular spot that is still open to this day. Bob Wills performed there several times a year with Nix, both always serving as great entertainers to the audiences, as visitor Doug James remembered: "I was there the night Hoyle Nix and Bob Wills played with their fiddle bows tied together with thread for about 10 minutes before it broke. 'Orange Blossom Special' was the song."

Billboard November 26, 1955

In 1955, Nix went into partnership with another Texas country music artist, Wink Lewis. They set up their own record label, Queen Records, which was based in nearby Snyder. Both Nix and Lewis recorded for their imprint during 1955 and 1956, releasing a rockabilly-type song called "Real Rockin Daddy" to keep up with the flashing trend of rock'n'roll music during the mid 1950s. After Queen came to an early end in 1956, Nix recorded for Hank Harral's Caprock label out of Big Spring, waxing a new version of "Big Ball's in Cowtown", and "Summit Ridge Drive", now a minor favorite among collectors. He continued to record for Bo-Kay (1958-1959) and Slim Willet's Winston label (1961).

Also, Nix' relationship with Bob Wills continued. In the late 1950s, the West Texas Cowboys featured former Texas Playboys members Eldon Shamblin, Millard Kelso, and Louis Tierney, expanding the band to its largest size ever with nine members at the same time. When Bob Wills disbanded the Texas Playboys in the early 1960s, Wills hooked up with Nix' band altogether and kept on touring with them. Wills' appearances with Nix came to an end in 1969, when Wills suffered his first stroke.

Nix gave it a new try at recording in the late 1960s with the founding of another label, Stampede Records, on which he released a slew of singles during 1968. However, none of his records ever charted despite his popularity as a performer. This may be due to the fact that Nix always recorded for small labels without none - or at least minimal - distribution and promotion. In addition, western swing's popularity ceased by the early to mid 1950s on the national market.

Nix's friend Bob Wills suffered from bad health since the 1950s but in the late 1960s, it got worse. In 1973, he cut what would be his final session - Nix and his son Jody were invited to this historic event. After Wills' death in 1975, Nix continued to perform in his usual manner, playing such annual events as the Howard County Rodeo and the Odessa Rodeo as well as halls and spots all over Texas. He also became a mainstay on the Bob Wills day celebrations in Turkey, Texas, and performed with other big names during the years like Merle Haggard, Charlie Walker, Billie Jo Spears, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Duncan, Barbara Fairchild, and Marty Robbins. He made his last recordings in 1977 for the Oil Patch label, which released several singles and an album from these sessions.

Though not a national acclaimed name, Nix received several honors during his later career. He was inducted into the Nebraska Country Music Hall of Fame (1984), the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame (1985), the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame and the Western Swing Hall of Fame (both 1991).

Hoyle Nix passed away on August 21, 1985, at the age of 67 years after a short illness in Big Spring, where he is buried at Mount Olive Cemetery. After his death, son Jody took over the band and the Stampede and continues both to this day.

Nix' records are not particularly rare or worthy in original shape. He left behind a great body of recorded works, ranging from the late 1940s to the late 1970s. The British Archive of Country Music has compiled a CD in 2014 with selected cuts by Nix entitled "A Big Ball's in Cowtown".