Doc Williams and the Border Riders

Decades of Country Music
Doc Williams and the Border Riders

Doc Williams and the Border Riders, 1950s.
From left to right: Hiram Hayseed, Cy Williams, Marion Martin, Doc Williams
seated: Chickie Williams

Doc Williams is a familiar name with fans of traditional country music. Although Williams and his group, the Border Riders, never recorded for a major label or scored a series of hits, they were well-known throughout many parts of the United States and Canada thanks to their regular appearances on the WWVA Jamboree out of Wheeling, West Virginia. They stayed with the show for many decades, toured all over the south throughout their golden days and released numerous records on Williams' own record label, Wheeling Records.

Early Years
Doc Williams, the founder and leader of the Border Riders, was born Andrew John Smik, Jr., on June 26, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio. The child of Czech immigrants who came to the United States at the turn of the century, the family moved to Kittaning, Pennsylvania, located on the banks of the Allegheny River. Young Williams went to school in nearby Tarrtown. Music played an important role in his life right from the start. He learned to play cornet from his father and eventually taught himself to play guitar, harmonica, and accordion. At some point, Williams dropped out of school and worked as a coal miner for less then $1 a day.

The Border Riders Begin to Ride
In 1932, he returned to his birth town Cleveland and it was there that he really started his career in music. Already in Pennsylvania, he had performed at barn dances and also other venues in the Kattaning area with his brother Cy. In Cleveland, Williams joined Doc McCaulley's Kansas Clodhoppers and it was with this group that he became connected with the traditional old-time music of the West Virginia hills. Following his stint with the Clodhoppers, he soon branched out on his own and formed his first own group, the Allegheny Ramblers, which also included his brother Cy on fiddle and Curley Sims on mandolin, while Williams played guitar, harmonica, and sang. This was the foundation of what became the Border Riders; however, during the next years, the group underwent line-up and name changes as well. It was probably at that early stage that he adopted the stage name "Cowboy Doc".

Around 1935, the group moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they appeared on KQV and changed their name to the Cherokee Hillbillies. They also appeared on WHJB in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, during this time. However, the group changed names again when they met female singer Billie Walker and became her backing group, the Texas Longhorns. She left in 1937 for WWL in New Orleans and Williams and the band, now left on their own, decided to change names once more and became Doc Williams and the Border Riders.

An early incarnation of the Border Riders, late 1930s
From left to right: Curley Sims (mandolin), Big Slim (guitar), Cy Williams (fiddle),
poss. Sunflower (guitar), Doc Williams (guitar)

Riding to Wheeling
Williams and the group moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, which became his adopted hometown. Soon, the Border Riders began appearing at WWVA and in December 1937, had their first live appearance at WWVA's famous Wheeling Jamboree, a stage show that had been started by the radio station in 1933. Their performances on the station went well and by 1938, Doc Williams was already the most popular performer on the show. At the same time the Border Riders began appearing on WWVA, another vocalist by the name of Harry C. "Big Slim" McAuliffe joined the group. By then, the group consisted of Doc and Cy Williams, Cy's wife Mary (appearing as "Sunflower"), Curley Sims, and Hamilton "Rawhide" Fincher. A year later, Fincher had been replaced by comic Froggie Cortez.

Legend goes that the first fan letter Williams received was by his future wife Jesse Wanda Crupe, who hailed from Bethany, West Virginia. Addressed to "Buck Williams and the Border Riders", she requested the band to perform at a local barn dance (other source state she requested the band to perform at Reawood Dance Hall in Hickory, Pennsylvania). However, sources agree that when Williams first met his future wife, he called her "chickie" as he though she was a "cute chick". Love blossomed and the twosome married in 1939. Jesse Wanda Crupe became Jesse Wanda Smik and as she was beginning to appear with the Border Riders occasionally during this time (filling in for Sunflower), she became Chickie Williams. She would join her husband's act full-time in the 1940s.

The 1940s: Memphis, Return to Wheeling and World War II
In 1940, Williams moved his group to Memphis, Tennessee, where they appeared on WREC. While they made Memphis their home base, the Border Riders toured the Mid-South, playing in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi. Though, their stint in Memphis did not last very long. Williams was asked by Harry Stone to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville but Williams declined as his wife Chickie was pregnant and they moved back to Wheeling.

The years 1940 to 1942 saw Williams working in Yorkville, Ohio, where he operated the local airport as it was difficult to earn a living as a musician due to rationing. Aeronautics would be his passion for many years - he even would held a private pilot's licence eventually. However, Williams returned to Wheeling full-time after he had to close down the airport (his business partner had left to serve the country). At that time, the band included - apart from Doc, Cy and Sunflower - Jesse Porter and Smokey Davis. For some time during World War II, Williams appeared at WFMD in Fredericksburg, Maryland, and served a short time in the US Navy near the end of the war.

After the war: Doc Williams, the Entrepreneur
In summer 1945, Williams was discharged from the Navy, returned to Wheeling and resumed his career in music. He re-organized the Border Riders, which included by then Williams and his brother Cy, his wife Chickie and comedian Hiram Hayseed. However, the group was not on WWVA at that time as Williams had decisions to make. Since his beginnings in the 1930s, the old-time music that Williams was used to play had vastly changed and since the later part of that decade, had developed into the early forms of what we call today "country music". Various styles such as bluegrass, honky tonk and western swing had evolved from the mixing of traditional, rural old-time with different other genres such as jazz, blues, and other popular music styles. In the summer of 1946, Billboard reported that Williams was seriously thinking about transforming the Border Riders into a western swing unit, a popular country music style at that time.

He founded a cottage industry, opened a country store in Wheeling (right across the street from the Capitol Music Hall, where the WWVA Jamboree was held), and had published his first guitar instruction book already in June 1943 ("The Simplified By Ear System of Guitar Chords by Doc Williams"), which he sold on air and eventually disposed more than 200,000 copies. He also operated a civilian flying school at Scott Airport on Martins Ferry, Ohio, just a little south of his previous occupation in Youngstown.

On November 18, 1946, the Border Riders returned to broadcasting on WWVA after an abscene of about two years. The line-up had been consistent since the re-organization after the war and obviously, Williams had decided against a style change.

Billboard November 9, 1946

In 1947, Williams added another business interest to his stack. He became involved with the country music park scene in 1947, which was very popular in the northeastern states. On May 11, Williams opened the first season of his country music amusement park "Musselman's Grove" in Claysburg, Pennsylvania.On the bill that day were fellow WWVA artists the Davis Twins, Jake Taylor and his Rail Splitters (a business partner of Williams'), and Al Rogers. Always in search for new ideas and possibilites, Williams set up his own tent show in partnership with Toby Stroud, another longtime WWVA artist. Both singers toured Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York State beginning in May 1948.

Wheeling Records
On May 7, 1949, Billboard announced that Williams and the Border Riders had cut their first recordings for a new company, Wheeling Records. The Wheeling label was the brainchild of Williams and a reference to their adopted hometown. The first recorded songs were "Beyond the Sunset - You Should Go on First" and "Bright Red Horizon". The first, an aggregation of a poem and an old hymn,which became a hit for the group, was the creation of Chickie Williams. Their daughter Barbara later retold the story of the song in an 1970s issue of JEMF Quaterly: "Early in their marriage, she [Chickie Williams] read the poem, "Should You Go First and I Remain" in a book of poems, and thought that it expressed her feelings toward Doc very well. To surprise him, she had the Newcomer Twins, Maxine and Eileen (then members of WWVA's Jamboree), help her make a home recording — she recited the poem while they sang background. Doc thought the recording was a great idea, and encouraged her to continue working on it. She eventually decided to recite the reading to the accompaniment of the hymn, "Beyond the Sunset," which Doc's secretary, Jean Miller, had once showed her in a hymnbook. The song and reading was performed over WWVA, and got a tremendous response from listeners, upon which Doc decided to record Chickie."

Williams bought the rights to the poem from its author, Rosey Rosewell, and organized a recording session in Cleveland, Ohio, as Wheeling had no proper facilities to record. As for the recording date, late April or early May 1949 seems to be a good guess. Williams released the finished recording, backed by his own song "Bright Red Horizon" on Wheeling #1001. Great response from radio stations followed and Williams tried to lease the recordings to a major label. However, none of them were interested as they considered a hymn not commercial enough. Soon, they proved to be wrong as "Beyond the Sunset - You Should Go on First" became a #3 Billboard country hit. It was covered by such artists as Hank Williams (as Luke the Drifter), Elton Britt, Rosalie Allen, Buddy Starcher, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, and others. The original version of Chickie Williams was also released on the Canadian Pioneer label.

Suprisingly, despite the enormous success of "Beyond the Sunset", neither Chickie nor Doc recorded for a major label in the following years. Therefore, the unit released its further recordings still under the Wheeling brand, which eventually resulted in more than 30 different releases on the label. In Canada, Williams' records were released by Quality Records. The bulk of the releases on Wheeling were by Williams and the Border Riders, consisting of traditional material like "Red Wing", "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (one of Williams' favorites), or own compositions in old-fashioned style like "I'm Watching the Train Passing By", which became the opening track for their shows. The song had been written by Chickie Williams while they were touring Newfoundland in 1952 and they recorded it in December the same year.

Billboard May 18, 1968

The Later Years
The 1950 season was the last one for Williams to operate his Musselman Grove park. He then concentrated on touring with his band. Since the 1940s, Williams and the band had toured the Canadian areas also and became as popular there as in the United States. The band continued to work throughout the next decades, touring, recording, and appearing at the WWVA Jamboree. He began recording albums in favor of single records beginning in the 1960s and released several LPs since then.

While the sound of the Border Riders had not changed much until the early 1950s, it began to change then. Electric guitars and drums were added at some point and by the 1970s, the band was performing with electric bass, steel guitar, electric guitar and drums, amending their sound. However, they changed the sound carefully, retaining their old-time image. In the 1970s, the conservative Doc Williams often stated in public that he was against "suggestive" lyrics in country music and demanded singers should be moral role models.

In the later part of their careers, Doc and Chickie Williams were often part of homecoming shows and special editions of the WWVA Jamboree (then called "Jamboree USA"). Their daughter Barbara took over care of the business issues at a later point and even wrote a book about them. In 2009, they were inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and Doc Williams was named "West Virginia's Official Country Music Ambassador of Goodwill". Both Doc and Chickie Williams received many more honors throughout their later years, too many to mention.

Chickie Williams died November 2007 at age 88. Doc Williams followed her on January 31, 2011, at the age of 96 years.

Doc Williams and the Border Riders TV Show with Doc and Chickie Williams and including Ramblin' Roy Scott on electric guitar and Big Bill Barton on bass. This recorded TV show aired on WNPB, Morgantown, West Virginia, in the 1980s.

See also

• Doc & Cy Williams on Wheeling

Recommended reading
• Continental, Ohio, posters
• Second Hand Songs

Sources
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
• Ohio County Library
• John Raby: "W.Va. Country Music Singer Doc Williams Dies" (Seattle Times), 2011
• 45cat and 45worlds 78rpm entries (beware of incorrect release dates)
• Barbara Kempf: "Meet Doc Williams: Country Music Star, Country Music Legend" (JEMF Quaterly #33, Part 1), 1974

Bobby Whittaker on Bejay

Bobby Whittaker - Man and a Woman (Bejay 1355), 1971
I bought this record not because I liked the music on it - actually, I bought it without ever hearing it - but because it is one of Ben Jack's productions from Fort Smith, Arkansas. It's surprisingly good, especially "Man and a Woman", the top side for me. Ben Jack founded his own Bejay label and recording studio in 1962, eventually also opening different music stores in Northwest Arkansas. On his Bejay label, Jack produced hundreds of local artists on both 45rpm and 33 1/2rpm formats.

Bobby Whittaker, heard here with a Buffalo Spring/Gordon Lightfoot soundalike "Man and a Woman", was probably Bobby Charles Whittaker, born on August 15, 1938, in Des Arc, Arkansas. He owned the Interstate Club and the Country Exit Club in Fort Smith and performed at both venues with his band. He passed away January 30, 2019.

See also
• Ben Jack on Bejay
• Red Yeager on Bejay

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Bobby Whittaker obituary

Ken & the Goldtones on Jon-Ark

Ken and the Goldtones - Squeeky (Jon-Ark JA-591), 1964

Ken & the Goldtones were a Southeast Missouri based group but the combo performed in a much wider range as far as as Chicago in the north and Mississippi in the south. The group was made up of Ken Mungle on rhythm guitar and vocals, Harvey Washer on lead guitar, Ted Long and Larry Turner on bass, Jarit Keith on sax, and Stan Mungle on drums.

It was Jarit Keith who contacted me some years ago (through this post) and told me the detailed story about the Goldtones. This resulted in an article about the band in UK Rock'n'Roll Magazine (March 2022) and a feature of the band's story on KASU's "Arkansas Roots" programm (Jonesboro, Arkansas). It was with sad feeling that I learned Jarit passed away November 7, 2022, at 81 years. I have thanked him many times for his support but I wish I could have thanked him just one more time. But Jarit was more than just an interview partner - he became a pen pal for many years. Rest in peace, my friend.

The Goldtones recorded for Joe Lee's Jon-Ark label in 1964. Originally intended to be a demo session, Lee took the tapes and released them on his label and "If Somebody Loves You" became a moderate success on radio in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. Live recordings of the band remain still unissued to this day.

The Goldtones disbanded around 1966 or 1967. The members went seperate ways and Jarit Keith remained active as a musician throughout the years. He was the last surviving member of the group.

• Obituary

Bobbie Jean on Sun

Bobbie Jean / Ernie Barton Orchestra - Cheaters Never Win (Sun 342), 1960

Here we have an oddball recording. It was neither an odd sounding record nor was the material. It was, however, odd in terms of sound for Sun Records. Although the recordings released on Sun by the time Bobbie Jean saw her star shine on the label were dominated by teen pop and dripping choruses, her record was still a notch or two above them all, as far as it went for soapy sounds.

Bobbie Jean was actually Bobbie Jean Gladden, who married Sun Records artist Ernie Barton in the  1950s. She hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was born on November 12, 1927, to James Robert and Kathryn Gladden. Her father was a Circuit Court Clerk in Missouri and Arkansas at some point, and the profession as a legal practitioner had some tradition in the Gladden family, as Bobbie Jean later worked in the same field. At least since 1951, she worked as a lawyer in Little Rock and was first married to Harry Jackson Farrabee (marrying in 1949) but divorced from him eventually.

She probably became acquainted with Ernie Barton in the second half of the 1950s, as Barton arrived in Memphis probably in 1956. He had heard Elvis Presley and was convinced Memphis was the place to be. Blessed with some musical talent, Barton began to work with Sun Records in early 1957, initially as an recording artist but later on also as a songwriter, engineer and producer. When staff members Jack Clement and Bill Justis had left by 1959, Barton convinced Sam Phillips to let him work as a producer and manager of the studio.

By that time, Bobbie Jean had stepped into his life and she was a talented singer, too. Barton brought her over to Sun and recorded her in 1960. The song material consisted of an answer song to Jack Scott's big hit "Burning Bridges" entitled "You Burned the Bridges" plus a song written by Brad Suggs entitled "Cheaters Never Win", which Suggs had intended originally for Nat King Cole, according to his own accounts. You can clearly hear the pop approach on both songs but the string section is way overproduced and kills the record effectively. Apart from the strings, the recording featured a line-up of Sun session musicians, including composer Brad Suggs on guitar.

The coupling appeared on July 7, 1960, (Sun #342) but failed to sell (sharing the fate with Bobbie Jean's husband's records). It was not something that people would expect from Sun Records and upon release, it is reported that even some faithful Sun distributors were doubtful. Bobbie Jean recorded additional material at Sun, both demos and masters, but Sam Phillips refused to release anything more. Ernie Barton also recorded enough material worth an album and indeed, Bobbie Jean Barton requested that Phillips would release an LP of her husband's material, sending him legal threats, which he ignored and never followed her requests.

On August 13, 1960, Barton appeared at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, singing three songs: the then current Hank Locklin hit "Please Help Me I'm Falling", her own release "You Burned the Bridges" and the old favorite "Jealous Heart". On the show, she was accompanied by a local Hayride band, the Sons of Dixie. Barton must have been an odd sighting on the Hayride stage, as she was as much country as Dean Martin, and this seems to have remained her only promotion activity for the disc.

Ernie Barton left Sun in 1961 and recorded two more 45s, before moving to Midland, Texas. He died in 2002. In July 1960, there were approaches to disbar Bobbie Jean Barton, preventing her from practicing as a lawyer, which at some point actually proofed successful. However, she won her licence back in 1964. What happened to her afterwards is yet a question to answer. She passed away June 14, 1978, at the age of 50 years. She is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock.

See also
• Ernie Barton on Phillips Int.

Sources
• Session details on 706unionavenue
• Ernie Barton on Bear Family
• Ernie Barton biography
• Rock'n'Roll Schallplatten Forum (German)
• Entry at Find a Grave
• Paper from Arkansas Tech University Library (1964)
• Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins: "The Louisiana Hayride" (CD Box Set), liner notes, Bear Family Records

Bozo Darnell

A Steppin' Stone in Music
Bozo Darnell

The name "Bozo" already suggests it, here have an artist that was not only a singer and DJ but also a comedian. Hailing from Louisiana, living in Texas in the 1950s and relocating to Arizona in the 1960s, Darnell achieved enough local fame to be mentioned infrequently in Billboard and to secure himself a little mention in country music history as the author of several songs recorded by the top names of the day.

He was born Robert Oswald Darnall on November 12, 1927, in Clarks, Louisiana, to Willie Dee Darnall and his wife Eldonia. Clarks, located in Caldwell Parish in the western part of the state, was a rural village and though only sparsely populated, it was one of the larger towns in the parish. Darnall served his country after World War II, spending time on the Philippines.

Billboard June 11, 1955

By the mid 1950s, Darnall had made his way into music business and had adopted the stage name "Bozo Darnell". At some point, he had teamed up with his brother, appearing as the "Darnell Brothers". He was living in West Texas by then and had made Big Spring his home. The oil boom made these areas flourishing and a small country music scene had developed there since the middle of the decade. Hank Harral, Ben Hall, Hoyle Nix, among other artists kept the music business running with DJ and live stage shows, clubs, record labels and recording studios. By 1955, Darnell appeared with such artists as West Texas DJ Ace Ball and the York Brothers.

In 1959, Darnell founded his own record label, Jaybo Records (alter renamed J-Bo), which was originally headquartered in Odessa, Texas. Darnell's first released record was also the label's debut, comprising "Hearts Entwined" and "Sha Marie" (Jay-Bo #BDF-100), which was likely produced at Ben Hall's High Fidelity studio in Big Spring, judging from Hall's Gaylo publishing on the actual label. The flip, "Sha Marie" was, although never becoming a hit, recorded by different country music artists later on.

A year after founding Jaybo, Darnell had moved his operations north to Jeffrey City, Wyoming, where he continued to release discs throughout the years 1960 and 1961. After an oddball single for the Wyoming based Rawhide label, Darnell changed his label's name to J-Bo and by this time, he was probably living in Phoenix, Arizona.

Billboard July 17, 1965

In 1964, he was signed to Kapp Records and recorded one single for the label, "Your Steppin' Stone" b/w "Fool the World" (Kapp #696), which reached promising sales figures. Biff Collie, once legendary DJ in Houston and by then active in Los Angeles, was so impressed by the disc (according to Billboard in July 1965) that he signed a contract with Darnell to promote the disc. In August that year, Darnell set out on a promotional tour and though sales and national distribution were promising, "Your Steppin' Stone" failed to reach the charts. By then, Darnell appeared on the WGN Barn Dance, the last version of the once famous National Barn Dance on WLS.

After his move to Phoenix, Darnell soon connected with the small but lively music scene that had developed in the city since the 1940s. He continued to appear as a singer and comic. In Phoenix, Darnell started to record for the local Ramco label, which also employed a local singer, guitarist, and DJ named Waylon Jennings as a studio musician sometimes. With Jennings, Darnell composed "Down Came the World," which Jennings recorded for RCA-Victor after he had relocated to Nashville. A couple of other songs written or co-written by Darnell were recorded by Nashville country stars but the big break, neither as an recording artist nor as a songwriter, eluded him.

In the early 1970s, Darnell and a befriended songwriter from Phoenix, Jack Gunter, worked with country star Wynn Stewart, who was struggling achieving hits at that time, however. Several of Stewart's RCA recordings were written by Darnell. Gunter also recorded Stewart for his Copre label (for which Darnell also recorded in 1974) and licensed the results to Atlantic.

Darnell recorded a couple of more singles for small Texas based labels until the mid-1970s, before he ceased recording. He also released two albums at unknown dates, however. Bozo Darnell died September 12, 1997, in Burkburnett, Texas, at the age of 69 years.

If anyone out there has more information on Bozo Darnell, feel free to pass it along.

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Find a Grave entry
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Rock'n'Roll Schallplatten Forum (German)
• Second Hand Songs
• Colin Escott: "Road Kill on the Three-Chord Highway" (Routledge), 2002
• various Billboard articles, see depicted items

Slim Willet - The Fat Cat of Abilene

The Fat Cat of Abilene

Slim Willet's Ranchero Sounds from Abilene

Among the many small labels that emerged during the 1950s out of West Texas, Slim Willet's Winston label was one of the more prolific ones. In contrast to such label owners as Hank Harral or Jesse Smith, Slim Willet knew how it felt to have a hit. His "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" became a #1 C&W hit for him and was covered by various artists of different genres.

Willet was based in West Texas - Abilene to be exact - and was a recording artist but first and foremost a radio disc jockey and later turned his attention to record production and other businesses. His Winston label produced more than 50 releases (of which more than 10 discs were by Willet himself), a cross section of Texan rural music, including rockabilly and rock'n'roll, oilfield folklore country, western swing, and gospel. 

Willet's recording career spanned about 16 years, at first for Star Talent Records, then for 4 Star and affiliated labels, and last but not least for his own Edmoral and Winston imprints. His career in radio lasted about the same time and he exclusively could be heard on Abilene based stations, disc jockeying full-time during the week and emceeing big stage shows on weekends.

Early years
Slim Willet was born Winston Lee Moore on December 1, 1919, in Erath County, Texas, to Luther Orem and Frances Valentine Moore. Erath County, located southwest of Fort Worth, was an agricultural embossed area that had experienced some growth prior to 1910 due to the crop growing of cotton and an industrial boost due to connecting the city of Dublin with the Texas Central Railroad. Young Winston Lee Moore and his siblings were raised in this rural environment.

At some point, the family moved to Clyde, Texas, near Abilene, where Moore attended Clyde High School. At the age of 16, he attended a CCC Camp in Arizona for some time, where he met a group of Mexican boys that used to sit together in the evening to sing and play music. Their up-tempo Mexican style of music influenced Moore a lot, which is audible in many of songs. After leaving high school, he worked in different low paid jobs. His occupations included being a cotton picker, truck driver, carpenter, among other jobs. He married Jimmie Crenshaw in 1938, a girl in his neighborhood whom he had met just two months prior to their marriage while hiding from a tornado in the cellar. The couple had two sons.

But in the early 1940s, Uncle Sam called and Moore served his country during World War II. After his dischargement in 1946, he moved to Abilene, where he enrolled at Hardin-Simmons University to study journalism. During his last year at the university, he took a job as the campus radio station's manager, which impressed him enough to pursue a career in radio later on. It was here that he adopted the stage name of "Slim Willet" - "Willet" taken from the comic strip "Ouf of This Way" and "Slim" as an ironic reference to his appearance.

First steps in radio
In 1949, after graduating, Moore began working at KRBC in Abilene. Around the same time, he started writing songs and soon, one of his compositions appeared on record (although his involvement is disputed). Willet claimed to have written the song "Pinball Millionaire" and it was recorded in 1950 by Hank Locklin for 4 Star. However, the record label credited Willet, Locklin, and a guy named Leisy as the writers. Gene O'Quinn's release on Capitol solely credited Locklin.

First recordings: Tool Pusher from Snyder
Nevertheless, Willet soon proved he was a talented writer. That same year, he signed a contract with Dallas based Star Talent Records, back then the city's uprising label that recorded also such artists as Hoyle Nix, Riley Crabtree, Hank Harral, and a plethora of other Texas country singers. Willet held his first session for the label in the spring of 1950 at KRBC, using Shorty Underwood's Brush Cutters as his backing band. The line-up included Willet on vocals and guitar, Shorty Underwood on fiddle, Earl Montgomery on rhythm guitar, and Underwood's wife Georgia on bass. The session produced "I'm Going Strong" and "Tool Pusher from Snyder", released on Star Talent #770 that same year. The latter became a moderate hit for Willet in Texas. This was not only due to the musical performance but also because the lyrics of the song did strike the right note with the listeners. The song was released while the oil boom was still in full bloom in Snyder, Texas, as well as other areas of the state and fitted perfectly to the everyday life of many people. The song was later renamed "Tool Pusher on a Rotary Rig" on re-pressings of the release.

Billboard December 8, 1951, C&W review

Three more singles appeared on Star Talent until late 1951, all of them recorded with the Brush Cutters in Abilene. In the meantime, Willet had set up a live stage show called the "Big State Jamboree" that originated every Saturday night from the Fair Park Auditorium in Abilene. The show, which featured Willet as emcee, included local talent and country music stars as well that passed through or were booked by Willet. The show drew large crowds in the early and mid-1950s and was sold-out almost every Saturday night. By 1955, rockabilly artists like Elvis Presley made appearances on the show, reflecting the current trends in country music.

Around August 1951, Willet - who cut his sessions independently without much restrictions from the labels - recorded a session that was later released on the west coast label 4 Star Records, which had made itself a name already in country music with names such as "T" Texas Tyler, Hank Locklin, Merl Lindsay, Terry Fell, Jenks "Tex" Carman, and many others. However, the material remained in the vaults until next year.

A New Star on the Horizon
Willet was spinning records six days a week on KRBC and around September 1951, he got a letter from a US soldier stationed in Korea, requesting a song for his girlfriend that lived near Abilene. One of the lines in the letter said that his "darling had stars in her eyes on moonlit nights" and "play her a tune, tell her to wait for me and to not let the stars get in her eyes". This was the inspiration to Willet's song "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", which he wrote about a week after reading the letter. One day in February 1952, on a Saturday night after the Big State Jamboree had ended, Willet and his band set up their recording equipment backstage at the Fair Park Auditorium in order to record "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes".

Billboard September 13, 1952

Willet sent the tape off to 4 Star in Pasadena, California, but the response was devastating. The label replied: "Here's a song that is off beat, off meter, off everything" and that "..it wouldn't sell". Bill McCall, president of 4 Star, advised Willet to release the song in the label's custom OP series (OP stood for "Other People"). This meant that Willet had to pay 4 Star for pressing a certain amount of copies, with the financial risk taken by the artist himself and without any distribution and promotion support from the label. Willet did and paired the song with "Hadacol Corners", another of Willet's oil songs. According to a Billboard article from December 20, 1952, the custom pressed release of "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" appeared in late April.

However, the disc showed signs of success in Texas and McCall decided to take over the release in the label's main series. When 4 Star released the single in June, "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" began to take off, initially in Houston and then in other areas, too, and first entered Billboard's C&W charts in October. It eventually reached the #1 spot in Billboard's "Most Played by Jockeys" listing in December. It was covered by Ray Price for Columbia and Skeets McDonald for Capitol that same year. Red Foley and Johnnie & Jack recorded the song also. Pop singer Perry Como recorded a version in late 1952 that reached the pop charts' #1 in both the US and the UK. In the years to come, it was covered by numerous artists of different genres. Willet instantly co-wrote with Tommy Hill an answer song, "I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes", which was recorded by Hill's sister Goldie Hill and became another chart hit.

"Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" became Willet's most successful song, the one he became most associated with, earned him a lifelong income and boosted his popularity not only in Texas but nationwide. Willet and band, now known as the "Hired Hands", performed regularly at popular stage and radio shows such as the Big D Jamboree on KRLD and the Saturday Night Shindig on WFAA both from Dallas (until 1954), and the Louisiana Hayride on KWKH from Shreveport, Louisiana (from 1951 until 1955). By 1953, he also hosted his own TV variety show on KRBC-TV on Wednesdays which included his band as well as local talents as guests, such as Larry Gatlin and his brothers or the Starlight Sisters.

Trying to Find Another Hit
Willet's follow-up on 4 Star, "Let Me Know" (#1625), was released in late December 1952 when "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was still riding high on the charts. Interestingly, this was again first an OP release and shortly afterwards it got his place in 4 Star's main series. This was possibly done in order to test the commercial potential of the songs. Billboard reported strong sales in the Southwest but Skeets McDonald was fast again and covered the tune for Capitol, stirring even better sales nationally. Finaly, "Let Me Know" failed to repeat the success of its precursor.

Willet continued to record for 4 Star until 1956. He often used Spanish and Mexican influences in his songs, a style that was once called "ranchero" sound by Billboard. Two songs from a 1953 session at KRBC were leased through 4 Star to Decca Records, which released "Starlight Waltz" b/w "Leave Me Alone Now" (#9-29066) around April 1954. However, none of his singles that followed "Don't Let the Starts Get in Your Eyes" could replicate that success, even if they might have sold well in West Texas. During 1954 and 1955, Willet cut further songs that were released on 4 Star's main series and the label's OP series.

Rakin' and Scrapin' the Rock'n'Roll Sound
Willet was not only talented on the creative and artistic side but he proofed also to be a clever businessman. He founded an advertising agency to promote shows and artists that he booked. One of the shows he organized was a big Grand Ole Opry unit coming to Abilene in February 1955, including Hank Snow, his son Jimmie Rodgers Snow and a young Elvis Presley.

While the Big State Jamboree was a success for Willet during the first years of the decade, the advent of TV snatched audiences away from live shows and the Jamboree ended its run in 1955. Apparently, there was a reincarnation of the show at some point in 1955 (with Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys) as reported by Billboard, maybe even televised, but this version of the Big State Jamboree only lasted for a very brief time.

Willet switched radio stations and worked for KNIT, also based in Abilene, in 1956. There, he recorded his last session for 4 Star in spring that year. His last recorded sides were "It Ain't Gonna Rain" b/w "The Politician" (4 Star #1698-45). By then, Willet's heyday as a singer had passed.

However, Willet sensed it might be profitable to add another piece of music business to his repertoire: to release records on his own label. In 1956, he created the Edmoral label, which had its first release around October that year. The debut was a single by Willet himself, recorded around October at KNIT with Dean Beard's band, a Texas based rock'n'roll combo that had gained some popularity by then. "I've Been a-Wonderin'" b/w "Don't Be Afraid of the Moonlight" (Edmoral #1010-45) were of different sound than his previous releases - but still very much country.

In February 1957, Willet released the next disc on Edmoral by Dean Beard, comprising "On My Mind Again" b/w "Rakin' and Scrapin'" (Edmoral #1011-45). The latter, which Beard and the band had previously laid down unsuccessfully at Sun Records in Memphis, became his signature tune. The disc sold well, especially around Fort Worth, Dallas, and San Angelo, which brought it to the attention of Jerry Wrexler, president of Atlantic Records. Wrexler flew to Abilene in order to sign a contract with Willet which leased the masters to Atlantic. The label re-released the disc in April that year and would issue two more discs by Beard in 1957 and 1958. 

Two more releases appeared on Edmoral, one by Earl Montgomery (of the Brush Cutters) already in 1956 and next to Dean Beard's disc a release by Gene Morris in 1957. The latter's release became another good seller for Willet and he soon worked out a deal with RCA-Victor's Vik subsidiary that took the masters in August 1957. After these four singles, Willet decided to change the name from Edmoral to Winston (a reference to his birthname) for reasons of his own.   

The Winston label continued Edmoral's numerical catalog, beginning with #1014 (omitting the #1013) by Fonda Wallace and a rock'n'roll outing called "Lou Lou Knows" b/w "Return My Love" in June 1957. Winston's recorded material was - similar to Hank Harral's Caprock label - a cross-section of Texas music. In 1957, Willet paired himself again with Dean Beard's band and recorded a top notch rock'n'roll record "Ain't Goin Home" under the pseudonym "Telli W. Mills - The Fat Cat" (his stage name spelled backwards plus another reference to his appearance). He would record further songs in similar style in the years to come.

Willet also recorded more rock'n'roll by artists like Dean Beard, Gene Morriso, the Zircons, and Darrell Rhodes (who immortalized himself with "Four O'Clock Baby", an original copy can fetch up more than $2.500 today). He also recorded straight country music, like members of the Brush Cutter, Jimmie Fletcher, or western swing by popular band leaders Jimmy Heap or Hoyle Nix. Even gospel material was cut by the Starlight Sisters, which had been performers on the Big State Jamboree before. 

Death of an Oilfield Boy
Willet kept his Willet label running throughout the rest of the 1950s and until his death in the mid-1960s. A highlight on the label was his 1959 released album "Texas Oil Patch Songs", a collection of selfwritten Texas oilfield folklore that is considered to be one of country music's first concept albums and the first exclusively devoted to the oil industry. Coincidence or not - that same year, Audio Lab (a division of King Records, which had access to the 4 Star catalog by then) released an album consisting of some of Willet's older 4 Star material.

In 1964, Willet switched to all-time country music station KCAD in Abilene, where he became general manager and also partially owned the station. While still being in full swing with his radio and business activities, Slim Willet died of a heart attack on July 1, 1966, at the age of 46 years. He is buried at Victor Cemetery in his now extinct hometown. Willet's contributions to West Texas music were honored by the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. Being an influential disc jokey during the 1950s, he was also inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1994.

Little-known were Willet's paintings. In 1955, Willet was too busy with recording, performing, radio work, and business affairs and his doctor advised him, in order to battle the stress, to take up painting. Willet often painted places and situations from his childhood. He created countless artworks until his death and some of them were displayed in 2017 during an exhibition entitled "Celebrating 65 Years of 'Stars' and the Art of Slim Willet" in the Clyde Public Library.

1953 cover of "Cowboy Songs" magazine

Sources
• Slim Willet on Bear Family
• 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm entries
• Entry at hillbilly-music.com
• Texas State Historical Association
• Entries for Slim Willet and Edmoral / Willet at Rockin' Country Style
• Old-Time Blues: Star Talent 770 - Slim Willet - 1950
• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies
• Ronald W. Erdrich: "Slim Willet on display at Clyde Public Library" (2017), Abilene Reporter-News
• Entry at Find a Grave
• Laurie E. Jasinski: "Handbook of Texas Music" (Texas A&M University Press), 2012

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

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

• Westport Records Story
• Tony Wayne on Westport
• Alvis Wayne on Westport

Sources

• Jimmy Dallas on 45cat

• Jimmy Dallas on Discogs

• Jimmy Dallas on Hillbilly-Music.com

• Find a Grave entry

• Official Census documents retrieved through Ancestry.com

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:

• Hoyle Nix on Caprock

• Jimmy Haggett on Caprock

Recommended reading

• Hank Harral with the Plains Riders and his Palomino Cowhands (BACM CD)
• Joe W. Specht: Oil Patch Songs from the Permian Basin, Part 2" (Permian Basin Petroleum Association Magazine), 2014

Sources

• Entry at Texas State Historical Association

• Caprock Records entry at Rockin' Country Style

• Entries at 45cat, 45worlds 78rpm and 45worlds vinyl albums

• Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• Entry at Find a Grave

• 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