POPULARITY
Hawkshaw Hawkins - "Nothing More To Say" [0:00:00] Mac Wiseman - "Love Letters In The Sand" [0:08:01] Lonnie Irving - "I Got Blues on My Mind" [0:10:36] Ferlin Husky - "I Really Don't Want To Know" - The Heart and Soul of Ferlin Husky [0:13:00] Rex Zario - "Jukebox Cannonball" [0:15:54] Music behind DJ: Carmen Mastren - "Art's Medley: Liebestraum Dark Eyes" - Banjorama [0:18:01] Charlie Gracie - "You Got a Heart Like a Rock" [0:20:40] Ben Hewitt - "I Ain't Givin' Up Nothin' (If I Can't Get Something From You)" [0:22:22] Die Hi-Lites - "Veldskoene (These Boots Are Made For Walking)" [0:24:18] "Big Don" Hargrave - "I Cried" [0:26:56] Orangie Hubbard - "Big Cat" [0:29:58] Music behind DJ: Carmen Mastren - "Art's Medley: Liebestraum Dark Eyes" - Banjorama [0:32:01] Mel Tillis - "You Are The Reason" - The Great Mel Tillis [0:35:53] Buck Owens and the Buckaroos - "Close Up the Honky Tonks" - Together Again / My Heart Skips a Beat [0:37:59] Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys - "Someone Can Steal Your Love From Me" - Breakin' The Rules [0:40:24] Willie Nelson - "San Antonio Rose" - Country Favorites - Willie Nelson Style [0:42:41] Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens - "Slowly But Surely" [0:44:41] Music behind DJ: Carmen Mastren - "Art's Medley: Liebestraum Dark Eyes" - Banjorama [0:47:16] Tommy Zang - "Nashville Blues" [0:49:45] Dianne Holtz - "I Got The Hurt" [0:51:44] Sonny Wright - "Pain Remover" [0:54:34] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/151162
Hawkshaw Hawkins - "Nothing More To Say" [0:00:00] Mac Wiseman - "Love Letters In The Sand" [0:08:01] Lonnie Irving - "I Got Blues on My Mind" [0:10:36] Ferlin Husky - "I Really Don't Want To Know" - The Heart and Soul of Ferlin Husky [0:13:00] Rex Zario - "Jukebox Cannonball" [0:15:54] Music behind DJ: Carmen Mastren - "Art's Medley: Liebestraum Dark Eyes" - Banjorama [0:18:01] Charlie Gracie - "You Got a Heart Like a Rock" [0:20:40] Ben Hewitt - "I Ain't Givin' Up Nothin' (If I Can't Get Something From You)" [0:22:22] Die Hi-Lites - "Veldskoene (These Boots Are Made For Walking)" [0:24:18] "Big Don" Hargrave - "I Cried" [0:26:56] Orangie Hubbard - "Big Cat" [0:29:58] Music behind DJ: Carmen Mastren - "Art's Medley: Liebestraum Dark Eyes" - Banjorama [0:32:01] Mel Tillis - "You Are The Reason" - The Great Mel Tillis [0:35:53] Buck Owens and the Buckaroos - "Close Up the Honky Tonks" - Together Again / My Heart Skips a Beat [0:37:59] Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys - "Someone Can Steal Your Love From Me" - Breakin' The Rules [0:40:24] Willie Nelson - "San Antonio Rose" - Country Favorites - Willie Nelson Style [0:42:41] Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens - "Slowly But Surely" [0:44:41] Music behind DJ: Carmen Mastren - "Art's Medley: Liebestraum Dark Eyes" - Banjorama [0:47:16] Tommy Zang - "Nashville Blues" [0:49:45] Dianne Holtz - "I Got The Hurt" [0:51:44] Sonny Wright - "Pain Remover" [0:54:34] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/151162
Join me as I welcome not one, but TWO musical legends! I could have chatted all week with these two gentlemen. Elvis! Captain Beefheart! Tammy Wynette! Ferlin Husky! David Vest and Terry Robb discuss their careers and new collaborative album CrissCross.
National lets hug day. Entertainment from 1952. Oldest groom, 40 feet pig baloon flies over england, Illinois became 21st state, Alka Seltzer went on sale. Todays birthdays - Ferlin Husky, Andy Williams, Ozzy Osbourne, Mickey thomas, Daryl Hannah, Julianne Moore, Brenden Fraser, Anna Chlumsky, Andy Grammer, Amanda Seyfried. Robert Louis Stevenson died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard http://defleppard.com/The hug song - Zia MohajerjasbiIt's in the book parts 1 & 2 - Johnny StandleyBack street affair - Webb PierceBirthday - The BeatlesBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/There goes my everything - Ferlin HuskyIt's the most wonderful time of the year - Andy WilliamsCrazy train - Ozzy OsbourneSarah - StarshipDegenerated - The Lone RangersKeep your head up - Andy GrammerExit - It's not love - Dokken
258. Calling all be-boppin' daddies! Let's get things movin' with another wild & reckless episode of DJ Del Villarreal's "Go Kat, GO! The Rock-A-Billy Show!" Super stoked to finally be able to see the Black Kat Boppers from England as they invade the Motor City tonight! Pre-recorded LIVE in the famed Motorbilly Studios, here's the Tuesday night rockabilly blitz sure to give you fits: in addition to the amazing contributions from The Black Kat Boppers, The Hi-Views and Kitten & The Tonics, you'll also enjoy fresh new rockin' tunes from Deke Dickerson & The Whippersnappers, Glam Parson, The Ichi-Bons, The Howlin' Ramblers, Dylan Kirk, The Boppin' Kids, The Bullets, The Sirocco Bros., Frank Harvey, Jake Calypso and our Spanish pals, Lojo & The Mojos! Folded into the mix are some killer classics from the likes of The Sonics, Bob Luman, Ronnie Haig, Bobby Lord, Buddy Holly, Ferlin Husky, Charlie Feathers, Roy Orbison, Tommy Blake, Wanda Jackson and even Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two, too! Wishing our gal-pal Dawn Shipley of Blue Dawn & the Day Breakers a very Happy Birthday today! When you care enough to rock to the very best Ameripolitan music, it's gotta be DJ Del Villarreal's "Go Kat, GO!" -good to the last bop!™Please follow on FaceBook, Instagram & Twitter!
740. When you want to treat your radio to the very best rockin' sounds around, twist that dial to DJ Del Villarreal's "Go Kat, GO! The Rock-A-Billy Show!" and crank up the volume to "11"! Hypin' up the great shows happening 'round the USA this weekend, including Deke Dickerson & The Whippersnappers performing with Jittery Jack & Amy Griffin and The Centuries, the rockin' Bash going on in OC, CA (see Seatbelt, James Intveld, Vicky Tafoya & more), Toronto's The Ichi-Bons & the Messer Chups appearing in the Motor City (Saturday, June 22nd & Sunday, June 23rd, respectively!). Cool Carl Perkins tribute show Sunday the 23rd at the Cochran Club in Bell Gardens, CA. PLUS so much great new rockin' selections that your ears may melt off! NEW Charlie Thompson, The Rover Boys Trio, Hi-Flyin' Combo, Dixie Fried, Skinny McGee and the Handshakes, The Supersonics and The Barnshakers to enjoy alongside a fine selection of vintage rockin' songs from Narvel Felts, Ferlin Husky, Janis Martin, Roy Hogsed, Eddie Cochran, Joe Therrien Jr., Curtis Gordon, Jimmy Johnson and Moon Mullican to name a handful! Another winning episode in the time-honored tradition of REAL ROCKIN' RADIO -DJ Del's "Go Kat, GO!" Good to the last bop!™Please follow on FaceBook, Instagram & Twitter!
Original Air Date: August 21, 1959Host: Andrew RhynesShow: Grand Ole OpryPhone: (707) 98 OTRDW (6-8739) Exit music from: Roundup on the Prairie by Aaron Kenny https://bit.ly/3kTj0kK
I've been pretty fortunate in my lifetime in country music to have shared the stage with so many that over the years have become my friends. It saddens me that so many have passed away however the adventures and the memories stay with me to enjoy in reflection. Some of these friends are with me today on MY Good Ole Country. I know you'll enjoy MEL TILLIS, LEROY VANDYKE, RED SOVINE, FARON YOUNG, CARL SMITH, JEAN SHEPPERD, FERLIN HUSKY, TEX RITTER and LORETTA LYNN. Be sure to share.
National lets hug day. Entertainment from 1952. Oldest groom, 40 feet pig baloon flies over england, Illinois became 21st state, Alka Seltzer went on sale. Todays birthdays - Ferlin Husky, Andy Williams, Ozzy Osbourne, Mickey thomas, Daryl Hannah, Julianne Moore, Brenden Fraser, Anna Chlumsky, Andy Grammer, Amanda Seyfried. Robert Louis Stevenson died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard http://defleppard.com/The hug song - Zia MohajerjasbiIt's in the book parts 1 & 2 - Johnny StandleyBack street affair - Webb PierceBirthday - The BeatlesBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/There goes my everything - Ferlin HuskyIt's the most wonderful time of the year - Andy WilliamsCrazy train - Ozzy OsbourneSarah - StarshipDegenerated - The Lone RangersKeep your head up - Andy GrammerExit - It's not love - Dokken https://cooolmedia.com/
This week's show, after a 1978 Saints salute: brand new New Model Army & Sinfonia Zeipzig, Cleaners From Venus, Slowdive, Guided By Voices, Turnsole, Hurry, and Pia Fraus, plus Pretty Things, Alton Ellis, Standells, Wailers (Tacoma), Ferlin Husky, Vent...
National lets hug day. Pop culture from 2010. Pink Floyds 40 ft pig escaped, Illiniois 21st state, Alka Seltzer goes on sale, neon lights 1st shown. Todays birthday's- Ferlin Husky - Andy Williams - Ozzy Osbourne - Daryl Hannah - Mickey Thomas - Julianne Moore -Brendan Frasier - Anna Chlumsky - Andy Grammer - Amanda Seyfried. Robert louis Stevenson died.
Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Christian Michael Berry of the Swamp PoetsChristian Michael Berry started his professional musical career in San Francisco circa 1969 as a solo artist playing roots based country rock and blues. His early influences were 50's and early 60's era "old school" country, (Ferlin Husky, Buck Owens, Marty Robbins and even Johnny Rivers. Later, he fell in love with the sound of the "British Invasion" Blues Bands like Cream, Humble Pie, Savoy Brown and of course, American Swamp Rockers like Tony Joe White and Creedence Clearwater Revival. All of those influences along with his Mississippi River roots combined to give 'Chris' an easily identifiable "style and sound of his own".
I'M SURE A LOT OF OUR LISTENERS HAVE FAVORITE FRIENDS OR MAYBE AT LEAST ONE FAVORITE. WELL, HERE'S A BUNCH OF MINE THAT AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, OUR LIVES BECAME ENTWINED AND WE BECAME FRIENDS. FEELING MIGHTY BLESSED TO SHARE WITH YOU THE MUSIC OF SOME OF THESE SPECIAL FRIENDS, MANY OF WHOM HAVE PASSED AWAY AND I TRULY MISS THEM ALL. MEL TILLIS, LEROY VAN DYKE, RED SOVINE, FARON YOUNG, CARL SMITH, FERLIN HUSKY, JEAN SHEPARD, TEX RITTER AND LORETTA LYNN ALL MADE MY LIFE AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. PLEAS SHARE WITH SOMEONE YOU LOVE.
EVERYTHING I'M PLAYING TOOK PLACE IN THE SIXTIES. DEL REEVES, MERLE HAGGARD, JOHNNY CASH, BUCK OWENS, LORETTA LYNN, FERLIN HUSKY, JEAN SHEPARD, LEROY VAN DYKE AND LOTSA STORIES ABOUT WHAT WENT ON BACK THEN.
Cheri and Rick record a very special morning episode and, therefore, decide not to do a Live Beer Review this week. Rick wonders what our parents' secret code word or phrase was for having sex. No, no, no, don't tell us! Cheri forces Rick to watch a Ryan Reynolds movie. Rick learns about The Band.
So many Nashville memories revolve around the Grand Ole Opry and the incredible artists I had the true pleasure to work and associate with. On todays show you'll hear from Jean Shepperd , Ferlin Husky , Johnny Cash ,Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow and a couple of real surprise stories about all these Grand Ole Opry stars. Oh yeah, one surprise is from an artist who only appeared on the Opry once. Tune in,,,,, be surprised,,,, and be sure to share.
Enjoying the show? Please support BFF.FM with a donation. Playlist 338′34″ Goodbye Old Paint by Arthur Russell on Love Is Overtaking Me (Audika) 343′08″ Genocide by Link Wray on The Swan Singles Collection 1963-1967 (Rollercoaster Records) 346′10″ All Around My Spirit by Kathy Lowe on No Separation (Kathy Lowe) 348′58″ Willie O'Winsbury by Anne Briggs on A Collection (Topic Records) 354′28″ Living in a Trance by Ferlin Husky on Walkin' & A Hummin' (Capitol) 357′57″ FatHa & La Ilaha Ila Allah by Inov Gnawa on Innov Gnawa (Remix-Culture) 364′15″ Drums by Laurie Spiegel on The Expanding Universe (Unseeen Worlds) 374′34″ La Ilaha Ila Allah by Mahleem Mahmoud Ghania on Aicha (Hive Mind Records) 382′40″ Arch Leaves by Bruce Langhorne on The Hired Hand (Scissor Tail Records) 384′54″ Child Among the Weeds by Lal & Mike Waterson on Bright Phoebus (Domino) 388′24″ The Dreamer by Willie Dunn on Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology (Light in the Attic) 391′07″ It Calls for You by Ned Doheny on Ned Doheny (Asylum) 396′04″ Soldier of the Heart by Judee Sill on Heart Food (Elektra) Check out the full archives on the website.
Jean Shepard often does not get the credit she deserves for trailblazing a path for women in country music. She is the first woman in country music to sell a million records with her hit "A Dear John Letter" with Ferlin Husky. She was a member of the Grand Ole Opry from 1955 until her death in 2016.
Referred to as “Winnipeg's go-to Female Country Singer”, Cindi found a love for country music at an early age. Beginning her music career in high style as a 13 year-old she spent a week touring as the opening act for a series of Canadian dates by Country music star, Ferlin Husky. Counting numerous appearances on the Canadian Country Music Awards and Manitoba Country Music Awards, Cindi also guested on top Canadian TV shows including The Tommy Hunter Show, Big Sky Country (hosted by Ray St. Germain), and was Canada's representative on the 1991 International Show at Fan Fair Week in Nashville. Cindi Cain was twice nominated for the CCMA Rising Star Award (1988 & 1989) and in 1992 received a Juno nomination for Country Female Vocalist of the Year. She was named the Manitoba Country Music Association's Entertainer Of The Year and Recording Artist Of The Year on four occasions and was a three-time winner of Female Vocalist Of Year. In 2019, Cindi Cain was inducted into the Manitoba Country Music Hall of Fame. For more on Cindi visit: www.cindicain.com
A rare find for me... but very entertaining. Hillbilly Review was produced by the Armed Forces Radio Service in 1948 with the host being "Cactus Pete" (Jim Bolen)... and on this show is guest is Terry Preston, which was the name that Ferlin Husky used in his early career. He does some excellent impersonations of a number of the top country stars of the time. Ends the show with a hymn dedicated to the troops overseas. Stored in our "Country/Western" Playlist.
38. Take a rockin' boat ride with your greasy captain, DJ Del Villarreal -transporting you to a magical land of killer beats & rock n' roll grooves on a Tuesday nite... it's theWCBN FM "Go Kat, GO!" radio program! We're super stoked to debut the incredible NEW rockin' CDs from Florida's Skinny McGee & His Mayhem Makers, Switzerland's The B-Shakers, Ireland's Imelda May, the UK's The Loveless Bastards and New York City's The Tommy Lee Combo. PLUS vintage favorites from artists Eddie Noack, Big John Taylor, Carl Perkins, Ferlin Husky & MORE! The sailing's easy when you have an Aztec Werewolf at the wheel! Transporting you each & every week to a land of 50's rock n' roll, boppin' country rhythm & twangy hot rod & surf, it's gotta be "Go Kat, GO!" HEY! Requests & dedications are always welcome -del@motorbilly.com . Seriously rockin' & good to the last bop!™
NOTE: This episode was recorded before news broke that early rock legend Lloyd Price (Stagger Lee, Lawdy Miss Clawdy) had passed away May 9, 2021. We will be addressing this on our next episode. Also - those familiar to the show will note that there is a cold open this week. This is deliberate, you will understand once you hear our news section as we have some sad news to report. This week, Professor Ladhar dons his tweed jacket again as we take a look at Elvis topping out the Billboard charts in 1957 with a "perfect Elvis song" - All Shook Up - on the very day that Jailhouse Rock began filming, and what other songs were rounding out the Top 10 that same week, touching on several Elvis connections including Ferlin Husky's "Gone" which is where Elvis heard soprano backing vocalist Millie Kirkham, and "Little Darlin" by The Diamonds, which he would go on to cover starting in 1975 with a recording appearing on "Moody Blue" from '77. For Song of the Week, Justin goes after a "Stranger in the Crowd" while Gurdip gets the catchy "Smokey Mountain Boy" from "Kissin Cousins" stuck in his head. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us at Patreon.com/TCBCast. In the month of April we produced over 17.5 hours of new early access or exclusive content for patrons, including film commentaries, new episodes of Blue Suede Reviews and TCBCast Now, and much much more. If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts or share our show on social media. Apple Podcasts is one of the more popular platforms we're heard on and every positive review helps our rankings so that other likeminded Elvis fans can find us. Thanks!
In which we compare midcentury Bakersfield to Paris in the 1920s, discuss how to build a music scene, and hear a song sung by a truck. See everyrecordeverrecorded.com for more Bakersfield Sound resources! + George Rich, "Drivin' Away My Blues" + Nathan Judd, "The Answer to the Greenback Dollar" + Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, "Get Along Home, Cindy" + Captain Sacto theme song + Cousin Herb Henson, "You'all Come" + Patsy Cline, "Crazy" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "Act Naturally" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "Love's Gonna Live Here" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "My Heart Skips a Beat" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "Together Again" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" + "Before You Go" + "Only You (Can Break My Heart)" + "Buckaroo" + "Waitin' In Your Welfare Line" + "Think of Me" + "Open Up Your Heart" + "Where Does the Good Times Go" + "Sam's Place" + "Your Tender Loving Care" + "It Takes People Like You (To Make People Like Me)" + "How Long Will My Baby Be Gone" + "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" + The Carter Family, "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" + William McEwan, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" + The Silver Leaf Quartette, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" + The Carter Family, "Little Darlin' Pal of Mine" + The Carter Family, "Sad and Lonesome Day" + Lesley Riddle, "One Kind Favor" + Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, "Ain't It Amazing, Gracie" + The Ventures, "Walk, Don't Run" + The Lemon Pipers, "Green Tambourine" + The Maddox Brothers and Rose, "George's Playhouse" + "The Nightingale Song" + "I'll Make Sweet Love to You" + "Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown" + "New Step It Up and Go" + "Philadelphia Lawyer" + Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, "Sugar Moon" + Bud Hobbs, "Louisiana Swing" + Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, "Takin' Off" + Lefty Frizzell, "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time" + Bill Woods and His Orange Blossom Playboys, "Have I Got a Chance With You?" + Jean Shepherd and Ferlin Husky, "A Dear John Letter" + Ferlin Husky, "Gone" + Merle Haggard, "Sing a Sad Song" + Merle Haggard, "Swinging Doors" + Bonnie Owens, "Lie a Little" + Merle Haggard, "Today I Started Loving You Again" + Mamie Smith "Crazy Blues" + Saul Ho'opi'i Trio, "Lehua" + Jimmie Rodgers, "Blue Yodel #9" + DeFord Bailey, "John Henry" + Ruth Brown, "Wild Wild Young Men" + Rose Maddox, "Wild Wild Young Men" + Hank Penny, "Bloodshot Eyes" + Wynonie Harris, "Bloodshot Eyes" + Patsy Cline, "Your Cheatin' Heart" + Ray Charles, "Your Cheatin' Heart" + Buck Owens, "Streets of Bakersfield" + Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens, "Streets of Bakersfield" + Antonio Aguilar, "El Ojo de Vidrio" + Woody Guthrie, "Billy the Kid" + Linda Ronstadt, "Palomita de Ojos Negros" + Ernest Tubb, "Thanks a Lot" + Jose Alfredo Jimenez, "El Rey" + The Maddox Brothers and Rose, "Shimmy Shakin' Daddy" + Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, "Don't Be Ashamed of Your Age" + Luis Perez Meza, "Cuando Salgo a Los Campos" + Tommy Collins, "You Better Not Do That" + Wanda Jackson, "I Gotta Know" + Wanda Jackson, "Honey Bop" + Billy Mize, "Who Will Buy the Wine" + Red Simpson, "I'm a Truck" + The Derailers, "The Right Place" + Dale Watson, "I Lie When I Drink" + Dave Alvin, "Black Rose of Texas" + The Mavericks, "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down" + The Flying Burrito Brothers, "Sin City" + JT Kanehira, "Country Music Makes Me So Happy" + Sturgill Simpson, "Life of Sin" + Albion Country Band, "Hanged I Shall Be" + A.L. Lloyd, "The Oxford Tragedy" + Shirley and Dolly Collins, "The Oxford Girl" + Phoebe Smith "Wexport Girl" + Harry Cox, "Ekefield Town" + Marybird McAllister, "The Bloody Miller" + Fields Ward, "The Lexington Murder" + Arthur and Gid Tanner, "The Knoxville Girl" + Fred Ross, "The Waco Girl" + The Outlaws, "Knoxville Girl" + Merle Haggard, "Kern River"
It seems like Almost Yesterday that I first heard the song “On the Wings of a Dove.” This haunting melody was written by Robert Ferguson of Willow Springs, Missouri. In 1958 Ferguson was the manager of another Missourian , country singer Ferlin Husky. Husky was born and raised on a farm near Flat River, Missouri. Every Saturday night in the 1930s, the Husky family radio was tuned to the Grand Old Opry. Young Ferlin loved to sing and a family story is that his father traded a hen to a neighbor for a guitar for the youngster. Husky served in the Merchant Marines and after World War II returned home and worked at radio station KXLW in St. Louis with one of the great characters of country music and western movies – Smiley Burnette. Husky then made his way to Bakersfield, California where he worked as a disc jockey and sang under the name of Terry Preston. In Bakersfield, Husky teamed with female vocalist Jean Shepherd to record a song about a soldier jilted by his girlfriend. “A Dear John
Episode ninety-five of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “You Better Move On”, and the sad story of Arthur Alexander. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Mother-In-Law” by Ernie K-Doe. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created Mixcloud playlists with full versions of all the songs in the episode. This week it’s been split into two parts because of the number of songs by Arthur Alexander. Part one. Part two. This compilation collects the best of Alexander’s Dot work. Much of the information in this episode comes from Richard Younger’s biography of Alexander. It’s unfortunately not in print in the UK, and goes for silly money, though I believe it can be bought cheaply in the US. And a lot of the background on Muscle Shoals comes from Country Soul by Charles L. Hughes. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a warning for those who need it. This is one of the sadder episodes we’re going to be doing, and it deals with substance abuse, schizophrenia, and miscarriage. One of the things we’re going to see a lot of in the next few weeks and months is the growing integration of the studios that produced much of the hit music to come out of the Southern USA in the sixties — studios in what the writer Charles L. Hughes calls the country-soul triangle: Nashville, Memphis, and Muscle Shoals. That integration produced some of the greatest music of the era, but it’s also the case that with few exceptions, narratives about that have tended to centre the white people involved at the expense of the Black people. The Black musicians tend to be regarded as people who allowed the white musicians to cast off their racism and become better people, rather than as colleagues who in many cases somewhat resented the white musicians — there were jobs that weren’t open to Black musicians in the segregated South, and now here were a bunch of white people taking some of the smaller number of jobs that *were* available to them. This is not to say that those white musicians were, individually, racist — many were very vocally opposed to racism — but they were still beneficiaries of a racist system. These white musicians who loved Black music slowly, over a decade or so, took over the older Black styles of music, and made them into white music. Up to this point, when we’ve looked at R&B, blues, or soul recordings, all the musicians involved have been Black people, almost without exception. And for most of the fifties, rock and roll was a predominantly Black genre, before the influx of the rockabillies made it seem, briefly, like it could lead to a truly post-racial style of music. But over the 1960s, we’re going to see white people slowly colonise those musics, and push Black musicians to the margins. And this episode marks a crucial turning point in the story, as we see the establishment of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, as a centre of white people making music in previously Black genres. But the start of that story comes with a Black man making music that most people at the time saw as coded as white. Today we’re going to look at someone whose music is often considered the epitome of deep soul, but who worked with many of the musicians who made the Nashville Sound what it was, and who was as influenced by Gene Autry as he was by many of the more obvious singers who might influence a soul legend. Today, we’re going to look at Arthur Alexander, and at “You Better Move On”: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “You’d Better Move On”] Arthur Alexander’s is one of the most tragic stories we’ll be looking at. He was a huge influence on every musician who came up in the sixties, but he never got the recognition for it. He was largely responsible for the rise of Muscle Shoals studios, and he wrote songs that were later covered by the Beatles, and Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones, as well as many, many more. The musician Norbert Putnam told the story of visiting George Harrison in the seventies, and seeing his copy of Alexander’s hit single “You Better Move On”. He said to Harrison, “Did you know I played bass on that?” and Harrison replied, “If I phoned Paul up now, he’d come over and kiss your feet”. That’s how important Arthur Alexander was to the Beatles, and to the history of rock music. But he never got to reap the rewards his talent entitled him to. He spent most of his life in poverty, and is now mostly known only to fans of the subgenre known as deep soul. Part of this is because his music is difficult to categorise. While most listeners would now consider it soul music, it’s hard to escape the fact that Alexander’s music has an awful lot of elements of country music in it. This is something that Alexander would point out himself — in interviews, he would talk about how he loved singing cowboys in films — people like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry — and about how when he was growing up the radio stations he would listen to would “play a Drifters record and maybe an Eddy Arnold record, and they didn’t make no distinction. That’s the way it was until much later”. The first record he truly loved was Eddy Arnold’s 1946 country hit “That’s How Much I Love You”: [Excerpt: Eddy Arnold, “That’s How Much I Love You”] Alexander grew up in Alabama, but in what gets described as a relatively integrated area for the time and place — by his own account, the part of East Florence he grew up in had only one other Black family, and all the other children he played with were white, and he wasn’t even aware of segregation until he was eight or nine. Florence is itself part of a quad-city area with three other nearby towns – Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. This area as a whole is often known as either “the Shoals”, or “Muscle Shoals”, and when people talk about music, it’s almost always the latter, so from this point on, I’ll be using “Muscle Shoals” to refer to all four towns. The consensus among people from the area seems to have been that while Alabama itself was one of the most horribly racist parts of the country, Muscle Shoals was much better than the rest of Alabama. Some have suggested that this comparative integration was part of the reason for the country influence in Alexander’s music, but as we’ve seen in many previous episodes, there were a lot more Black fans of country music than popular myth would suggest, and musicians like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley were very obviously influenced by country singers. Alexander’s father was also called Arthur, and so for all his life the younger Arthur Alexander was known to family and friends as “June”, for Junior. Arthur senior had been a blues guitarist in his youth, and according to his son was also an excellent singer, but he got very angry the one time June picked up his guitar and tried to play it — he forbade him from ever playing the guitar, saying that he’d never made a nickel as a player, and didn’t want that life for his son. As Arthur was an obedient kid, he did as his father said — he never in his life learned to play any musical instrument. But that didn’t stop him loving music and wanting to sing. He would listen to the radio all the time, listening to crooners like Patti Page and Nat “King” Cole, and as a teenager he got himself a job working at a cafe owned by a local gig promoter, which meant he was able to get free entry to the R&B shows the promoter put on at a local chitlin circuit venue, and get to meet the stars who played there. He would talk to people like Clyde McPhatter, and ask him how he managed to hit the high notes — though he wasn’t satisfied by McPhatter’s answer that “It’s just there”, thinking there must be more to it than that. And he became very friendly with the Clovers, once having a baseball game with them, and spending a lot of time with their lead singer, Buddy Bailey, asking him details of how he got particular vocal effects in the song “One Mint Julep”: [Excerpt: The Clovers, “One Mint Julep”] He formed a vocal group called the Heartstrings, who would perform songs like “Sixty Minute Man”, and got a regular spot on a local TV show, but according to his account, after a few weeks one of the other members decided he didn’t need to bother practising any more, and messed up on live TV. The group split up after that. The only time he got to perform once that group split up was when he would sit in in a band led by his friend George Brooks, who regularly gigged around Muscle Shoals. But there seemed no prospect of anything bigger happening — there were no music publishing companies or recording studios in Alabama, and everyone from Alabama who had made an impact in music had moved away to do it — W.C. Handy, Hank Williams, Sam Phillips, they’d all done truly great things, but they’d done them in Memphis or Nashville, not in Montgomery or Birmingham. There was just not the music industry infrastructure there to do anything. That started to change in 1956, when the first record company to set up in Muscle Shoals got its start. Tune Records was a tiny label run from a bus station, and most of its business was the same kind of stuff that Sam Phillips did before Sun became big — making records of people’s weddings and so on. But then the owner of the label, James Joiner, came up with a song that he thought might be commercial if a young singer he knew named Bobby Denton sang it. “A Fallen Star” was done as cheaply as humanly possible — it was recorded at a radio station, cut live in one take. The engineer on the track was a DJ who was on the air at the time — he put a record on, engineered the track while the record was playing, and made sure the musicians finished before the record he was playing did, so he could get back on the air. That record itself wasn’t a hit, and was so unsuccessful that I’ve not been able to find a copy of it anywhere, but it inspired hit cover versions from Ferlin Husky and Jimmy C. Newman: [Excerpt: Jimmy C. Newman, “A Fallen Star”] Off the back of those hit versions, Joiner started his own publishing company to go with his record company. Suddenly there was a Muscle Shoals music scene, and everything started to change. A lot of country musicians in the area gravitated towards Joiner, and started writing songs for his publishing company. At this point, this professional music scene in the area was confined to white people — Joiner recalled later that a young singer named Percy Sledge had auditioned for him, but that Joiner simply didn’t understand his type of music — but a circle of songwriters formed that would be important later. Jud Phillips, Sam’s brother, signed Denton to his new label, Judd, and Denton started recording songs by two of these new songwriters, Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill. Denton’s recordings were unsuccessful, but they started getting cover versions. Roy Orbison’s first single on RCA was a Hall and Sherrill song: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, “Sweet and Innocent”] Hall and Sherrill then started up their own publishing company, with the help of a loan from Joiner, and with a third partner, Tom Stafford. Stafford is a figure who has been almost written out of music history, and about whom I’ve been able to find out very little, but who seems in some ways the most intriguing person among these white musicians and entrepreneurs. Friends from the time describe him as a “reality-hacking poet”, and he seems to have been a beatnik, or a proto-hippie, the only one in Muscle Shoals and maybe the only one in the state of Alabama at the time. He was the focal point of a whole group of white musicians, people like Norbert Puttnam, David Briggs, Dan Penn, and Spooner Oldham. These musicians loved Black music, and wanted to play it, thinking of it as more exciting than the pop and country that they also played. But they loved it in a rather appropriative way — and in the same way, they had what they *thought* was an anti-racist attitude. Even though they were white, they referred to themselves collectively as a word I’m not going to use, the single most offensive slur against Black people. And so when Arthur Alexander turned up and got involved in this otherwise-white group of musicians, their attitudes varied widely. Terry Thompson, for example, who Alexander said was one of the best players ever to play guitar, as good as Nashville legends like Roy Clark and Jerry Reed, was also, according to Alexander, “the biggest racist there ever was”, and made derogatory remarks about Black people – though he said that Alexander didn’t count. Others, like Dan Penn, have later claimed that they took an “I don’t even see race” attitude, while still others were excited to be working with an actual Black man. Alexander would become close friends with some of them, would remain at arm’s length with most, but appreciated the one thing that they all had in common – that they, like him, wanted to perform R&B *and* country *and* pop. For Hall, Sherrill, and Stafford’s fledgling publishing company FAME, Alexander and one of his old bandmates from the Heartstrings, Henry Lee Bennett, wrote a song called “She Wanna Rock”, which was recorded in Nashville by the rockabilly singer Arnie Derksen, at Owen Bradley’s studio with the Nashville A-Team backing him: [Excerpt: Arnie Derksen, “She Wanna Rock”] That record wasn’t a success, and soon after that, the partnership behind FAME dissolved. Rick Hall was getting super-ambitious and wanted to become a millionaire by the time he was thirty, Tom Stafford was content with the minor success they had, and wanted to keep hanging round with his friends, watching films, and occasionally helping them make a record, and Billy Sherrill had a minor epiphany and decided he wanted to make country music rather than rock and roll. Rick Hall kept the FAME name for a new company he was starting up and Sherrill headed over to Nashville and got a job with Sam Phillips at Sun’s Nashville studio. Sherrill would later move on from Sun and produce and write for almost every major country star of the sixties and seventies – most notably, he co-wrote “Stand By Your Man” with Tammy Wynette, and produced “He Stopped Loving Her Today” for George Jones. And Stafford kept the studio and the company, which was renamed Spar. Arthur Alexander stuck with Tom Stafford, as did most of the musicians, and while he was working a day job as a bellhop, he would also regularly record demos for other writers at Stafford’s studio. By the start of 1960, 19-year-old June had married another nineteen-year-old, Ann. And it was around this point that Stafford came to him with a half-completed lyric that needed music. Alexander took Stafford’s partial lyric, and finished it. He added a standard blues riff, which he had liked in Brook Benton’s record “Kiddio”: [Excerpt: Brook Benton, “Kiddio”] The resulting song, “Sally Sue Brown”, was a mixture of gutbucket blues and rockabilly, with a soulful vocal, and it was released under the name June Alexander on Judd Records: [Excerpt: June Alexander, “Sally Sue Brown”] It’s a good record, but it didn’t have any kind of success. So Arthur started listening to the radio more, trying to see what the current hits were, so he could do something more commercial. He particularly liked the Drifters and Ben E. King, and he decided to try to write a song that fit their styles. He eventually came up with one that was inspired by real events — his wife, Ann, had an ex who had tried to win her back once he’d found out she was dating Arthur. He took the song, “You Better Move On”, to Stafford, who knew it would be a massive hit, but also knew that he couldn’t produce the record himself, so they got in touch with Rick Hall, who agreed to produce the track. There were multiple sessions, and after each one, Hall would take the tapes away, study them, and come up with improvements that they would use at the next session. Hall, like Alexander, wanted to get a sound like Ben E. King — he would later say, “It was my conception that it should have a groove similar to ‘Stand By Me’, which was a big record at the time. But I didn’t want to cop it to the point where people would recognise it was a cop. You dig? So we used the bass line and modified it just a little bit, put the acoustic guitar in front of that.”: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “You Better Move On”] For a B-side, they chose a song written by Terry Thompson, “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues”, which would prove almost as popular as the A-side: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues”] Hall shopped the record around every label in Nashville, with little success. Eventually, in February 1961, the record was released by Dot Records, the label that Pat Boone was on. It went to number twenty-four on the pop charts, becoming the first ever hit record to be made in Alabama. Rick Hall made enough money from it that he was able to build a new, much better, studio, and Muscle Shoals was set to become one of the most important recording centres in the US. As Norbert Puttnam, who had played bass on “You Better Move On”, and who would go on to become one of the most successful session bass players and record producers in Nashville, later said “If it wasn’t for Arthur Alexander, we’d all be at Reynolds” — the local aluminium factory. But Arthur Alexander wouldn’t record much at Muscle Shoals from that point on. His contracts were bought out — allegedly, Stafford, a heavy drug user, was bought off with a case of codeine — and instead of working with Rick Hall, the perfectionist producer who would go on to produce a decade-long string of hits, he was being produced by Noel Ball, a DJ with little production experience, though one who had a lot of faith in Alexander’s talent, and who had been the one to get him signed to Dot. His first album was a collection of covers of current hits. The album is widely regarded as a failure, and Alexander’s heart wasn’t in it — his father had just died, his wife had had a miscarriage, and his marriage was falling apart. But his second single for Dot was almost as great as his first. Recorded at Owen Bradley’s studio with top Nashville session players, the A-side, “Where Have You Been?” was written by the Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, and was very much in the style of “You Better Move On”: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Where Have You Been?”] While the B-side, “Soldiers of Love” (and yes, it was called “Soldiers of Love” on the original label, rather than “Soldier”), was written by Buzz Cason and Tony Moon, two members of Brenda Lee’s backing band, The Casuals: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Soldiers of Love”] The single was only a modest hit, reaching number fifty-eight, but just like his first single, both sides became firm favourites with musicians in Britain. Even though he wasn’t having a huge amount of commercial success, music lovers really appreciated his music, and bands in Britain, playing long sets, would pick up on Arthur’s songs. Almost every British guitar group had Arthur Alexander songs in their setlists, even though he was unaware of it at the time. For his third Dot single, Arthur was in trouble. He’d started drinking a lot, and taking a lot of speed, and his marriage was falling apart. Meanwhile, Noel Ball was trying to get him to record all sorts of terrible songs. He decided he’d better write one himself, and he’d make it about the deterioration of his marriage to Ann — though in the song he changed her name to Anna, because it scanned better: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Anna (Go To Him)”] Released with a cover version of Gene Autry’s country classic “I Hang My Head and Cry” as the B-side, that made the top ten on the R&B chart, but it only made number sixty-eight on the pop charts. His next single, “Go Home Girl”, another attempt at a “You Better Move On” soundalike, only made number 102. Meanwhile, a song that Alexander had written and recorded, but that Dot didn’t want to put out, went to number forty-two when it was picked up by the white singer Steve Alaimo: [Excerpt: Steve Alaimo, “Every Day I Have To Cry”] He was throwing himself into his work at this point, to escape the problems in his personal life. He’d often just go to a local nightclub and sit in with a band featuring a bass player called Billy Cox, and Cox’s old Army friend, who was just starting to get a reputation as a musician, a guitarist they all called Marbles but who would later be better known as Jimi Hendrix. He was drinking heavily, divorced, and being terribly mismanaged, as well as being ripped off by his record and publishing companies. He was living with a friend, Joe Henderson, who had had a hit a couple of years earlier with “Snap Your Fingers”: [Excerpt: Joe Henderson, “Snap Your Fingers”] Henderson and Alexander would push each other to greater extremes of drug use, enabling each other’s addiction, and one day Arthur came home to find his friend dead in the bathroom, of what was officially a heart attack but which everyone assumes was an overdose. Not only that, but Noel Ball was dying of cancer, and for all that he hadn’t been the greatest producer, Arthur cared deeply about him. He tried a fresh start with Monument Records, and he was now being produced by Fred Foster, who had produced Roy Orbison’s classic hits, and his arrangements were being done by Bill Justis, the saxophone player who had had a hit with “Raunchy” on a subsidiary of Sun a few years earlier. Some of his Monument recordings were excellent, like his first single for the label, “Baby For You”: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Baby For You”] On the back of that single, he toured the UK, and appeared on several big British TV shows, and was generally feted by all the major bands who were fans of his work, but he had no more commercial success at Monument than he had at the end of his time on Dot. And his life was getting worse and worse. He had a breakdown, brought on by his constant use of amphetamines and cannabis, and started hallucinating that people he saw were people from his past life — he stopped a taxi so he could get out and run after a man he was convinced was his dead father, and assaulted an audience member he was convinced was his ex-wife. He was arrested, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and spent several months in a psychiatric hospital. Shortly after he got out, Arthur visited his friend Otis Redding, who was in the studio in Memphis, and was cutting a song that he and Arthur had co-written several years earlier, “Johnny’s Heartbreak”: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, “Johnny’s Heartbreak”] Otis asked Arthur to join him on a tour he was going to be going on a couple of weeks later, but fog grounded Arthur’s plane so he was never able to meet up with Otis in Atlanta, and the tour proceeded without him — and so Arthur was not on the plane that Redding was on, on December 10 1967, which crashed and killed him. Arthur saw this as divine intervention, but he was seeing patterns in everything at this point, and he had several more breakdowns. He ended up getting dropped by Monument in 1970. He was hospitalised again after a bad LSD trip led to him standing naked in the middle of the road, and he spent several years drifting, unable to have a hit, though he was still making music. He kept having bad luck – for example, he recorded a song by the songwriter Dennis Linde, which was an almost guaranteed hit, and could have made for a comeback for him: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Burning Love”] But between him recording it and releasing it as a single, Elvis Presley released his version, which went to number two on the charts, and killed any chance of Arthur’s version being a success: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “Burning Love”] He did, though, have a bit of a comeback in 1975, when he rerecorded his old song “Every Day I Have To Cry”, as “Every Day I Have To Cry Some”, in a version which many people think likely inspired Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” a few years later: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Every Day I Have To Cry Some”] That made number forty-five, but unfortunately his follow-up, “Sharing the Night Together”, was another song where multiple people released versions of it at the same time, without realising, and so didn’t chart – Dr. Hook eventually had a hit with it a year later. Arthur stepped away from music. He managed to get himself more mentally well, and spent the years from 1978 through 1993 working a series of blue-collar jobs in Cleveland — construction worker, bus driver, and janitor. He rarely opened up to people about ever having been a singer. He suffered through more tragedy, too, like the murder of one of his sons, but he remained mentally stable. But then, in March 1993, he made a comeback. The producer Ben Vaughn persuaded him into the studio, and he got a contract with Elektra records. He made his first album in twenty-two years, a mixture of new songs and reworkings of his older ones. It got great reviews, and he was rediscovered by the music press as a soul pioneer. He got a showcase spot at South by Southwest, he was profiled by NPR on Fresh Air, and he was playing to excited crowds of new, young fans. He was in the process of getting his publishing rights back, and might finally start to see some money from his hits. And then, three months after that album came out, in the middle of a meeting with a publisher about the negotiations for his new contracts, he had a massive heart attack, and died the next day, aged fifty-three. His bad luck had caught up with him again.
Episode ninety-five of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "You Better Move On", and the sad story of Arthur Alexander. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Mother-In-Law" by Ernie K-Doe. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources As always, I've created Mixcloud playlists with full versions of all the songs in the episode. This week it's been split into two parts because of the number of songs by Arthur Alexander. Part one. Part two. This compilation collects the best of Alexander's Dot work. Much of the information in this episode comes from Richard Younger's biography of Alexander. It's unfortunately not in print in the UK, and goes for silly money, though I believe it can be bought cheaply in the US. And a lot of the background on Muscle Shoals comes from Country Soul by Charles L. Hughes. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a warning for those who need it. This is one of the sadder episodes we're going to be doing, and it deals with substance abuse, schizophrenia, and miscarriage. One of the things we're going to see a lot of in the next few weeks and months is the growing integration of the studios that produced much of the hit music to come out of the Southern USA in the sixties -- studios in what the writer Charles L. Hughes calls the country-soul triangle: Nashville, Memphis, and Muscle Shoals. That integration produced some of the greatest music of the era, but it's also the case that with few exceptions, narratives about that have tended to centre the white people involved at the expense of the Black people. The Black musicians tend to be regarded as people who allowed the white musicians to cast off their racism and become better people, rather than as colleagues who in many cases somewhat resented the white musicians -- there were jobs that weren't open to Black musicians in the segregated South, and now here were a bunch of white people taking some of the smaller number of jobs that *were* available to them. This is not to say that those white musicians were, individually, racist -- many were very vocally opposed to racism -- but they were still beneficiaries of a racist system. These white musicians who loved Black music slowly, over a decade or so, took over the older Black styles of music, and made them into white music. Up to this point, when we've looked at R&B, blues, or soul recordings, all the musicians involved have been Black people, almost without exception. And for most of the fifties, rock and roll was a predominantly Black genre, before the influx of the rockabillies made it seem, briefly, like it could lead to a truly post-racial style of music. But over the 1960s, we're going to see white people slowly colonise those musics, and push Black musicians to the margins. And this episode marks a crucial turning point in the story, as we see the establishment of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, as a centre of white people making music in previously Black genres. But the start of that story comes with a Black man making music that most people at the time saw as coded as white. Today we're going to look at someone whose music is often considered the epitome of deep soul, but who worked with many of the musicians who made the Nashville Sound what it was, and who was as influenced by Gene Autry as he was by many of the more obvious singers who might influence a soul legend. Today, we're going to look at Arthur Alexander, and at "You Better Move On": [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "You'd Better Move On"] Arthur Alexander's is one of the most tragic stories we'll be looking at. He was a huge influence on every musician who came up in the sixties, but he never got the recognition for it. He was largely responsible for the rise of Muscle Shoals studios, and he wrote songs that were later covered by the Beatles, and Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones, as well as many, many more. The musician Norbert Putnam told the story of visiting George Harrison in the seventies, and seeing his copy of Alexander's hit single "You Better Move On". He said to Harrison, "Did you know I played bass on that?" and Harrison replied, "If I phoned Paul up now, he'd come over and kiss your feet". That's how important Arthur Alexander was to the Beatles, and to the history of rock music. But he never got to reap the rewards his talent entitled him to. He spent most of his life in poverty, and is now mostly known only to fans of the subgenre known as deep soul. Part of this is because his music is difficult to categorise. While most listeners would now consider it soul music, it's hard to escape the fact that Alexander's music has an awful lot of elements of country music in it. This is something that Alexander would point out himself -- in interviews, he would talk about how he loved singing cowboys in films -- people like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry -- and about how when he was growing up the radio stations he would listen to would "play a Drifters record and maybe an Eddy Arnold record, and they didn't make no distinction. That's the way it was until much later". The first record he truly loved was Eddy Arnold's 1946 country hit "That's How Much I Love You": [Excerpt: Eddy Arnold, "That's How Much I Love You"] Alexander grew up in Alabama, but in what gets described as a relatively integrated area for the time and place -- by his own account, the part of East Florence he grew up in had only one other Black family, and all the other children he played with were white, and he wasn't even aware of segregation until he was eight or nine. Florence is itself part of a quad-city area with three other nearby towns – Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. This area as a whole is often known as either “the Shoals”, or “Muscle Shoals”, and when people talk about music, it's almost always the latter, so from this point on, I'll be using “Muscle Shoals” to refer to all four towns. The consensus among people from the area seems to have been that while Alabama itself was one of the most horribly racist parts of the country, Muscle Shoals was much better than the rest of Alabama. Some have suggested that this comparative integration was part of the reason for the country influence in Alexander's music, but as we've seen in many previous episodes, there were a lot more Black fans of country music than popular myth would suggest, and musicians like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley were very obviously influenced by country singers. Alexander's father was also called Arthur, and so for all his life the younger Arthur Alexander was known to family and friends as "June", for Junior. Arthur senior had been a blues guitarist in his youth, and according to his son was also an excellent singer, but he got very angry the one time June picked up his guitar and tried to play it -- he forbade him from ever playing the guitar, saying that he'd never made a nickel as a player, and didn't want that life for his son. As Arthur was an obedient kid, he did as his father said -- he never in his life learned to play any musical instrument. But that didn't stop him loving music and wanting to sing. He would listen to the radio all the time, listening to crooners like Patti Page and Nat "King" Cole, and as a teenager he got himself a job working at a cafe owned by a local gig promoter, which meant he was able to get free entry to the R&B shows the promoter put on at a local chitlin circuit venue, and get to meet the stars who played there. He would talk to people like Clyde McPhatter, and ask him how he managed to hit the high notes -- though he wasn't satisfied by McPhatter's answer that "It's just there", thinking there must be more to it than that. And he became very friendly with the Clovers, once having a baseball game with them, and spending a lot of time with their lead singer, Buddy Bailey, asking him details of how he got particular vocal effects in the song "One Mint Julep": [Excerpt: The Clovers, "One Mint Julep"] He formed a vocal group called the Heartstrings, who would perform songs like "Sixty Minute Man", and got a regular spot on a local TV show, but according to his account, after a few weeks one of the other members decided he didn't need to bother practising any more, and messed up on live TV. The group split up after that. The only time he got to perform once that group split up was when he would sit in in a band led by his friend George Brooks, who regularly gigged around Muscle Shoals. But there seemed no prospect of anything bigger happening -- there were no music publishing companies or recording studios in Alabama, and everyone from Alabama who had made an impact in music had moved away to do it -- W.C. Handy, Hank Williams, Sam Phillips, they'd all done truly great things, but they'd done them in Memphis or Nashville, not in Montgomery or Birmingham. There was just not the music industry infrastructure there to do anything. That started to change in 1956, when the first record company to set up in Muscle Shoals got its start. Tune Records was a tiny label run from a bus station, and most of its business was the same kind of stuff that Sam Phillips did before Sun became big -- making records of people's weddings and so on. But then the owner of the label, James Joiner, came up with a song that he thought might be commercial if a young singer he knew named Bobby Denton sang it. "A Fallen Star" was done as cheaply as humanly possible -- it was recorded at a radio station, cut live in one take. The engineer on the track was a DJ who was on the air at the time -- he put a record on, engineered the track while the record was playing, and made sure the musicians finished before the record he was playing did, so he could get back on the air. That record itself wasn't a hit, and was so unsuccessful that I've not been able to find a copy of it anywhere, but it inspired hit cover versions from Ferlin Husky and Jimmy C. Newman: [Excerpt: Jimmy C. Newman, “A Fallen Star”] Off the back of those hit versions, Joiner started his own publishing company to go with his record company. Suddenly there was a Muscle Shoals music scene, and everything started to change. A lot of country musicians in the area gravitated towards Joiner, and started writing songs for his publishing company. At this point, this professional music scene in the area was confined to white people -- Joiner recalled later that a young singer named Percy Sledge had auditioned for him, but that Joiner simply didn't understand his type of music -- but a circle of songwriters formed that would be important later. Jud Phillips, Sam's brother, signed Denton to his new label, Judd, and Denton started recording songs by two of these new songwriters, Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill. Denton's recordings were unsuccessful, but they started getting cover versions. Roy Orbison's first single on RCA was a Hall and Sherrill song: [Excerpt: Roy Orbison, "Sweet and Innocent"] Hall and Sherrill then started up their own publishing company, with the help of a loan from Joiner, and with a third partner, Tom Stafford. Stafford is a figure who has been almost written out of music history, and about whom I've been able to find out very little, but who seems in some ways the most intriguing person among these white musicians and entrepreneurs. Friends from the time describe him as a "reality-hacking poet", and he seems to have been a beatnik, or a proto-hippie, the only one in Muscle Shoals and maybe the only one in the state of Alabama at the time. He was the focal point of a whole group of white musicians, people like Norbert Puttnam, David Briggs, Dan Penn, and Spooner Oldham. These musicians loved Black music, and wanted to play it, thinking of it as more exciting than the pop and country that they also played. But they loved it in a rather appropriative way -- and in the same way, they had what they *thought* was an anti-racist attitude. Even though they were white, they referred to themselves collectively as a word I'm not going to use, the single most offensive slur against Black people. And so when Arthur Alexander turned up and got involved in this otherwise-white group of musicians, their attitudes varied widely. Terry Thompson, for example, who Alexander said was one of the best players ever to play guitar, as good as Nashville legends like Roy Clark and Jerry Reed, was also, according to Alexander, “the biggest racist there ever was”, and made derogatory remarks about Black people – though he said that Alexander didn't count. Others, like Dan Penn, have later claimed that they took an “I don't even see race” attitude, while still others were excited to be working with an actual Black man. Alexander would become close friends with some of them, would remain at arm's length with most, but appreciated the one thing that they all had in common – that they, like him, wanted to perform R&B *and* country *and* pop. For Hall, Sherrill, and Stafford's fledgling publishing company FAME, Alexander and one of his old bandmates from the Heartstrings, Henry Lee Bennett, wrote a song called “She Wanna Rock”, which was recorded in Nashville by the rockabilly singer Arnie Derksen, at Owen Bradley's studio with the Nashville A-Team backing him: [Excerpt: Arnie Derksen, "She Wanna Rock"] That record wasn't a success, and soon after that, the partnership behind FAME dissolved. Rick Hall was getting super-ambitious and wanted to become a millionaire by the time he was thirty, Tom Stafford was content with the minor success they had, and wanted to keep hanging round with his friends, watching films, and occasionally helping them make a record, and Billy Sherrill had a minor epiphany and decided he wanted to make country music rather than rock and roll. Rick Hall kept the FAME name for a new company he was starting up and Sherrill headed over to Nashville and got a job with Sam Phillips at Sun's Nashville studio. Sherrill would later move on from Sun and produce and write for almost every major country star of the sixties and seventies – most notably, he co-wrote "Stand By Your Man" with Tammy Wynette, and produced "He Stopped Loving Her Today" for George Jones. And Stafford kept the studio and the company, which was renamed Spar. Arthur Alexander stuck with Tom Stafford, as did most of the musicians, and while he was working a day job as a bellhop, he would also regularly record demos for other writers at Stafford's studio. By the start of 1960, 19-year-old June had married another nineteen-year-old, Ann. And it was around this point that Stafford came to him with a half-completed lyric that needed music. Alexander took Stafford's partial lyric, and finished it. He added a standard blues riff, which he had liked in Brook Benton's record “Kiddio”: [Excerpt: Brook Benton, “Kiddio”] The resulting song, “Sally Sue Brown”, was a mixture of gutbucket blues and rockabilly, with a soulful vocal, and it was released under the name June Alexander on Judd Records: [Excerpt: June Alexander, "Sally Sue Brown"] It's a good record, but it didn't have any kind of success. So Arthur started listening to the radio more, trying to see what the current hits were, so he could do something more commercial. He particularly liked the Drifters and Ben E. King, and he decided to try to write a song that fit their styles. He eventually came up with one that was inspired by real events -- his wife, Ann, had an ex who had tried to win her back once he'd found out she was dating Arthur. He took the song, "You Better Move On", to Stafford, who knew it would be a massive hit, but also knew that he couldn't produce the record himself, so they got in touch with Rick Hall, who agreed to produce the track. There were multiple sessions, and after each one, Hall would take the tapes away, study them, and come up with improvements that they would use at the next session. Hall, like Alexander, wanted to get a sound like Ben E. King -- he would later say, "It was my conception that it should have a groove similar to 'Stand By Me', which was a big record at the time. But I didn't want to cop it to the point where people would recognise it was a cop. You dig? So we used the bass line and modified it just a little bit, put the acoustic guitar in front of that.": [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "You Better Move On"] For a B-side, they chose a song written by Terry Thompson, "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues", which would prove almost as popular as the A-side: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues"] Hall shopped the record around every label in Nashville, with little success. Eventually, in February 1961, the record was released by Dot Records, the label that Pat Boone was on. It went to number twenty-four on the pop charts, becoming the first ever hit record to be made in Alabama. Rick Hall made enough money from it that he was able to build a new, much better, studio, and Muscle Shoals was set to become one of the most important recording centres in the US. As Norbert Puttnam, who had played bass on "You Better Move On", and who would go on to become one of the most successful session bass players and record producers in Nashville, later said "If it wasn't for Arthur Alexander, we'd all be at Reynolds" -- the local aluminium factory. But Arthur Alexander wouldn't record much at Muscle Shoals from that point on. His contracts were bought out -- allegedly, Stafford, a heavy drug user, was bought off with a case of codeine -- and instead of working with Rick Hall, the perfectionist producer who would go on to produce a decade-long string of hits, he was being produced by Noel Ball, a DJ with little production experience, though one who had a lot of faith in Alexander's talent, and who had been the one to get him signed to Dot. His first album was a collection of covers of current hits. The album is widely regarded as a failure, and Alexander's heart wasn't in it -- his father had just died, his wife had had a miscarriage, and his marriage was falling apart. But his second single for Dot was almost as great as his first. Recorded at Owen Bradley's studio with top Nashville session players, the A-side, "Where Have You Been?" was written by the Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, and was very much in the style of "You Better Move On": [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "Where Have You Been?"] While the B-side, "Soldiers of Love" (and yes, it was called "Soldiers of Love" on the original label, rather than "Soldier"), was written by Buzz Cason and Tony Moon, two members of Brenda Lee's backing band, The Casuals: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "Soldiers of Love"] The single was only a modest hit, reaching number fifty-eight, but just like his first single, both sides became firm favourites with musicians in Britain. Even though he wasn't having a huge amount of commercial success, music lovers really appreciated his music, and bands in Britain, playing long sets, would pick up on Arthur's songs. Almost every British guitar group had Arthur Alexander songs in their setlists, even though he was unaware of it at the time. For his third Dot single, Arthur was in trouble. He'd started drinking a lot, and taking a lot of speed, and his marriage was falling apart. Meanwhile, Noel Ball was trying to get him to record all sorts of terrible songs. He decided he'd better write one himself, and he'd make it about the deterioration of his marriage to Ann -- though in the song he changed her name to Anna, because it scanned better: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "Anna (Go To Him)"] Released with a cover version of Gene Autry's country classic "I Hang My Head and Cry" as the B-side, that made the top ten on the R&B chart, but it only made number sixty-eight on the pop charts. His next single, "Go Home Girl", another attempt at a "You Better Move On" soundalike, only made number 102. Meanwhile, a song that Alexander had written and recorded, but that Dot didn't want to put out, went to number forty-two when it was picked up by the white singer Steve Alaimo: [Excerpt: Steve Alaimo, "Every Day I Have To Cry"] He was throwing himself into his work at this point, to escape the problems in his personal life. He'd often just go to a local nightclub and sit in with a band featuring a bass player called Billy Cox, and Cox's old Army friend, who was just starting to get a reputation as a musician, a guitarist they all called Marbles but who would later be better known as Jimi Hendrix. He was drinking heavily, divorced, and being terribly mismanaged, as well as being ripped off by his record and publishing companies. He was living with a friend, Joe Henderson, who had had a hit a couple of years earlier with "Snap Your Fingers": [Excerpt: Joe Henderson, "Snap Your Fingers"] Henderson and Alexander would push each other to greater extremes of drug use, enabling each other's addiction, and one day Arthur came home to find his friend dead in the bathroom, of what was officially a heart attack but which everyone assumes was an overdose. Not only that, but Noel Ball was dying of cancer, and for all that he hadn't been the greatest producer, Arthur cared deeply about him. He tried a fresh start with Monument Records, and he was now being produced by Fred Foster, who had produced Roy Orbison's classic hits, and his arrangements were being done by Bill Justis, the saxophone player who had had a hit with "Raunchy" on a subsidiary of Sun a few years earlier. Some of his Monument recordings were excellent, like his first single for the label, "Baby For You": [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "Baby For You"] On the back of that single, he toured the UK, and appeared on several big British TV shows, and was generally feted by all the major bands who were fans of his work, but he had no more commercial success at Monument than he had at the end of his time on Dot. And his life was getting worse and worse. He had a breakdown, brought on by his constant use of amphetamines and cannabis, and started hallucinating that people he saw were people from his past life -- he stopped a taxi so he could get out and run after a man he was convinced was his dead father, and assaulted an audience member he was convinced was his ex-wife. He was arrested, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and spent several months in a psychiatric hospital. Shortly after he got out, Arthur visited his friend Otis Redding, who was in the studio in Memphis, and was cutting a song that he and Arthur had co-written several years earlier, "Johnny's Heartbreak": [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Johnny's Heartbreak"] Otis asked Arthur to join him on a tour he was going to be going on a couple of weeks later, but fog grounded Arthur's plane so he was never able to meet up with Otis in Atlanta, and the tour proceeded without him -- and so Arthur was not on the plane that Redding was on, on December 10 1967, which crashed and killed him. Arthur saw this as divine intervention, but he was seeing patterns in everything at this point, and he had several more breakdowns. He ended up getting dropped by Monument in 1970. He was hospitalised again after a bad LSD trip led to him standing naked in the middle of the road, and he spent several years drifting, unable to have a hit, though he was still making music. He kept having bad luck – for example, he recorded a song by the songwriter Dennis Linde, which was an almost guaranteed hit, and could have made for a comeback for him: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, “Burning Love”] But between him recording it and releasing it as a single, Elvis Presley released his version, which went to number two on the charts, and killed any chance of Arthur's version being a success: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “Burning Love”] He did, though, have a bit of a comeback in 1975, when he rerecorded his old song "Every Day I Have To Cry", as "Every Day I Have To Cry Some", in a version which many people think likely inspired Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" a few years later: [Excerpt: Arthur Alexander, "Every Day I Have To Cry Some"] That made number forty-five, but unfortunately his follow-up, “Sharing the Night Together”, was another song where multiple people released versions of it at the same time, without realising, and so didn't chart – Dr. Hook eventually had a hit with it a year later. Arthur stepped away from music. He managed to get himself more mentally well, and spent the years from 1978 through 1993 working a series of blue-collar jobs in Cleveland -- construction worker, bus driver, and janitor. He rarely opened up to people about ever having been a singer. He suffered through more tragedy, too, like the murder of one of his sons, but he remained mentally stable. But then, in March 1993, he made a comeback. The producer Ben Vaughn persuaded him into the studio, and he got a contract with Elektra records. He made his first album in twenty-two years, a mixture of new songs and reworkings of his older ones. It got great reviews, and he was rediscovered by the music press as a soul pioneer. He got a showcase spot at South by Southwest, he was profiled by NPR on Fresh Air, and he was playing to excited crowds of new, young fans. He was in the process of getting his publishing rights back, and might finally start to see some money from his hits. And then, three months after that album came out, in the middle of a meeting with a publisher about the negotiations for his new contracts, he had a massive heart attack, and died the next day, aged fifty-three. His bad luck had caught up with him again.
FERLIN HUSKY IS PERHAPS REMEMBERED BEST FOR HIS GOSPEL SONG "ON THE WINGS OF A DOVE" WHICH WE WILL BE PLAYING OON OUR SHOW.
All Things Vocal: Podcast for Singers, Speakers, Voice Coaches and Producers
This is the audio version of the blogpost you can find at AllThingsVocal.com. Today I interview Dallas Frazier… legendary songwriter. Listen to this All Things Vocal podcast episode to get insider tips for navigating a successful songwriting career, as well as finding personal success and satisfaction, living and learning along the way. This podcast is now playing at iTunes , Google Play, TuneIn Radio, . Subscribe and don't miss an episode... and please leave a review where you like to listen! REVIEWS ARE MUCH NEEDED and APPRECIATED! If you want help to you sing your own songs, try Power, Path and Performance vocal training, available at www.JudyRodman.com in vocal lessons and on CD courses. Subjects covered in this episode include: His early start in Bakersfield, California, working with Ferlin Husky, signing as artist with Capital Records at 14 years old, writing his own material. How he experienced working on TV with a well-rounded 'out of the box' band and learning to love more than one style of music. Marrying Sharon, the love of his life, at 18 years old. They have been together ever since (she was right there on the couch as we talked) How he wrote some of his iconic songs such as Ally Oop. It reached #1 on the charts 58 years ago, and is still played today. Dallas wrote it at the cotton gin where he was working at the time. Making the move with Ferlin to Nashville, and his incredible hit-writing success there. Dallas's battle with alcoholism. His journey into Christian ministry, his battle with perfectionism and how he found new balance, wisdom and joy. Now writing again, better than ever, he and I discuss writing for the market as opposed to the heart, and the balance needed there. We finished with Dallas offering some very important insight from his life for those who want to become successful songwriters. My deepest gratitude to Ginny, and to Dallas for his friendship and support, as well as this interview for us all! Dallas Frazier bio highlights: Hit song credits include: Elvira, Ally Oop, There Goes My Everything, If My Heart Had Windows, All I Have To Offer You Is Me, Beneath Still Waters, Will You Visit Me On Sundays, Fourteen Carat Mind, What's Your Mama's Name, Mohair Sam, The Son of Hickory Hollow's Tramp and tons more. His songs topped country chart as well as landed in the pop charts, he also had some R&B success with songs such as 'Big Mable Murphy' cut by Diana Ross as well as Brook Benton. In 1994 Keith Richards and George Jones did a duet on Dallas' song 'Say It's Not You'. 'There Goes My Everything' won CMA's 'Song of the Year' in 1966. 'Elvira' won BMI 'Country Song of the Year' in 1966. Artists who cut Dallas Frazier 'tribute albums' (all songs written by Dallas) include George Jones and Connie Smith. Dallas was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976 Country Music Hall Of Fame honored Dallas by featuring him in their 'Poets & Prophets Salute'. There is a documentary being produced by Brian Oxley, projected to be finished by summer of 2018.
....With decreased demand for big-breasted blonde bombshells and an increased negative backlash against her excessive publicity, she became a box-office has-been by the early 1960s, but she remained a popular celebrity, continuing to attract large crowds outside the United States by way of lucrative and successful nightclub acts. Despite her publicity and popularity, Mansfield had no quality film roles after 1959. She was also unable to fulfill a third of her time contracted to Fox because of her repeated pregnancies. Fox stopped viewing her as major Hollywood star material, and started loaning her out to foreign productions until the end of her contract in 1962. She was first loaned out to English studios and then to Italian studios for a series of low-budget films, many of them obscure and some considered lost. In 1959, Fox cast her in two independent gangster films filmed in the United Kingdom: The Challenge and Too Hot to Handle. Both films were low-budget, and their American releases were delayed. Too Hot to Handle was not released in the United States until 1961 (as Playgirl After Dark), and The Challenge in 1963 (as It Takes a Thief). In the United States, censors objected to a scene in Too Hot to Handle where Mansfield, wearing silver netting with sequins painted over her nipples, appeared nearly nude. Soon after her success in Promises! Promises! Mansfield was chosen from many other actresses to replace the recently deceased Marilyn Monroe in Kiss Me, Stupid, a 1964 romantic comedy that would co-star Dean Martin. She turned down the role because of her pregnancy with daughter Mariska Hargitay, and was replaced by Kim Novak. That same year, Mansfield appeared in a salacious-for-its-time pinup book called "Jayne Mansfield for President: the White House or Bust," which was promoted on billboards; the photographs were taken by commercial and fine art photographer David Attie. In 1966 Mansfield was cast in Single Room Furnished, directed by then-husband Matt Cimber. The film required Mansfield to portray three different characters, and was her first starring dramatic role in several years. It was briefly released in 1966, but did not enjoy a full release until 1968, almost a year after her death. After Single Room Furnished wrapped, Mansfield was cast opposite Mamie Van Doren and Ferlin Husky in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966), a low-budget comedy from Woolner Brothers. It was her first country and western film, and she promoted it through a 29-day tour of major U.S. cities, accompanied by Ferlin Husky, Don Bowman, and other country musicians. Before filming began, Mansfield said she would not "share any screen time with the drive-in's answer to Marilyn Monroe," meaning Van Doren. Though their characters do share one scene, Mansfield and Van Doren filmed their parts at different times, later edited together.[85] Mansfield's wardrobe relied on the shapeless styles of the 1960s to hide her weight gain after the birth of her fifth child.[86] Despite career setbacks, Mansfield remained a highly visible celebrity during the early 1960s, through her publicity antics and stage performances. In early 1967, Mansfield filmed her last film role: a cameo in A Guide for the Married Man, a comedy starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. Mansfield is listed as one of the technical advisers, along with other popular stars in the opening credits Information Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield Please follow and support some of our Favorites @thechristalclear @publicaccesspod @waywordradio @the-unwritable-rant @blindhour @podcast-vs-podcast @joeryanpodcast
My guest this week is pedal steel legend Lloyd Green. Lloyd is most notable for his session work, having played on records with artists such as The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, The Monkees, Paul McCartney, Charley Pride, Bob Dylan, Johnny Paycheck, and many others. Green landed in Nashville after college and soon found steady work as a road musician supporting artists like Ferlin Husky and Faron Young. He stayed with Young's band for 18 months and then left town to be with his new wife. During those months, he appeared on the George Jones track, "Too Much Water Runs Under the Bridge" and then for some reason had a hard time finding more work. At that point, Green basically quit playing and became a shoe salesman in Nashville. A few years and a couple of fortunate turns later, Lloyd became one of the top call steel guitarists in Nashville in the 60's and 70's, and definitely one of the most recorded of all time. His memorable, bluesy licks grace so many classic country recordings, not to mention kicking off the classic "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album by the Byrds. Lloyd dropped by The Henhouse Studio here in Nashville to talk about his life and career and give us all a glimpse into what life was like as a session ace, playing on hundreds of records every year. Enjoy my conversation with Lloyd Green, and please subscribe to the podcast for free on iTunes!
Best known for singing a string of successful trucking-themed country songs in the 1960s and 70s, Red Simpson was also a highly influential behind-the-scenes songwriter from Bakersfield, California. Buck Owens recorded more than 30 Simpson originals, including the Top 10 hits “Gonna Have Love,” “Sam’s Place,” and “Kansas City Song.” Additionally, Red penned perennial standards, such as “Close Up the Honky Tonks” and “You Don’t Have Very Far to Go.” As an artist, he released a total of seven albums for Capitol and logged seven charting singles onBillboard’s country rankings, including the Top 40 hits “Roll Truck Roll” and “The Highway Patrol.” He is perhaps best known, however, for singing “I’m a Truck,” which hit the Top 5 in 1972. Simpson played guitar on most of Buck Owens’ recording dates in the mid-1960s, including sessions that produced hits such as “Buckaroo” and “Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line.” He went on to play numerous sessions with Merle Haggard, who referred to Simpson as a “hillbilly hippy.” Merle recorded a couple of Simpson originals on his 1969 album Pride in What I Am, and Red went on to play guitar on Haggard’s classic live LP, Okie From Muskogee. A half dozen other Simpson compositions have been recorded by Haggard, who wrote “A Bar in Bakersfield” in tribute to his old friend. As a songwriter, Simpson enjoyed additional charting singles by Charlie Walker, Wynn Stewart, Junior Brown, and others. His songs have also been recorded by Ferlin Husky, Johnny Paycheck, Wanda Jackson, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Dave Dudley, Roy Clark, Roseanne Cash, Steve Wariner, Lucinda Williams, Alan Jackson, Candi Staton, Dwight Yoakam, and many more. Simpson died on January 8, 2016. This is the final in-depth interview with the California country mainstay Bob Dylan once called "the forgotten man of the Bakersfield Sound."
Episode 010 – Tracy Pitcox has been a radio personality since his teens, working a small-town radio station. Starting a classic country music fan club in the 80’s, he came in contact with celebrities, and others, who brought him memorabilia. This “stuff” eventually made Pitcox open the Heart of Texas Country Music Museum in Brady, … Continue reading "Episode 010 – Tracy Pitcox" The post Episode 010 – Tracy Pitcox appeared first on Voices of Texas.
Dallas Frazier first appeared as a recording artist on Capitol Records in 1954. He moved from California to Nashville in 1963, eventually placing 42 songs in the Top 20 on Billboard’s country singles chart. Ten of those songs climbed to the #1 position. His music has been recorded by George Jones, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Charley Pride, Ferlin Husky, Dolly Parton, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, and countless others. He wrote "There Goes My Everything," the Country Music Association single of the year in 1967, and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976. But there was more to Dallas Frazier than country music. His first hit was the #1 pop smash “Alley-Oop” in 1960, and he appeared on the Billboard country, pop, and R&B charts an astounding 152 times. In addition to his country recordings, Dallas’ songs have been covered by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beach Boys, Keith Richards, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Percy Sledge, Slim Harpo, Peggy Lee, Englebert Humperdinck, Gram Parsons, Lucinda Williams, and even Bob Dylan. He has won BMI performance awards for more than twenty of his songs including “All I Have to Offer You Is Me,” “Fourteen Carat Mind,” “If My Heart Had Windows,” “What’s Your Mama’s Name Child,” “Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp," and “Elvira.”
For the first time ever WRFR is running a capital campaign to raise funds for the move to the Lincoln Street Center in Rockland, Maine. With a multimillion embezzelment charity scandal going on in the next town over, we decided to examine both sides of the coin.. MAKE A DONATION ON WRFR.ORG and get some FREE SWAG! Listen to the show for details. 1. Buzz Buzz, Brian Setzer Orchestra. (music bed) 2. The Muppet Telethon Theme. 3. Money, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. 4. Buzz, Buzz, Buzzing, Tim Hicks. 5. Movie Clip. (Mr. Dees Goes to Town) 6. Make Money Money, John Reuben. 7. The Muppets Movie Clip. 8. WKRP in Cincinnati theme, Richard Cheese. 9. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, The Hollywood Flames. 10. Show Me The Money clip Jerry Maguire. 11. Money Changes Everything, Cyndi Lauper. 12. This Buzz is for You, Tommy Alverson. 13. Who's Got Your Money, Tina Parol. 14. Movie Clip. (Mr. Dees Goes to Town part 2) 15. Money Greases the Wheel, Ferlin Husky. 16. Not Just Money, Frank Ocean. 17. Scared Money, Amos Lee. 18. Buzz Me Blues, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five. 19. Gimmie Some Money, Spinal Tap. 20. Coffee is for Closers.
Abrem-se as cortinas e começa o espetáculo. O time do Record Hop entra em campo com seus dois craques, Luiz Fireball e Ricardo Fallero, contando suas experiências quadradas no mundo da redondinha. E para compensar tanta canelada, carrinho no tornozelo e bolas fora, só mesmo uma seleção de craques da música: Don Cavali, Ferlin Husky, Charlie Feathers, Ray Campi, Everly Brothers, Pike Cavallero, Louvin Brothers dão o melhor de si e trarão os 3 pontos para casa. Agora é só pegar o tropeirão, o tremoço e começar o sofrimento e a torcida ! http://recordhop.podomatic.com/entry/2014-06-04T08_04_19-07_00 SITE OFICIAL: http://www.overcast.com.br/ FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/recordhop E-MAIL: recordhoppodcast@gmail.com TWITTER: http://twitter.com/record_hop FANPAGE: http://www.facebook.com/recordhoppodcast
Click to Play A Tribute to Truckin'Playlist:White Line Fever, Merl HaggardTruck Drivin’ Son of a Gun, Box Car WillieCarol County Accident, Porter WagnerSix Days on the Road, Dave DuddlyTruck Drivin’ Man, Red StegalHow Fast Them Trucks Go, David Allen CoeI’m the One Mama Warned You About, Mickey GillyLets Truck, DeadboltSixteen Tons, Lee ConwayGiddy Up Go, Ferlin HuskyTruck Drivin’ Outlaw, Dennis OlsonGirl on the Billboard, Del ReevesBig Bad John, Jimmy DeanFlat Tire, Dale WatsonBeaver on My Lap, Bear on My Tail, Red SimpsonSemi Crazy Junior Brown & Red SimpsonPhantom 309, Red SovineThe Drunkin’ Driver, Ferlin HuskyOnce I was a Truck Drivin’ Man, Johnny ChesterFreightliner Fever, Box Car WillieWhen the Big Rigs Roll, Nev NicholsTruck Driving Man, Willie NelsonConvoy, Ferlin HuskyHello Darling, Conway TwittyLookin’ at the World Through a Windshield, Del ReevesTeddy Bear, Red SovineTruck Drivin’ S.O.B., DeadboltDo What You Do Do Well, Ned Miller