Rite Records custom pressings Cincinnati, Ohio, 1955-1985
Russell County musician William Jay Hammond was born December 30, 1930. Music was an everyday thing around the Hammond home. After a long day, the family alwaus gathered after supper to sing songs on the front porch. Gospel songs from memory filled the air without the aid of musical instruments. The Hammond family was too poor to own expensive pieces of equipments.
As soon as Jay could afford one, he bought himself a guitar. Without the aid of lessons, he soon taught himself the basics he needed in order to play this instrument.
Jay joined the U.S. Army and served in Korea during the Korean War. Upon return from military service, he was quick to gather with other local musicians and form a bluegrass band in 1955 called Jay Hammond and the DJ’s. The term « DJ’s » became a part of the group’s name because all but one of the member’s first names started with a D or a J. The group included Jay as guitarist and lead singer ; Delmer « Dynamite » Russell, guitar and backup vocals ; Jimmy Wariner, lead guitar ; Davis Wariner, bass ; and Codel Burchett, drummer. From time to time, others filled in and were considered to also be a part of the band. The latter included Roy Wariner and his ten-year old son, Steve, who went to become a leading country music professional.
Although group members were working in Noblesville, Indiana, at the time, their first public performance was a barn dance at the Eli community in Russell County. They drove down from Indiana and were paid five dollars each for their musical performance. Soon thereafter, Jay Hammond and the DJ’s were regular guests at the Lake Cumberland Jamboree at the county fairgrounds. They also won a spot on WBKO TV in Bowling Green on Saturday nights. Steve Wariner was playing drums for the group at the time.
In the early 1960s, Jay married Glenna Neat of Columbia, Adair county. They had five children vetween 1962 and 1972, thus slowing downJay’s music business. He worked through the week but continued to play music on weekends. He also expanded his music career as he began writing his own songs and publishing them. He created Wheelhoss Publishing Company in order to publish his songs. He also paired up with June Campbell Brewster and Roy Wariner to write songs and add music.
Other members who played with Jay’s bluegrass band included Glenna Hammond, Imogene Wooten, and Pat Thompson, who were Russell County residents and who sang backup. Part-time members included the Corbin Twins, Kay and Winston McGowan, Jean Gibson, Joe Thompson, Beckham Collins, June Campbell, Fred Russell, Kenny Wariner, Roy Wariner, and Steve Wariner.
Jay Hammond and the DJ’s were regular performers at White Swan Jamboree, Lake Cumberland Jamboree, WAIN Radio in Coumbia, WBKO Channel 13 in Bowling Green, WJRS Radio in Russell County, and Independance Day Celebration in Jamestown.
Jay Hammond died in March 1983 after two heart attacks.
The Brotherhood Singers From Columbia S.C.
"He made a couple of Western movies, even before Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. He was always a great one. He was a good yodeler, a good singer, a great promoter and a great personality."
Born in 1908, Happy Hal Burns began his radio career at Birmingham’s WBRC Radio in the 1930s. He later moved to WMC in Memphis, Tenn., where the "Garrett Snuff Variety Show" featured Happy Hal, a cast of musical regulars, top-name guests and a little dog named Sissy.
"It became one of the leading country-music shows of the day. It was carried by major stations in Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, New Orleans and Atlanta. Mr. Burns always told a happy thought, a happy story or a joke. His closing remark and signature signoff was always, ’Beeeeeeee happy!’ "
After his service in World War II, Happy Hal returned to his native Birmingham and started another crowd-pleasing musical variety show on WBRC Radio.
"He helped many people succeed in their music careers as a music promoter and variety-show host. Not only did he perform all over the country with his Country Jubilee Shows, he also wrote more than 100 songs. One in particular was ’Cow Town,’ which he co-wrote with Tex Ritter. More recently, it was recorded by country great George Strait."
Nancy Houghton /Cal Warmington OrchestraHoward L. Lafer, of Port Clinton, has just formed [...] Vacation Land Records. Toledo performers are heard on both of them. On one platter Ralph Clifford [...] and on the other, Rose Trick vocalizes « The Sailor, », a rock and roll number for which her mother, Vera Trick, write the words, and Cal feminine singer, Nancy Houghton, does « I Have A Secret ».
Note : The Marblehead peninsula of Ohio was a major vacation and recreation area, dotted with summer cottages and resort hotels. Hence the name of the label, Vacation Land.
The Barons
Much more commonly found label,
One of her songs "Lonely Street Light" was recorded by Barbara Foster on the song-poem label Preview (#2473).
Singer-songwriter Helen Misel (born 1923) learned to play the guitar when she was four, and has been writing her own songs for more than 45 years.
When she was growing up in Cowgill, Mo., everyone in her family played music -- all nine kids, and her father played fiddle. Her older brother William taught her the guitar sitting on his knee.
By 16 Misel said she was playing professionally, in veteran's hospitals and in political rallies.
She was 35 when wrote her first song, for her mother, who had lost her 19-year-old son -- Misel's brother -- in the battle of Iwo Jima. The song was called "She's Some Gold Star Mother, And He's Some Mother's Son."
Misel said the song that "everybody says is my best song ever" is one called "Hello, God."
She wrote it after visiting the museum of Christian artist and Precious Moments creator Sam Butcher.
In the mid-1960s she played at DJ conventions in Nashville, three years in a row. One of those years Misel visited the Grand Old Opry, where she met offstage several famous musicians, including Gene Autry, Tex Ritter and Johnny Cash.
"He was stone drunk," Misel recalls of Cash. "They were all good people."
Misel moved to Nettleton Manor in 2001, to be near her daughter, Diane Berning. She still plays music, on her electronic keyboard and guitar.
Misel's love for music is evident in her apartment, where large black musical notes decorate the wall above her keyboard.
She's not only playing music still -- in church and at the retirement residence -- Misel still writes music. Just last Sunday she performed a new one at Bonner Springs United Methodist Church, called "He's My Friend."
Phyllis Schlomovitz was born on Jan. 9, 1917 in Rockford, Ill. to actors Kate Holland and Goldwin Patton, she was the principal harpist with the Milwaukee Symphony for 15 years. In May 1952, she wed Dr. Benjamin Schlomovitz. Widowed in 1969, she moved to Palo Alto where she pursued a solo concert career and branched into the entertainment style of harp, playing at restaurateur John Rickey's famous Dinah's Shack for 20 years...
