Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Lower Oisch Philharmonic on Krieger


The Lower Oisch Philharmonic

25195 - Magic Rag Rag - Part I
25196 - Magic Rag Rag - Part II

Wr Chuck Keith
Arranged by Ron Jarvis

Produced by Tom Krieger

1969

Folk protest
From Akron, Ohio ?


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Chuck Keith is possibly Charles Keith - songwriter, singer, leader of the Hi-Fi's.



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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Nancy Vee on Blue Diamond


Nancy Vee


37357 - My White Christmas Has Turned Blue
(Nancy Valykeo, JoCher Music Co. BMI,

37358 - Country Christmas Rock.

Blue Diamond 766

Canonsburg, Pa. - Nashville, Tenn.

Produced by Joe Diamond

1976

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Currently offered at eBay HERE (auction has sound clip). Searching Google with "Blue Diamond" and "Nancy Vee" gives unfortunately (?) much X-rated links as results, Nancy Vee being also apparently the name of some porn star of today. Talk about data pollution...

Joe Diamond had a recording studio in Canonsburg, Pa. He had also a country rock band and recorded himself for his own label. The online BMI database gives the name of Joe Di Pippa as the contact of JoCher Music Co. and this is almost certainly the real name of Joe Diamond.



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Monday, November 28, 2011

Jay Hammond and the D-J’s on Alvic


Jay Hammond and the D-J’s

9455 – Same Old Crowd
(Hammond-Roy Wariner-Jimmy Wariner)

9456 – D-J Twist
(Burchett-Collins, Fayette BMI)

Alvic Records
Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Lefty Combs, producer

1963



From the book "Grassroots Music In The Upper Cumberland" by William Lynwood Montell ; University Of Tennessee Press, Knoxville (2006 ) :

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.

Note 1 : One of his song, "I'm An Ape", issued on his own Wheelhoss label has been recently compiled on CD (I Am An Ape, White Trash Rockers).

Note 2 : The Jay Hammond of Jay Hammond & Rhythm Kings ("I'll Be Your Fool/ She's My Girl") on the Fortune Records HI-Q subsidiary (#5015, 1960) is a different artist. " I'll Be Your Fool" can be heard on YouTube.


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Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Rockin' Flames on Jan


The Rockin' Flames

CP-2931 - Cricket
CP-2932 - Shim Sham

Jan 14160

Marshall, Missouri

1960

A pair of instrumentals



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The Brotherhood Singers From Columbia S.C.



The Brotherhood Singers From Columbia S.C.

38359 – Going Back With Jesus
38360 - Time

David Mitchell Custom Recording
Columbia S.C.

1977

Black Gospel
Arr. Deacon Alexander Middleton (left picture)

Sample



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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Earrell Yarns on Valerie




Earrell Yarns

16785 – I’m Going To Tell The Truth
16786 – Don’t Leave Me

Valerie 2004

1966

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(Valerie Records, a subsidiary of Band Box Records)

Label scans credit : Derik
Posted by Derik at his blog Some Local Loser (July 2, 2011)



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Tropical 106



Betty Jayne

9193 ~ In The Darkness

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Charles Vickers

9194 ~ Come On, Baby


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Tropical Records #106

wr Valenti- Philipp, Alison Music Co., ASCAP

1962



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The Invalids on Crutch !


The Invalids

14031 ~ The Buzzard
(wr. T.Meyers)

14032 ~ I Love This Girl

Crutch Records

Rite account 428 : same as Adair, Adco, Cincy...

Cincinnati garage from early 1965


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Sunday, November 13, 2011

"Happy" Hal Burns on Gold Arrow



"Happy" Hal Burns
With The Rhythm Masters

10711 – The Stamp Song
10712 - Somebody Else (Is Loving You)

Gold Arrow GAR-100
Gold Arrow Enterprises Inc.
San Antonio, Texas

Copyright 1963

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Left : Happy Hal Burns
(From "Birmingham Broadcasting", book by Tim Hollis)

Hal Byrnes became better known as Hal Burns. Happy Hal Burns. A longtime country music performer mostly active in Memphis and Birmingham - very popular regionally.

"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."


Happy Hal died in 2000.


Happy Hal Burns singing You'll Never Find Another Daddy Like Me on the Country Boy Eddie Show 1987


Sources :

Alabama Music Office,
mackari (Corsicana, Texas)
Tim Hollis : "Birmingham Broadcasting" (book)



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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Vacation Land Records


Ralph Clifford
Cal Warmington Orchestra

CP-1805 - I've Always Dreamed Of A Dream Girl
CP-1806 - Peaches And Cream

Vacation Land 1

Nancy Houghton /Cal Warmington Orchestra
CP-1807 - I Have A Secret

Rose Trick/ Cal Warmington Orchestra
CP-1808 - The Sailor

Vacation Land 2

1959


You can hear the second release HERE (at the Talisman Records store)
Description : Rose Trick : "Shirley Temple Sound"

One of the two sides of each record ("I've Always Dreamed Of A Dream Girl" and "I Have A Secret") were later re-issued on Perry label, another label also operated by Howard L. Lafer at the same Port Clinton address.

The formation of the new record company was announced by The Toledo Blade on July 15, 1959 :

Howard 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.

Carroll (Cal) Warmington died in Tucson, Arizona in 1978. He was 70. A trumpet player, he led the Cal Warmington Revelers band in the Toledo area from 1950 to 1965. He also, in the same time, worked in the naval procurement department of the U.S. Department of Defense for 20 years, retiring in 1968.




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The Owens Family (Circle D 3)


The Owens Family With The Blue Valley Boys

10835 - Dreaming On A Dream Cloud
Vocal Dave And Alida Owens

10836 - Don't Pretend
Vocal Dave Owens And His Twin Sisters (Alida & Nila)

Circle “D” Records # 3

Both songs written by Dave Owens and published by Cumberland Music, BMI Speedwell, Tenn.

Circle "D" Records discography



Dave W. Owens (1920-2009)

Dave Owens age 89 of Speedwell, TN., was born May 27, 1920 and passed away December 25, 2009 at the UT Hospital in Knoxville, TN. He was of Baptist Faith and honorably served his country in the U.S. Army during WWII from 1942-1945.



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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Eliot Streeper on Cobalt


Eliot Streeper
Accompanied by "The Hereafter"

21467 - Through A Broken Shred Of Time (Streeper) Scovel Music
21468 - The Sunrise Prince (Streeper – Libert) Scovel Music

Produced by Eliot Streeper

Cobalt Records

Rite account #1918

[1968]

"Folk"

Pic & description : bluetiffkyle (ebay, Tecumseh, Oklahoma)



The A-side has been played on April 16, 2008 by Tony Coulter on his WFMU show (Golden Fish and Guitar)



Through A Broken Shred Of Time



This is certainly Eliot Richard Streeper from Santa Fe, New Mexico. But the various sources I've found on the Net doesn't mention his musical past.

Eliot Streeper was born January 18, 1946 to Dr. Richard B. Streeper and Katherine W. Streeper. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack September 24, 2005. He was 59. Eliot was born in San Antonio, Texas, and as with many war-time children, Eliot moved often with his family. They settled in Santa Fe in 1959. Eliot loved Santa Fe's architecture, landscape, history and curio shops and traded in coins … [obit, The Santa Fe New Mexican, October 14, 2005 ]

He also presided the Santa Fe Basin Water Association. See The Sante Fe Reporter HERE.



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Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Barons on Key

The Barons

CP-2555 ~ Jay Walk
(Johnny Cox)

CP-2556 ~ If You Want A Little Lovin'
(Taylor-Christopher-Taylor)

Both sides published by Lock Publishing (BMI)

A Cox-Taylor production

Key Records #1001
Greenville, S.C.
A division of Mojay Enterprises Inc.

[Billboard rev., December 7, 1959]



Much more commonly found label,
which is almost certainly a second pressing
(not Rite?)


Their first record. They also had records on the Midnite label, another imprint of Mojay enterprises. One was leased to V-Tone Records.

Members included Henry L. Taylor (1923-2010) , Milton H. Taylor and Johnny Cox.

At 13, Johnny Cox cut his first record with the Barons. It was called “Jaywalk”, a song he wrote and played on his saxophone. He was recruited by a band called the “Sparkletones”. The group had a hit called “Black Slacks” and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Johnny toured with them in Canada, playing sax, at the age of 14. Upon his return home, his 6-year old sister kissed his hand over and over because it was the hand that shook the hands of Ricky Nelson, Fabian, and Paul Anka!!!

Later he was a member of The Jays, The Swingin’ Medallions, Sassy, Rhythm Brothers, Griff & Johnny, The Out-of-Towners Band, and many more.




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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Helen Misel on Mounds


Helen Misel

CP-2829 - I Waited A Lifetime For You
CP-2830 - Won't You Take Me Back

Vocal & guitar

Both wr Helen Misel-Walter Coleman, Lee Ice Music Co. (BMI)

Mounds Records #100

Mounds, Oklahoma

[December 1959]




From the (edited) archive of The Chieftain (June 13, 2007) Bonner Springs, Kansas


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."

One of her songs "Lonely Street Light" was recorded by Barbara Foster on the song-poem label Preview (#2473).




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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Wilbert Lombard and the Kartels on Deb


Wilbert Lombard and the Kartels

CP-6065 - That's How We'll Be

CP-6066 - Lovely, Wonderful, Beautiful

Deb Records #1002

Nashville, Tenn. or Beaumont, Texas ?

1961

Black vocal group


Both songs written by Wilbert Lombard and published by Nash-Beau Music Co. BMI.

Another release on the same label is Jim Caraway and Jumpin' Jacks listed in the Rockin' Country Style website (unknown location). Publisher of "Cry Little Boy" is also Nash-Beau Music.

Nash-Beau Music was formed by Bill Hall and Jack Clement who had worked together in the business since 1959. They owned also the Big Bopper, Dixieanna and Tracie companies, and in 1962 formed the Hall-Clement Publishing.

William G. (Bill) Hall (1929-1983) achieved success as a music producer, promoter and publisher. Born in Brookhaven, Bell County, Texas (which is now located on the Fort Hood Army Reservation) in 1929, Hall moved to Beaumont with his family as a child and graduated from South Park High School and Lamar State College of Technology. He began his music career in Beaumont, opening a recording studio and working as a booking agent for such artists as George Jones and Benny Barnes, eventually becoming Jones' manager. Hall also had hits with J.P. Richardson's "Chantilly Lace" in 1958 and Johnny Preston's "Running Bear" in 1960. Later, he joined with Sun Records engineer Jack Clement, to form the Gulf Coast Recording Company,
...



An undocumented Jack Clement and/or Bill Hall production ?


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Phyllis Schlomovitz - Nostalgic Harp


Phyllis Schlomovitz
LP Nostalgic Harp- Cities Of Dreams

Jupiter Records
(Rite #33065/6)

Palo Alto, Ca.

I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Around The World. Lara's Theme From Dr. Zhivago, Never On Sunday, Autumn Leaves
I'll Wait For You (From Umbrellas Of Cherbourg)
It Must Be Him. Come Back To Sorrento
Arrevederci Roma
Summertime In Venice. Andalucia, Vienna City Of Dreams
Fasscination
Two Hearts Beat In Three Quarter Time. Aufwiedersehn
With Strains Of The Rosenkavalier

1974

Lounge harpist


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...

She died in 2003 (Obit)

Phyllis Schlomovitz plays Debussy's Clair de Lune.



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