Joey Welz on Bat

Joey Welz And His Rock-A-Billy Piano

CP-2356 - Boppin' The Stroll

(Joey Welz, Gil Music Corp.)

CP-2357 - Shore Party

BAT 100

A Fly By Night Recording

BAT Records
2203 Maryland Ave.,Baltimore 18, MD.

[October 1959]

First issued record of the self-proclaimed “Boogie Woogie King of Rock n' Roll”. 

Joseph Wallace Welzant was born in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland.  Welz has written over 1000 published songs, recorded over 35 vinyl albums, 75 singles and 60 CDs.   

Official website

Joey Welz, Louis Hinkle, Charles Shriner

Joey Welz: 

I first started the band business of making Baltimore our stomping ground for this new type of music. We were the first rock & roll band in Baltimore and actually our roots were rockabilly. The group was called the Jayrockers with Sam Cataldie on drums, and Jimmy Staggs on guitar, myself on piano and we had a bassplayer by the name of Greggard and later replaced by a slapping bassman by the name of Flirby. The Jayrockers made their first recordings in Baltimore in 1955 "The Jitterbug Rock", "I'm Lonesome" and "You're The One".  The way that this worked was that I figured if I could get a group togehter I could open for Bill Haley and get to know the band and consequently that's what happened.   

In 1957, Joey formed a new band known as the Rock-A-Billies. The line up featured: Lou Hinkle on drums, Charlie Shirner on lead guitar and Flurry (or Flirby?) on stand up bass. By this time, Joey was using the Monumental Studios in Baltimore, and got a more professional sound with Will Taylor at the controls as engineer.

Quite of interest is a recent post on the tapwrecks blog titled :  Boy With A Dream (and some scissors and glue) .... The Real Joey Welz (Baltimore 1950s-70s / Lancaster 1980s-present) . Excerpt :

For years, Joey has promoted his act out of his house and has his own rock'n'roll museum. He cuts and pastes his face into photos of famous musicians including the Comets and the Beatles for his press kits. Many of his original songs from the 50s and 60s have his more recent Roland keyboard and drum machine inexplicably overdubbed, so it's really hard to know what to make of the "Joey Welz Legend."