Showing posts with label Charleston WV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charleston WV. Show all posts

Friday, March 13, 2020

The Minister and the Nuns


The Minister and the Nuns
(Rev. David Wayne Smith and the Congregation
of the Missionaries of Jesus the Crucified).

When The Heart Sings

Fé Records 1003

Side 1 [18215]

A Good Friendship
Don't Let Evil Win Out Over You
Suffering
Mist
Read The Gospel
Hello! Hi There!

Side 2 [18216]

Yet The Sun Continues To Shine
A Little Bit Of Perfume
True Happiness
Life, Why're You Running
Your Smile

(1966)

All selections written by Smith and Gomez copyrighted in Brazil


This record was made in Brazil by a group of six Brazilian Roman Catholic Nuns and an American Protestant Missionary.  The Rev. David Wayne Smith, a minister of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., who is interested in developing Christian leadership in Brazil, has been working there since 1963. Wayne is a former minister of South Charleston.

Musical arrangements : Maestro Pachequinho; Music and portuguese words : Sister Irene Gomez MJC, solo and duets : sister M. Auxiliadora Chaib, Sister Glaucia Balteriro MJC and the Rev. David Wayne Smith.  Producer Hugh McPherson

To purchase this record in the United States : Fé Records 1465 Bridge Road Charleston, West Virginia 25314

There was a Brazilian edition of this record.



 

 

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Iris Bell with The Iris Bell Trio (Bell Enterprises)



Iris Bell with The Iris Bell Trio


9503 - This Is My West Virginia
(West Virginia's Only Official Centennial Song)

9504 - My West Virginia

Bell Enterprises Records
901 Main Street
Charleston, WV

1963



Iris Bell obituary
(from the Charleston Daily Mail (Friday May 2, 2008) :

As a teenager, she heard Sarah Vaughan and fell in love with jazz. She taught herself to play jazz piano and learned songs by listening to the radio and scribbling lyrics in shorthand. Playing by ear, she built a repertoire of more than 7,000 pieces.

In 1956, at age 22, she formed the Iris Bell Trio. The only female bandleader in the area, she entertained regularly at the Press Club, Army Navy Club, Owl's Club and Charleston Athletic Club.
"We would play anywhere, work anytime, and got some good engagements," she said in a 1977 newspaper story. "Most of the dates were in bootleg clubs, but I was only raided once."

She wrote more than 20 songs, including one that was released on the flip side of a Paul Anka recording. In 1963, she wrote "This Is My West Virginia," the official West Virginia Centennial song adopted by the Legislature as a state song.


In the late 1960s, she took her trio on the road and settled for seven years in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she headlined at the Rubyiat Supper Club.

In 1975, she performed at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago, a coveted booking for jazz musicians. That summer, she appeared at the National Women's Music Festival with Melissa Manchester.
In 1977, she returned to Charleston. Battling depression triggered by her mother's death, she limited appearances for many years to the annual West Virginia Jazz Festival at the Science and Culture Center.

She revived her career in the 1990s and played frequently at the Fifth Quarter. In later years, beset with worsening health problems, she remained a virtual recluse.
She died in Buckhannon, where she moved recently to be near her youngest daughter.

West Virginia has three State songs (By Richard Ramella) :

“The West Virginia Hills,” with words by Ellen Ruddell King and music and chorus by Henry Everett Engle, was completed in 1885 in Gilmer County.

West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home” appeared in 1947 and was composed by Col. Julian G. Hearne, Jr., a Wheeling native, attorney, and career military officer.

The third song, “This Is My West Virginia,” was written by Charleston musician and performer Iris Bell in 1962.

Each of these three songs had received an official designation from the State Legislature over the years. “West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home” was declared the first official state song in 1947. In 1961, an edited and approved version of “The West Virginia Hills” was also made an official state song. In 1962, “This Is My West Virginia” was named the official Centennial Song of West Virginia. Understandably, this resulted in considerable confusion.

Lyrics of the three songs can be found HERE.



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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Cousin Johnny Presents The Prophets of Echo



Cousin Johnny
Presents
The Prophets of Echo

11153
Is It Well Wth You Soul (Virgil O. Stamps)
Lonely River (Wm. Cortez Blaylock)

11154
Time Has Made A Change (Haskins Frye)
It Will Be Wondervful Just To Be There (Eugene Whitt)


"Gospel Quartet, acapella"; unlisted HERE or HERE.

"Cousin Johnny" is almost likely Cousin Johnny Simpson who worked at WPLH in Huntington and WTCR . Nothing is known about the Prophets of Echo.



*

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Mary Hankins With The Tiki-Turbans



Mary Hankins With The Tiki-Turbans
12451 – The Way Of Love

Mary Hankins /Jimmy Taylor With The Tiki-Turbans
12452 – Ants In My Pants

Continental Promotions
Charleston W. Va.



Curtis Price remembers :

« My dad […] was a musician, so obviously I became involved with music real early. He was a piano player, so I played piano with him for years. Later, I switched to guitar. My grandmother bought me my first guitar. It was a Christmas present, and she passed away on Christmas Day. That guitar was always very special to me.

"By junior high, I was playing with a group called the Tiki Turbans. There was a club called the Man Tiki on the Boulevard, a college hangout. We played there three or four nights a week.


"The Way Of Love" has been compiled on CD (The Kiddie Sound, volume 13), but wrongly credited to Jimmy Taylor. The singer is Mary Hankins.