"Happy" Roy Baker on Miner's Lamp

 

“Happy” Roy Baker

37439 - Coal Miner’s Son (Roy Baker)
37440 - Keep The Prayer In School (Roy Baker)

Miner’s Lamp Records

Roy Baker, 45 River Dr., Ormond Beach, Fla. 32074
1976


Coal Miner’s Son

 

The Southernaires Gospel Trio

 

The Southernaires
Gospel Trio

14307 - I Know My God Is Real
14308 - Jesus Is All I Need Today
Both wr. (Inez Bass, Fred Riffe)


I Know My God Is Real

Southtone Records
3120 W. 19th., Jacksonville, Fla. 

Produced by Bud Bass

1965

The Enalpria on Moonport

The Enalpria

20999 ~ You Keep Me Hangin' On
21000 ~ Purple Haze

Moonport MNPT-100

From limestonelounge:

My name is Ted [Williams] and was a founding member and lead vocalist/guitarist with "Enalpria" in Cocoa Beach during the mid to late 60's. The other members of the group were: Lynn Maddock (Lead Guitar), Kim Holmes (Bass), Bill Ball (Drums) and Danny Rodriguez (Keyboards). We did have two other members initially (Johnny Strong (Drums) and Dennis Brickey (Keyboards) however, they left the band early in our"career" Unfortunately Lynn and Bill passed away a few years back, Kim went on to bigger and better things (Under Secretary of State during the Bush years) and Danny is an unknown.

I  went off to college in late '69 and spent some 20 years in and around Aspen, Colorado working in the resort industry and playing music in taverns, clubs, festivals, etc. 

Purple Haze (clip)

Ex-Enalpria bassist Kim Holmes

Yal Henry's White House Ten on Roxie

Yal Henry's White House Ten

CP-4659 - Sullivan's Dream
CP-4660 - Gypsy Wedding Day

Harry McGinty - Netta Morris; McGinty Music

Roxie 249
1960

Harry McGinty, who composed the music of "Gypsy Wedding Day" owned the Roxie label. Lyrics are from the pen of Netta Symes Morris, a one-time singer with the Royal Opera House in London, and Dean of the Institute of Fine Arts in Miami.

"Sullivan's Dream" is an instrumental.  The uncredited female singer on "Gypsy" is possibly Cara Stewart.

A discography of Roxie Records can be found here

Hit Parade Clandestino

HIT PARADE  CLANDESTINO

record no. 502

CP-4645 -   Lamento A La Cuba Herida
CP-4646 - Conga Del Miliciano

Two anti-Castro songs in spanish, presumably recorded in Florida.  Pressing is from December 1960

Air 5027 (song-poem EP)

CP-4549
Cara Stewart with Orchestra
Sugar

 (Walter Greenlaw-Gladys Meaux) /
 I'm So Blue

 (Walter Greenlaw-Winnefred Anderson)

CP-4550 

Sonny Marshall with Orchestra
I'll Always Love You

 (Tom Marabella)
You Want To Cry
(Charles J. Suttle)

From The Wonderful and the Obscure blog

Here, the four tracks in a zipped file

Gary Powell - Wings Of A Dove

Gary Powell

"Wings Of A Dove"

Side one (15969)

 

God Is Standing By / I Had A Talk With God / I Shady Green Pastures / In The Sweet By And By / Down By The River / We Shall Be Changed

Side two (15970)
 

Wings Of A Dove / Sweet Jesus / Jesus Be A Fence / I'll Go On With Jesus / Heartaches / I Can't Stop Loving You

Tabernacle Records #21

P.O. Box 1961
Daytona Beach, Fla.

1965

Younger brother of Don Powell, pentocostal evangelist 

 

 

David West (Tropical 214)

David West

38525 -  Where's the Love We Used to Know? 

(James M. Krol, Alison Music ASCAP)

38526 - Jean Marie.

(James M. Krol and  Ray Flory, Alison Music ASCAP)

Tropical 214

P.O. Box 2076, DeLand, Florida

Produced by Bob Quimby

Sgt. Kelly (Sand Surf & Sea)

Sgt. Kelly

32577 - Wonderful
32578 - You Made Me Do It

both wr. Kelly Kettner, Bounce Music BMI

Prod. Herb James

SAND SURF & SEA
6005 NW 7th Av.

Miami, Florida

  1974


*

Lincoln Mills on VTA

Lincoln Mills

28603 - If You Should Go

28604 - A Woman Should Listen To A Man

L.Mills, Lincoln Mills ASCAP

VTA FBS 0102

Rt. 1 Box 462
Lakewales, Fla. 33853

1971

The 2 / 3RDS on April

The 2/3RDS

19063 ~ All Cried Out

19064 ~ 2/3 Baby 

(Gene McCormick, Alison Music ASCAP

April Record Co. 101

223 S. Carolina, Daytona Beach

1967 (April?)

 

From Daytona Beach, the 2/3rds recorded this one 45 at Quimby’s studio in nearby Ormond Beach, and released it on the April label in early 1967. At the time of this recording, the band included Gene McCormick on vocals and tenor sax and organ, Phil (PJ) Jones on drums, Ralph Citrullo bass and Allen Dresser lead guitar.

“2/3 Baby” is a moody complaint with a fine chorus, written by McCormick. It was backed with a bluesy ballad, “All Cried Out” written by Pete Carr. Members of the band eventually became the Third Condition, releasing two 45s on the Sundi label in 1970, one of which got some airplay, “Monday in May” about the Kent State tragedy. (The song was bounced off the airwaves by CSN&Y’s “Ohio”).

After Gene left the band to join Jam Factory in New York, the band moved to Tallahassee to attend FSU. Later members included several who had been in another Daytona group, the Hungri I’s: Neil Haney vocals, as well as Max Eason on drums from Tallahassee. The band was named Rock Garden for a brief time (Neil Haney, Allen Dresser, Ralph Citrullo, Max Easom and Chris Drake) then became Duck (Chris Drake, Allen Dresser, Rick Levy and Max Easom – later Benny Jones replaced Rick Levy and Don Langston replaced Max Easom).

Info above from garagehangover here

Audio clip from Florida Rocks Again! every Saturday night on Surf 97.3 FM, streaming at flaglerbeachradio.com.

Linden Day on Do-It

 Linden Day

CP-2063 ~ Sugar Rock 

CP-2064 ~ No Regrets

both songs wr. Day, Threeway BMI

[date of copyright : 29 June 1959]

Do-It Records #1001

Jacksonville, Fla

1959

Rockin' Country Style website don't even have a picture of this scarce record, recently auctioned at ebay (see below). 

Auction ended 6 Dec. 2013; number of bids : 10; winning bid US $364.00

Credit : label picture is from the ebay auction; sound file is from Collector (CD 4441"Automatic Bop, Vol. 2")

Evelyn and Al Downing

Evelyn Downing Sings...

"Angel Eyes"

Featuring Al (A.J.) Downing Jazz Quintet

AJD Records

1976

 

Side 1 - 36261

Angel Eyes / Sunshine Of My Life / Rainy Day / Help Me Make It Through The Night / Bye Bye Blackbird / Satin Doll

 

Side 2 - 36262
When Sunny Gets Blue / There Will Never Be Another You / Bunny / Love Will Keep Us Together / Blue Groove

 

AJD Records 

2121 25th Street So.

St. Petersburg, Fla. 33712   

 

Recorded at Titan Sound Studio Largo, Florida

★ 

 

Evelyn Downing

Evelyn Jean Downing was born on February 13, 1950 to Alvin and Bernice Downing, the second of three daughters.

Evelyn attended Sixteenth Street Jr. High School and graduated from Dixie Hollins High School.During her high school years, her parents nurtured her gifted singing ability by featuring her vocal talents in many of her father's performances.  Her style was her own.  She was encouraged, guided and inspired by her parents and as a result of their love of jazz, they founded the Allegro Music Society, now known as the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association.  Her father served as president, her mother served as vice president and Evelyn was the first member of the association.  After graduating from high school, she studied Theatre Arts at Carnegie Tech in Philadelphia, Pa. and attended Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, Fl.   In the early 70's, Evelyn successfully began a career as a professional jazz vocalist featured with her late father, renowned jazz pianist and music educator, Alvin J. Downing.  Her most prized accomplishment was recording the album "Angel Eyes" with her father.  She performed with a variety of jazz artists in cities throughout the United States including Atlanta, Georgia, Naples, Miami, Tampa, and St Petersburg, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas, Denver, Colorado and Los Angeles, California.  Early in her career while performing in Atlanta, she was recognized as the top performing artist at Pascal's and the Clock of Fives Dinner Club located in the Regency Hotel.  She was known for her elegant wardrobe especially designed for her by the late internationally known designer Patrick Kelly. 

Alvin “Al” Joseph Downing was born in 1916 in Jacksonville, Florida.

   

Al Downing is legendary to those who remember the golden days of jazz in St. Petersburg.

 Piano talent and a desire to perpetuate jazz among young people everywhere were two qualities Al possessed from the time he was a young man in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. He formed his first band in high school, pursued music throughout his college days and organized music programs at Gibbs High School when he moved to St. Petersburg, in 1939.

Al served with the Tuskegee Airmen before leading the 613th Army Air Force Band in Tuskegee. He then moved on to other military bands in the U.S. and Japan. When he retired in 1961 as a major, Al went back to school for a Master of Music before returning to St. Petersburg. He taught first at Gibbs and then for another 20 years at St. Petersburg Junior College.

Retiring in 1983, he continued teaching privately. He was recognized as an Ambassador of Jazz by the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Foundation and named Tampa Bay’s Favorite Artist by Players Magazine. Al firmly believed in an organization to promote jazz and in 1981, he formed the Al Downing Florida Jazz Association. It merged in 1989 with the Tampa Bay Jazz Society and has existed as the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association, Inc. ever since.

Al died in 2000, but his outstanding reputation as a performer, an educator and a humanitarian carries on. To honor him, Perkins Elementary School for the Arts and International Studies dedicated its theater to his memory in 2001. In 2004, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast placed his likeness in the role models mural in their newly renovated, historic Royal Theater performing arts center.

Sources : 

• http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Evelyn-Downing/1212042372
• http://aldowningjazz.com/history.php
• http://www.jazzlandcafe.com/
• http://www.sptimes.com/News/022200/TampaBay/Al_Downing__83__jazz_.shtml
  
  

Don Powell, Pentecostal evangelist

 Don Powell

In the Garden of Gethsemane

P.O. Box 1961

Daytona Beach, Florida

AN INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE RECORDED IN

 THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

 JERUSALEN, JORDAN, 

BY REV. POWELL BY MEANS OF A 

TINY BATTERY POWERED TAPE 

RECORDER

 

 This record made expressly for Brother Powell's Television Friends

1964

The good looking Pentecostal evangelist has recorded a lot of albums, wrote some books, travelled extensively in the U.S. and in the Canada between 1968 and 1975 before coming back to Daytona Beach.

He got his start, so speaking,, in the evangelism business after a miraculous recovery who has taking place, I'm guessing, between the publication of two of his pamphlets, "Footprints of Jesus" (1956) and "Faith In The Fire" (1961).

The circumstance of the miracle was advertised in Daytona newspapers when Don Powell was here, in 1962, for a three-weeks crusade (upper-case letters are in the original ad and preserved here)  :

ONLY ETERNITY WILL TELL HOW MANY SOULS HAVE BEEN SAVED AND HEARTS HAVE BEEN BLESSED!

DON POWELL AND HIS FAMILY AFTER BEING NEAR DEATH FROM THE EXPLOSION OF A BURNING BOAT IN THE BAHAMA ISLANDS    ...  THE SWIFT HAND OF GOD TAKING ONE DAUGHTER IN THIS TRAGEDY ...  YET MIRACULOUSLY HEALING DON POWELL OF THIRD DEGREE BURNS OVER MOST OF HIS BODY   .....

THE SWIFT HAND OF GOD PUTTING FLESH WHERE MUSCLES AND SINEW HAD BEEN EATEN UP BY FLAMES   ... OVERNIGHT DESTROYING VICIOUS GANGRENE CRAWLING THROUGH DON POWELL'S BODY

THE SWIFT AND POWERFUL HAND OF GOD BRINGING COMPLETE RECOVERY ALMOST IN A MINUTE! ....SPECIALISTS SAID IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THIS MAN TO LIVE...  YET HE WAS IN THE PULPITS OF NEW YORK CHURCHES ONLY 19 DAYS LATER PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD AND BRINGING THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION AND HEALING THE LOST SOULS...

Don Powell albums discography (Rite pressings)


Miracle Groove label

1965 – Soul Of,  Miracle Groove xx  Rite #13943/13944
1967 – With The Angelic Strings   Miracle Groove  40    Rite #20155/20156
1969 – There Is Room At The Cross For You,     Miracle Groove 41    Rite #23571/23772 
1970 – Country Gospel Campmeeting Style   Miracle Groove 46   Rite #26835/26836 (Indiana, PA)
1972 – Very Best Of Don Powell   Miracle Groove  xx  Rite #29007/29008
1973 – Beyond The Sunset    Miracle Groove xx  Rite #30795/30796    (Don & Sandra Powell)
1973 – Sunday Morning At Our House   Miracle Groove xx  Rite #31905/31906

no details

? – Fill My Cup      Miracle Groove
? – Gentle Ever Sweet   Miracle Groove   (Don Powell And Sandr)
? – My Lord Is Coming Back Again 
? – Praise Ye The Lord
? – Where The Roses Never Fade
? – Revival Tabernacle in Daytona Beach, FL.    
? – It's Music Time         Tabernacle 13014 (Rite?)
    
   

 Sample from the Beyond The Sunset  LP


Note : there is another gospel singer named Don Powell, married to Anne, who has recorded country music in the past (on Country Picnic Records)

Dick Quinn

 Dick Quinn

27251- Along Came Jones (parody & arr. - R. Quinn)
27252 - Down on the Farm ((R.C. Zinn)

Ka-Dee Records

Produced by Dick Quinn

1970

Dick Quinn started his musician career in 1951, as a Rochester, N.Y. kid who wanted to play country music.  But living in Rochester at a time when country western music was not as established as it iwas later, Quinn had to be content to play what he could - in this case, standards learned from the older musicians in his hometown.  "There were probably only about five guitar players in the whole town of Rochester at that time", said Quinn.

Shortly after his marriage to Kathy in 1970 the Quinns moved to Florida, where the Dick Quinn Show entertained the crowds of various lounges and clubs.  

St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 22 1971 : 

Leisure Lounge Swings with Dick Quinn Show entertainment is in the capable hands of the Dick Quinn Show.  These are four talented musicians whose efforts add up to the true Nashville sound.  You can hear their country and Western music and comedy nightly. There will be continuous entertainment on New Year's Eve, with the Dick Quinn Show plus exotic dancer Gina Romano, "The Italian Bomb.".

sample

39823 - If That Ain't Country (D.A. Coe)

Before Produced By Dick Quinn & Darrell Puckett 

Background Vocals Sher Dolon -  Nancy Michaud - Robert Keyth Dickerson

39824 - She Gave Her Heart To Jethro (Tom T. Hall)
After Produced By Dick Quinn & Darrell Puckett

    Dead Frog DP 2121

Dead Frog Records

4421 46th St. N. St. Petersburg, Florida 33714

Engineered & Mixed By Darrell Puckett At J.U.B. Studio Largo, Florida

1978

In 1978, he take residency at the Save Inn Motor Lodge Squirrel Cage Lounge (Gulf Beach, Florida)  where "his act contained about as much in the way of jokes and ribald stories as music.   "

Dick : "I like playing the Squirrel Cage.  It's a nice place (with no cover or minimum) and they serve the best drinks in town. Get enough drinks in you, and you might even like the guitar player"

Lee Hazen & Rana Leggett on Tropical

 Lee Hazen

 12061 ~ Don't Known A Thing About Money

Bishop-Way, Alison Music ASCAP

Tropical 108

1964

Lee Hazen : 

My hobby was making sound on sound recordings in a method similar to Les Paul's - two recorders bouncing back and forth adding parts to make up a complete recording.   I started doing that for fun in l958 using a Berlant Concertone series 30 full track recorder and a borrowed Ampex A 112 1/2 track recorder that belonged to Ted Merthe's dad in Daytona Beach.

I made many recordings with Ted our Senior year at Seabreeze High - 58-59 and some of my recordings were heard by Bob Quimby at the National Songwriter's Guild.   Bob offered me a job singing custom demos.   I remember the first one I sang called "LIttle Jenney" and will never forget the melody.   I also played guitar and bass on the demos in an assembly line fashion.   Bob played piano, I played guitar and the vocalist sang the tune.   We would typically cut 15 songs in an afternoon.   Later, we would play back that tape and overdub - Bob playing a snare drum and cymbol and me playing my Fender Bass VI 6 string bass guitar. 

Bob had different names for groups according to the type of song we were demoing.  The Surftones was
Chuck Conlon, Marshall "Chuggy" Letter, and myself.   The vocal sound was pretty tight and the Surftone demos are memorable. But NOT anything I sang as a solo artist. Anything for a buck ! I got $2 per part I played and $2.50 per song I sang, so if I sang lead AND background, I could make up to $9 a song !

Leaving Bob Quimby, he spent one year at the Criteria Studios,   Next, he handled the recording and the mastering department at King Records in 1966 where he recorded Hank Ballard, James Brown, Freddie King, Stanley Brothers, The Casinos, 2 of Clubs and many others.

Next, he was in Nashville, working at Glenn Snoddy's Woodland Sound Studios  in Nashville.   And, finally, Lee opened his own studio, the "Studio by the Pond" at his home by Old Hickory Lake near Hendersonville, TN. 


 

Rana Leggett

12062 ~ One More Lesson

Bishop-Palenske, Alison Music ASCAP

Tropical 108

1964

Rana/Rayna Leggett

Thanks to Lee Hazen who was then working at the King Records studios,  Rana/Rayna Leggett was signed in 1966 to the Cincinnati label.   King issued only one record by her : "Let The Little Girl Love / Now The Shoe Is On The Other Foot ". 

"Carellen recording star" Rayna described as a "Southern Belle, with an extremely great talent in the vocalist department" was featured in "Daytona Bech Weekend", a teen beach party movie from 1966 (starring Del Shannon).

She sings two songs in the movie : "Hopeleslly" and "You're the Boy for Me".

The Sensational Stereos At the Martinique

The Sensational Stereos
Vocals by Tommy Knight

11901 – Memphis - I Go Crazy - Try Me

11902 –Good Lovin' - Bewildered -Lost Someone

Martinique Nite Club Presents
EP 17

Recorded live Easter 1964
Daytona Beach, Fla.
Produced by Bill Sauls

1964

Lee Hazen :

Back in the early-mid 60's I used to carry my Ampex 960 2 track recorder around to clubs and record groups playing live.

I [...] have great recordings of "The Stereos" at the Martinique in Daytona with Tommy Knight singing a James Brown style show one night. Jim Matherly played lead guitar .

Bill Sauls a.k.a. Bill "Sweet William" Saul

Bill Hileman, Stereos drummer :

In 1964, [I] was drafted by a hot local band called, “Sweet William & The Stereos.” And wouldn’t you know it? They were from the same high school Bill attended in Knoxville! They played Florida, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., for years, including a 4-month stint in 1965 which Duane Allman was their fill-in guitarist. Later, Duane went on and formed a band called ‘The Allman Joys,’ with his brother, Gregg, and a drummer which Bill had personally tutored. The Joys improved enough by Spring Break that year that they were able to play during Sweet William’s musical breaks.

Shortly thereafter, Sweet William started playing back-up band to the main attractions at the Martinique in Daytona including Dee Dee Sharp, Lou Christy, Sam & Dave, Bo Diddley, Del Shannon, Jackie Wilson, The Marvelettes, The Angels, Ray Stevens and The Dovells.

In 1966, Sweet William recorded their first album at R.C.A. Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Their first single made it to 123rd on the Billboard charts without any promotional backing. The band’s success enabled them to open for the Rolling Stones and a Ray Charles sound-alike “as of yet unknown” Ronnie Millsap in Knoxville, and also, for Roy Clark at Chilhowee Park.

Bluegrass mandolinist Sam Bush :

Now, looking back, I'd probably be scared of a lot of the people we were hanging out with. Right down the street was a house band called Sweet William & The Stereos. Sweet William was a really big guy. They did R & B and rock & roll of the day and there were topless dancers there. Basically, the only people down there in those days were rock bands, strippers and hookers! (laughs)

★

Tommy Knight

Probably not a regular member of The Stereos, from Knoxville, Tennessee. The vocalist here came from New-York and relocated to Florida.

I found several mentions of Tommy Knight, soul and RnB singer on the internet. Not sure if all are refering to the same Tommy Knight.

★

In 1961, came two Kim productions, one on the Gold Eagle label (That's All I Ask / There's No Pain ) and the other on Atlantic's subsidiary Atco (It's Real / Say You Do).

In 1964, there was a release on San Francisco's Emerson label in 1964 (Yes Yes Go On / Ha Ha Ha And Oh Oh Oh)

Mid sixties? : two acetates have surfaced : Don’t Bring Back Those Memories sent to Eddie Singleton's Shrine Records, a Washington D.C. label and "Baby My Love" (Abtone studios recording).

Tommy Knight was certainly one of the artists who recorded under aliases in the Ed Chalpin's Studio 76 in New-York. One of these aliases was Slim Pikins.

Mike Rashkow, who worked there, has thus described the Ed Chalpin enterprise :

When I worked at Studio 76 [Ed Chaplin] business was something I had never heard about, nor knew existed. It was the reason he had a studio and the reason we had 10 track, as bad as it was. Basically, the business was making quick, down and dirty (and I would guess unlicensed) covers of bulleted chart movers, and then leasing them out to labels in foreign countries. He had ongoing business relationships with a group of labels all over the world. These independents, with which he regularly did business, would get the covers on the street before any major label even realized they had a hit or could get someone in their legal department to draw up a contract.

You can hear "Tighten up" HERE. (released on the german Vogue label in 1968 and probably on other labels).

★

In 1981, Tommy Knight and the Mighty Knights were the featured artists on the Babette Bardot Revue at the Kings Inn Motel in Daytona Beach.

Babette Bardot (born 1940) is the stage name of a buxom Swedish actress (and burlesque dancer) who appeared in Russ Meyer's films, including Common Law Cabin and Mondo Topless.

★

Wendell Holmes (The Holmes Brothers) :

"We used to work with Tommy Knight, the band was called Tommy Knight and the Mighty Knights, and we would gig mostly in Harlem and at private dances," said Wendell Holmes. "We used to play at a bunch of different clubs in the 1960's. There was a lot of night life in Harlem and it was exciting. We played more soul stuff and top 10 than straight-up blues, even though I'd rather play blues and gospel, but that wasn't really up to us. But all that scene just vanished.

★

Guitarist Wild Jimmy Spruill, tired of session work, formed an East Coast nightclub trio in the mid-sixties, with singer Tommy Knight and drummer Popsy Dixon

★

Finally, mentions of a Tommy Knight Trio in some New-York venues are made in seventies newspapers.




.

Bobby Vernon (Air 5019)

Bobby Vernon with Orchestra

CP-3977 – Hey, Little Baby!
(Alwin Krugler, Active BMI)
sample

CP-3978 - Please Don't Tell
( )
sample

Air Records 5019

Produced by Rite Records
("produced by" here meaning probably "pressed by")

1960

Label picture and audio samples : eBay http://myworld.ebay.com/chriscarnahan2

Air Records was located at 3170 SW 8th St., Miami Florida, address of the Silver Court Trailer Park which was once the winter camp for the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Producer and songwriter Jack A. Curry, owner of Air Records, had also other interests outside the "music" world, showing a big concern for the well-being of other people :

In 1953, he wrote "Vitamins cured my bothersome ailments; or, Allergy, no such".

In the mid-sixties he copyrighted two revolutionary inventions :

• The can't slip eyeglass temple, stem, clips.
• The Clip-on rear view eyeglass mirror.

Air Records links :

http://www.songpoemmusic.com/labels/air.htm

http://www.45rpmrecords.com/ST/Air.php

http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/label.php?key=28




.

Bobby Williams on Tropical

Bobby Williams & His Mar Kings

23039 ~ Darling, Here Is My Heart
23040 ~ All The Time

Both sides written by Bobby Williams and published by Alison ASCAP

Tropical 130

Deland, Florida

Hear and/or download both sides

Label pictures and sound file above are from a current ebay auction which will be ended very soon. A near mint copy has been sold for the amazing sum of US $ 1575 in November 2010 (see popsike).

This is likely the very first record of Florida's "Soul Godfather #2, the superfunky James Brown clone Bobby Williams."

Both sides were re-issued on vinyl (on a 3 seven-inches set) by Jazzman Records of London, U.K. in 2008 :

[The] album showcases Bobby Williams & the Mar-Kings with their finest and funkiest moments and tells the story of the singer from his impoverished days as a child growing up in Georgia to the sell-out concerts given across the country. The pictures and extensive, original notes tell his story as told by the people who knew him best - his friends, family and fellow band members, and we have put his best songs onto this 3 x 45 7" box set.

The Jazzman reissue is probably the only way to found biographical information on Bobby Williams. Internet research has revealed the Bobby Williams popularity among soul and funk records collectors but ended up at only vague information. Born in Washington D.C., he died in the nineties...

Bobby released singles and 3 LPs for labels such as Duplex ('73) , Nor-Mar (73) , MTVH (74) Rew (74), R&R (74-76) ... His last single was for North Carolina's label "Nickelodeon" in mid 80s.

The MTVH, ReW and R&R family of labels, based in Chicago has attracted the curiosity of Kris Holmes in the course of his search for the mysterious Reginald Hines and his musical empire first based in Greensville, Mississippi.


Update : auction ended at US$ 1,695

.

The Craftsmen (Tropical 110)

The Craftsmen

13403 - Today In Omaha (Albert E. Bly, Alison ASCAP)
13404 - Diddy Wah Doo (Albert E. Bly, Alison ASCAP)

Tropical 110

1964

Song-Poem record. A made up studio band, The Crafstmen, is also credited on the following Tropical release (#111) : "My Honey / Big Foot Wallace", in all likehood also pressed by Rite Records.

Albert Earl Bly name is also found on both sides of Film City 1070. (Rod Rogers, 1964) : "Draft Board" b/w "Save A Little Lovin' For Me".

Evidence of Albert Bly's song writing urge is found as early as 1943, year of the copyright of one of his songs "I Picked Some Oranges in California", possibly an autobiographic song, as he was then located in Santa Rosa, California!


.