Updates

• Added info on Jimmy Ford, thanks to Volker Houghton. • Extended and corrected the post on Happy Harold Thaxton (long overdue), thanks to everyone who sent in memories and information! • Added information to the Jim Murray post, provided by Mike Doyle, Dennis Rogers, and Marty Scarbrough. • Expanded the information on Charlie Dial found in the Little Shoe post.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Cindy Price on Delta

 Cindy Price - Our Love Is Like Sunshine (Delta DR-1003)

Judging from the sound of this record, it was recorded and released in the 1970s. I wasn't able to turn up any info on Cindy Price, unfortunately, but the background band is credited as "Marianna Jamboree Band." It is likely this was the house band of the "Arkansas Jamboree" in Marianna, Arkansas, a live stage show that also included rockabilly musician Jimmy Evans and his daughter Debbie for years. Country music singer Truman Lankford was also part of that show for five years. The Arkansas Jamboree was produced partially by Jack Richard Northrup and also released a LP (see here). It is neither to be confused with the "Arkansas Jamboree Barndance" (later renamed "Barnyard Frolic"), which aired over KLRA from 1946 until 1960 in Little Rock, nor with the 1980s Arkansas Jamboree in Hot Springs.

Delta Records was one of the labels Dan Craft was operating out of his recording studio in West Memphis, Arkansas, which is located only 50 miles northeast of Marianna. Songwriter Harold F. "Buddy" Clements registered six different songs with BMI. Apart from that, he left no info behind. The publishing firm Jamdan also published compositions by Sonny Blake, who also recorded for Dan Craft.

Read more:

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Bob Taylor on Express

Bob Taylor, the Singing Truckdriver - Timber Falling (Express ES 1)

The great quantity of artists with the name "Bob Taylor" in the music business makes it hard to tell who is who. This one, and this is pretty sure, was a local Memphis artist. However, several persons with this name appeared over the years in the Memphis music scene and it is again difficult to tell them apart (if this is necessary at all).


Today's Bob Taylor was born Robert R. Taylor and recorded at least five records for the Express label (likely his own imprint), another two for Gene Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee Records and one for Style Wooten's Tentay custom label.


In 1963 and 1965, Taylor had two releases respectively on Cotton Town Jubilee in West Memphis. These discs were his debut recordings. Taylor possibly appeared on Gene Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee show as well. Through Williams, Taylor made the connection with Style Wooten, who made his first steps in the recording production business at that time. In 1965, Taylor recorded for Wooten's Tentay label "After the Trial" b/w "Like a Crazy Fool" (both Rexclan Publ.). This is what we know for sure.

The chronology of Taylor's Express singles is not clear. The first one was probably the sentimental "Timber Falling" b/w "It's All Over Now," which was produced by Thomas Wayne at a Nashville studio in 1969. The disc was pressed by Wayne Raney's Rimrock plant in Concord, Arkansas. The record label credits Taylor as "The Singing Truck Driver" and shows a truck as the label's logo. It is obvious Taylor held a day job as a truck driver. 

Jimmy Hunsucker, a country music singer, accompanied Taylor to Nashville to cut "Timber Falling," which was based on a true story, as Taylor reinforced several times to Hunsucker. Aside from Thomas Wayne, A&R man Scotty Moore was also present as well as musicians D.J. Fontana on drums and Weldon Myrick on steel guitar to back up taylor. The vocal group of the then newly aired TV show "Hee Haw" provided background vocals. Taylor wanted the song to be perfect and they recorded it over and over again that day. On the same session, Hunsucker recorded "I Feel a Good One Coming Up" and "Lonely World," which was released on Style Wooten's Camaro label shortly afterwards (Camaro #3392, 1969).

Four more discs on Express followed. Publishing was credited to Rexclan Publishing Company, which has 22 compositions listed by BMI, the majority of them by Bob Taylor. It can be assumed Express as well as Rexclan were both Taylor's own companies.

There was also a Bob Taylor who played drums with Narvel Felts in the 1950s and another one who became president of the Memphis Federation of Musicians. Murray Nash also recorded a singer named Bob Taylor on his Do-Ra-Me label in 1963. All three could be the same Bob Taylor from Memphis, which has to be proofed yet.

Discography

Express ES 1: Bob Taylor, the Singing Truckdriver -  Timber Falling / It's All Over Now
Express ES 2: Bob Taylor - Ode to Jimmy Hoffa / Our Country Has Had It
Express 711: Bob Taylor and the Mystics - Love That Woman / Like I Want to Be Loved (1962)
Express 713: Bob Taylor - Don't Accuse Me / Blue Lights
Express 714: Bob Taylor - Hall of Fame / You'll Never Want for Love 
Cotton Town Jubilee 107: Bob Taylor - If I Had Back What I Used to Have / Walking the Street (1963)
Cotton Town Jubilee 114: Bob Taylor - Did You Miss Me / You've Gone and Broke My Heart (1964)
Tentay 45-1041: Bob Taylor - After the Trial / Like a Crazy Fool (1965)

Thanks to Bayou Bum and Jimmy Hunsucker

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Stan Kesler's Crystal label

Stan Kesler's Crystal label has been overshadowed by his other efforts in Memphis and popular American music history. Crystal marked Kesler's first steps as an independent record producer and although it was only a rather short-lived venture, it was home to a handful of noteworthy singles, some of them enjoy cult status among rockabilly collectors.

Stanley Augustus Kesler was born on August 11, 1928, in Abbeville, Mississippi. It became evident in his early years that Kesler was a talented musician, as he learned to play mandolin and guitar as a child. He joined the US Marines in the 1940s and it was during this time that he mastered also the steel guitar. After his discharge in 1946, he began working with a couple of country bands. First he performed with an outfit that also included his brothers, then joining Al Rodgers' combo in Amarillo, Texas.

Stan Kesler
By 1950, Kesler had moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he soon found work with different groups as a steel guitarist. The most prominent of them was Clyde Leoppard's Snearly Ranch Boys, a western swing band that enjoyed great popularity in Memphis and West Memphis, playing regular shows on KWEM and being the house band at the Cotton Club in West Memphis. Kesler would work on and off during the 1950s and 1960s with the band and many members of the Ranch Boys. Leoppard managed to organize a recording session for the band at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service in 1955. Kesler not only played steel on the session but provided also the song material, "Lonely Sweetheart" and "Split Personality," the latter co-written with fellow Snearly Ranch Boy William E. "Bill" Taylor, who also was the vocalist on those sides. Sam Phillips released the band's recordings on his country label Flip Records in February 1955.

The Flip single had brought Kesler to the attention of Sam Phillips and he began working for Phillips as a musician, songwriter, and engineer. Elvis Presley recorded Kesler's "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" (co-written with Bill Taylor) and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (co-written with Charlie Feathers) in 1955 for Sun. Kesler also played on many country Sun recordings during this time. In late 1956, Kesler learned to play bass, which eventually became his main instrument.

After leaving his mark at Sun, Kesler set out on his own in late 1957 and went into partnership with Eugene Lucchesi and Drew Canale. They founded Crystal Records with Kesler running essentially the label in creative terms, while Lucchesi and Canale mainly served as investors. The first single was by Jean Kelly, "Someone to Love" b/w "I Keep Forgetting" (Crystal #500), released in either late 1957 or early 1958. Kelly was born in 1935 in Braden, Texas.

Next up was Don Hosea, who also recorded for Sun and for Billy Lee Riley's Rita label. Hosea recorded "Everlasting Love" for Crystal, which was later that year recorded by Barbara Pittman for Phillips International. Originally hailing from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Hosea spent much of the 1950s and 1960s in Memphis, performing with the Snearly Ranch Boys and the Bill Black Combo. He left for Nashville in 1967, where he found work as a songwriter.

Jimmy Knight with "You'll Always Be Mine" b/w "Hula Bop" (Crystal #502) had another interesting disc on Crystal. Knight was also a member of the Snearly Ranch Boys at the time of this release and sang with Kesler's vocal group "The Sunrays." The Stan Kesler-Bill Taylor written "Hula Bop" was likely one of the band's standards, as it had been recorded three years earlier by Snearly Ranch Boy Smokey Joe Baugh for Sun with the band providing the backing.

Crystal #503 was by James Edward "Jimmy" Pritchett, another of Kesler's discoveries. Kesler rented studio time at radio WHBQ to record the Ramon Maupin penned "Nothing on My Mind" and the stunning "That's the Way I Feel" with Pritchett but Kesler ran into problems with the equipment at the studio. Therefore, he instead used Sam Phillips' Sun studio. Sources often credit the Snearly Ranch Boys playing on this record but actually the background band sounds more like Sun's rockabilly staff of Roland Janes (guitar) and Jimmy Van Eaton (drums). May it as it be, the single made some noise around Memphis but finally shared the fate of its presecurors and went nowhere. Pritchtett, who hailed from Osceola, Arkansas, where he was born on March 26, 1935, died in Memphis on July 13, 1982.

According to Kesler, there were a couple of other releases on Crystal, which have yet to be located, however. Kesler became dissatisfied with his partner Canale and recalled: "Canale put in a thousand dollars and expected back 10,000 next week [...]. Me and Drew wouldn't work." In the end, Crystal was shut down and in 1959, Kesler began a new project with Clyde Leoppard and Jack Clement, opening their own recording studio for a short time.

Kesler later established the Echo Recording Studio on Manassas Avenue and ran the Pen and XL labels. Under his supervision, a couple of big pop hits were produced in Memphis during the 1960s and 1970s. He eventually returned to Sun and engineered sessions there well into the 2000s. Stan Kesler died in 2020.


Discography


Crystal 500
Jean Kelly, the Cotton Patch Cinderella
Someone to Love (Stan Kesler) / I Keep Forgetting (William E. Taylor)
C-100 / C-101

Crystal 501
Don Hosea
Everlasting Love (Stan Kesler) / I'll Try Again (Don Hosea)
C-102 / C-103
1958 (BB)

Crystal 502
Jimmy Knight
You'll Always Be Mine (Stan Kesler) / Hula Bop (Stan Kesler; W.E. Taylor)
C-104 / C-105
1958

Crystal 503
Jimmy Pritchett
Nothing on My Mind (Maupin) / That's the Way I Feel (Smith-Hyde)
C-106 / C-107
1958 (BB)

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Billy Eldridge on Vulco

Billy Eldridge - It's Over (Vulco VL1508), 1961

Billy Eldridge was a member of the Fireballs, a local rock'n'roll band from Fort Pierce, Florida. They were recording for Vulco Records, a small label operated by Irvin Vulgamore, who also owned a small record shop that had opened in early 1956. The Fireballs were founded in 1958 or earlier and were led by Pat Richmond. Members included Jim King, Pat Richmond (vocals), Vern Strickland (lead guitar), Billy Eldridge (vocals/guitar), Jim Sanders (guitar), Leo Law (piano), and Jac Morris (drums). Discovered by Vulgamore while playing a club date in 1958, they were asked by Vulgamore to record for him. At Criteria Studios in Miami, the band cut a staple of songs, including the famous "Let's Go Baby." Written by band member Jim King, the song wasn't more than an idea when they decided to record it during the session. On that same session, the Fireballs backed up local DJ Doug Dickens with Eldridge on lead guitar. Dickens recorded "Raw Deal" and "Lucy's Graveside."

"Don't Stop the Rockin'" / "Honey Bee Baby" by the Fireballs with Pat Richmond on vocals made up both the label's and the band's first release (Vulco #1500) in 1958. It was followed by "Let's Go Baby" with vocals by Billy Eldridge (Vulco #1501) in early 1959. The songs were published by Henry Stone's Sherlyn-Pent publishing company and "Let's Go Baby" was received well locally. Stone was possibly responsible for bringing it to the attention of the United Artists label, which issued the single nationally on its subsidiary Unart.

Billy Eldridge and the Fireballs built up quite a reputation locally, performing at clubs and bars around Fort Pierce. They also appeared several times on Uncle Martin Wales' "Sunset Ranch" and Happy Harold's shows, both originated from the Miami-Dade area.

After another single ("Take My Love" / "Half a Heart", Vulco #1506), they recorded today's pick in 1961. While "There's a Reason" was a typical ballad from those days, the flip "It's Over" is an haunting performance by the band, although it is considered to be inferior to "Let's Go Baby" by collectors. The disc was arranged and produced by Fireballs member Vern Strickland and both songs were Eldridge originals. One more record appeared ("Sneaky" / "Maria Elena", Vulco #1510) but soon after, the Fireballs probably disbanded.

Eldridge then embarked on a solo career. He joined up with another Fort Pierce resident, Gary Stewart, and they began writing songs. After they managed to get their composition ""Poor Red Georgia Dirt" recorded by Stonewall Jackson, the duo moved to Nashville, where they successfully settled as a songwriting duo. Eldridge recorded for Kapp in 1969 but he and Stewart returned to Fort Pierce in the early 1970s. Stewart took another approach in 1973 and went on to national fame as a country singer. Eldridge continued to play at bars on weekends in Fort Pierce. Eldridge died on March 16, 2021.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Sophisticated Black Women and/or Tough Cookies, Part II

Another bobsluckycat post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin!

Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan) born in Baltimore Maryland in 1915 was a jazz and pop singer with a very thin, almost waifish voice who, after a troubled childhood and playing Harlem clubs was discovered in 1935 and signed to Brunswick Records and then had major success on Columbia and Decca Records well into the 1940's, including "Solitude" featured here. "Lady Day" as she was known had a successful career, including three sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall during her lifetime and other venues including Europe and a cornacopia of solid jazz recordings right up to her death in 1959 despite the fact that her life was filled with professional and personal problems and financial problems intensified by her blatant use of alcohol and heroin, which killed her in 1959, essentially hospitalized in police custody and near penniless in a New York City hospital at age 44.Her life was a long and at times sordid story packed into those few short years which can be found elsewhere. Her music and her voice lives on, thanks be to God.


Billie Holiday - Solitude

Helen Humes born in 1913 in Louisville Kentucky, the only child of a well-to-do Black couple and was raised with a solid background in church singing and piano and organ lessons. By age 14, she had the good luck to be recorded by Okeh Records and again in in 1929. at age 16. Music did not appear to be in the cards for her professionally, but a trip to Buffalo New York turned into a $35.00 a week job singing with a small group for a long while. 1936 saw Helen at the Cincinnati Cotton Club still making that $35.00 a week. Count Basie came through Cincinnati about that time and offered Helen $35.00 a week to replace the now gone Billie Holiday. She turned him down flat as she was already making an easy $35.00 a week with Al Sears and his small group whom she originally played with in Buffalo N.Y. During a gig in New York City, producer John Hammond convinced her to record 4 sides with the Harry James Orchestra and that led to four years with the aforementioned Count Basie and his band. The nearly constant touring after four years took a toll on her health and, stressed out, she quit the band in 1942. After recovering at home in Louisville, John Hammond came calling again and insisted that she return to several dates in New York City. In 1944, Helen moved to L.A. and did work at film studios and limited tours with Jazz At The Philharmonic and started to record again in an early R&B style and had a couple of hits from 1945 into 1950, but otherwise her career stagnated and after some touring in Europe and a few American Jazz Festivals, Helen retired and stayed retired in Louisville until 1973 when she returned to the Newport Jazz Festival which was followed by very successful European tours and a series of LP's for the French label Black And Blue Records, also picking up the Music Industry Of France Award in 1973 and regular engagements in New York City. Outgoing and gracious to a fault to everyone, Helen was given the Key To The City Of Louisville Ky. in 1975 as well. Helen Humes died from Cancer in 1981 in Santa Monica CA. shortly after the release of her final LP "Helen", recorded live over three evenings June 17, June 18,and June 19 1980.

Helen Humes - Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness
 
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald born in Newport News Virginia in 1917, but grew up in Harlem, was to have one of the longest and successful careers in both Jazz and Popular music with 14 Grammy awards, A National Medal Of Arts, and a Presidential Medal Of Freedom at the top of her accolades. Her early years in the Depression 30's saw her in a girls reform school and street singing in Harlem for change. After winning an Amatuer Contest at the Apollo and a week with the Tiny Bradshaw & His Band at the Harlem Opera House. Ella was brought to the attention of Chick Webb, a noted bandleader who was in need of a female band singer. Reluctant to hire her right away, Ella got a try out at Yale University, and from that success came a job with Chick Webb with a lot of touring nationwide and stays at Webb's home base The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem until Webb's untimely death in 1939. At which time, Ella took over the band and kept it going through 1942 when she disbanded it for a variety of reasons not the least of which was a solo career and a movie offer. Universal Pictures put her in the Abbott & Costello film "Ride 'Em Cowboy" which also starred movie cowboys Dick Foran and Johnny Mack Brown. Ella's two songs "Rockin' And A Reelin' " and "A Tiskit A Tasket", were shot in such a way they easily be cut from copies of the film from wherever theatres in the South and elsewhere didn't want to show them. The songs were left in at various theatres around the country and in the re-releases as well. The film, being an Abbott & Costello film raked in a ton of money.

After World War 2, Ella's career hit the heights and stayed there until she was forced to retire due to ill health and diabetes in 1993. Her most notable albums were devoted to famous pop and jazz music composers and a lot of touring in America and Europe and elsewhere. She shared the stage with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and many, many more in many venues world wide and was truly a household world. Ella Fitzgerald passed away in 1996 from diabetes.

Ella Fitzgerald - Putting on the Ritz

Friday, December 2, 2016

Howard Chandler on Marble Hill

Howard Chandler - The Poverty Rag (Marble Hill 300), 1968

Only snippets of info have survived on Howard Chandler, a local Memphis country singer who recorded demo tapes for Sun at some point in 1957. He also released a couple of records on his own labels but otherwise has fallen through the cracks.

Although it is stated James Howard Chandler hailed from Mississippi on the back of the Redita LP "Rock from Memphis" (Redita LP #102), Chandler spent most of his live in Memphis, on 1171 Central Avenue to be precise. It can be assumed he did occasional gigs around Memphis from the 1950s onwards and sent a tape of his "Wampus Cat" to Sam Phillips at Sun Records. A countryfied and primitive rockabilly piece with steel guitar backing, Chandler nevertheless got the chance to record another song for Sun, "Golden Band." Nothing else came of this session and both tapes vanished into the Sun vaults.

Chandler then simply set up his own record label, Wampus Records, which he operated out of his home on Central Avenue. He re-recorded "Wampus Cat" and released it with "Island of Love" on the flip early in 1958. Two more records on Wampus followed. In 1968, Chandler went into partnership with John Cook, a local label owner and gospel singer, to form Marble Hill Records. Cook also ran the country/bluegrass/gospel label Blake Records and performed country gospel music with his wife Margie. Chandler had the debut release on Marble Hill, "The Poverty Rag" / "No One Will See the Teardrops," on Marble Hill #300. By then, Chandler had switched to strictly country music and several discs on Marble Hill followed.

Little else is own about Howard Chandler. He spent the rest of his live in Memphis, where he died in 1989.

Discography

Wampus W-100: Island of Love / Wampus Cat (1958)
Wampus 104:  Black Gumbo Land / A Million Friends
Marble Hill 300: The Poverty Rag / No One Will See the Tears (1968)
Marble Hill 306: My Old Guitar / Did I
Marble Hill 307: There's a Wolf Around / My Bluebird Has Flown (ca. 1970) 
Marble Hill 312: I Just Got Out of the Can / The Road to Happiness (1970)
Marble Hill 317: Another Point of View / You Can't Be My Star
Marble Hill 318: Little Boy from Missouri / For All the Soldiers
Marble Hill 319: It's Parkin Arkin / I Wouldn't Take the World for Your Love
Wampus 105: Mean Ole Tomcat / Before You Wanted to Be Free (1972)

Thanks to Anonymous

Saturday, November 19, 2016

The Muleskinners on Twin Town

The Muleskinners - Muleskinner Blues '65 (Twin Town TT 708), 1965

Here's a nice version of the old Jimmie Rodgers classic, "Mule Skinner Blues," by a band called the Muleskinners. Released on the Minneapolis based Twin Town label, it was a rip-off of the Fendermen's hit version. Enjoy!

See also

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Herbert C. Woolfolk on Camaro

 
Herbert C. Woolfolk and the Stargazers - I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye (Camaro 45-3431), 1971
 
Born on October 25, 1932, Herbert C. Woolfolk hailed from Nesbit, Mississippi, which is located just a few miles south of Memphis and the Tennessee-Mississippi state border. Woolfolk made a couple of unreleased rock'n'roll recordings, which were cut "in Herbert's garage in his lovely home just outside Memphis in the late 50's" according to Cees Klop on his 1986 "Memphis - Rock'n'Roll Capital of the World, Volume 3" White Label compilation. Klop also further explained that Woolfolk backed up Stax and Fernwood recording artists during this period.

In 1964, Woolfolk released "Strenght of Love" / "Diamond of My Hear" on Tateco Records (Tateco #45-446) out of Senatoba, Mississippi (south of Nesbit). He was accompanied by the Rocketts on this disc, which included Billy Yount, Billy Hardison, Herbert J.C. Hicks, Rufus Waldron and Willard Speers. Band member Billy Yount also had a brother Harold, with whom Woolfolk would perform occasionally.

It seems Woolfolk stayed true to his rock'n'roll sound, as he released another marvelous disc in 1971 on Style Wooten's Camaro label. These were recorded with the Stargazers, the band of Woolfolk's friend Ken Lynes. Woolfolk gave the old Ernest Tubb song "I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye" an overall new sound and rocked his way through it with nice guitar work, a billowing organ and a dynamic background chorus.

Woolfolk died on October 11, 2013. A great portion of his recordings were issued by Cees Klop in 1986 on the "Memphis - Rock'n'Roll Capital of the World, Volume 3" White Label compilation. 

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

R.I.P. Scotty Moore

In honor of legendary guitarist and main rock'n'roll influence Scotty Moore, who passed away today at age 84.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Sophisticated Black Women I

Sophisticated Black Women and/or Tough Cookies

Another Bobsluckycat post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin!

This blog post is featuring 25 recordings and 25 small sketches of Sophisticated Black Ladies and/or Tough Cookies which will be fleshed out in a series of articles sans recordings in the Swedish music magazine "American Music" at a later date. "Separate But Equal" was the law of the land in the USA from civil war days until 1954 when it was struck down. Segregation however hasn't gone away, toned down maybe, but still here in various forms. Things have always been separate but never equal in the USA and in the music business in particular. These profiles are of recording artists who in ways both large and small broke through to wider audiences in America and world-wide as well. Some of these songs are quite well know and others rather obscure, but all were picked to show-case the recording artists and sometimes the menutia of the recordings selected. All were recorded between 1947 and 1980 or so for maximum sound quality. Enjoy these for the gems they are. Bobsluckycat


Jackie "Moms" Mabley born Loretta Mary Aiken in 1894 started out with a tragic childhood that included the deaths of both parents in horrific accidents and the birth of two children from rapes at a very young age and the loss of those children to the state. At 14, "Moms" ran away from home and joined a minstrel show as a comic. She traveled far and wide on the Black circuit playing clubs, theatres, and every other wide spot in the road that catered to Black folk, honing her persona of "Moms" Mabley over a 40 odd year period. She never had made a recording until November of 1949 with Pearl Bailey, when she made the attached. She was not known to white America. She had made a couple of film appearances through the years aimed at Black audiences. She, at some point, made the Apollo Theatre in New York City her "unoffical" home base and at times commanded a salary of $10,000.00 per week. She holds the record for most appearances there to this date. In 1960, a record producer took some of her tapes to Chess Records in Chicago, who sprung them on a wide white audience to great success and fame not known to her before. Mercury Records continued the series of comedy LPs into 1971. Nearly dying in 1973 from a heart attack while filming and starring in "Amazing Grace", "Moms" finished the film and saw it's release before she passed away in 1974, going out on top.

Alberta Hunter born in 1895, ran away from home at age 11 to Chicago, hoping to be a singer but took work for a dollar day in a rooming house in Chicago. Soon joined by her mother who became her manager, she was making $35.00 dollars a week singing with King Oliver's Band and touring to points in England and Europe in 1917 during World War I. Starting in 1920 and into the 1930's, Alberta recorded extensively for various recording companies in the USA and England. By 1928, Alberta was famous and appeared opposite Paul Robeson in the stage production of "Show Boat" in London. Moving her home base to London then, she played various venues in England and Europe as well as America until the outbreak of World War 2, when she again returned to a new base in New York City. She continued to be busy in the states and on Black USO tours throughout WW2 and Korea until the 1957 death of her mother. Taking 20 years out then to work as a nurse, retiring from that at 82, and took up a renewed singing career based in New York City at "The Cookery", recorded some albums for Columbia Records, toured far and wide including Europe and South America and played by invitation of the President at the White House, dying in 1984, never having ever retired.


Memphis Minnie was one tough cookie to be sure, born Lizzie "Kid" Douglas in Louisiana in 1897, raised mostly in Mississippi and ran away to Memphis at age 13 to sing on street corners off and on until the money ran out at times and then she returned home until the urge to entertain put her back on the streets of Memphis. Minnie was part of the Ringling Brothers Circus in the years from 1916 through the 1920 season and then back to Memphis' musical scene. From 1929 on for several mostly related recording companies until 1950, Minnie recorded extensively in the country blues vein and some of her recordings were just plain "white folks" country and had she not been Black, could have appeared on WSM's "Grand Ole Opry" and other such programs but didn't, couldn't or wouldn't. Take your pick. The 1952 recording, selected from the original master tape, is a cross between the old and new Blues styles being born of high fidelity and tape. Minnie could have mastered that but didn't. After a long stay in Chicago and points east and north, Minnie suffered some extensive strokes and finally passed away in 1973 in Memphis. Truly one of a kind.

Julia Lee born 1902 was a piano playing singer who joined her brother George Lee's band in and around Kansas City Missouri at the start of prohibition in 1920 and stayed with him into 1935. Female singers were relegated to doing risque and double-entendre songs and comical "coon" songs in those years. Julia Lee made them her stock in trade. She recorded for Capitol Records from 1944 into 1952 and had several which did not get airplay on white radio and not too much on Black radio, but several of her records jammed jukeboxes and sold a lot of records besides. The one selected was her last recording from 1952. Julia Lee was a local favorite in Kansas City until her untimely death from a heart attack in 1958 at age 56 just following a brief film appearance in an early Robert Altman film.

Nellie Lutcher born in 1912 in Lake Charles Louisiana to a musical family. Daddy played bass, Mama played organ in church and gave Nellie piano lessons, and brother was Joe Lutcher a noted saxophonist and big band and jazz band leader. In 1924, Nellie filled in for Ma Rainey's regular pianist, who was ill and couldn't make the date. She was 12. At 14, she joined her father in a travelling jazz band. By the mid 30's, Nellie had re-located to Los Angeles and giged around the area through World War 2. In 1947, she was signed to Capitol Records and recorded several hits through 1950 for that label. (editorial comment; I always thought that was strange. Capitol had Julia Lee already signed to the label as well as Nat "King" Cole's Trio and white artists working in the same type of music pretty much, Freddie Slack, Ella Mae Morse, and Merrill Moore . Separate but equal, again, I guess?) I would never have known of Ms. Lutcher but a local D.J. had known her from his WW2 days on the West Coast and he raved about her new recording which came out on Decca Records in 1955 and which he proceeded to played to death on the air locally to no avail. Nellie Lutcher continued to gig in the L.A. area for many years. Rich from property ownership, song copyrights and other income, she slowed things down by the becoming an officer with the local L.A. Musicians Union for several years as well. Retiring in the 1990's completely from performing, Nellie Lutcher died in 2007 of pneumonia at age 94.


Mabel Scott born in 1915 in Richmond Virginia and grew up in New York City singing Gospel music in church and by 1932 was a featured singer with Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club in Harlem. 1936 saw her playing in Cleveland and the surrounding area. Following that, Ms. Scott toured England and Europe until WW2 came along and forced her back to the USA. While in England she recorded some sides for Parlophone Records in England. Ending up on the west coast as a vocalist for The Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra for a while and then became a mainstay with Wynonie Harris at the Club Alabam in L.A. until the war ended. Post war Mabel Scott had early hits on Exclusive Records and then went with King Records, Coral and Brunswick subsidiaries of Decca Records and had no hits. The song I've selected is a R&B cover of Hank Penny's Country hit from 1951. Not happy with her career and personal life as well, Mabel Scott quit the business and returned to singing gospel music, passing away in 2000 in L.A.