Howdee folks! With thanks to followers who expressed their sympathy with their messages: George (Edmonson), Ken (Hippler), Willem (Van Pitten, aka “Zandaas)),Rob (Kopp) I am feeling better, a recent eye operation (too much looking at tiny matrix numbers!). And money injuries are not lethal, as they say over there. Now the time is brighter, which is not the case with bad weather – yet the Christmas feast and New Tear’s lights are to come, thanks God.
More Tom James with « Sample Of Your Love » on RCA 20-5695. Mid-paced bopper. Again banjo and steel backing. The flipside « Your Kind Of Lovin’ » is faster.
Something different now with a microscopic Nashville Klix label : « Hey Baby » is a rockabilly from 1958. A classic ! As the A-side « Track Down Baby » (Klix 0001). Solid Rockabilly, another cl kilo
Tom James also cut for Whiz (untraced) and Peaceful Valley.
JOHNNY TYLER was a prolific artist to say the least : he had got records published on no less than 8 labels between 1947 and 1956 ! Bixby (« Oakie Boogie »), Fargo, Stanchell, RCA, Specialty {all Hollywood labels), Ekko (« Devil’s Hot Rod »), Tops and Starday 263 « Lie To Me Baby « ). Here he delivers a strong rocker, a piano solo, an embroiding guitar and a fine vocal on « Devil On My Shoulder » (Rural Rhythm 510, another W.C. label)
LUCKY BOGGS & The Tune Toppers. A Texas artist, presumably from Marshall. He cut for Buddy label several great tunes, as « Tears In My Heart » (# 108), « How Long » (# 109), and the Rockabilly « Drillin ‘ Rig Boogie » (# 112). How this tune has been reissued on the Portsmouth, Ohio Shawnee (# 101) label is open to any speculation. One final track, « You Can ‘t Stop Her » : boogie guitar intro.
Tears In My Heart
LUCKY BOGGS & The Tune Toppers. A Texas artist, presumably from Marshall. He cut for Buddy label several great tunes, as « Tears In My Heart » (# 108), « How Long » (# 109), and the Rockabilly « Drillin ‘ Rig Boogie » (# 112). How this tune has been reissued on the Portsmouth, Ohio Shawnee (# 101) label is open to any speculation. One final track, « You Can ‘t Stop Her » : boogie guitar intro.
The Buddy label is also well-known for the very first record of TOMMY BLAKE, “KoolIt” (#107) valued at $ 700-800. Later on he went to Sun records.
Another Texas artist, from San Antonio : RANDY KING and The Westernaires. In 1954, he released on T.N.T. (« Tanner and Texas »!) # 108, the uptempo bopper (steel, fiddle) « Crazy A A Loon ». « Tied And Bound » its flipside is a mid-paced bopper ; a fine vocal, a bit crooning.
More of Randy King, also on T.N.T. (#9009) with the mid-tempo rockabilly, »Be-Bopping Baby ».
That’s it for now Sources : very numerous. Tom James from reissue (Cactus) programs.. Lucky Boggs out of hard-working research (Internet, 45cat), Johnny Tyler from my archives, Randy King from Internet.
Hope you will enjoy all of this music. Leave me a comment please. This helps me a lot ! Have a nice Xmas and a bopping New Year 2022 !
This is late September 2016 fortnight’s bopping favorites. As prettily usual, I selected a dozen songs which I feel interesting both for their obscurity and/or their appeal. The songs range from early-to-mid ’50s to very early ’60s. Let’s begin on the West coast with the very elusive TOM (Red) WILSON & His Country Music. He sings in the W.C. Western swing manner, added by a tight little combo of steel, piano and guitar, plus bass of course. First two selections combine both sides of his release on Crest 1007 (which was an outlet of Liberty). «Can you bop ?» (with female replica and jive-talk) tells everything. It’s a shuffler from 1955, with a strong Speedy West-styled steel, inked by Cal Veale, a name which crops from time to time on W. C. records.. The flip « Hillbilly parade » keeps the long established tradition of stringing some well-known Western songs. According to the songs cited, one can recognize T. Ernie, Webb Pierce and Ernest Tubb. Nice fiddle. There’s even a fat-bodied guitar picking solo which must be by Merle Travis himself ! Terry Fell had cut previously (1953) on Gilt-Edge 5084 his “Hillbilly impersonations“; but 12 artists were involved then in place of the half-a-dozen by Tom Wilson.
Next artist is a bit of a mystery. BOB TUCKER& His Sky Riders (vocal chorus by Virgil Hume) don’t give any clue of origin neither date of release. Tucker (neither Hume) never had another record, at least to my knowledge. They do a bopping tune « Quit draggin’ your feet » and a quieter side on « My tears are dry » released on State 4002 B/A. Both feature a really wild and inventive steel, and the singer does a really fine job on the supercharged « Quit » side. The record may date from the 1953/54 era.
On to a well-known name, for a not so well-known good Country bop song. DALE HAWKINS was no longer in 1961 with Chess Records, and his days of fame were over, when he cut (with Roger Miller on guitar) the nice and, apparently, autobiographical, « Wish I hadn’t called home » for Tilt 783.
“Wish I hadn’t called home”
Two visitors are categoric: Hawkins plays guitar while it’s Miller singing. Thanks, chaps!
Then VIRGIL HUNT (a repost of as early as May 2012). « Can’t we try again » is a fast 1957 hillbilly bopper, with fiddle and guitar solos issued on Boot Heel 604 [did I write the label’s name right, Dean?], apparently a Tennessee label. Now you get a complete and nice label scan..
Finally another Rockabilly, although fiddle and steel present (solos) from Louisiana in 1959 : BOB PREDDY and « Hold what’cha got » on Buddy [not the Texas label] # 2002.
arkansas 45s