Friday, April 24, 2015

The Love Brothers


The Love Brothers
B.Love, F.Love
Golden State Songs, BMI

CP-3202 ~ One Time Love Affair
B.Love, F.Love
Golden State Songs, BMI

By Love Records 843
627 Pollock Greenville, Miss.

1960


An alternate take of " Baby, I'll Never Let You Go" is on YouTube here
 



Lefty Pritchett on Bama


Lefty Pritchett
And His Country Cats
(Pritchett-Dickenson)
Vocal By Lefty Pritchell And Lucy Carter

CP-4104 – She Stole My Heart Away
(Pritchett)
Vocal By Lefty Pritchell

From The Heart of Dixie It's
Bama Records 00001
1960

Claude "Lefty" Pritchett
, a self-taught musician, was born in 1931 in Alabama, the son of Alabama sharecroppers.   He had an ear for music at a young age, especially the guitar.  "My first guitar was used.  I paid $1.75 for it," he recalls.
 
    His guitar playing and singing were constant companions when he joined the Army in 1950.  Korea was his first stop after basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  Serving with the Seventh Infantry Division in Korea, he organized a country music group, which has became popular with the GI's overseas.    "Lefty Pritchett and His Country Rhythm Boys", as the group was commonly known in Korea, played at service clubs, parties and entertainment programs in Korea.    Pritchett wrote many of his songs and broadcasted his original tunes on a weekly radio program    
 
     The troops weren't the only ones Claude serenaded.  Korea is also where he met his future bride Bonnie.  "I saw her for the first time with a dark corduroy uniform on and she had pigtails and she just took my heart away."

     Claude also saw duty in Vietnam in the late 60's.  And, yes, his guitar made the trip, too.  "If I wasn't on duty I'd start playing and singing and all the troops would come around.  We'd have a big jam session."

     When Claude got back to the states he recorded one of the 150 songs he has written.  It was called "Vietnam Rotation Blues." (*)  Claude says over there they wanted to hear something about coming home, so that's why he wrote the song.
     
     Once back home Claude became an Army recruiter.  His guitar was one of his recruiting tools.  "When (a recruit) would make up his mind to go, I would sing him a song and ask him when he wanted to leave.  We'd have to send him to get his exam and everything.  I always met my quota," Claude said with a big smile.

__________

 *Released on Dee Lark Records, you can hear the song here

Saturday, April 18, 2015

The Clay County Playboys on Lifetime

 



1024
The Clay County Playboys 
featuring Yodelin' Stan
17785 - Night Train To Memphis

The Clay County Playboys 
featuring Tex Jackson
17786 - Muleskinner Blues


1025
Tex Jackson 
And The Clay County Playboys
Ronnie Reeves, rhythm

17961 - Nine Dang Pins (Sid Keiser, Cora Lee Music BMI)
17962 - We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds.


 1026
 Shirley Jean
backed by
the Clay County Playboys

 18253 -  It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'
(Johnny Tillotson, Ridge Music)

18254 - I Want To Live Again




The Clay County Playboys
performed in Upstate New York in the mid-sixties.  The band featured Tex Jackson,  Yodelin' Stan, Ronnie Reeves.  Shirley Jean may (or not) have been member of the band.  Lifetime Records of Rochester released these three successive records in 1966.



 

 

 

Woody and the Wood Peckers


Woody and the Wood Peckers

27339 – Oh Lonesome me
27340 -  Call of the canyon

Woody Records
Route 1,
Lebanon, Ohio,
1970


Wood Lynch was the band leader.   He died in 2001.   

Jessie Lyn and her brother Richard Lynch continue today the family music tradition.  See Cincinnati.com

Jessie Lyn Fisher grew up in a farm house in Lebanon. As a child, after a long day of work, she and her five siblings would sit around the kitchen table with their father and grab anything that could make music.

Sometimes it was a pan or a pair of cooking utensils. "We had a lot of music in that house and we had a lot of faith in that house," Fisher said.



*

Monday, April 13, 2015

Gene Scarbrough on Brock


Gene Scarbrough

CP-5985 – Please Answer Me
Written-By – Gene Scarbrough, Lloyd Hurt
Pamper Music Co, Inc. BMI

CP-5986 – A Dream Of You
Written-By – Gene Scarbrough 
Pamper Music Co, Inc. BMI


Brock Records
2294 Pontiac St., Columbus, Ohio

Vocal with String Band

1961


*



Eugene Jessie Scarbrough also recorded :

1957 — Starday 685  :  Wanted / Lonesome For Someone
1960 — Hark 503 :  Bluest One In Town / Running Away From Love
1964 — Del-Ray 216 : It All Depends On Linda / Think Twice Before You Go

Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Silver Heart Gospel Singers Of Indianapolis, Indiana





  The Silver Heart Gospel Singers Of Indianapolis, Indiana
Label : Executive
1966


Side 1 [16691]
1. I'll Flay Away (Lead William Starks And Brenda Miles)
2. Throw Out The Lifeline (Lead Lillian Anderson And Robert Turner)
3. His Eye Is On The Sparrow (Lead Brenda Dobbins
4. Yield Not To Temptation (Lead Lillian Anderson And Robert Turner)
5. His Goodness To You (Lead William Starks)

Side 2 [16692]
1. You Brought Me (Lead Lillian Anderson)
2. Closer To Thee (Lead Brenda Miles)
3. Don't Leave Me (Lead Robert Turner)
4. He Knows (Lead William Starks)
5. A Few Of His Bessings To Me (Lead Sandra Johnson)

Recorded by Commerical Features, 1415 N. Illinois St., Indianapolis


Personnel : 
Sandra Johnson at the organ
John Bailey and Kenneth Collins at the piano
Robert L. Duckett Turner, arranger, composer and lead
Barbara Jean Adair, first soprano
Lillian Jean Anderson, second sopano and lead
Lillie Mae Farr, alto
Brenda Ann Dobbins, alto and lead
William Starks, tenor and lead


The Silver Heart Gospel Singers
Robert Turner and the Silver Heart Gospel Singers represent some of Indiana's finest traditional gospel. Formed in 1960 by then fifteen year old Robert Turner, the Silver Hearts have grown into an Indianapolis institution, singing at churches, church reunions, and community gatherings all over the region and organizing an over forty year old annual city-wide Gospel Extravaganza. Robert Turner sang his first solo, "Let God Abide" at four years of age, standing on a chair in front of his church, the Metropolitan Baptist Church. He joined the church's traveling choir at age 10, and in 1958 he heard the Clara Ward Singers at the Bible Way Baptist Church just around the corner from his home. Inspiration for the Silver Hearts was born on that night. Turner recalls his reaction to the Clara Ward Singers: "Five ladies, fabulous gowns, the music was piano and organ instead of the quartet/guitar sound I'd been raised on and it was like, 'WOW!'"