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.
Showing posts with label from Mellow's vaults. Show all posts
Showing posts with label from Mellow's vaults. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Lloyd Marley on United Southern Artists

Lloyd Marley and the Trebles - Ooh Poo Pah Doo (United Southern Artists 5-109), 1961

Northeast Arkansas had a lively music scene during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s but Northwest Arkansas wasn't short of it. And Fayetteville with its many students was the center of it all. One of the many performers from area was Lloyd Marley, who stayed on the scene for more than 50 years.

Samuel Lloyd Marley was born on July 22, 1940, in Bentonville, Arkansas, north of Fayetteville. His family had no money to afford a guitar for Marley, who eventually learned to play piano in the 1950s. In 1952, at age twelve, he met his future wife Dolores at a birthday party.

Blues music was Marley's first love with artists like Muddy Waters or B.B. King. But when Chuck Berry rose to fame in the mid 1950s, Marley was hooked on rock'n'roll and Berry became his hero. He wanted to become a guitarist but couldn't play. Moreover, every band in the region had guitar players but no one had pianists. So Marley began playing piano and joined local bands. When he graduated from Bentonville High School in 1958, he was voted "Most Talented" among the graduating class.

Lloyd Marley in 1958
Source: Bentonville High School Yearbook/Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Marley went on to perform with various groups over the years and played at countless spots in Fayetteville, including the Huddle Club, the Rockwood Club, the VFW, and the Y'all Come Back Saloon. He joined the Cate Brothers for a while around this time, and around 1961, joined a group known as the Trebles.

The circumstances are foggy but the Trebles managed to secure a recording deal with the newly started United Southern Artists label and talent agency from Hot Springs, Arkansas. They recorded Jesse Hill's 1960 R&B hit "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" along with Marley's original "Fade with the Time", released around September that year (#5-109). It possibly sold good regionally, but United Southern didn't call the band back for a follow-up.

Billboard September 4, 1961, pop review

Marley left the Trebles probably shortly afterwards and then joined rocker Ronnie Hawkins on a tour through Canada. Following that tour, Marley and his own band also spent two weeks playing the Peppermint Lounge in New York. When he returned to Arkansas, his association with Hawkins helped him landing jobs all around and he became an even more popular performer than he had been prior to the tour. He was also booked in places such as Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tulsa. When local Fayetteville bandleader Johnny Tolleson left town, Marley stepped in and took over leadership of the band for a time.

Constant performing and playing also meant constant partying and drinking over the years. Health problems followed and it took Marley a few years to get on the right track again. In 1981, he reunited with one of his old bands, the Mudflaps, and started performing again. He frequently played the clubs on Dickson Street in Fayetteville during these years and his band became residents at the Swinging Doors club in the 1970s, which became the Whitewater Tavern in 1981. During the 1990s, Marley also appeared with German blues musician Frank Burkhard, who lived in Arkansas for about ten years.

The Cate Brothers, Ernie and Earl, who had enjoyed some chart success, later called Marley a huge influence for Arkansas' northwestern music scene. Marley had eventually also learned to play guitar and played whatever was needed - blues, country, rock. A successful recording career - or at least a long-lasting recording career - eluded Marley, however. Columbia Records rejected him, demo tapes to other companies never reached them. At least, Marley recorded an album in the late 1980s.

He encountered health issues again late in his life and was not able to perform for much of 2019. He died on October 12, 2019, in Fayetteville, at the age of 79 years.

See also
United Southern Artists from Hot Springs, Arkansas
Johnny Tolleson on Chance

Sources
Jocelyn Murphy: "Marley's music: Rocker and friends remember a lifetime of tunes" (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)
45cat entry
Q24 Pirna (German)
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette obituary
• Anthony C. Wappel, Ethel C. Simpson: "Once Upon Dickson: An Illustrated History, 1868-2000" (Phoenix Int./Arkansas Libraries Special Coll. Dep.), 2008, p. 199

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Houston Turner on Do-Ra-Me

Houston Turner - "Buenos Noches" (Do-Ra-Me 1437), 1963

One of the many talented musicians that orbited around the Dixieland Drifters band was Houston "Buck" Turner, who left his mark by singing on "Bongos and Uncle John", the Drifters' most popular tune. Turner also performed with Tani Allen's Tennessee Pals, leaving another mark in music history through composing "Tennessee Jive", which became later known by Bill Haley as "Real Rock Drive".

Singer and songwriter Houston Edgar "Buck" Turner, Jr., was born on April 16, 1922, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During World War II, he served his country as an Air Force sergeant. Upon his return, Turner pursued a career in local music. 

By 1950, he had built up a reputation as a talented singer in the Chattanooga area and was approached by band leader Tani Allen that year to join his band. Steel guitarist Allen had founded his own country music outfit, "The Tennessee Pals," in Memphis shortly before. He contacted Bullet Records in Nashville, hoping to secure a record deal with the independent label. Bullet agreed to record the band on condition that Allen would exchange the vocalist. Allen, who also originally hailed from Chattanooga and remembered Turner as a vocalist, brought him into the band. 


Turner recorded a total of six singles with the band for Bullet from 1950 up to 1952, including their debut "Tennessee Jive," a Turner original. This song somehow came to the attention of Bill Haley, who reworked it under the title of "Real Rock Drive" in late 1952. This version saw release on Essex in early 1953 (Essex #310) without any songwriter credits. Interestingly, "Tennessee Jive" was also covered by Johnny Horton in 1953 on Mercury under its original title (Mercury #70010-X45).

Jim Bulleit, owner of Bullet, offered Turner to record solo for the label but Turner turned down the invitation. Tani Allen, however, encouraged Turner to continue his solo career. It is likely that Turner continued to perform around Chattanooga and by 1958, he teamed up with local singer and label owner Gene Woods, with whom he penned "How Big a Fool Can You Be" and performed with Woods' band, the Tune Twisters.

In 1960, he began working with the Dixieland Drifters, a group also from Chattanooga. They had recorded earlier for Sun, Murray Nash's B.B. Records and Dub, when Herbert "Happy" Schleif and Peanut Faircloth (also member of the Dixieland Drifters) released two singles of the band on their Hap record label. One was "You Won't Fall in Love" b/w "Will Angels Have Sweethearts" in 1960, the other "Bongos and Uncle John" b/w "How Big a Fool."


Members of the Dixieland Drifters, ca. July 1961 (left to right):
Howell Culpepper, poss. Charlie Evans, Houston Turner,
and Norman Blake

"Bongos and Uncle John" was published by Murray Nash's Ashna Music and recorded at his studio in Nashville. He re-released the song on his Do-Ra-Me label twice and it must have been a good seller for the band, since it was picked up by 20th Century Fox in the US and Sparton in Canada. Turner also recorded solo for Do-Ra-Me and for Big Country. He also did personal appearances with his own band, the Town and Country Boys, which also included Norman Blake. The Dixieland Drifters disbanded around 1963 and Turner died in 1999.

Today's selection "Buenos Noches" was written by a team of blind songwriters. The married couple Floyd and Mary Biggs and session pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins also penned a couple of other songs for Murray Nash. Turner recorded it probably at Murray Nash's Sound of Nashville studio and released in July/August 1963. It also saw release in Canada on Sparton.

See also

Sources
• David Carroll: Hello, Chattanooga! Famous People Who Have Visited the Tennessee Valley (Fresh Ink Group), 2021

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Linda Flanagan on Razorback

Linda Flanagan - Street of No Return (Razorback 45-107), 1959

There was a time in the early to mid 1960s when it seemed that Linda Flanagan was heading for stardom. Obviously, she never achieved that, although working with such top names as Webb Pierce or Ernest Tubb, but she graced the world with a series of fine country singles. Her debut record on Razorback Records is featured in today's post.

Linda Flanagan hailed from Arkansas, although I could not find details on her birth place or birth date. Her father was Harold Flanagan, who was a local country music performer in his own right. A 1956 Cowboy Songs article mentions that she started her professional career at age 13 (although she started singing even earlier at age 3), which puts her birth date into the early 1940s. By 1956, she was performing over KFSA in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on both radio and television. She also dabbled in songwriting around this time, penning songs with Louisiana Hayride member Jimmie Helms.

From Fort Smith, located on the Arkansas-Oklahoma state border, she made her way to nearby Muskogee, Oklahoma, where she not only appeared on a local TV show entitled Big Red Jamboree, but also recorded for Carl Blankenship's Razorback label. "A Life That's Hard to Live" b/w "Street of No Return" (Razorback #107) was released in late 1959. The top side was co-written by the duo of Jerry Roller and Hershel Parker, the latter being also an Arkansas born singer and songwriter, who recorded a few singles in his own right and worked with Flanagan during this time frame.

From left to right: Linda Flanagan, Charlie Walker, Herschel Parker
at the 1956 Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Day in Meridian, Mississippi
(courtesy of Western Red)


Flanagan's next stop in her career was Nashville, Tennessee, where she was given the opportunity to appear on Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree. Likely from this appearance resulted a recording session on June 29, 1961, at the Bradley Film and Recording Studio with a top band behind her, including Grady Martin, Buddy Emmons, Hargus Robbins, and producer Owen Bradley. The result was only one song, "Pass Me By", which in fact saw release in 1962 on a various artists Decca album simply entitled "Midnight Jamboree" featuring different artists that appeared on the show. The LP was also released in the UK and New Zealand. Flanagan's "Pass Me By" was furthermore issued on a special DJ 45rpm with the flip side filled by Webb Pierce's "Sweet Lips". 

The release of the LP in the UK was to some historical importance. Not for Ernest Tubb or any of the other better known artists on the record but for Flanagan. At that time, the Beatles were making their first steps and the band's drummer Ringo Starr was introduced to Flanagan's "Pass Me By" by his best fried Roy Trafford, who was a big country music fan, owned the "Midnight Jamboree" album and was especially fond of "Pass Me By". He even learned it for performing and the song inspired Starr to take up songwriting and he wrote his own "Don't Pass Me By", similar in its lyrical content but otherwise different, as Starr put a piano boogie beat behind it. The song probably wasn't even a minute long and band mates Paul McCartney and John Lennon dismissed it as a "rewrite of a Jerry Lee Lewis B-side". The song, if you can call it even a song, never made it far but Linda Flanagan's recording was an early influence on Ringo Starr's songwriting.

Unknown to Flanagan back then, she tried to find her own way to success. A second Decca session was not arranged for her until October 3, 1963, this time at the Columbia Recording Studio but again produced by Owen Bradley. Four songs were recorded that day and released by Decca in late 1963 ("Hold on to Happiness" b/w "The Keeper of the Key", Decca #31569) and July 1964 ("There's Love All Around Me" b/w "Mama Kiss the Hurt Away", Decca #31647). However, none of her two singles released by the label seem to have caught on with the public.

Although Decca dropped her, the independent and much smaller Boone record label gave Flanagan a chance once more. She recorded for the label in 1966 and 1967, releasing two singles, but these did not chart either. She had one more record out in Nashville in 1970, a duet with Lex Thomas entitled "South Bound Train," which was produced by guitarist Howard White for Spar Records - again without much success.

She left Nashville in the early 1970s and worked the Western Lounge club in Creve Couer, Illinois, with her husband Pete Blue from 1973 until 1975. She held one more session in Nashville in late 1985, which resulted in another record for the tiny Password label. At some point afterwards, she dropped out of the music business but was still residing in Nashville as late as 2017.

See also
Arkansas-Oklahoma Jamboree

Sources
45cat entry
Hillbilly-Music.com entry
Steel Guitar Forum
Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
• Mark Lewisohn: "Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years" (2013), Crown, page 691

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Cathy Collins on Whirlwind

Cathy Collins - This Tie That Binds (Whirlwind 1), 1970

This is really a mysterious release. Obscure label, obscure singer, obscure songwriter. Cathy Collins had a crystal-clear voice and two releases on Whirlwind, this being the first, and there was another disc on the infamous California based Rural Rhythm label, which could have been of another singer of the same name, though. That's it for Collins.

Billboard May 23, 1970

Both songs for this release were written by Elton Mitchell, who also penned two further tracks that were recorded by Collins for her second Whirlwind single. Mitchell is likely not the singer of the same name who recorded for a gospel label called Universal out of Denham Springs, Louisiana, in the 1980s. Further research on Mitchell resulted in the perception that Elton Mitchell is quite a common name.

Producer John Hurley is probably the best known person among the figures that were involved with this disc. He is best remembered as a songwriting partner of Ronnie Wilkins and both penned several tunes in the 1960s that became hits, including "Son of a Preacher Man" for Dusty Springfield or "Love of the Common People" for Waylon Jennings. They were both living in Nashville by the mid 1960s but left for California in 1970, so I assume this was one of Hurley's last productions in Music City USA. Which, in turn, leads me to the assumption that Collins' recording session took place there.

The Whirlwind label was based in Sheridan, located south of Little Rock in Central Arkansas. Little Richie Johnson, who was based in Belen, New Mexico, and who promoted and plugged numerous small labels across the country in the 1960s and 1970s as well as working with such stars as Willie Nelson, George Jones, or Merle Haggard, was involved with the label. Dalton Edwards, who is credited as a manager on Collins' releases, could have had a hand in it, too. Only four releases are known so far on Whirlwind and by 1971, the label seems to have folded.

See also

Sources
45cat entry

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Sammy Barnhart on OKeh

Sammy Barnhart - Get Off My Telephone (OKeh 4-18002), 1953

Sammy Barnhart's name could be seen on a few records during the 1950s, on Louisiana Hayride advertisements, and in programs of several radio stations. Though, he remained only a local fixture, most notable in Arkansas. This is my attempt to document the career of an artist that has fallen through the cracks and never gained the attention he deserved.

Samuel "Sammy" Barnhart was born on December 29, 1917, in Nacogdoches County, Texas (contrary to some sources that claim his birth state was Arkansas), to Levi and Lizi Eliza Barnhart. With two brothers and two sisters, he was the couple's second youngest child.

Barnhart started his career in the 1940s and had moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, by early 1947. By then, he had joined Alma "Little Shoe" Crosby's Cowboy Sweethearts, a group that appeared on local KLRA and were the main act on the station's "Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance". Also frequently on the bill was an act called "Union County Boys" that might have included Barnhart as well.

Approximately in 1948, Barnhart left Arkansas for a couple of years and headed south to Shreveport, where he performed on KWKH with the Union County Boys, which included such musicians as Ted Rains and Fiddlin' Rufus at one time or another, and they also appeared on the station's famous Louisiana Hayride show. He worked with such artists as Hawkshaw Hawkins during this time but left Shreveport in 1950. The next two or three years are a bit sketchy but we find him working with Tommy Scott's show in Denver, Colorado, around June 1953 with Jimmy Winters. This job did not last long for Barnhart though, as Billboard reported the next month that both men had left the show.

Billboard June 17, 1950

Barnhart moved east again and wound up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he worked at WNOX. Already in late 1952, he had signed a recording contract with Columbia's OKeh label and a session from December 8 that year at Castle Studio in Nashville yielded four songs, which saw release on OKeh the next year. The first of them appeared in the summer of 1953, comprising "Wedding Bell Waltz" b/w "Get Off My Telephone" (OKeh #18002).

Billboard December 5, 1953
Country & Western Artists' Directory

Barnhart returned to Little Rock in either 1954 or in 1955. By then, the Arkansas Jamboree Barn Dance had been replaced by a live stage show entitled "Barnyard Frolic" and Barnhart became not only a cast member but also the emcee of the show. In addition, he could be heard on KLRA during the week. Barnhart was part of an all-star show featuring Elvis Presley in February 1955 and again in August 1955 at the Robinson Auditorium.

From 1953 until 1954, OKeh had released a total of four singles by Barnhart but none of them showed enough success to encourage the label to extend his contract. Following his affiliation with OKeh, Barnhart signed with Decca Records and held one session for the label on June 14, 1955, at Bradley Studio in Nashville. From the four songs recorded that day, only "I Don't Want It on My Conscience" and "Blue Mountain Waltz" (Decca #29640) were released around two months later. "Idle Hours" and "Honky Tonk Fever" remained in Decca's archives. It remained Barnhart's only session for the label.

After 1955, hints to Barnhart's musical career become rare. The last mention I could find was an advertisement in the New Oxford Item in its August 6, 1959, issue, announcing a personal appearance by Hawkshaw Hawkins and Barnhart, among others. According to his obituary, he spent most of his life in Cushing, Nacogdoches County, Texas, though this may not apply to the 1940s and 1950s. The obituary further mentioned that Barnhart was a welder as well as a construction worker and it's probable that he returned to these occupations after his music career. Apparently, he had worked for the Rusk State Hospital prior to his retirement in 1982.

Sammy Barnhart died on February 4, 1997, at the age of 79 years at his home in Cushing. He is buried at McKnight Cemetery in Cushing. His wife Ercil followed him in 2015.

Recommended reading

Sources
• Peter Guralnick: "Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing" (Hachette UK), 2020
• various Billboard issues

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Roy Acuff on Capitol

Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys - Whoa Mule (Capitol F2738), 1954

We won't go into detail on Roy Acuff's career and biography as well as his efforts in and importance for country music's history. Rightfully, he is known as "The King of Country Music". Between 1953 and 1955, Acuff's recordings were released by Capitol, the only major label based on the west coast, and Acuff's name and rather old-fashioned style of country music is not really associated with this label. However, he recorded numerous sides for the label in Nashville, beginning in February 1953.


Billboard February 28, 1954
"Whoa Mule" comes from Acuff's December 2, 1953, Capitol session, which took place at the Tulane Hotel in Nashville. He was accompanied that day by Lonnie Wilson and Jess Easterday on guitars, Brother Oswald on banjo/dobro/vocals, Howdy Forrester on fiddle, Jimmy Riddle on harmonica, and Joseph "Joe" Zinkan on bass. Capitol released it with "Rushing Around" from the same session on #F2738 in February 1954. By then, Acuff's days as a hit maker were gone but nevertheless, his discs still must have sold decently, as he recorded steadily during the 1950s and Capitol even promoted this particular discs with ads in Billboard. The song was also included in Capitol's album of Acuff recordings "The Voice of Country Music" (1965) and even had seen release previously in Germany on a Capitol EP in 1963.

"Whoa Mule" is a traditional song/tune known throughout the whole south, mid-western states and even southwestern states. Many artists have recorded it since the 1920s, the first being Riley Puckett's version for Columbia from September 1924. Since then, countless versions have appeared and "Whoa Mule" also made the transition from an old-time tune into bluegrass band repertoire. It is also known as "Kickin' Mule", "Buckin' Mule" or "Johnson's Old Grey Mule".

Recordings
The following list contains historical recordings which I chose to include here. The list is incomplete - additions are appreciated.

Riley Puckett, Whoa Mule (Columbia #15040-D, Silvertone #3258, Harmony #5147-H), rec. September 11, 1924, rel. October 1925 (Columbia), 1926 (Silvertone, as Fred Wilson)
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, Whoa, Mule (Brunswick #2811, Silvertone #3050), rec. November 21, 1924, rel. March 1925 (Brunswick), rel. 1926 (Silvertone)
The Hill Billies, Whoa! Mule (OKeh 40376), rec. January 1925, rel. June 1925
Chubby Parker, Whoa Mule Whoa (Gennett #6120, Champion #15260, Silvertone #5011, #25011, Supertone #9189), rec. April 11, 1927, rel. June 1927 (Gennett)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, Whoa, Mule (Brunswick #179), rel. 1927
Leonard G. Fulwider, Whoa, Mule, Whoa (Victor #V-40270), rel. July 1930
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, Whoa, Mule, Whoa (Bluebird #B-5591), rel. August 1934
Al Clauser & his Oklahoma Outlaws, Whoa, Mule, Whoa (Melotone #7-08-63), rel. August 1937
Hinson, Pitts and Coley, Whoa, Mule, Whoa (Bluebird #B-7438), rec. January 24, 1938, rel. February 1938
Prairie Sweethearts, Whoah Mule Whoah (Silvertone acetate), rec. January 17, 1942
Dickie Goodman, Whoa Mule (Rori -R-601), rel. September 1961
The Bootleggers, Whoa, Mule (Autogram AEP 173 [Germany]), rel. 1971
Gwyn Biddix & Toe River Valley Boys, Whoa Mule Whoa (Mayland #MA 006), rel. 1973
Stonecreek, Whoa Mule (Ca Va #S261 [UK]), rel. 1978
Narvis Reptile, Whoa Mule Whoa (Thrust #RUFF 4 [UK]), rel. July 1982
Rosebud Band, Whoa Mule Whoa (Blackvinyl #BV-414), unknown date

Sources
45cat entry
• various further entries on 45worlds/78rpm and 45cat on "Whoa Mule" recordings
Traditional Tune Archive
Secondhand Songs (more versions)
Praguefrank's Country Music Discography entry

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Hank Smith on Gilmar


Hank Smith / The Nashville Playboys - Heartbreak Hotel (Gilmar RX 120), 1956

How George Jones Became Starday's Elvis

By 1956, George Jones had landed his first hit in the country music charts, "Why Baby Why", and was Starday Records' rising star. He had recorded for the label since early 1954 but was still building his career. At the same time, rockabilly and rock'n'roll were taking America's music scene by storm. However, Starday had been mainly a country music label and Jones a country boy at heart as his producer and Starday co-owner Pappy Daily was. Though, Daily recognized the potential rock'n'roll was bearing, especially sales-wise.

In 1956, Dixie Records was introduced as a subsidiary of Starday and eventually served for custom recordings, potential original material and, beginning in January 1956, as a mail-order budget soundalike label. Daily coaxed several of his Starday recording artists into the idea of recording covers of the hits of the day, mostly country music but also some rockabilly songs. Jones was no exception and called into the studio. Short of money, he agreed to throw himself into a cover of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", which was released in late January 1956 and became an instant #1 rock'n'roll hit. Jones cut the song shortly afterwards, in March, at Gold Star Studio in Houston, Texas, and his version bears some raw power, much more primitive and energetic than Presley's original, with great support by Starday house musicians Doc Lewis on piano, Hezzie Bryant on thumping bass, and Hal Harris performing an aggressive lead guitar solo.

The recording first saw release on Dixie EP #502 (as an edited, shorter version) under the name of "Thumper" Jones. To say Jones didn't like to record rock'n'roll would be an understatement - he hated it. That's why Daily came up with the name "Thumper" - in order to hide Jones' real identity. Other songs from that EP were credited to Thumper Jones, too: "Blue Suede Shoes", which was in fact recorded by Leon Payne, and "Folsom Prison Blues", which had been cut by Benny Barnes. The longer version of "Heartbreak Hotel" was eventually leased to other budget companies and therefore appeared on a plethora of labels, including Tops, Gilmar, Record-Of-The-Month-Club, and probably some more.

Daily encouraged Jones to cut his own rockabilly songs and shortly after the session for Dixie took place, Jones was back at Gold Star in March to lay down "Rock It" and "How Come It", which were released in May 1956 on Starday #240 (again credited to "Thumper" Jones). These powerful rockabilly performances later became favorites among rock'n'roll music fans but remained a dark spot for Jones and didn't sell well back then, mainly because Starday, which was strictly a country label, didn't know how to promote it properly.

George Jones promo picture, late 1950s

Although Jones never recorded songs as frantic as his rockabilly performances for Starday, he cut a slew of other rockabilly songs that, in some cases, even cracked the charts. He did more sessions for Dixie that produced cover versions, including a rendition of Johnny Horton's rockabilly hit "I'm a One-Woman Man", and later cut rockabilly for Mercury, such as "White Lightning" (a #1 hit for Jones) or "Who Shot Sam" (#7).

In later years, Jones used to dismiss his 1950s rockabilly recordings and rumour goes that he cracked a copy of Starday #240 a fan handed him to sign. The songs, however, are still in circulation on countless rockabilly compilations and several reissues that gather Jones' rockabilly songs.

Sources
• Nathan D. Gibson: "The Starday Story - The House That Country Music Built" (University Press of Mississippi), 2011, page 34-36

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Marvin McCullough on Boyd

Marvin McCullough - Mayby My Baby (Boyd BB-3383), 1961

Tulsa has been a city full of music for long and it was especially a hot bed for western swing music since the 1930s, mainly due to the presence of Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys and the various bands that developed out of it, led by Wills companions like his brother Johnnie Lee Wills or his former steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe. One of Tulsa's later stars was singer and DJ Marvin McCullough, who enjoyed great popularity in the area in the early 1960s.

McCullough was born on September 13, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama, and collected his first experiences in the radio business on Alabama stations WGAD out of Gadsden and on WANA in Anniston. Nothing else is known about this early stage in his career.

Probably his first recordings were made in the mid 1950s with the Acme record label from Manchester, Kentucky. Today, the label is best remembered for its traditional bluegrass, gospel, and country music releases and it is probable that McCullough's first sides were in a similar style. Acme #1210 was his first release and coupled "I Think I'm Falling in Love with You" with "I Can't Tell My Heart". It was followed by Acme #1215, two religious song performed with support by the Keck Brothers, "The Bible in Song" b/w "My Lord Is Coming Home from Heaven". Although these cuts seem to be McCullough's earliest recordings, no exact release date has been documented or can be traced as Acme releases are hard to date.

In 1950, McCullough joined the staff of KWHN in Fort Smith, Arkansas, near the Arkansas-Oklahoma state border. He remained with the station for five years and in 1955, switched to KRMG in Tulsa, which broadcast out of Leon McAuliffe's Cimarron Ballroom. By 1958, McCullough was appearing regularly with Gene Mooney's Westernaires, a local Tulsa western swing combo that was around for many years, appearing in Northeastern Oklahoma and Northwestern Arkansas. McCullough formed his own band in 1961.

By the early 1960s, McCullough had become the top country music DJ in town. By then, he performed western swing, the predominant style in that region. Billy Parker, steel guitarist and band leader himself, remembered that at one time in the early 1960s, McCullough had three shows daily: one in the morning, a lunchtime show (a slot he had taken over from Leon McAuliffe), and a midnight show. "People would come in as a studio audience and watch him when he was on the radio. The studio room probably had seats for 40 people, but there was never enough room. People would standing around against the walls. Even on his midnight show, he had a studio full," remembered Ira "Rocky" Caple, McCullough's steel guitarist and band leader in his own right, in a 1990s interview with John Wooley.

In 1961, McCullough began recording for local Oklahoma labels, first for Carl Blankenship's Razorback label from Muskogee, located near Tulsa. Blankenship had been a DJ on KWHN in Fort Smith, too (McCullough knew him likely through their mutual days at the station), and had booked Mooney and the Westernaires into several places during the late 1950s. McCullough and his band released "Bitter Tears", sung by Jimmy Hall, and "Sawed Off Shot Gun", an instrumental spotlighting the steel guitar skills of Rocky Caple. 

Billboard May 15, 1961, C&W review

His most popular record came that same year with a song called "Just for a Little While", which saw release in May on the Boyd label (#BB-3383) from Oklahoma City. Both the A side and the B side, "Mayby My Baby", were written by successful songwriter Eddie Miller. "Just for a Little While" was a top seller and saw national distribution by United Artists. Following the success, Boyd released another single by McCullough in 1961.

Billboard November 6, 1961
Capitol Records, which had a noteworthy country roster with the likes of Buck Owens, Ferlin Husky, Tommy Collins, Hank Thompson, Wanda Jackson, and many more, saw enough potential in McCullough to sign him to a recording contract. Though, only two records without significant success saw the light of day on the label. The first came out around September 1962, comprising "Just Inside Your Arms" and "Where Else Could I Go" (Capitol #4820) from a May or June 1962 session. A November session the same year remained unreleased and McCullough's next single was not released until August the next year, "Stranger In My Arms" b/w "'If' Is a Mighty Big Word" (Capitol #5030). For most of the material, McCullough relied on Eddie Miller's songwriting talents.

The unsuccessful run at Capitol seems to have stopped McCullough's career as a recording artist but he continued to work as a DJ. He began working for KFMJ (Tulsa) in 1968 and worked as the station's music director.

In 1971 or 1972, McCullough returned to Alabama and continued to work in radio. "I believe Marvin came to Anniston, Alabama, because his parents were retired there," remembered Fred Azbell, who was a 22 years young radio DJ in the early 1970s, and whom I found through my researches on McCullough. While Azbell was the nighttime announcer on the station, McCullough took over the afternoon shift. Azbell continued: "I got to know Marvin when I worked with him at WANA in Anniston [...]. He had a really wild lifestyle and could not maintain his pace without help from amphetamines. He made more money doing radio remote broadcasts than most people made all week in radio. He was a born entertainer. I was only about 21 or 22 in those days and I always got a kick out of his stories of working in Tulsa."

McCullough played ocassional gigs in Anniston but obviously had stopped recording. "He had lots of old recordings on the Capitol label. He would always claim they were a brand new release, though it was obvious that they were old," Azbell recalls. McCullough's life would take a serious turn, when he went to jail in 1975, as he had shot WANA morning announcer Randy Carter at a gas station between Anniston and Oxford late one night. Apparently, he did not spent too much time behind prison bars: "I have no idea how he beat that attempted murder charge. [...] He was definitely in jail for a while. I don't know the whole story but a mutual friend visited him in jail in Talladega and said he was in pretty bad shape," retells Azbell the story. "I have no idea where he went after that," he concludes.

McCullough was out already the following year and continued to work as a DJ. Though, he had to change stations and wound up on WKSJ in Mobile, Alabama. Though, this was probably for a short time only. Unfortunately, there is no documentation about how he spent the following years.

McCullough had a stroke in 1991, by then he was in his mid 50s. In the late 1990s, he had returned to his old stomping grounds, the Arkansas-Oklahoma border region, and hosted a gospel music radio show in Oklahoma. His turbulent life came to an end in 1998 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, just two weeks after his wife had died.

Discography

Acme 1210: Marvin McCullough and Band - I Think I'm Falling in Love with You / I Can't Tell My Heart
Acme 1215: Marvin McCullough and the Keck Brothers - The Bible in Song / My Lord Is Coming Back from Heaven
Razorback 45-113: Bitter Tears (with Jimmy Hall) / Sawed Off Shot Gun (with Rocky Caple) (1961)
Boyd BB-3383: Just for a Little While / Mayby My Baby (1961)
Boyd UA-345: Just for a Little While / Mayby My Baby (1961)
Boyd BB-111: Are You Still in Love with Me / Pillow To My Right (1961)
Capitol 4820: Just Inside Your Arms / Where Else Could I Go (But to Her Arms) (1962)
Capitol 5030: Stranger In My Arms / "If" Is a Mighty Big Word (1963)

See also

Recommended reading

Sources
• Billy Parker, John Wooley, Brett Bingham: "Thanks -  Thanks a Lot" (Babylon Books), 2021
• Special thanks to Fred Azbell and John Strauss for providing their memories and recollections about Marvin McCullough.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Wayne Raney on New American

Wayne Raney - The Uncloudy Day (New American 45-NA-104), 1960

This release dates back to a time when Raney had turned to gospel music full-time and many of his EP records during this period were probably produced and released for selling them through his show on powerful WCKY in Cincinnati.

The recordings for this extended play 45 were cut in 1960 at Raney's own studio in Oxford, Ohio, which he had established about three years earlier. The line-up included Raney on vocals and harmonica plus his family, which might have included his wife Loys and his children Zyndall, Wanda, and Norma Jean, as well as an unknown guitarist.

"The Uncloudy Day", or better known as "The Unclouded Day", was composed by Ohio born Josiah Kelley Alwood in 1885. It was recorded by several artists during the 1960s. Raney's own version was reused by him for his "All Time Family Favorites" LP on his Rimrock and Gospel Voice LPs (#GV-101) as well as for another 45 release on his Raney label (#104).

See also

Sources

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Ronald Mansfield on Beam


Ronald Mansfield - Tell Me Pretty Words (Beam 707-45), 1957

Beam Recordings was a local Abilene, Texas, based label, that basically recorded country music in the 1950s and 1960s. This particular release by Ronald Mansfield is from 1957 and seems to be the first on the label. Note the publisher "Slim Willet Songs", which suggests Mansfield or the label had a connection with Willet, Abilene's country music stalwart. Although the matrix numbers indicate that "Tell Me Pretty Words" was the top side, the label indeed pushed its flip "Lonely" according to a promo sheet.

Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1958

Catalof of Copyright Entries, 1959

Ronald Mansfield was a TV repair man that had a few releases on Beam and Winston, the latter being Slim Willet's label. His "Someone Else's Arms" was also recorded by Ralph Edwards on Beam and  "Tell Me Pretty Words" was eventually recorded by Slim Whitman. Mansfield was probably not the songwriter and pianist of the same name that recorded with the Massachusetts based group the Dusters.

Billboard December 22, 1958, C&W review

Born Ronald Eugene Mansfield, his birth date was likely December 16, 1930, in the small town Chillicothe, Texas, as was his twin brother Donald. They were born to Clyde and Mary Mansfield. According to an Avalanche Journal newspaper snippet, both brothers were living in Abilene by October 1950.

Mansfield made his debut on the Beam label with the disc featured today, followed by another single on the same label, "Blue Am I" b/w "My Love" (Beam #708) the next year. A third Beam release likely came out in the late 1950s and a fourth not until the 1960s. Also in 1958, Mansfield came to the attention of Slim Willet and started recording for Willet's Winston label, also out of Abilene, which produced another two singles.

No more hints to Mansfield's music career can be found. His brother Donald passed away in 1977. Mansfield eventually lived in Dickinson, Texas, and died on February 26, 2002, at the age of 71 years. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas.

Discography

Beam 707-45: Tell Me Pretty Words / Lonely (1957)
Beam 708-45: Blue Am I / My Love (1958)
Beam 709: ? / Someone Else's Arms
Winston 1023-45: Thank You / How I've Missed You (1958)
Winston 1028-45: The Ring Mother Wore / Life Sure Changes (As the World Rolls Around) (1958)
Beam 808: If This Is Living / Someones Elses Arms

Sources
Find a Grave entry
Entry at 45cat
SecondHansSongs
• Entries for Mansfield and Beam Recordings on Discogs
Rockin' Country Style entry for the Dusters
Avalanche Journal (October 15, 1950), page 18
• Laurie E. Jasinski, Casey J. Monahan: "Handbook of Texas Music" (Texas State Historical Association), 2012

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

David & Darlene Robinson on Bejay

David & Darlene Robinson with the Eldon Valley Boys - Green Country (Bejay 1353), 1971

The "Green Country", about which David and Darlene Robinson sing, is the Northeastern part of Oklahoma. The term is used since the early 20th century but became well-known during the 1960s through a campaign initialized by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation. Sometimes, the term "Green Country" also refers to the Tulsa metropolitan area, which lies within Northeast Oklahoma.

The copy I bought carried a little handwritten note within the record sleeve, which gave me a little bit of info about the record. "Green Country" as well as the flip "If You Step On Her Hear, You're Walking On Mine" were recorded in June 1971 by David and Darlene Robinson and their band, the Eldon Valley Boys, for Ben Jack's Bejay custom label.  The session took place at Jack's recording studio in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It was the Robinson's debut record, followed by two more releases on what was likely their own imprint, Big Green Country (pressed by Rimrock). One of these discs was solely credited to the Eldon Valley Boys. The Eldon Valley was likely a name for the small community of Eldon, Cherokee County, Oklahoma (in "Green Country"), located in the valley of Baron Fork of the Illinois River.

Unfortunately, I couldn't turn up any info on neither David and Darlene Robinson nor on Raymond "Ray" Robinson, the writer of both sides and likely a family member. I suspect all three to be siblings, however.

Discography

Bejay 1353: David & Darlene Robinson with the Eldon Valley Boys - Green Country / If You Step On Her Heart, You're Walking on Mine (1971)
Big Green Country BS 413: David & Darlene Robinson and the Eldon Valley Boys - Green Country / The House That We Live In (1974)
Big Green Country BS 414: The Eldon Valley Boys - It's His Spirit / I Am a Christian

Sources

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Wayne Edwards on Rimrock

Wayne Edwards / Ramblers - What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am) (Rimrock 253), 1968

Wayne Edwards had one release on Wayne Raney' Rimrock label, "What Kind of a Fool (Do You Think I am)" b/w "Please Tell Me (Where I Stand)". Accompanied by the "Ramblers", this is the kind of country music Rimrock became known for: traditional, unpolished, authentic. Released in 1968, both songs were composed by Edwards, about whom nothing else is known.

There are two more releases, one on the Houston, Texas based Ramada label (1970) and another one on the Two Hearts label (involving Nashville music business figure Wade Pepper), although I'm not sure if this is the same artist.

Sources
• 45cat entry for Wayne Edwards / Ramblers and Wayne Edwards (possibly different artists)

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Eddie Bond on Tagg


Eddie Bond - In From Stepping Out (Tagg 6406), 1964

Eddie Bond was a popular figure in Memphis in the 1960s and the 1970s. A singer, record label and club owner, promoter (and probably much more, too much to sum it up here), he was also called the "King of Memphis Country". He was born in 1933 in Memphis and began his career in the early 1950s.

At some point, he founded a band called "The Stompers", which included a very young Reggie Young, later famous guitarist and studio musician for countless recordings. The Stompers were, like many Memphis bands in that field, a crossover between western swing and more traditional country music. Bond is now infamous for rejecting Elvis Presley, who had auditioned for the Stompers. Different versions of this story circulate, however, and Bond later denied things went that way.

He first recorded for the Ekko label in 1955 and in 1956, he recorded what became the foundation of his later popularity among rockabilly fans. He signed with Mercury and cut a slew of now highly acclaimed rockabilly songs, including the rockabilly anthem "Rockin' Daddy" (a cover of Sonny Fisher's Starday recording). In the following years, he released countless records, continuing for Mercury, then for D, his own Stomper Time label, Wildcat, and then Coral.

Beginning in 1960, Bond also recorded for several Arkansas based labels, including United Southern Artists and Tagg Records from Plainview, a small town in central Arkansas. The Tagg label released a couple of records during the mid 1960s and our selection, "In from Stepping Out", is from 1964. The flip side was "Every Part of Me" and both songs were likely recorded in Nashville, produced by another Arkansas born singer, Teddy Wilburn. The recordings featured well-known musician Pete Drake on steel guitar.

Both songs had been previously released on Bond's own Diplomat label a year earlier. By then, Bond had gone back to performing country music, and this is a prime example of his style. The song was later recorded by Loretta Lynn and became a hit for her in 1968. Bond's recording was re-released again on Bond's Tab label that same year following Lynn's success with the song.

Bond continued to release single and long play albums throughout the decades and became part of the rockabilly revival movement. Several records with his old and new rockabilly recordings appeared both in the United States and in Europe and he did numerous gigs in Europe. He died in 2013.

See also

Sources

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Bobby Chandler on OJ

Bobby Chandler and his Stardusters - I'm Serious (OJ 1000), 1957

It is hard to tell why Bobby Chandler is overlooked and forgotten so largely, although he even had a chart hit in the mid 1950s. Many of his contemporaries, recording less with even lesser success, are remembered better than Chandler and his vocal group, the Stardusters.

Robert Harold "Bobby" Chandler was born on August 3, 1937, in Little Rock, Arkansas to Horace and Valeria Chandler. He had a brother, Billy, and a sister, Betty, who played piano and with whom he had a very close relationship. Chandler was influenced by all kinds of music, listening to country music, gospel, jazz, big band, and pop music.

While at Little Rock Central High School, Chandler formed a vocal group called the "Stardusters", patterned after the Platters. The line-up included Chandler, Bill Sharp, Bobby Blount, Bill Glasscock, and Bill Detman on guitar. The group performed at school events and other local Little Rock venues. About a year later, the Stardusters were discovered by Bill Biggs and Red Mathews, who operated Old Judge Music Publishing in Memphis and set up their own record label, OJ Records, in 1957. They chose Chandler and the Stardusters to be the first group on the label. They recorded "I'm Serious", a Quinton Claunch and Bill Cantrell penned song, and "If You Love'd Me", released around April 1957 on OJ #1000.

The success came unexpected and the disc sold well locally and "I'm Serious" made the Billboard pop charts a short time later, peaking at #38. The group went out on the road and appeared regularly in their home town Little Rock, becoming frequent guests at Steve Stephens' TV show on KTHV. "Any time he wanted to come on the show, I said, ‘Sure, come on down.’ I’d always make space available for him," Stephens, who was especially fond of Chandler's voice and talent, later recalled. They also performed on Wink Martindale's "Dance Party" TV show in Memphis. The group became so popular in Little Rock that when Ray Charles, already one of the top names in music by then, played the Robinson Auditorium in April 1957, the main spot was given to the Stardusters and Charles became the opening act.

"I'm Serious" was covered the same year by the Hilltoppers and saw release in various European countries in this version. Chandler and the Stardusters recorded a follow-up to their hit, "Shadows of Love" b/w Me and My Imagination" (OJ #1005), which couldn't repeat the success of its precursor. After a third disc for the label, their association with OJ ended. Though, among the many artists that recorded for the label, Chandler and the Stardusters were the most prolific and successful.

Chander cut one more record for Hi Records in Memphis, a label that had been in business for about a year by the time Chandler's record was released. However, success eluded this disc again and by 1959, he had grown tired of being constantly touring. "He was just a hometown boy, always was," remembered his sister Betty. When Chandler settled in Little Rock, marrying his high school sweetheart Kate Smith, he brought an end to the professional career of the Stardusters. However, they would reunite every year for the high school reunion.

Chandler went on to work for the City of Little Rock for the next 30 years, limiting his singing to a hobby. When he retired, however, he took up performing professionally again, though mostly in Little Rock and other Arkansas areas, and recorded a total of eight albums for Blue Chair Records.

Bobby Charles died unexpectedly from lung cancer on April 6, 2012, at the age of 74 years at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock.

See also

Sources

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Russ Thompson on Blue Bird

Russ Thompson and the Arkansas Blue Birds - My Arkansas Baby (Blue Bird BBS 601), unknown year

I was introduced to Russ Thompson's unique records years ago through the blogs of a record collector who called himself "Red Neckerson" or "Howdy" (see 45blog and Frances' Favorite 45s). Since then, Russ Thompson has caught my attention but I was never able to unearth any information on him. When I was given the possibility to purchase both of his 45s recently, I jumped at the chance.

From what I remember Red told me that Russ Thompson and his wife Paula were local Little Rock country music singers. His Blue Bird disc, probably Thompson's own label, was pressed by Wayne Raney's Rimrock plant in Concord, Arkansas, in the 1960s or 1970s. This release became a little underground favorite among collectors since it was posted by Red as "My Arkansas Baby" features a hot band. The other one, on Thompson's Russ, Paula imprint, was self-released by him and pressed by Monarch in 1969. It featured both songs from the Blue Bird release plus his version of the country classic "Wreck of the Old '97".

Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1970

The address on both records, 3901 East Broadway in North Little Rock, seems to have been Thompson's home at that time. The address houses a hardware store today.

If anyone has more information on Russ Thompson, feel free to leave a comment.

Discography

Blue Bird BBS 601: Russ Thompson and his Arkansas Blue Birds - Beautiful Arkansas Waltz / My Arkansas Baby
Russ, Paula RPR 101: Russ Thompson and his Harmonica: Wreck of Old 97 / My Arkansas Baby / Beautiful Arkansas Waltz (August 1969)


See also
Blue Bird and Russ, Paula on Arkansas 45rpm Records

Sources
Russ Thompson on Discogs

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Lance Roberts on Sun

Lance Roberts with the Gene Lowery Singers - The Good Guy Always Wins (Sun 348), 1960

For the last decades, Lance Roberts has been an unknown and mysterious name in rock'n'roll history. As Bear Family researchers put it, "nearly all the men and women to record for Sun have been documented exhaustively, but Lance Roberts remains murky" - until now. I don't want to claim to have unearthed his whole story but I managed to bring a little light into the shadowy career of Roberts.

He was born Kenny Arlyn Roberts on November 12, 1939, in Norman Park, Colquitt County, Georgia. At least his father's family had been living in the same South Georgia area since the early 19th century. Roberts' parents' first child died as an infant in 1935 but the couple were blessed with two more children, Kenny in 1939 and his sister Jane in 1941. Other details about Roberts' early life still have to be discovered.

Roberts' way into music business and his stroke of luck to record his debut for a major label are more riddles to solve. In 1959, Roberts, who had changed his name for performing purposes to "Lance Roberts" by then (possibly to avoid confusion with popular east coast country musician Kenny Roberts), recorded a total of four songs for Decca Records, all from the pen of the songwriting husband-and-wife duo Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. Roberts' first session took place on February 1, 1959, at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio in Nashville, probably with a line-up consisting of top Nashville studio musicians but details escape us on this issue, unfortunately. The results of this session, "You've Got Everything" and "Why Can't It Be So", were released in spring that same year on Decca #9-30891. Billboard was pleased with the "good, spirited style" of the songs and the disc saw also release in Italy on the Fonit label the following year. Noteworthy success eluded it, however.


Lance Roberts promo picture, 1950s

A second session was arranged for Roberts on June 11, 1959, at the same location, which produced "What Would I Do" and the song he is maybe best remembered for, "Gonna Have Myself a Ball" (Decca #9-30955). While his first disc was on the soft teen sound side of rock'n'roll with Roberts' vocal similar to Elvis Presley's, he turned to strong rock'n'roll on his second effort, especially for "Gonna Have Myself a Ball". The pair was released around August 1959 but again, sales were likely disappointing.

Since May that year, Roberts was under contract of Acuff-Rose's new management and promotion firm ARAC (Acuff-Rose Artists Corporation), headed by Dee Kilpatrick. He was in good company there, as the firm also managed several Grand Ole Opry stars like Roy Acuff, Don Gibson, Billy Grammer, as well as newcomer Roy Orbison and Boudleaux Bryant, with whom Roberts had already made acquaintance.


Billboard April 27, 1959, pop review

Billboard August 10, 1959, pop review


After Decca had dropped Roberts from its roster, he found his way to Memphis, where he managed to convince the studio executives of Sun Records of his talent. As Sun's owner Sam Phillips had resiled from recording work, it is likely that one of his producers saw enough potential in the young singer from Georgia to invite him to a session in the fall of 1960. In Phillips' new studio on Madison Avenue, two songs were produced on Roberts, "The Good Guy Always Wins" and "The Time Is Right", with vocal support by the Gene Lowery Singers. The latter song was co-written by now legendary Memphis figures Charlie Feathers, Quinton Claunch, and Jerry Huffman, who had performed in a band togther, and the top side was from the pen of Arkansas songwriter Bill Husky, who later operated Jakebill Records.

The songs were released on Sun #348 around October 1960. At the time of release, Roberts was still based in Norman Parks as Sun documents reveal that his contract was sent to an address there. The songs were promising productions in commercial terms, being on the edge of rock'n'roll and pop, but Sun Records' heyday had already passed and the disc sunk without much notice.

Billboard October 24, 1960, pop review


We lose track of Roberts for the 1961-1962 period but on January 19, 1963, Billboard reported that Lance Roberts had been signed to recording and management contracts by United Southern Artists, Inc., a record company based in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Likely spotted by the firm's A&R manager Carl Friend, Roberts cut his fourth single for the label that year, although details remain sketchy. Issued on United Southern #5-131, the disc comprised "It Was Fun While It Lasted" plus an unknown B side. An original copy of this release has yet to be found.

Roberts retained his connection with Carl Friend as more than a year later, both became heads of Joey Sasso's new Music Makers Promotion office in Nashville. This is the last hint we find on Roberts' career. At some point in his life, he changed trades and became a farmer. He married Patricia Wells in 1976, with whom he had five children.

We can say with some certainty that Roberts remained a lifelong resident of Colquitt County, Georgia, where he died on March 14, 2011, at the age of 71 years.

Discography

Decca 9-30891: Lance Roberts - You've Got Everything / Why Can't It Be So (1959)
Decca 9-30955: Lance Roberts - Gonna Have Myself a Ball / What Would I Do (1959)
Fonit SP 50216: Lance Roberts - You've Got Everything / Why Can't It Be So (1960, Italy)
Sun 348: Lance Roberts with the Gene Lowery Singers - The Good Guy Always Wins / The Time is Right (1960)
United Southern Artists 5-131: Lance Roberts - It Was Fun While It Lasted / ? (1963)

See also
The United Southern Artists label

Sources
45cat entry
Rockin' Country Style entry
Find a Grave Entry
Bear Family Records
Fonit single on Popsike
Entry at Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies