Blankenship Brothers on Bluegrass

Blankenship Brothers with the Sundown Playboys - Lonesome Old Jail (Bluegrass 45-816), 1959

In the past years, I have been digging deep into Arkansas' country and rock'n'roll music history. Though, before the Natural State came to my attention and became my specialty, the state of Indiana was near the mark. Numerous live stage shows were broadcast from the state during the 1940s and 1950s, countless small independent labels existed during the 1950s and 1960s and Indianapolis alone was home to so many bands, artists, labels, and clubs. It was a thriving scene but a topic that is rather unexplored with so many interesting singers and bands. One of those artists were Dennis and Floyd, the Blankenship Brothers, whose legacy was kept alive by collectors and lovers of "hickabilly" or rockabilly hick music.

Before we dig deeper into their story, it is better to mention that there were several acts by the name of the Blankenship Brothers or Family. An old-time family band known as the Blankenship Family recorded for Victor in the early 1930s. There was another brother act, Jess and "Gonie" Blankenship were another old-time duo, performing around Beckley, West Virginia, and appearing on the city's WJLS radio in the late 1930s. There was possibly even a third act that went by that name - more about this issue later, though.

Brothers Dennis and Floyd Blankenship's family hailed originally from the Tennessee-Kentucky border region but both made their home in Indiana by the late 1950s. Dennis was the older brother, born Garland Dennis Blankenship on November 18, 1923. His place of birth is obviously disputed, as his obituary mentions Macon County, Tennessee, as his birthplace, while official records mention Allen, Kentucky. However, six years later, brother Floyd C. was born on April 9, 1929, in Lafayette, Macon County, Tennessee. Their parents Thomas Stone "Tom" and Allie Lee (Jent) Blankenship had at least seven children and looking at their birthplaces, it seems that the family moved back and forth between adjacent counties Allen, Kentucky, and Macon, Tennessee. Father Tom's family were longtime residents of Macon County, at least since the early 18th century, but it was Tom's grandfather Joel Blankenship who married Ellen Grey from Allen, Kentucky, bonding the family to both places.

Dennis Blankenship served his country during World War II and upon his return, married Berneze Thomas from Scottsville, Allen County. Floyd married around five years later. By the 1950s, both had made the move to Indianapolis, an industrial center and the booming state capitol of Indiana. The city was also home to many automobile manufacturers, once rivaling Detroit, and attracted many rural southerners that were seeking for easier work, escaping the hard farm labor, and better living conditions. Among them were the Blankenships, who brought along their bluegrass music from their home states Kentucky and Tennessee, and by the late 1950s, Dennis and Floyd had formed a band known as the Blankenship Brothers, which also included fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and bass, though the exact line-up remains blurry.

The success of both the 45rpm format and rock'n'roll, which caused an upswing in private owned, independent record labels, also came to Indiana and in the middle of the decade, several local companies had been set up, turning out country music as well as rock'n'roll. The Blankenship Brothers' development and music style reflected both: in 1959, they started making their own records and several of their recordings featured elements of rock'n'roll, although they always retained a rural bluegrass chop.

To break into the record business, the brothers decided to work with the Starday record company from Texas, which had started a custom pressing service in the 1950s. They sent off two of their recordings, "Tears I Cried for You" and "Mary", which were pressed in May 1959 with a label the brothers had aptly requested to call Bluegrass Records. Later obituaries state that "Mary" made the national top 10, which is hard to believe and most likely a misunderstanding on the obituary's author's side. I couldn't find any hint to "Mary" being successful at all.

The Blankenship Brothers Band (feat. far right Russell Spears)
Photo from the German Dee-Jay Jamboree issue (1988)

Their first record had been pure bluegrass with banjo, fiddle, and haunting vocals, harking back to the ancient sounds of their homes in Kentucky and Tennessee. For their next release, Floyd and Dennis adapted a slightly more modern style, though they were far away from the sweet teenage sounds that dominated the charts. "Lonesome Old Jail", with a great electric lead guitar, searing fiddle, and some nice harmony singing, became one of the songs collectors loved years later. Coupled with the sweet "Too Late", it was released on Bluegrass late in 1959. On this release, their backing band was dubbed "The Sundown Playboys", which at one time included Russell Spears (who later in turn recorded for Indy based labels Yolk and Nabor) and Miles Ray Miller on electric guitar, who was a close friend of the Blankenships.

Their third Bluegrass release came in the summer of 1960, comprising "The Story (The World Will Never Know)" and "You Went and Broke My Heart". Again, the band featured an electric lead guitarist but both songs were rather traditional material. This was the brothers' last release produced through Starday under the Bluegrass imprint.

In 1960, the Blankenship Brothers decided it was time for their own label and established Skyline Records and their publishing firm, the Blankenship Brothers Music Company. Shortly after their last Bluegrass release, their first Skyline record came out, featuring "Easy to Love-Hard to Forget" backed by "Don't Tell Me Your Sorry". Another disc appeared later that year with "I Got Just One Heart" and "That's Why I Am Blue", the latter being another prime example of the rockabilly hick sound.

While those first two Skyline releases were more on the straight country side, it was their third and last disc on the label that again became an underground favorite some twenty years later. "Waiting for a Train", surprisingly not a Jimmie Rodgers cover but a Blankenship original, featured some solid electric guitar work, a thumping walking bass, and rhythmic acoustic guitar played probably by one of the brothers. The other side was occupied by "Hard Up Blues", another favorite, delivered in a similar manner. The disc came out later in 1960 and was possibly the Blankenships' final release altogether.

There appears to have been another record by a group called the "Blankenship Brothers & the Pontiacs" from May 1964 featuring "Heap Big Blues" and "Travelin'' on the Harron label (probably also a Starday custom press). However, it is not clear if these guys were also Dennis and Floyd Blankenship or another act of the same name. It's not mentioned in any discography apart from the Starday custom pressings listing in Nathan D. Gibson's book "The Starday Story".

Apart from their record chronology, the Blankenship Brothers' career is hazy and only sketchy documented. What venues they played or if they appeared on local radio remains as much a mystery as the musicians they performed with. It is probably worthy to note that the brothers' songs were all original compositions. Floyd Blankenship abandoned secular music in 1967 and became a reverend, founding the True Word Baptist Church around 1970. He was also the founder and leader of a gospel group known as the Kings Servant Quartet. He kept a day job for 38 years, working for Stokley Van Camp and retiring in 1989. While Floyd stayed in Indianapolis, Dennis eventually returned to Kentucky and made his home in Scottsville. Reportedly, he also became a minister.

In 1988 (or 1999, depending which source you believe), a local Indianapolis label called Blue Sky Records (the name being apparently a syncrisis of the Blankenships' labels Bluegrass and Skyline) issued a long-play album entitled "Bluegrass & Rockabilly Kings from Indiana", containing the brothers' twelve sides recorded for their labels. Though some of the information used for this post came from the liner notes of it, the anonymous author obviously knew even less about the brothers' lives than I do. The label bears the old Blankenship address on Spruce Street, though I doubt Dennis or Floyd got any knowledge of this LP as the liner notes are so hazy. This has been the only time the Blankenships' recorded works have been gathered in one place for re-release. Since the 1980s, some of their songs have found their way onto European rockabilly compilations.

Dennis Blankenship died on February 20, 2003, at the age of 79 years at a Scottsville nursing home. His brother Floyd passed away November 9, 2011, at the age of 82 years at Community Hospital East in Indianapolis. He is buried there at Orchard Hill Cemetery. Though much overlooked back then, the Blankenship Brothers are part of Indiana's rockabilly legacy and have presented the world with some of the most unique recordings ever made in that field.

Discography

Bluegrass 45-773: Blankenship Brothers - Tears I Cried for You / Mary (May 1959)
Bluegrass 45-816: Blankenship Brothers with the Sundown Playboys - Too Late / Lonesome Old Jail (November 1959)
Bluegrass 45-870: Blankenship Brother's - The Story (The World Will Never Know) / You Went and Broke My Heart (July 1960)
Skyline 45-105: Blankenship Brothers - Easy to Love - Hard to Forget / Don't Tell Me Your Sorry (1960)
Skyline 45-106: Blankenship Brothers - I Got Just One Heart / That's Why I Am Blue (1960)
Skyline 45-107: Blankenship Brothers - Waiting for a Train / Hard Up Blues (1960)
Harron 1073: Blankenship Brothers and the Pontiacs - Heap Big Blues / Travelin' (May 1964)

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Indiana MusicPedia entry
• Discogs
• Liner Notes from Blue Sky LP 100 on bopping.org (Internet Archive)
• Floyd Blankenship Find a Grave entry
• Dennis Blankenship Find a Grave entry
• Bluegrass Records entries and Blankenship Brothers entries at Malcolm Chapman's Starday Custom Series blog
• WJLS photostream on Flickr
• Nathan D. Gibson, Don Pierce: "The Starday Story - The House That Country Music Built" (University Press of Mississippi), 2011, page 237
• Thanks to Mike Martin

Pine Mountain Jamboree

The Pine Mountain Jamboree logo, taken from one of the show's cassette tapes

It appears that there have been quite a couple of family-friendly country music live stage shows in Arkansas that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. These were often non-radio shows, people could only experience the fun they promised when attending the shows. Sometimes recordings were made, like it is the case for Eureka Springs' Pine Mountain Jamboree.

The show was founded by the Drennon family, led by Dave and Deanna "Dee" Drennon. Mike and Mindy Drennon helped also but it is unknown to me how they were related. The show started in 1975 and became a popular one, as it continued for over four decades. It featured mostly country musicians, though the cast remains another blank spot in the show's history. Country and gospel classics were performed live on stage, mixed with comedy. The building housing the show was located on Highway 62 in East Eureka Springs and featured vacation homes, shops, and other entertainment as well.

Several recordings were made in the early 1980s. Two LPs appeared in 1981 and 1982 and at least two cassette tapes were issued, too, although it's not clear if the LP tracks differed from the cassettes. There appears to have been a CD in 2003 entitled "Thirty and Counting" (though the show's 30th anniversary would not have been until 2005), which suggests the show was still in existence at that time.

The Drennons retired from the show business eventually and leased the building to Mike and Dale Bishop, who continued to put on shows there for the next years under the name of "Pine Mountain Theatre". The Bishops discontinued their shows, however, and the Drennon family finally sold the estate and buildings to the local Pig Trail Harley-Davidson shop, who turned over management of the Pine Mountain Jamboree to Mark Wayne Beers.

The opening show under Beers' supervision took place in May 2015. During the following months, the show featured such acts as Walt Morrison, Kimberly Swatzell, the Brick Fields Band, Buster Sharp, as well as Beers himself. Beers was ambitious but had to close the show in late 2015 with the last show being on November 12 that year. The building on 2015 East Van Buren (Highway 62) is still standing but abandoned nowadays.

The Pine Mountain Jamboree building in recent years
Source: Google Street View

Sources
• Pine Mountain Jamboree Facebook page
• Locals Only: Arkansas Twang

Carl Blankenship

Source: Al Turner

The Country Cut-Up from Muskogee

The Story of Carl Blankenship

Although hailing from Oklahoma, mandolinist and singer Carl Blankenship was a driving force in the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area's music scene. Apart from his work as a performer, he was also a radio DJ, a songwriter, and record label owner throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Homer Carl Blankenship was born on January 11, 1924, in Wagoner, Oklahoma. At that time, Wagoner was a small city with a population of about 3.000 people, located near Tulsa and Muskogee - and the Oklahoma-Arkansas state border is not far away either. Blakenship was born to William Louis and Edna (Stewart) Blankenship, who owned a farm outside the town, where he and his three siblings grew up. He first attended Star School and after graduating from Wagoner High School, he worked for the Katy Railroad company.

He then joined the US Army's Signal Corps and during Word War II, he spent time overseas, including in France. While on home leave in 1943, he married Leota Anderson. Upon his return to the United States, he was honorably discharged and worked briefly for the Veretans Administration. Blankenship and his wife moved to Muskogee in 1949 and in the 1950s, he began working as a salesman for Herzfeld's Beauty Supply.

Around 1951, Blankenship met singer-guitarrist Cliff Waldon through a mutual befriended salesman and they soon formed a duo, subsequently known as the "Country Cut-Ups". Their first appereance took place at a Sunday School event from Muskogee's First Baptist Church. By June 1956, the duo was performing on KWHN's Saturday Night Radio Center Jamboree in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and had made guest appearances at radio live shows such as the Big D Jamboree in Dallas, Texas, the Cowtown Howdown in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Barnyard Frolics in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Around the same time, Blankenship and Waldon managed to secure a recording deal with Dale Siegenthaler's Stardale label out of Morris, Oklahoma (about 30 miles southwest of Muskogee). Around spring of  1956, they travelled to Dallas (possibly while they were appearing at the Big D Jamboree) and held their first recording session at Jim Beck's studio. Accompanied by a studio band featuring Jim Rollins on guitar, Bob Meadows on steel guitar, Billl Simmons on piano, and Fred Scott on bass, the duo recorded "A Rose for Mother" and "It Takes Money", both written by Siegenthaler with the help of Stardale recording artist Carl Tilton. 

Both songs were released on Stardale #13 in June 1956. It remained their only joint release, though, and soon, Blankenship and Waldon went seperate ways. Waldon had recorded two solo songs probably at the same session, which saw release at the same time on Stardale (#12) and in Canada on Ampex a year later. Following their breakup, Waldon went rock'n'roll and recorded two discs for the Mark label.

Blankenship stayed true to his country roots and by early 1958, had found a new duet partner in Arkansas native "Little" George Domerese. They gained a spot on KWHN in Fort Smith and began performing the Arkansas-Oklahoma border region. 

Inspired by Siegenthal's entrepreunism in the record business, Blankenship decided to establish his own Razorback record label in early 1958. Possibly intended to be mainly an outlet for his own discs, he nevertheless found several local artists that recorded for him in the years to come. The debut release, however, was reserved for Blankenship's own recordings of "What's Another Broken Heart" and "The Kind to Cheat" (Razorback #101) in March 1958.

For the next years, Blankenship would appear on local radio, spinning the discs also on KOLS in Pryor, Oklahoma, in 1960, did live shows, played personal appearances in the region, as well as recorded for and led his own Razorback label well into the 1960s. He closed down Razorback in 1962 and his KWHN show with Domerese ended in 1964. It seems that he ceased musical activities from that point, although he performed with his own bluegrass band at festivals, church meetings as well as family gatherings and led the the singing class in the local church's Sunday School.

Besides all that, Blankenship held down his day job as a salesman and finally, he and his wife bought the Herzfeld company in 1973, changing the name to Blankenship Beauty Supply. He retired in 1987 and sold the business.

Carl Blankenship passed away on November 19, 2006, at the age of 82 years at Muskogee Regional Medical Center. He is buried at Fort Gibson National Cemetery. His wife Leota followed two years later.

Discography

Stardale 13: Carl and Cliff /  The Country Cut-Ups - A Rose for Mother / It Takes Money (1956)
Razorback 101: Carl Blankenship - What's Another Broken Heart / The Kind to Cheat (1958)
Razorback 105: Carl Blankenship - I Can't Live to See Tomorrow / I'd Like to Set You to Music (1959)
Razorback 108: Evay and Gene Travis with Carl Blankenship - The Kings Highway / Loved Ones Are Waiting in Heaven (1960)

See also

• Little George Domerese: A Giant in Johnson County Country Music

• Linda Flanagan on Razorback

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Find a Grave entry

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• various Billboard and Cash Box news items

Little George Domerese

Little George Domerese

A Giant in Johnson County Country Music

"Little" George Domerese was a Northwest Arkansas based singer, radio personality, promoter, and songwriter. Domerese hailed from Johnson County, near Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the territories located on the banks of the Arkansas River and Lake Dardanelle, from Russellville to Fort Smith, became Domerese's stomping grounds his whole life.

George Virgil Domerese, whose nickname "Little" more than likely came from his stature, was born on October 13, 1926, in Johnson County, Arkansas, to Harley Clarence and Eva (Elkins) Domerese. He came from a large family with a total of nine children. I found no hint to where his last name originated from but I suspect a Greek origin.

Blessed with musical talent, Domerese and his younger brother Clarence had begun appearing as "The Domerese Brothers" by 1950. He had formed a duo with mandolin player Carl Blankenship six years later and by 1958, the duo was performing over KWHN in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Domerese and Blankenship also played school houses along the Arkansas-Oklahoma state border and in addition, he worked with Lost John Miller at KWHN during this time. By then, Carl Blankenship had established his own record label Razorback Records, headquartered in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and although Domerese would never record for that imprint (though Cash Box would report differently in February 1958), he penned two songs, "The Kings Highway" and "Loved Ones Are Waiting in Heaven", which were recorded by Blankenship for Razorback in 1960.

Billboard December 14, 1959

In 1958, Domerese began promoting live country shows, including the KWHN Country Music Jamboree in Fort Smith and his own Johnson County Jamboree in Clarksville. By May 1960, he had added a show on radio KFDF in Van Buren, Arkansas, to his repertoire (Domerese would eventually own KFDF for 34 years), and could be heard on KLYR in Clarksville, too. Around that time, he also promoted records by Blankenship's Razorback label, including Vernon Stewart's "Down to the Blues", the label's latest release in early 1960.  His KWHN show with Blankenship went off the air around 1964 but Domerese remained active in the radio business.

Domerese's only solo recording came into existence probably in the late 1960s. Favoring religious material, he composed two slices of primitive, Vietnam war themed country gospel, "Dear Daddy I'll Pray for You" and "A Message from Daddy in Heaven", which he recorded on the Power label. Given the fact that it was a Rimrock custom pressing, I assume the Power imprint was his own venture.

Domerese would diversify his interests in the radio business by buying gospel stations KMTL in  Sherwood/North Little Rock in 1988 and KWXT in Dardanelle/Russellville and owned at least KMTL until his death.

Domere's wife Earla died in 2016, followed by Little George Domerese on February 27, 2017, in Clarksville at the age of 90 years. KMTL was sold by the Domerese family after his death.

Discography

Power PS 103: Little George Domerese - Daddy Dear Daddy I'll Pray for You / A Message from Daddy in Heaven

Sources
• Find a Grave entry
• 45cat entry and Carl Blankenship 45 entry
• The World's Worst Records blog by Darryl W. Bullock
• Clarence Domerese obituary
• various Billboard and Cash Box news items

Cousin Ford Lewis on 4 Star

"Cousin" Ford Lewis with Joe Bean and his San Antonians - I'm Movin' On (4 Star 1510), 1950

Here we have a disc but an artist that was well-known on the west coast during the late 1940s and early 1950s but slipped into obscurity after his recording career ended. "Cousin" Ford Lewis recorded a string of 78rpm records for Pasadena's 4 Star label, an independent company that secured its place in music history as a hit maker of post-war country music.

As much as 4 Star is well-known still today, Ford Lewis unfortunately did not leave behind as much traces as the record label. I assume he was born not in California, possibly in Arkansas (I could swear I read that somewhere), on June 15, 1917, and came to the west coast in the 1930s or 1940s. I couldn't find any hints to his background, sadly.

However, by 1947, he had relocated to California and had made himself a name as country music performer "Cousin" Ford Lewis. He became also known as the "Wonder Valley Cowboy" due to his theme song "Wonder Valley". During his career, he could be heard on such stations as KXLA (Pasadena, California), KMJ and KFRE (Fresno, California), and KGER (Los Angeles, California).

One of 4 Star Records' executives discovered him while being on the road and signed him to a recording contract. The label was already successful with country artist T. Texas Tyler and signed several more unknown but innovative artists during the next years. Lewis' first recording session for the label took place in 1947 in Hollywood, recording a total of six songs with support by Les "Carrot Top" Anderson and an otherwise unknown band. "Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" b/w "Judy" from that session were chosen for his debut release (4 Star #1164).

Billboard October 18, 1947

Apparently, Lewis was not a talented songwriter and had to rely on material by other writers. Already his first release, "Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine", was a cover of the old-time hit by Gene Autry and Jimmie Long from the early 1930s. Some of his releases were considered to be hits, although they never appeared in Billboard or Cash Box charts. 4 Star was selling between 50,000 to 700,000 copies of several T. Texas Tyler releases and each of them was considered to be a hit. The same probably also applied to Lewis' releases, although it is probable that his sales remained in the lower areas.

To boost 4 Star's artists' popularity, one of the label's owners, Don Pierce, taped radio show segments to send them to powerful border town stations like XERB, XELO, XERF, and XEG across the Mexican border. Lewis was among those artists, which definitely increased his popularity.

Lewis recorded such songs as "Juke Box Cannon Ball" (written by Rusty Keefer, recorded by Bill Haley), "Dora" (written by Johnny Tyler), or "Dear John" (originally by Hank Williams). In 1950, Lewis renewed his contract with 4 Star and by August that year, was working with Joe Dean and his San Antonians at Dave Ming's Harmony Corral Park in Anaheim, California. Dean and his band also supported Lewis on his 1950 recording sessions for 4 Star.

Billboard August 19, 1950, C&W review

His last release appeared around August 1950 with a romping cover of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On" and "Last Night You Said Goodbye" (4 Star #1510). Both songs were recorded ca. in June that year with Joe Dean's band in Hollywood. An unknown third song was recorded during this session, which remained unissued and seems to be lost. Billboard reviewed the disc in August but had no high hopes for it ("should do okay in the hill country and Southwest").

Apart from a couple of various artists EPs on which 4 Star put Lewis' songs, no more discs appeared by him, neither on 4 Star nor on any other label. It seems that he went out of the music business immediately after his contract ended.

"Cousin" Ford Lewis died on April 10, 1985, at the age of 64 years.

Recommended reading
• SecondHandSongs
• "Juke Box Cannonball" and "Don't Bother Me" on the Internet Archive

Sources
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• 45worlds/78rpm entry
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entries
• Discogs
• Bill McNeil: "The Armstrong Twins" (Musical Traditions), 1986
• John Broven: "Record Makers and Breakers - Voices of the Independent Rock'n'Roll Pioneers" (University of Illinois Press), 2009, page 281

Jesse Stevens on Bluegrass

Jesse Stevens and Big Sandy Boys - Mama, Mama (Bluegrass #45-712), 1958
From the hilly, coal mining community of West Van Lear, western Kentucky, came Jesse Stevens, who brought us two of the most rural, primitive, rockabilly records that ever existed.

Stevens was born on January 4, 1932, to William and Bertha (Ball) Stevens. He had a twin sister, Georgia, and came from a big family with a total of nine children. The small community of Van Lear is only a few miles a way from Butcher Hollow, where, a few months after Stevens' birth, a future country music super star would be born: Loretta Lynn.

Jesse Stevens in the 1970s
Picture from the back of White Label LP 8812

Stevens was musically inclined and by the 1950s, was playing guitar, singing and composing. Although Stevens was more fond of bluegrass, when rock'n'roll came along in the mid 1950s, he was converted - at least for some time. With the Big Sandy Boys, a local bluegrass group, he recorded a couple of songs in a living room, hence the primitive sound. The group included Gene Walden on lead guitar, Harold Burton on mandolin, Charlie Shermin on guitar, and Charlie Moore on bass, though probably not all of them participated in the actual recording session(s).

From the songs recorded, Stevens released "Mama, Mama" and "No Bluebirds in the Sea" on his own Bluegrass label (#712). To manufacture the record, he sent in the tapes to Starday, which custom pressed an amount of a few hundred copies for Stevens in mid 1958 at Rite pressing plant in Cincinnati.

Another two songs, recorded with the Big Sandy Boys, appeared in late 1959 on Stevens' label (this time spelled "Blue Grass") with "Go Boy Go" b/w "I'm In No Mood for Your Love" (#209-1) - although Cees Klop stated on the back on one of his White Label LPs that they had remained unissued.

These recordings remained Stevens' only cuts, though he kept on playing music locally. There were a couple of other records on different labels throughout the 1960s and 1970s that featured a group known as the "Big Sandy Boys", though it seems to be unrelated to Stevens' group.

In the 1970s, Stevens was tracked down by Dutch rock'n'roll collector Cees Klop, who released recordings he found during his trips to the United States on his own White Label and Collector labels to European fans. Such was the case with Stevens' recordings, which appeared on White Label LP 8812 "Unknown Rock and Roll" in 1979. Since then, Stevens' songs have appeared on several reissue compilations.

Jesse Stevens died on March 12, 2013, at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Manchester, Kentucky. He was 81 years old. He is buried at Adams Cemetery in Manchester. His wife Shirley passed away in 2023.

Sources

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• Big Sandy Boys 45cat entry

• Find a grave entry

• Discogs

• Anonymous/Cees Klop: "Unknown Rock and Roll" liner notes, (White Label LP 8812), 1979

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

Allen Wingate a.k.a. Allen Page

Allen Page
1950s Moon Records promo picture

Between Moon and Sun - Between Sin and Salvation
The Story of Allan Wingate a.k.a. Allen Page

Cordell Jackson's Moon record label, and in particular Jackson herself, became a cult phenomenon in 1980s Memphis. And the label's most prolific recording artist was Allen Page, who has - unfortunately - found little acclaim since his records came out in the 1950s. However, he probably would have dismissed it being celebrated as a rockabilly hero as he became a preacher under his real name Allen Wingate. From the 1960s onwards, he found his satisfaction in traveling around the country and preaching the gospel.

Many other artists that recorded in Memphis during the 1950s and early 1960s came from the rural areas of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In contrast, Allen Lamar Wingate, to give him his full name, came from the city of Tampa, located on the sunny west coast of Florida. There, he was born on August 14, 1936. His mother Corrine Elizabeth Eiland would not marry his father Woodroow Wingate until about a month after Wingate's birth. Though, the relationship broke up soon after and they divorced a year later. During World War II, Wingate's mother worked at Tampa's ship yard to support the family. She had married Glen Burnside, whom she divorced in 1945, however.

In 1956, Wingate moved to Memphis, which was the place to be for rock'n'roll music. By then, he was probably already married to his wife Joann. Their oldest son James had already been born and Allen Lamar jr. followed in October 1956. By then, Wingate had started performing in Memphis night clubs under the name of "Allen Page" and had taken up composing songs with his wife, too. It was probably around the same time that he went into Memphis' Sun Studio and auditioned. A demo tape entitled "What Else Could I Do" with Wingate on vocals and guitar, backed up by upright bass and electric guitar, has survived. However, the audition went nowhere. Though, two of the songs Wingate and his wife had written were recorded by Ernie Barton in March 1958 for Phillips Int., "Stairway to Nowhere" and "Raining the Blues".

Following his unsuccessful Sun audition, Wingate came to the attention of Cordell Jackson, a pioneering woman in music business who had founded her own record label Moon Records shortly before. Wingate recorded his debut "Honeysuckle" b/w "High School Sweater" (Moon #301), both penned by him and Joann, in 1957 but without much success. This was not because Wingate wasn't talented; Moon Records was a local Memphis business without proper distribution and the recordings itself were too provincial for the national market. The record had enough exposure to stir a cover version, though: "High School Sweater" was recorded a couple of months later by Arkansas born singer Kenny Owens.

Cordell Jackson obviously had faith in the young singer, as she produced a total of four singles on him and the first three we released straight in a row. All of them were first-class Memphis rock'n'roll but none of them caught on. His "She's the One That Got It" was written by him for his wife. While Wingate was a talented songwriter and composed most of his recorded material on his own, he also cut Cordell Jackson's "Dateless Night" and "Oh! Baby". The latter, along with "I Wish You Were Wishing" (a song he recorded twice for Moon), was released on Moon #307 in 1960 and became not only Wingate's final single on the label but also the label's last release altogether. He had cut it with the Big Four, a group that had also recorded in its own right for Moon.

Billboard June 13, 1960, pop review

By then, it had become obvious that Wingate's moment to reach stardom as a rock'n'roll artist had passed. The hard-driving rockabilly that was produced under Cordell Jackson's supervision had definitely gone out of fashion by 1960. Wingate was heavy on alcohol, cigarettes and drugs by 1963 but one night in August that year, he found faith and - in his own memories - never touched any of it again. He became an evangelist and with companions like brothers Billy and Tommy Brown, spent much of the 1960s traveling the country and preaching the word of God. Billy Brown, who was also from Florida and had embarked on a country and rock'n'roll music career much like Wingate, had experienced similar set-backs and had drifted into alcoholism. He later told stories of such miracles as deaf ears opened, blind eyes could see, immediate healing, etc., that occurred while traveling with Wingate. Besides traveling the United States, Wingate's extended tours also took him to Canada, Mexico, and Panama.

Joann and Allen Wingate, ca. 1978
Taken from the back of their album "Beyond the Sunset"

Back to the music. Wingate recorded a four song EP of uptempo country gospel, including a version of Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light", in 1965. An accompanying LP was released simultaneously with more cuts. For a while, the Wingate family lived in Sharonville, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where a couple of recordings were made with his wife and his son James. Eventually, much of his family would take part in his recordings. At least two more LPs followed in the 1970s, which make up a total of four albums by Wingate known to me. Probably more recordings were done throughout the years and released on LP or cassette.

Wingate settled his family in the fall of 1975 in New Smyrna Beach, on the east coast of Florida, where he founded the New Smyrna Beach Church of God and served the community as its pastor until his death. Allen Wingate passed away on April 26, 1993, in his adopted hometown of New Smyrna Beach. He is buried at Sea Pines Memorial Gardens in Edgewater, Florida. He was survived by his wife Joann as well as eight children and 22 grandchildren.

Since 1975, Wingate's rock'n'roll recordings were re-released consequently in Europe. Collector Records released two of his Moon recordings that year on the "Super Rock a Billy, Part A" LP and since then, Wingate's songs have been reissued numerous times, including on LPs and CDs put out by Moon Records. Wingate's take on "I Saw the Light" saw also release on the 2018 "Hillbillies in Hell" compilation.

Allan Wingate performs "I've Found a Better Way" at the
Belleview, Mississippi, Church of God, ca.1980s

Discography

Singles
Moon 301: Allen Page and the Crowns with the Moon Beams - Honeysuckle / High School Sweater (1957)
Moon 302: Allen Page with the Deltones - I Wish You Were Wishing / Dateless Night (1958)
Moon 303: Allen Page - She's the One That's Got It / Sugar Tree (1958)
Moon 307: Allen Page with Sandy and Sue and the Big Four - I Wish You Were Wishing / Oh! Baby (1960)
No label No.#: Evangelist Allen Wingate - It's Different Now / I'm Counting On Jesus / I Saw the Light / At Calvary (1965)

LPs
No label No.#: Evangelist Allen Wingate - Beyond the Sunset: Songs from Me for You (1965)
The Evening Light No.#: Allen and Joann Wingate - He Set Me Free (1974)
The Evening Light No.#: Allen Wingate and the Family of God Singers - That Old Fashioned Salvation (1978)
Unknown label No.#: Allen Wingate Family Singers - All for His Glory

See also

• Ernie Barton on Phillips Int. 

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Rate Your Music
• Discogs entries for Allen Page and Allen Wingate
• Find a Grave entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Gospel Jubilee entry
• Information on Corrine Elizabeth (Eiland) Wingate on WikiTree
• Allen Lamar Wingate, Jr., obituary
• That's All Rite Mama: Evangelist Allen Wingate
• Various Wingate family members commented on Youtube videos of Allen Wingate's gospel recordings. Thanks for the information provided!

Bill Huskey

Bill Huskey
The Unknown Songwriter from Arkansas

While digging deeper and deeper into Arkansas' country and rock'n'roll music past, I ran across a songwriter by the name of Bill Huskey. While the name didn't catch my interest in the first instance, it finally did and in the end, I found out that Huskey was also responsible for some great rock'n'roll recordings on Billy Lee Riley's Rita Records.

Claudis "Bill" Huskey was born on April 1, 1932, to Leslie Ray and Verna Lee Huskey in Caraway, Arkansas, a small town in the northeastern region of the state that was so rich of musical talent. He spent some time serving in the US Army and by the late 1950s, had made his way to Memphis, Tennessee.

By late 1959, Huskey had connected with Billy Lee Riley, who had recently founded his own record label in Memphis, Rita Records. The debut release was reserved for Huskey, who recorded his rock'n'roll composition "Rockin' at the Zoo" along with "Funny Paper People" for the label. Released in December 1959 on Rita #1001, the single failed to stimulate any national interest.

During the same time, he also hung around Sun Studio and managed to pitch some songs to the label's executives. Huskey's "The Good Guy Always Wins" was given to another young singer from Georgia, Lance Roberts. The result was released in October 1960 on Sun. Singers like Billy Garner and Billy Lee Riley also recorded his composition during this time.

At the same time, Huskey's own next release came out on Rita. Credited to "Tommy Hawk", the label issued "Chief Sitting Bull", another rock'n'roll performance, and "I Thought About Living" on the other side. The latter was an answer song to Bob Luman's hit "Let's Think About Living" that soon captured the attention of the original's publisher Acuff-Rose. Threatened with legal action, Rita withdrew the release and put Huskey's earlier recording of "Rockin' at the Zoo" on the flip with "Chief Sitting Bull" remaining. 

In 1962, Huskey worked with Quinton Claunch and his Bingo label (forerunner of his much more successful Goldwax record label). "Big Bad John the Twister" b/w "Pop-Eye Time" were released in the spring of 1962 on Bingo #111 as by another pseudonym, "Jon Kennedy".

Catalog of Copyright Entries 1962

Catalog of Copyright Entries 1962
Copyright entry for Huskey's Bingo single

None of Huskey's singles did noteworthy well so far and it seems that he very much quit recording after his Bingo release. He returned to Arkansas and founded his own record label Jakebil Records in Newport in 1969. The debut release was given to Huskey's daughter Kenni (sometimes also spelled Kenny), who went on to greater fame than her father. Huskey also released a duet with his second wife Julia (who also recorded solo) on Jakebil, "Good Old Country Song" b/w "I Wouldn't Give You the Time of Day" (#1003/4).

Later that year, Huskey moved his family and business to Anaheim, California, where daughter Kenny continued to build her career. She was eventually discovered by country star Buck Owens and recorded for such labels as Capitol and Warner Brothers.

While Huskey also spent some time in Nashville, he eventually returned to Newport, Arkansas, where he died on April 7, 2021, at the age of 89 years. His wife Julia had already passed away.

See also
• Jakebil Records discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records (Arkansas records only)

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Arkansas Democrat Gazette obituary

Mike Waggoner & the Bops

Mike Waggoner and the Bops, ca. 1956-1958
Taken from the front cover of Norton LP ED-406

Mike Waggoner and the Bops

Kings of Minnesota Rock'n'Roll

Mike Waggoner and the Bops were a regional Minneapolis, Minnesota, rock'n'roll group. Norton Records once dubbed them "The Kings of Minnesota Rock'n'Roll" and although there were more successful groups from the Mid-North, there were few that had a more energetic sound than Waggoner and the Bops. Author Seth Bovey once called them "one of the earliest and most influential garage bands in Minneapolis".

The band's leader was born in 1940 and made his first experiences in the music business at the age of 10 years. Waggoner came from a musical family, most of his relatives played an instrument. Growing up on a farm in rural Pine County, East Minnesota, he was influenced by country music at an early age and began to perform with his father's country band. In 1953, Waggoner appeared on three different local TV talent shows: the Topy Prin Talent Show on WCCO, the Jimmy Valentine Talent Show and the David Stone Talent Show, both on KSTP.

In the fall of 1954, the family moved to Richland, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Waggoner began to listen to local DJ Carl Peterson on WLOL. He also tuned in to such powerful stations as WLS from Chicago, KHJ from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and KOMA from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and discovered rockabilly and rock'n'roll music. During 1955 and 1956, Waggoner became a fame of such artists as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley and the Comets, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, and others. 

While in high school, Waggoner decided to put together a band for a one-off variety show, performing a couple of Elvis Presley songs. Overwhelmed by the screaming response of the young girls in the audience, he organized the band as a steady outfit with him on vocals and rhythm guitar, his brother Colin "Collie" Waggoner on lead guitar, Dick Benedict on rhythm guitar, Doug Barton on saxophone, Rusty Bates on string bass, and Lyle Gudmanson on drums. The group first performed at a record hop hosted by Carl Peterson at the St. Richard's Catholic Church in Richfield. The band was still nameless and asked by Peterson, Waggoner came up with "The Bops", inspired by Gene Vincent's minor hit "Dance to the Bop".

Seth Bovey tells a different story in his book "Five Years Ahead of My Time" how the band came along: One day in 1957, Gene Vincent drove up in his shiny Lincoln to a gas station owned by Waggoner's uncle, and Waggoner, who worked there at the time, serviced Vincent. Inspired by this incident, he decided to form a band. This story differs largely from Waggoner's own account, however.

During the next two years, the Bops played various venues in the area, mostly sock hops hosted by Carl Peterson, including such locations as the Ford Union Hall in St. Paul, the Laidlaw VFW in Minneapolis, the Bloomington Roller Rink, among others, as well as school events. At that time, none of the members were able to drive a car, therefore their parents stepped in to transport the band and its gear to the gigs. The year of 1958 brought some line-up changes, as the different members graduated from high school and some of them left for college. Waggoner and his brother continued as a four-piece band with Sheldon Hasse on bass and John Lentz on drums. Among their many performances was a steady job at the Crystal Coliseum.

During the years, the popularity of Waggoner and the Bops grew. They rose to one of Minnesota's most influential and most popular rock'n'roll groups, playing countless venues and spots in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin as well as their home base, the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Several artists listed them as an influence, including the Trashmen, a band that hit big later with "Surfin' Bird". "The king around here at the time was Mike Waggoner and the Bops", said Tony Andreason of the Trashmen. "He was absolutely our idol. And Colly Waggoner was very good, if not maybe the best picker around. Over time, when Colly couldn't play a job, then Mike would call me and I play", he is cited in "Everybody's Heard About the Bird" by Rick Shefchick. Butch Maness, who would later replace Sheldon Hasse on bass in the Bops, recalled in that same book about the band: "That was my idol. I thought that was the best band in the world. I saw them at the Crystal Coliseum. Wow. [...]"

Despite their popularity, the Bops didn't make any recordings until the early 1960s. On March 13, 1961, the band went to Kay Bank Studios to lay down a slew of recordings, most of them covers. During its lifetime, the band only had few original compositions in its repertoire and concentrated on cover versions of rock'n'roll hits of the day. While at Kay Bank, they browsed through their set list and cut such songs as "Good Rockin' Tonight" (Roy Brown/Elvis Presley), "Work with Me Annie" (the Royals), or "Bye Bye Johnny" (Chuck Berry).

The session was produced by Bing Bengtsson, who also managed successful artist Bobby Vee. Bengtsson took two of the Bops' recordings, the Dale Hawkins cover "Baby, Baby" plus a band's original instrumental composed by Collie Waggoner entitled "Basher #5", and released them on his own Vee label (#7002) in April 1961. Although "Basher #5" was the designated A side, their cover of "Baby, Baby" started getting airplay from such jockeys as Bill Diehl at WDGY or Sam Sherwood at KDWB. With approximately 1,500 to 2,000 copies pressed, the disc remained a local hit, though.

In the years to come, Waggoner and the Bops continued to play very successful in Minnesota and surrounding states. In June 1964, club owner Ray "Big Reggie" Coulihan called the band to perform at his Danceland club in Excelsior. The Bops were the opening act for another band, the still unknown Rolling Stones from Great Britain, who were set to perform there on June 12, 1964. Different factors led to a gig that went not as well as expected: little advertisement, high admission, plus the fact that the Stones were still unknowns in the US at that time. Only 200-300 people attended the show, many of them came rather to see the Bops than the Stones, and the audience received the Stones polite but reserved.

Waggoner and the Bops tried their hand at recording one more time in late December 1964 at Dove Recording Studio in St. Louis Park (another suburb of Minneapolis). That day, the line-up consisted of Waggoner, Dave Clausen on lead guitar (replacing Colin Waggoner who was in the service), Butch Machess on bass, and Lentz. Another session at the same location took place in March 1965 (with Colin Waggoner back on guitar). From those two sessions, the two originals "Blue Days Black Nights" (which was not only similar in title to the Buddy Holly song but also in style) and "Where and When" were released on the short-lived studio in-house Dove record label the same year. This disc enjoyed some airplay on WCCO.

In the fall of 1965, Waggoner and the Bops were offered a place on a tour through Australia and New Zealand, where American rock'n'roll (and at that time evolving rock music) was still very popular. Waggoner, married and father of two young children, declined, however, and decided to take his life into another direction. The Bops disbanded in 1965, playing their last performance at the Woodley's Country Dam near Amery, Wisconsin.

Waggoner pursued another career in radio as a DJ as well as music and program director. From 1965 until 1976, he could be heard on WEAQ in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on WEBC in Duluth, Minnesota, and on WDGY in Bloomington, Minnesota. He then moved into the sales department of WCCO until 1981 and finally became station manager of radio KJJO. Later in the 1980s, he also worked in sales for KMSP-TV and KSTP-TV. Since the 1970s, Waggoner had resumed playing with bands. Since 1974, he had performed with a group called "The Music Machine" and, since 1981, performed with the Bops on special occasions.

In 2005, he founded the "Old School Rockers" and another five years later, established the band "Memphis Trax", playing a mixture of rock'n'roll, boogie, and rhythm and blues. With this outfit, he also recorded an album. Since 2013, he also performs with a band called "Roadhouse". A 2010 interview with Tom Campbell from minniepaulmusic.com led to Waggoner's first appearance in Europe at the Ubangi Stomp Festival in Spain. Several appearances at both American and European festivals followed, including Hemsby, the Pondarosa Stomp, and the Good Rockin' Tonight Festival in France.

Mike Waggoner and the Bops were inducted into the Midwest Music Hall of Fame in 2008. They performed during the celebration at the Medina Ballroom.

Much of the band's recordings were issued in 1983 on the White Label LP "Minnesota Rock-a-Billy-Rock, Volume 4". Since then, their recordings have been featured on several reissue LPs and CDs. The most complete overview of the Bops' work gives the 2015 released Norton Records LP "The Kings of Minnesota Rock'n'Roll", which misses their Dove single, however, and is already out of print.


Mike Waggoner appearing at Hembsy 53 in October 2014, performing "Hey Mama" and "Guitar Man" with the Hemsby House Band


Mike Waggoner and the Roadhouse band perform "Good Rockin' Tonight" in December 2012

Recommended reading
• Memphis Trax
• Concert chronology

Sources
• Mike Waggoner official website
• Mike Waggoner and the Bops on bearfamily.de
• Discogs
• Mike Waggoner and the Bops Timeline on minniepaulmusic.com
• SecondHandSongs
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• 45cat entry
• Twin Cities Music Highlights: The Rolling Stones at Danceland
• Rick Shefchick: "Everybody's Heard About the Bird: The True Story of 1960s Minnesota Rock'n'Roll" (University of Minnesota Press), 2015
• Seth Bovey: "Five Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present" (Reverb), 2019