Updates

- Corrected the "Million Dollar Memphis Sound" post on some issues and added a release by David Dee. - Added several releases to the Universal Artists discography as part of the Humming Bees post. - Added a discography on the Gene Mooney post.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Charlie Rich on Phillips Int.

Charlie Rich - Everything I Do Is Wrong (Phillips Int. 3552), 1960

Charlie Rich ranks among the most famous and influential musicians that ever came out of Arkansas. Rich, unlike many of his contemporaries at Sun, had a jazz background, then switched to rock'n'roll and finally found his home in country music. Though, he was adept at many styles and could switch easily from one to another.

Charles Allan Rich was born in 1932 in Colt, East Arkansas, near Forrest City and not too far away from Memphis, too. His parents, who were very religious people, influenced him through the gospel music they played and sang. Blues came to Rich through a black sharecropper named C.J. Allen, who taught him blues piano, and he found further joy in playing jazz, performing saxophone in the high school band.

A young Charlie Rich, ca. 1950s
He formed the Velvetones while doing service in Enid, Oklahoma, but he and his wife returned to the West Memphis area and became farmers in 1955. He kept on performing locally around Memphis, playing jazz and R&B covers as well as writing his own material. He auditioned at Sun Records but was rejected for being "too jazzy" but became a studio musician for the label in 1958. His piano playing can be heard on numerous recordings, including those by Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, and others.

He began recording in his own right for the Sun subsidiary label Phillips International in 1958 but his first two releases failed to chart. It was his third single that became a hit record, one of the last that came out of the Sun/Phillips house actually. The top side was "Lonely Weekends", a rock'n'roll song written by Rich. It reached #22 on Billboard's Hot 100. The flip side, "Everything I Do Is Wrong", an equally good rock'n'roll piece from his pen, is rather forgotten today. Both songs were recorded on October 14, 1959, at Sun' studio on Union Avenue, featuring Rich on vocals and piano, Roland Janes on guitar, Billy Lee Riley on bass, Martin Willis on saxophone, and Jimmy Van Eaton on drums. They were released on Phillips Int. #3552 in January 1960.

Rich kept on recording for Phillips Int. and Sun both as a studio musician and name artist but further success eluded him. He switched to the RCA-Victor owned Groove label, where he scored some small hits and moved once again, this time to the RCA parent label. He also recorded for Smash and Hi during the 1960s but it was not until he signed with Epic that his most successful era began. He scored several #1 country hits during the 1970s, including "Behind Closed Doors", and many of his hits also crossed over to the pop charts.


Charlie Rich, 1970s

His successful days were over by the 1980s and Rich's heavy drinking caused trouble since the 1970s. He semi-retired, playing only occasionally. He died in 1995.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Sammy Marshall on SPA


Sammy Marshall - Kiss Me Good-Bye Tomorrow (SPA 25-1008), 1963

I became highly desperate when looking at Sammy Marshall's 45cat entry. 71 records and many of them seem to be from different artists of the same name. He was possibly the same artist who had a joint release with Les "Carrot Top" Anderson on the Springfield, Arkansas, based Patmar label. Maybe he was also the same who recorded for Allstar, K-Ark, Pleasant Valley or Belle Meade? I did not know until fellow blogger Bob pointed me towards his research. According to Bob, Sammy Marshall's real name was 1940 in Franklin, Kentucky, as Mark Stewart Simpson. He recorded for Hi and Judd as Mark Taylor, for the Globe Studio in Nashville as Sonny Marcell or Sammy Marshall, and as Ben Tate and Marc Stewart for other labels.

Since I cannot tell you anything substantial about the artist, we continue with the record label. Between 1960 and at least 1964, the label released several discs of various musical genres. There was rockabilly, country music, instrumental rock'n'roll, and pop music. And there was Sammy Marshall with "Kiss Me Good-Bye, Tomorrow", which I would call popular music, too. Marshall shared the disc with John Greer's take on the John Roddie song "(Oh, Ho, Ho, Ho) Heartaches".

If anyone has more information on Sammy Marshall or SPA Records, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me via e-mail.

See also
The United Southern Artists label

Sources
• 45cat entries for Sammy Marshall and SPA Records
SPA Records Rockin' Country Style entry

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

SPA Records

Look at Central Avenue in Hot Springs, Arkansas, ca. 1962

Greetings from Hot Springs National Park
The Story of John Roddie's SPA Records

SPA Records was based in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and was connected (or probably owned) by John Roddie, an entrepreneur and song publisher originally from Mississippi but who had lived in Hot Springs for years by the advent of the 1960s. He owned a publishing firm that was variously called  "Roddie-Miller Music Pub. Company" or "Roddie Music Pub. Company". SPA was likely his first label, which was established in late 1960 with the debut release by local Hot Springs country singer Leo Castleberry, who dabbled in rock'n'roll with "Teenage Blues" b/w "Come Back to Me" (SPA #100-10).


Between 1960 and at least 1964, the label released several discs of various musical genres. There was more rockabilly (Lafay Hawkins), country music (Eddie Bond), instrumental rock'n'roll (Johnny Hughey, who was probably steel guitarist John Hughey), and pop music (Adrain Loraine, among others). Opal Winstead and H. Lindemanis were two of the regular songwriters for the label, as their songs were recorded by a string of SPA recording artists. Noteworthy, many of Roddie's composers were women: Winstead, Dahwiss Meiszinger, Frances Adickes, and his wife Bonnie Roddie.

There was also a subsidiary label called Caesar, which was used only infrequently, however. Only two releases are known to exist on the Caesar imprint (one dated as late as 1970).


The last known release on SPA is from 1964. John Roddie had founded a second label, United Southern Artists, in 1961, which had a greater output but focused on country and rock'n'roll music. This label came to an end in 1964, too. John Roddie died in 1980.

Discography

SPA
100-10: Leo Castleberry - Teenage Blues / Come Back to Me (1960)
25-1001: Eddie Bond - Only One More Minute / I Walk Alone (1960)
25-1002: 
25-1003:
25-1004: Johnny Hughey - The Crawl / Last Date (1961)
25-1005:
25-1006: Ersel Standridge - Khruschev's Call to Satan / Story of My Life (1962)
25-1007:
25-1008: Sammy Marshall - Kiss Me Good-Bye Tomorrow / John Greer - (Oh, Ho, Ho) Heartaches (1963)
25-1009:
25-1010:
25-1011:
25-1012: "Wishy" Washburn and his Carolina Cool Cats - Cool Cat from Carolina / Simple Simon / Little Laurie Little - Come Get Me Johnny / Beverly Bronte' - Golden Hour of Love (1963)
25-1013:
25-1014: Eddie Bond and Dahwiss and her Dixie Drifters - Buffalo Trace / Nobody's Darling (1963)
25-1015: "Wishy" Washborn - Perfect Fool / Beverly Bronte' - Love Is Such a Little Word / Mama Lady - Dear Lord and Santa Claus / Biddle (Bo) Beep (1963)
25-1016: Adrain Loraine - The Serviceman's Dream / Cottage in the Lane / Lafay Hawkins - I Never Had a Girl / Adrain Loraine - I Want a Trailer (1964)
25-1017:
25-1018:

Caesar
25-101: Lafay Hawkins - Let's Be Happy Tonight / Just for Tonight (1961)
25-1025: Don Ange and the Melody Men - My Pet Gorilla / "Wishy" Washman and Orchestra - Miami Blues (1970)

See also

Sources
• 45cat entries for SPA Records and Caesar Records

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Cracker Jim Brooker


Cracker Jim Brooker - A Miami County Music Veteran

"Cracker Jim" Brooker was one of the most influential DJs in Miami country music. But his efforts were not limited only to South Florida, he was also one of the founders of the Country Music Association (CMA), one of the driving forces of country music business and industry to this day. Brooker was a stalwart in Miami from the  1940s until the 1960s, promoting country music in the area like no one else probably did. He brought many Grand Ole Opry acts to Miami, including Hank Snow, Webb Pierce, and Johnny Cash. He was also an avid salesman, selling goods of every kind on his radio shows.

Information on Brooker is scarce though he played an influential role in the history of country music. I reconstructed his full name James Earl Brooker from official census records that can be accessed at ancestry.com. Though, I cannot really determine which of the many men named James E. Brooker he is. Born probably around 1911 in Georgia, Brooker was living in Daytona Beach, Florida, with his wife Mabel by 1935 and worked as a salesman. 

Brooker came to Miami in 1943 but World War II interrupted his life. However, he had started his career as a disc jockey on WBAY by 1947. By December 1950, he had switched to WMIE, Miami's primary country music outlet at that time. He not only had his own DJ show, which broadcast live from a booth at Shell's City, but also put on live stage shows with local talent and even bigger shows featuring top Nashville stars at the Dade County and Dinner Key Auditoriums. He also dabbled in TV, hosting on Saturday afternoons "Cactus Jim's Talent Ranch" on WTVJ (which, at one time, featured a young Kent Westberry) and the Big Orange Jubilee for some time. Although Brooker had found his profession in the radio and TV business that did not mean he gave up being a salesman. He continued to sell all kinds of goods via his radio shows.

Cracker Jim Brooker, ca. 1954
Contrary to many other Miami country DJs like Happy Harold, Uncle Harve, Uncle Martin Wales, Dale Wasson, or Buddy Starcher, Brooker was not a musician. Though, he was so popular in Dade County that Nashville and other parts of the country got notice of him. He was a featured act on the first Hank Williams memorial day held in Alabama in 1954. In addition, he attended Country Music DJ Conventions there as early as 1954 (they had not begun until 1952) and connected with the scene there, becoming acquainted with many of the influential people. Brooker was a member of the Country Music DJ Association and also its president at one time. The association held its annual meeting in the winter of 1957 in Miami at the Gay's Everglades Hotel but was slowly dying, however, and it was decided to form a new organization that was not only for DJs but for every aspect of the business. The Country Music Association came into existence in September 1958 and Brooker served on the first board of directors.

Though Brooker left the board eventually, he retained close connections to the CMA throughout the years. He continued to spin records on WMIE but added another show five days a week on WEDR in the summer of 1963. A year later, when WMIE was sold and changed programming, he switched to WIII and WQAM. He continued to promote country music concerts in the Miami-Dade area, including those by Johnny Cash, whom he knew since the 1950s and who came frequently to South Florida.

It was Brooker who connected Cash with Ervin T. Rouse, composer of "Orange Blossom Special". Cash would record it and made it a part of his routine live set. Cash remembered in an interview for "Life Magazine" in 1994: "I recorded 'Orange Blossom Special' in the mid '60s, and in those days everybody that recorded it claimed the 'arrangement' because no one knew who wrote it. But Mother Maybelle Carter was at the session, and I asked her, 'Do you know who really wrote 'Orange Blossom Special?' She said, 'Sure I do. Ervin Rouse and his brother Gordon.' And I said, 'Where are they?' She said, 'Last time I heard, they were in Florida.' It was the only clue I had. I called a disc jockey down there named Cracker Jim Brooker, and I asked Cracker Jim, 'Did you ever hear of Ervin Rouse?' And he said, 'Aw, I know Ervin. He lives with the Seminoles out in the swamp, and he makes swamp buggies for a living.' I said, 'You got any idea how I could talk to him?' And he said, 'Sure. I'll announce it on the air: 'Ervin, call me and I'll give you Johnny Cash's number.' It wasn't an hour till Ervin Rouse called me from some little settlement in the swamps. I said, 'Ervin, I happen to be coming to Miami on tour. Would you come to my show and do 'Orange Blossom Special' with me?' He and Gordon came in the clothes they worked in. I brought Ervin up to play the fiddle, and he absolutely killed them. At the end of the song, they were applauding and he literally got down on his knees. He was such a sweet, humble man. Gordon's still living. I still see him every time I'm down there."

"Another Cracker Jim Promotion" - Brooker promoted country music events
at the Dade County and Dinner Key Auditoriums with great success

By the mid 1960s, Brooker dropped out of the picture. If anyone has more information about Brooker or memories concerning his shows, please feel free to contact me.

Sources
The Montgomery Advertiser (September 30, 1954)
Country Music Association: CMA Honors Its 60th Anniversary (see also Randy Noles' book "Orange Blossom Boys")
• Entries by Don Boyd on PBase.com: [1], [2]
Bluegrass Messengers: Orange Blossom Special - Version 2, Johnny Cash
Ancentry.com
• Kent Westberry: "I've Got a Song to Write" (Dorrance Publishing Co), 2020, page 6

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Gene Barnett on Wheel


Gene Barnett - Sittin' in the Bathroom (Wheel No.#), 1971

Gene Barnett played bass in Bobby Lee Trammell's band in the early 1960s, then joined Kenny Owens' band around the mid of the decade. He also appeared on Owens' local Jonesboro TV show and recorded for his Owens' ORK record label.

Barnett was born in 1942 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, but spent his early childhood in Bay, a small town outside of Jonesboro. The family then moved to Searcy but Barnett eventually returned to Jonesboro, where he graduated from high school and then pursued a career as the city's street superintendent.

Musically inclined, Barnett had learned to play bass and was also a solid vocalist. He started out around 1962 working with Bobby Lee Trammel and became acquainted with Kenny Owens at some point in the 1960s. Owens was a popular entertainer in Jonesboro and by the late 1960s, Barnett was appearing at Owens' TV show on KAIT. When Owens set up ORK Records, Barnett was among the artists that recorded for the label.

His debut "The Right to Love" b/w "Hey, Come On Now" appeared in April 1969 on ORK. Kenny Owens moved to Nashville in the early 1970s and he might have had a hand in Barnett's next release as well, which was issued on the Nashville based Wheel label. It featured "Wrong Line", Barnett's take on an Owens standard, and the Larry Donn written "Sittin' in the Bathroom". The record appeared in 1971 and is a nice blend of country and rock/rock'n'roll with some great fuzz guitar taking the solo on "Wrong Line". "Sittin' in the Bathroom" stayed more on the country side, genre-wise.

Barnett continued to perform locally. He retired from his job with the City of Jonesboro in 2004 and passed away in 2021.

More info on Barnett will be available in the booklet to Bear Family's double CD release of Kenny Owens, "Got the Bug!", which features Owens' complete recordings and in addition, many recordings from artists Owens worked with, including Barnett's cuts. The release is slated for this year.


Recommended reading
Dead Wax blog: Wrong Line

See also
ORK Records discography

Sources
Gene Barnett obituary
45cat entry

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Chuck Bell on Alley

Chuck Bell - I'm Gonna Get You Girl (Alley 1043), ca. 1968

Here we have a nice variation concerning the music style. Arkansas is best known for its contributions to the country and rock’n’roll music fields but this record proves that there were was other great music that came out of the state.

Chuck Bell’s 45 for Joe Lee’s Alley label out of Jonesboro is a great example. Joe Lee recorded a great variety variety of genres in his Variety Recording Studio during the decades, from rock’n’roll to folk, from soul to country. And Chuck Bell cut a great Soul record there. I’m not an expert on Soul music but I really like this one. He recorded “Summer Whispers” and “I’m Gonna Get You Girl” around 1968 at Alley and it saw release around the same time.

Unfortunately, my researchers turned up nothing substantial about Chuck Bell. There was a Charles W. Bell, Jr., that was born in 1946 and passed away in 2005. He is buried in Jonesboro, so this could be the same person. Chuck Bell had one more release a couple of years later on the Shelby Singleton version of Sun Records in 1981. This is all I could find about him.

Discography
Alley 1043: I'm Gonna Get You Girl / Summer Whispers (ca. 1968)
Sun 1161: Crazy Days / I Don't Live There Anymore (1981)

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Truman Lankford on Stockyard

Truman Lankford - Every Road Leads to Texas (Stockyard SR 102), ca. 1982

Truman Lankford was a longtime performer, from the 1960s until the 1980s and probably has traveled many highways through Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas. He played every roadhouse and honky tonk among those roads but in the end, never found the recognition that this talented singer deserved.

Truman McCoy Lankford was born on November 15, 1929, in Gentry, located in the northwestern corner of Arkansas near the growing metropolis of Bentovnville/Rogers/Fayetteville. By 1948, Lankford had married Elsie Jean "Jeanne" Montgomery and the couple had at least one daughter. Lankford served in the US Army during the Korean War.

Lankford was probably active as a musician before the mid 1960s but he did not record until 1965, when he was already 36 years old. He came to the attention of Skipper Records, founded the same year by Si Siman (who also co-owned Earl Barton Music with Ralph Foster and John B. Mahaffey) in Springfield, Missouri. Produced by M.A. Box, Lankford recorded the snotty country rocker "Arkansas Man" plus "Here-Comes-Heaven-Again" and both found release on Skipper #828S-1241 in 1965.

He had another three releases on local labels during the mid to late 1960s, including "Freightliner Fever" b/w "Watch Me" on the Big Orange label (#651) in 1968, which eventually became his claim to fame.Written by Lankford and L. D. Allen, "Freightliner Fever" was covered in 1970 by Red Sovine for Starday. It entered Billboard's Hot Country Songs in July that year and peaked at #54. Thought not a major hit, it became a minor classic among trucker country artists and was further covered by artists like Dave Dudley and Boxcar Willie. It also meant some welcomed income from the royalties for Lankford.

Lankford moved into a mainstream trucker country style himself in the 1970s and was a cast member of the 70s edition of the Louisiana Hayride. He continued to release singles on small labels well into the 1980s and had one of his few album releases in the late 1970s or early 1980s, "True Man" on the Louisiana Hayride label. He also appeared in the independent movie "Cody" in 1977, which was filmed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Today's selection came from one of his early 1980s recordings that were released on the Stockyard label around 1982. The disc featured "Belly Up" and "Every Road Leads to Texas". While the A side was in a more 80s contemporary country style, "Every Road Leads to Texas" was a throwback to the old western swing days. Fiddle and steel guitar both take nice solos and Lankford supplies good, deep voiced vocals. Of course, it did not become a hit as country audiences had set their minds on other styles.

It seems this was Lankford's last release. He passed away November 17, 1987, at the age of 58 years. He is buried at Friendship Cemetery in Cale, Nevada County, Southwest Arkansas.

 Sources
Find a Grave entry
45cat entry
Discogs
SecondHandSongs
Internet Movie Database: Cody
Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
Garage Hangover: Skipper Records history
Locals Only
Red Sovine - Freight Liner Fever 45cat entry

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Jim Owens on Shock


Jim Owens - Two Shadows (Shock 1005), ca. 1972

Here were have a well-produced, early 1970s country performance from Memphis. Owens was already on the Memphis scene by the early 1960s. He had recorded "Davey Jones Locker" for Marshall Ellis' local Erwin record label, though I couldn't determine exact release information. This song later found its way on a 1986 Ace LP "Memphis Honky Tonk Hillbilly". Around the time Owens recorded for Erwin, he was also part of Gene Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee stage show that originated from Memphis in the early 1960s and also aired over KWAM. Unfortunately, I was not able to come up with more information about Owens.

Shock Records was owned by Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith, who came from Jackson, Tennessee, to Memphis in the mid 1950s as part of Kenny Parchman's band. He soon found work as a pianist with different bands, venues, and recording studios. He also recorded as a solo artist during the 1960s and 1970s without much success. He set up the Shock label in the early 1970s and apart from his own releases, recorded a few local Memphis artists, including Jim Owens.

See also
Jerry Smith on Shock

Sources
Discogs

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Uncle Martin Wales

Uncle Martin Wales in the WBAY studio (Coral Gables, Florida),
ca. late 1940s or early 1950s

The First Hillbilly of Florida
The Story of "Uncle" Martin Wales

Uncle Martin Wales was one of the mainstays of Miami country music, possibly being the most enduring radio personality of the area.

Martin Smyth Wales was born on August 12, 1912, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Charles Elliot and Sarah B Wales. Wales' ancestors had been living in Minnesota since the mid 19th century. Music and performing was an early passion of young Martin Wales, as he entertained soldiers at a gathering at his family's house at the early age of six years.

By 1930, Wales had taken up singing and playing guitar professionally and set out on his own. He started his career in 1930 in Billings, Montana, where he "combined announcing with hillbilly singing" according to his obituary in the Palm Beach Post. He then spent some time in a Canadian logger camp and as a beachcomber on South Pacific islands.

In 1934, Wales spent his holidays in Miami, Florida, and liked it so much he stayed for the rest of his life. He married Vivian M. Stanton in 1938 and started appearing on Miami radio in the 1940s. In 1941, he was a performer on WKAT in Miami Beach. It was at that time that he invented the character of "Uncle Martin", singing old-time songs with a fake beard. He became station manager of WIOD but retained his show on WKAT (where he hosted the "Frosty Martin Show") and in 1947, introduced "Uncle Martin's Square Dance" on WBAY in Coral Gables. In 1951, he divorced from his first wife and married Betty M. Carson the same year.

He also made the transition to television in the early 1950s. In 1953, WITV was started in Fort Lauderdale with a country music show entitled "Sunset Ranch", hosted by Wales and Miss Molly Turner (who later became a popular newscaster in Miami). In contrast to many other early TV shows, it was not filmed in a studio but outdoor on what looked like a ranch (or, on rainy days, from a small cabin). The show featured a lot of local talent, including Eddie Thorpe, Happy Harold Thaxton, Buddy Starcher, and Elaine Rouse, among others.

By 1954, Wales had switched to radio WINZ. Like many of his fellow radio performers, Wales did not record much during his long career. One session by him is documented for King Records' DeLuxe subsidiary label, which had a Miami office headed by Henry Stone and therefore cut sessions on a couple of local performers. On January 1, 1954, Wales recorded two songs, "Sweeter Than the Flowers" and "If You Haven't Written Your Mother", which stayed unreleased, unfortunately.

Wales went out of the business in the 1960s or 1970s, after 30 years of Miami broadcasting. He passed away on March 28, 2003, in Hobe Sound, Florida, at the age of 90 years.

See also

Sources
• Donn R. Cole, Jr.: "Towers in the Sand: The History of Florida Broadcasting" (North Loop Books)
• Sales Management, Vol. 48 (Rutgers University), 1941
• "Hearings" (United States Congress), page 1145
• "Broadcasting, Telecasting", Broadcasting Publications (1947)

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Buddy Starcher

The Wandering Boy from West Virginia
The Story of Buddy Starcher in Miami


Probably nobody embodied the rambling 1930s country radio singer better than Buddy Starcher. The West Virginia native appeared on dozens of different radio stations from the late 1920s up to the 1960s. In the early to mid 1950s, Starcher was living and working in Miami, where he appeared on different radio stations and was part of the city's music scene. While we'll look on his whole career, we'll also focus on his Miami years in this post.

Early Life
Born on March 16, 1906, near Ripley, Jackson County, West Virginia, Oby Edgar Starcher was widely known as "Buddy" from an early age. Reportedly, he did not even knew his real first name until he was a young man. His family were longtime residents of the area and one of his ancestors was the founding father of Ripley. He grew up in adjacent Nicholas County and soon learned to play banjo and guitar, accompanying his father Homer Francis Starcher, who was a fiddler, at local dances.

First Steps and Wandering Years

Smiley Sutter and Buddy Starcher,
late 1930s
Starcher enjoyed his first taste of music business when he won a talent contest in Baltimore, Maryland, and won a spot on the city's WFBR station. This marked the beginning of a long career as a radio entertainer and Starcher would criss-cross the country, hopping from one radio stations to another. Frequent stints included those at WCHS in Charleston, West Virginia, where he also appeared on the Old Farm Hour, WMMN in Fairmont, West Virginia, where he started the Sagebrush Roundup, and WSVA in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Until 1937, he appeared solo on radio and personal appearances but founded a band in 1937, the Mountaineers, to enhance the act. Lee Moore and Smiley Sutter were early members of this outfit.

World War II took many of the members overseas, which broke the band up, but Starcher stayed behind and continued his career. During this time, he moved west to KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa, and KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa. By 1944, he had returned to West Virginia and started recording transcriptions the following year. This enabled him to appear on multiple stations simultaneously, a practice he would continue well into the 1950s.

1948 advertisement for Gretsch guitars
featuring Buddy Starcher
In June 1946, he married band mate Mary Ann Estes. Around the the same time, he operated his own country music park, a venue format that was popular during these years in the northern and eastern states. His popularity had grown so much that a recording contract with Bill McCall's California based 4 Star Records was the result. During his time with 4 Star, he scored one hit with his own "I'll Still Write Your Name in the Sand", reaching #8 on Billboard's Best Selling Folk Records chart. He also went into partnership with songwriter Marion Goddard to found the Dixie and Autograph record labels, on which he recorded such artists as the Franklin Brothers, Big Slim the Lone Cowboy, Rusty Gabbard, and Bobby Cook. However, Starcher and Goddard failed to built up a distribution network and the labels folded eventually.

Starcher had enjoyed a drink from the time he had appeared on barn dances with his father but during the 1930s and 1940s, he became more and more dependent on alcohol. A radio pastor took care of him and finally, in 1948, he overcame his addiction and became a newborn Christ. Though, he continued his work in radio and music business but often enriched programs and appearances with religious material and topics. In 1949, he signed with Columbia and recorded mostly sacred material but despite his popularity on air, failed to achieve another hit record.

In Miami
While he was working in Philadelphia on two stations in late 1950, a year later he had relocated to Miami Beach, Florida, where he worked as program director of WMBM and also had his own DJ show there. Also on the station at that time was the comedy duo of Salt and Peanuts, whom Starcher knew for some 20 years by then since all three of them had worked at WCHS in the early 1930s.

Starcher's continuing religious inspiration found express in the fact that he was part of a committee that organized a special service held in January 1953 by Reverend Billy Graham at Miami's Orange Bowl, which drew about 25,000 people. Until the end of 1952, Starcher could be heard over WMBM but left as the new year began and started working with WMIE.

The station was a driving force in Miami's country music scene in the 1950s and Starcher was in good company there as luminaries such as Cracker Jim Brooker, Happy Harold Thaxton, and Uncle Harve Spivey were working the same station. Although he had left Miami by March 1954 to work at WESC in Greenville, South Carolina, where he also managed the station, Starcher obviously split his time between Miami and Greenville.

In July 1954, he held a session for the DeLuxe record label, a subsidiary company of King Records from Cincinnati, Ohio. The Miami office was headed by Henry Stone, who was an influential and well-connected music business man. Stone scouted several Miami singers for the label, including Starcher. Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies lists the session for July 19, 1954, at the WMBM studio, though it seems more probable to me that the session was done at WMIE. Four songs were recorded, "String of Broken Hearts", "We Won't Be Wed", "I Was Crying Then (But You're Crying Now)", and "Don't Call No More", of which the last two saw release on DeLuxe #2025 in September 1954. It remained Starcher's only disc for the label.

By late 1954, Starcher was general manager of WLBS in Birmingham, Alabama, but was heard over different stations at that time, also including WMIE. Being the wandering boy he ever was, he had left Miami for good by May 1956 and became station manager at KCUL, Fort Worth, Texas, where he directed the station's new Cowtown Hoedown live stage show, working with such acts as Jackie Lee Cochran, the Callahan Brothers, Charlie Adams, and Frankie Miller. He would not return to Southern Florida again - at least not for radio work.

The Starday and Boone Years

In 1959, Starcher began recording for Starday Records, which had become a home for many older, traditional country musicians like him. The following year, he returned to West Virginia and started his own morning TV show on WCHS-TV in Charleston. This show lasted until 1966 and held Starcher's popularity in West Virginia and in some parts of Ohio high.

In 1961, Starcher had founded another record label, B.E.S. Records, which released a string of singles until 1965. One of those was Starcher's own "History Repeats Itself" b/w "Sniper's Hill" (B.E.S. #45-91) in 1965. The disc was successful enough that it was picked up by the bigger Boone label and it was  "History Repeats Itself," a spoken word number recounting the parallels between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, which finally reached #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and #39 on Billboard's Hot 100. The accompanying album of the same name peaked at #37. It was Starcher's second and last big hit.

Starcher's newly found fame led to a few releases on Decca but none could repeat the success. His cover of Johnny Sea's "Day of Decision" went to #131 in June 1966. He eventually ceased recording and went into retirement in 1976 and moved to Craigsville, Nicholas County, West Virginia. Though, he remained active and partly worked as a car salesman and performed occasional reunions of old live stage show casts, like the Old Farm Hour and Sagebrush Roundup reunions.

At age 92, Starched moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, to be in the range of medical facilities and passed away on November 2, 2001. He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2015.