Jimmy Long

Gene Autry and Jimmy Long song book
photos from the movie "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", 1935

Hobo Yodel

The Story of Jimmy Long

Gene Autry is still a name widely known among music and film fans. The name of his mentor and early compation, Jimmy Long, is mostly forgotten today. Born in the late 19th century, Long was a railroader and musician. He recorded numerous sides in his own right in the early 1930s but has been reduced often to a sidekick of Autry.

James Wiley "Jimmy" Long was born on November 25, 1889, in Southwest Arkansas to Matthew Levi and Martha Catherine (James) Long. The Long family were longtime residents of Arkansas, Long's father Matthew had been born in Hempstead County back in 1861. The Longs were a big family with a total of eight children, raised around Blevins, Arkansas, a small town in a rural area. However, at some point the family moved to Texas and Jimmy Long began working for the St. Louis-San Fransisco Railway (commonly known as Frisco) as a train dispatcher. At some point, Long took up playing the guitar and singing as well as writing songs.

He married Jessie Irene Hubbard when he was 20 years old and around 1916, daughter Beverly was born. In 1917, World War I interrupted the Americans' lives and Long was drafted into the US Army. At that time, he was living in Bastrop County, Texas, near Austin. The exact details of his service are unknown to me, however. Following the war, Long and his family first lived in Dunklin County in the boot heel of Missouri and eventually in Springfield, Missouri. In 1920, Long was transferred by the Frisco company to Sapulpa, Oklahoma, near Tulsa, though he likely maintained his Missouri home. He would work in Oklahoma for eight years and was the supervisor of a young telegrapher named Orvon Grover Autry, who later became western singer and actor Gene Autry.

Autry had started working there in 1925 and loved singing and playing guitar, which he did not only on radio KVOO but also during his night shifts at the railroad. Long and Autry met in 1928 and although Autry was 18 years younger than Long, they soon connected through music. Jimmie Rodgers had just started his sensational career and both men fell in love with his blues-drenched folk music. As a duo, both played guitar, while Autry took over the lead and Long sang harmony, specializing in Rodgers-type songs - many of them written by Long.

Mid 1930s

They used their railroad passes in October 1929 to catch a train from Tulsa to New York City for a record label audition. Autry had previously auditioned at Victor, unsuccessfully, however. Arriving in New York, they caught up with brothers Frankie and Johnny Marvin, who were already recording for the American Record Corporation (ARC).  The quartet tried at Victor, recording two unreleased songs, and decided to go with ARC, beginning to record in October for the company. This was initially the last joint recording session for the Autry-Long duo.

In the next two years, Autry continued to record for different companies, including ARC and Victor, and became one of many Jimmie Rodgers clones, either covering Rodgers songs or recording material in the same style. Although they did not record together at that time, Long remained a mentor to Autry, who split his time between Oklahoma, working for the railroad, and New York, cutting recording sessions. Long recorded two solo numbers in New York in March 1930 for Gennett, which were rejected, and another two, "Watching the Clouds Roll By" and "When Daddy Was a Boy", which saw release on the Velvet and Diva dime store labels. Another session for Gennett in their Richmond, Indiana, headquarter studio was rejected as well but finally in December 1930, he recorded sessions that saw release on the Champion and Superior labels, two budget imprints that also belonged to Gennett's mother company, the Starr Piano Company. One of those songs was his own composition "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine", a sentimental number about a mourning son who  regretted his difficult relationship to his father.With a folkish melody, the song appealed to rural audiences and to those who liked to hear "rural" music. Long recorded it with railroad buddy Cliff Keiser but the releases on Champion and Superior went nowhere.

Long continued to record throughout 1931 and in October that year, reunited with Autry in the studio and they re-cut "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine", with their new version being released in January 1932. ARC owned a plethora of record labels, some of them were distributed exclusively for furniture stores, mail-order businesses, and dime stores, and this wide distribution network certainly helped to spread the song across the country. Autry's regular broadcasts on WLS in Chicago might have been another factor. "Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" became a hit. 30,000 copies were sold in the first month, 500,000 copies were sold at the end of the year. It was an enormous quantity during the hard depression years. The record remained a strong seller throughout the decade and, after Autry and Long performed the song in the movie "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", it was reissued on Vocalion in 1935 and reportedly sold more than 5,000,000 copies eventually. "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine" was covered by many artists throughout the years with more than 65 recorded versions known to exist.

Perfect release of "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine"

Long continued to record until 1933, often with his daughter Beverly and sometimes with his niece Ina Mae Spivey, mostly in Richmond for Starr Piano-owned labels but also one session for Victor and his last one altogether for Victor's budget label Bluebird.  He continued to make records with Autry in the 1930s and records with his involvement were released and re-released steadily throughout the decade. Beverly also made recordings on her own and, along with her brother Jack, appeared as the Missouri Melody Makers on KWTO in Springfield. Long's niece Ina lived with them at that time and she married Autry in 1932. 

Long never went full-time into the entertainment business but retained his job with the Frisco railroad. From time to time, when work allowed, he worked stage shows with Autry nevertheless. By then, his former inferior railroad worker had become one of the nation's most popular Western actor and singer. Long retired from Frisco around 1949 after 32 years. The same year, his wife Jesse died and his father did the following year. Jimmy Long passed away on September 25, 1953, at the age of 63 years in Springfield. He is buried there at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens.

The British Archive of Country Music has released a 22 track CD of Long's solo recordings entitled "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine".

See also

• British Archive of Country Music

• 45worlds/78rpm entry

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• SecondHandSongs

• Find a Grave entry

• Wayne Glenn, the Old Record Collector: What Was the First Song Written in Springfield That Sold at Least One Million Records?

• Official Census Records accessed through Ancestry.com
• That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine Wikipedia entry (German)

• Don Cusic: "Gene Autry: His Life and Career" (McFarland & Company), 2010, p. 13-16

• Tony Russell, Bob Pinson: "Country Music Records" (Oxford University Press), 2004, p. 510-512

Karen Fellows on Power

Karen Fellows - Searchin' (Power PS 101), unknown year
The Power label out of Jonesboro, Arkansas, had a few single and album releases approximately in the 1960s. The label issued mainly gospel music and also released a 45rpm record on Little George Domerese, a country DJ from western Arkansas.

Another singer recording for Power was Karen Fellows, who was, judging from the voice on her record, still very young at the time of the recording. She cut a cover of the Coasters' hit "Searchin'" for Power. The original version had been released by the Coasters in 1957 and hit #3 on Billboard's Hot 100. As Power Records pressed its released at Wayne Raney's Rimrock plant, we cannot determine an exact release date.

As much as there is known about Power Records, as much is known about Karen Fellows. Nothing, sadly. Some have suggested that the name was a pseudonym for Geannie Flowers, a 1950 born kiddie/teenage singer of the early 1960s. Accordingly, this record was cut in 1964 by her with the Pacers. Flowers had recorded with the Pacers the previous year ("Let's Do the Itch" b/w "Saints Go Marching", issued in 1964 on Bobby Crafford's Razorback label). Definitely possible. The Karen Fellows version of "Searchin'" was used on the 2012 Collector Records CD "Slow Boogie Rockin', Volume 6", released in the Netherlands.

See also
• Power Records on Arkansas 45rpm Records

Sources
• Discogs
• The Coasters Wikipedia entry
• Thanks to Bob for his input. 

Stewart Family on Vaden

Stewart Family - Thirty Pieces of Silver (Vaden EP-200), unknown year

The Stewart Family was actually a local Arkansas group and located not too far away from Trumann, the home of Arlen Vaden, owner of Vaden Records. The Stewarts lived near Blytheville and also appeared on KLCN during the first half of the 1950s, so it is more than probable that Vaden knew them.

Bandleader was Virgil Freemont «Pappy» Stewart, who was born on August 5, 1907. He married Gladys Bell Long (1910-2004) in 1926 and they settled as farmers near Blytheville. In the 1940s, he decided to set up a singing group that included his daughters Bethel on vocals as well as fiddle and Jeanette on vocals and bass, his sister Baba Howard on accordion, and a neighbor’s daughter Wilma, among Pappy Stewart himself on vocals and guitar. Their repertoire included gospel songs but also secular country music. They started broadcasting on KLCN and by 1948, Bethel’s husband Buddy Brown joined them on guitar, while Baba dropped out eventually. She would go on to write a couple of songs for country hit maker Ernest Tubb.

The Courier News February 27, 1956

The Stewart family was friends with Slim Rhodes’ family and Rhodes had just secured a recording contract with Gilt-Edge Records, a subsidiary of 4 Star, and he might have had a hand in bringing the Stewarts to the label. Moreover, KLCN announcer Don Whitney, who sang bass with the Stewart Family occasionally, also recorded for 4 Star and was likely the power behind it. The group recorded a demo at KLCN, which they mailed to Bill McCall at 4 Star and not long after, they had a recording deal on their own. They held their first session for the label around April 1950 and recorded for 4 Star until 1953. Many, if not all sessions, likely took place at KLCN. Their biggest «claim to fame» came in 1951, when they recorded Pappy Stewart’s composition «Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)» in February, which was released on Gilt-Edge #5053 in December that year. The group’s records didn’t sell in noteworthy numbers and this one was no exception, but it caused a couple of cover versions during the 1950s, including one by Faron Young (who had a #10 hit with it a year later), Bonnie Lou, and 4 Star’s discovery Patsy Cline. It was not until 1961, when Solomon Burke’s version of the song became a top hit and the song became a classic. Artists like George Jones, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, Johnny Burnette, Brenda Lee, and many others recorded versions over the years.

Back in 1952, Pappy Stewart and his family did not foresee these events or experienced any impact of their records on their daily lives. They performed on radio and played mostly schoolhouses in a one-day drive radius around Blytheville. Their two songs issued on Vaden were recorded during different sessions. «Thirty Pieces of Silver» was cut at  their first session and saw release on 4 Star #1469. Vaden thought it would probably be a good idea to reissue them as they enjoyed some local popularity a couple of years before. When Arlen Vaden re-released their recordings on Vaden, the Stewarts had already dropped out of music. By the mid to late 1950s, the family had quit. King and Starday also occasionally reused Stewart Family masters for gospel LPs and EPs.

Though, the windfall from Burke’s record in 1961 caused Pappy Stewart to buy more farmland. He passed away July 10, 1988, and is buried at Dogwood Cemetery in Blytheville, Arkansas. In 2009, Bear Family included the Stewart Family’s original version of «Just Out of Reach» on their 1951 edition of their critically much acclaimed country & western history series «Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music.»

Sources
• The above text is an excerpt from my feature story in American Music Magazine #184 from January 2024, "Hymns and Rock'n'Roll Along Highway 67 - The Story of Vaden Records"

Swamp Hunter / Bear Family productions

As you perhaps know, I have been dabbling into record production for some time. Mainly as a compilation producer for Bear Family Records but I have also done one album with Mack Stevens on my own label Swamp Hunter Records. The following is a list of my productions with links to the Bear Family mailorder site. I'm honored when people buy those records but my main goal is to spread the music and the story behind it.

This list will be updated once a new project is released and it will pop up on top of this blog again. Thank you all!

Swamp Hunter Records

• LP 100: Mack Stevens - Tales from Ol' George's Farm (2023)

Bear Family Records

• BAF14008: Dennis Herrold - The Mystery of Dennis Herrold (LP, 2020)
• BCD17779: Bobby Lee Trammell - Rocks (CD, 2025)
• BAF14039: Charlie Brown - Have You Heard the Gossip? (LP, 2026)
• BCD17738: Various artists - Arkansas Rocks, Vol. 1 (CD, 2026)
• BAF14046: Cowboy Slim Dortch - Sixteen Miles (Down the Tennessee Road) (LP, 2026)

Hammond Records (Baton Rouge)

Among the many small independent record labels of Louisiana, probably no company better embodied the sound of backwoods bayou country better than Hammond Records. Probably named after the city of the same name, Hammond Records was operated by bluegrass musician Luke Thompson. His own musical background was probably one factor that led to Hammond's focus on country, bluegrass, and stripped-down rockabilly.

Label owner Luther "Luke" Thompson, Jr., was born in 1928 in the small town of Natalbany, Louisiana, just north of Hammond. Although Louisiana is not a place known for bluegrass music, Thompson grew up with traditional old-time folk music as his grandfather was a fiddler. He eventually learned to play the fiddle, too - in addition to guitar, banjo, and mandolin, his favorite instrument. In the late 1940s, he began performing with his band, the Green Valley Boys, which changed its name to the Green Valley Cut-Ups in 1968 when Thompson found out that Carl Sauceman was already using the name for his band.

Thompson performed on and off throughout the 1950s, finally founding his own recording outlet in early 1959. He recorded mostly local talent from the Louisiana countryside but would not record under his own name until 1961. The first known release is Hammond #102 by Willie Goodson with "Put a Nickel in the Jukebox" b/w "Hand in Hand" in 1959. The top side was a rockabilly number, while the flip was in a more traditional vein. It was followed by Hunter Watts' "Wild Man Rock", which became a minor rockabilly classic, Bonnie Fussel's rock'n'roll "Too High Class", and Hollis Albin's "Vee Eight Ford Boogie". All of these numbers were rock'n'roll and rockabilly performances, which became collectors' items due to the rockabilly revival of the 1970s.

Then, in 1961, Thompson cut his first own record and his bluegrass and it seemed to be the total opposite direction the label was heading to. A throwback to ancient sounds, his "I'm Lost Between the Falling Snow" b/w "Mountain Sweetheart" did not go far commercial-wise but "the recording was seen as a success" as the Northwestern State University of Louisiana put it in a short profile about Thompson. 

"Opy Spotlight"
The St. Tammany Tribune January 19, 1968

The remainder of the 1960s saw Hammond Records releasing a few more singles, among them Jim Oertling's then-out-of-fashion rockabilly outings and Oertling's "Old Moss Back" became a another good seller in the southern Gulf regions of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The label's run ended in 1971 with a repress of Thompson's "I'm Lost Between the Falling Snow". A total of 13 releases are known to exist, issued between 1959 and 1971. During the first years, Hammond Records was officially based in Baton Rouge, located about 47 miles west of Hammond. At some point between October 1963 and October 1964, Thompson moved its headquarters to Nashville, although he continued to operate the label out of Louisiana.

"Hayride Hightlights"
The St. Tammany Tribune August 25, 1968

In 1968, Thompson opened a music store and recording studio in Ponchatoula, just south of Hammond. As Thompson was busy playing gigs in different parts of the country, the facility was operated by a staff for him. In fact, Thompson had become a respected bluegrass musician by then, having founded Louisiana Bluegrass Festival the same year, the Old South Jamboree in Walker, Louisiana, and working as emcee for Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival for ten years. He also began building mandolins. He passed away in 2019.

Sources

• Bluegrass Today obituary

• Northwestern State University of Louisiana profile page

• Luke Thompson Music Company website

• Obituary

• Hammond Records 45cat entry

Hoot & Curley

Hoot and Curley, early 1950s
This promo picture shows Curley Herndon (left) and Hoot Rains (right)

The duo of Thomas "Hoot" Rains and "Curley" Herndon were stars of the Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport and also recorded a slew of singles for the Imperial and Starday labels during the 1950s. Though they did not have a real hit records on their hands, their recorded output is noteworthy nevertheless and worth listening to. My friend Marshal Martin recently went down the Hoot & Curley rabbit hole, finding some of their rare records and even relatives of them.

Thomas Houston "Hoot" Rains was born on September 15, 1914, in Many, Sabine Parish, Louisiana, a small town near Natchitoches. His parents, Justlyn Polk and Alice Ameralee Rains, had a total of nine children. Carnell Monroe "Curley" Herndon was quite a bit younger, being born on February 26, 1923, also in Many. Herndon began singing and playing the guitar at age seven, and had his first own band and radio program when he was 13 years old. Later, he attended a civl engineer's school in Kansas City, Missouri, where he also performed on local radio. In the meantime, Rains had become an accomplished musician in his own right, playing the steel guitar and leading bands at different clubs.

The Austin American
January 4, 1956

After engineer's school, Herndon moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he met again with Rains at KWKH's famed Louisiana Hayride, where both tried to make a name on their own. They also became members of country singer Slim Whitman's band around 1950, who also appeared regularly on the show. With Herndon on lead guitar and Rains on steel guitar, they played not only on live appearances but also on Whitman's recording sessions for Imperial. Hit songs like "Love Song of the Waterfall" and "Indian Love Call" bore their signature sound and supported Whitman's crystal-clear vocal style. It was especially Rains' lenghty, high notes on the steel guitar (called "shooting arrows" style by the band) that became a trademark of their sound. 

Around the same time, Rains and Herndon joined forces and began appearing as duo "Hoot & Curley", including regular performances on the Hayride but also with Whitman's band, now called the "Stardusters". The Whitman connection also secured them a recording contract with Imperial, which was a California based independent label but was a strong force in Texas and Louisiana country music. They held their first solo session around July 1952 in Dallas, Texas, supported by fellow Starduster Sonny James on fiddle and this combination produced four songs. Those were released by Imperial on two singles in late 1952. A second session followed which yielded another single in the fall of 1953. The same year, Rains and Herndon left the Whitman band to set out on their own.

Shreveport Journal
June 21, 1952

Their records for Imperial missed the charts but they remained a featured act on the Louisiana Hayride and in 1954, Rains and Herndon began recording for the Houston based independent Starday Records. They stayed with the label until 1957 and produced four more singles for this label. Herndon also had one solo release on Mercury in 1960.

Rains and Herndon continued to perform on the Hayride but also held down regular spots at local clubs such as the Lake Cliff. They eventually ceased their mututal music activities and returned to day jobs. Rains worked as a car salesman in Shreveport, subsequently operating his own car dealership, "Hoots' Trading Post". Herndon worked as a architectural draftsman for Demopulos & Ferguson Consulting Engineers. He passed away after a lenghty illness on February 15, 1992, in Shreveport. Rains had left this earth a few months earlier on October 12, 1991, in Shreveport at age 77.

The British Archive of Country Music has released a 25 tracks CD on Hoot & Curley in 2020.

Recommended reading

• British Archive of Country Music

Sources

• Paul Hazell: "Hoot and Curley" (liner notes) BACM, 2020

• Find a Grave entries for Hoot Rains and Curley Herndon

• Curley Herndon Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Discogs

• 45cat entry and 45cat/78rpm entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

Gene Williams & Band on Sound of Country Music

Gene Williams & Band - Don Picks the Banjo (Sound of Country Music 1501), ca. 1970

Gene Williams was one of Northeast Arkansas' most prolific country music promoters. From the early 1960s through the 1970s, 1980s, and well into the 2000s, he was active promoting concerts, shows, recordings, and its artists. He also diversified his business interests by investing in different other branches, including real estate and newspapers but people in Northeast Arkansas regions will probably remember him best for his country music shows.

Born in 1938 in the small town of Tyronza, Poinsett County, Arkansas, Williams' father moved the family to the Dyess colony just a bit southwest of Tyronza, in 1943. Dyess was a farming community built on swamp land. The Cash family was living in Dyess, too, and one of the Cashs, namely Johnny, would go on to have international fame of course. While in high school, Williams began organizing local concerts with singers from Memphis. When he graduated from high school in 1956, Johnny Cash was already becoming a star in Memphis and inspired by his success, Williams took a job at radio KWEM in Memphis in 1957. As Williams was not a musician himself (although he later liked to pose with guitars for photos), he chose upon a career in radio and promotion.

He went into partnership with co-worker Buford Cody to found the Co & Wi label in late 1960, then started the live stage show "Cotton Town Jubilee" in early 1962 and a few months later set up his next record label, the Cotton Town Jubilee label. This imprint released several singles and albums until around 1965 by artists that appeared regularly on Williams' show. He also set out on the road with the Jubilee cast and played shows across the whole Mid-South.

In late 1963, Williams replaced the Cotton Town Jubilee show, which also aired over KWAM, with a new TV show entitled "Gene Williams' Country Junction" on KAIT-TV from Jonesboro. During the next years, this show became popular with audiences not only in Arkansas but across the Mid-South in different states. Until 1970, Williams produced records by the artists of his shows to sell at concerts. He even produced two music movies called "The Sound of Country Music" (1969) and "Country Music Jamboree" (1970) plus accompanying records. For this purpose, he set up the short-lived Sound of Country Music label, also releasing selected album tracks on 45rpm discs. This was the case with today's selection "Don Picks the Banjo", an instrumental track by Williams' band spotlighting banjo picker Don Settlemoir. The flip side was "Parkin, Arkansas", a song sung by Country Junction cast member Charlie Fritts. Both songs appeared in the "Country Music Jamboree" movie.

Don Settlemoir around 1970 as a member of the Country Junction Band

Neither the movie nor the single became a hit. Williams continued to work in country music promotions but had diversified his interests by that point. The Country Junction show came to an end in 1978 and was replaced with the "Gene Williams Show". He suffered from health problems in his later years, much caused by his lifelong smoking, and Williams passed away in 2011.

See also

• The Cotton Town Jubilee label story

Sources

• This post is based on my article "The Cotton Town Jubilee Records Story", which appeared in American Music Magazine 145 in September 2017.

Jimmy Luke on Razorback

Jimmy Luke - Ruby Baby (Razorback 104, 1963)

Jimmy Luke was the recording alias for Jimmy Ray Paulman, a talented guitarist and singer from Arkansas. Paulman was a band member of both Harold Jenkins' and Ronnie Hawkins' bands but returned to Arkansas after leaving the Hawkins unit. Upon his return, he started a solo career and recorded for several local labels throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Born around 1937 and raised in Marianna, Arkansas, next to the Mississippi River, Paulman became a member of Harold Jenkins' House Rockers, a rockabilly combo from the same area. During 1956 and early 1957, the band made some demo recordings at Sun Records in Memphis, including their theme "Rock House" (which was reworked by Roy Orbison the same year), but nothing was released from those sessions. Jenkins signed with Mercury in 1957 and brought along his band, including Paulman. The outfit recorded several sessions in Nashville throughout the year and by then, Jenkins had become Conway Twitty. They also performed regularly in Canada during this time.

The Daily World, August 31, 1965

Paulman left the band in the fall of 1957 and, back in Arkansas, did some playing with Billy Lee Riley's Little Green Men before joining Ronnie Hawkins, who was about to put together a new band. With the addition of 15 years old Levon Helm on drums and Paulman's cousin Willard "Pop" Jones on piano, they became "The Hawks". At that time, many Arkansas rockabillies did like Conway Twitty and toured Canada, like Billy Lee Riley, eventually Bobby Brown, and Ronny Hawkins and the Hawks. Paulman went north again and in 1959 and was still part of the band when they gained a recording contract with Roulette Records. He stayed with the Hawks for much of 1959 but then left, returning to Arkansas again.

Around 1962, Paulman had his first solo release but favored to record under the name "Jimmy Luke". "Luke" had been his nickname since his days with the Twitty outfit so it seemed to be fitting. In 1963, he recorded for Bobby Crafford's Razorback label, cutting a version of "You Are My Sunshine" and today's selection, "Ruby Baby". Paulman had recorded that song already a few years earlier with Ronnie Hawkins for Roulette and now did his own rendition.

In the 1960s, Paulman recorded for labels like Big Country, UNI, Metromedia, Zone, and Twin but never enjoyed any chart success. According to Larry Donn, Paulman also performed for some time with the Pacers as their vocalist and guitarist. As of 2021, Paulman lived in Hendersonville, Tennessee, near Nashville.

Sources

• Rockin' Country Style

• 45cat entry

• Discogs

• Rock'n'Roll Schallplatten Forum (German)

• Colin Escott: "Conway Rocks" (Bear Family Records), liner notes, 2003

• Ian Wallis: "Ronnie Rocks" (Bear Family Records), liner notes, 2007

Jim Harless on Shadow

Jim Harless and the Lonesome Valley Boys - Rock & Roll Fever Ain't Got Me (Shadow 104), 1961 or 1962

The rise of rock'n'roll music created several "anti-songs" in country and bluegrass music, notably Denver Duke & Jeffrey Null's "Rock and Roll Blues" from 1956. Another prime example was Jim Harless' "Rock & Roll Fever Ain't Got Me", which was recorded a few years later in the Bristol, Tennessee, area.

James Allen "Jim" Harless, Jr., was born on January 17, 1935, in Bristol, Tennessee, where he also grew up. Harless was a house-painter by day and eventually also ran his own paint contractor business but country and bluegrass music was his passion, which he enjoyed playing around Bristol in the 1950s and 1960s. Harless hosted his own popular radio show on WRKM in Carthage, Tennessee, during those years and led his own band, the Lonesome Valley Boys. By the early 1960s, the band consisted of Harless on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dean Millwood on acoustic guitar, Ray Kelly on electric guitar, Rhoda Kelly on mandolin, and Ray Jones on banjo.

This outfit made one record in either late 1961 or early 1962 for a local label from Bristol, Shadow Records. The disc featured "Banjo Bells", an instrumental number dominated by Jones' banjo, and "Rock & Roll Fever Ain't Got Me". The latter is a nice banjo bopper with great vocals and moreover, it's an ode to bluegrass music when Harless sings "let that fiddle and banjo ring 'cause we still think that bluegrass is king / rock & roll fever ain't got me". It seems the record made some noise around Bristol, being played on local radio shows like "Rise and Shine Follies" and "Hillbilly Hit Parade" but didn't stand a chance on regional or national markets.

Jim Harless (center) and the Lonesome Valley Boys
early 1960s

By 1970, Harless had relocated to Fort Worth, Texas, where he led the house band at Panther Hall, a popular live music venue for years that was predominantly known for country music entertainment. Panther Hall hosted the Cowtown Jamboree on weekends, which featured Harless' group and many top-names from Nashville as guests. Also, Harless' eight years old nephew Charles Allen Bouton appeared at the Jamboree several times.

Harless continued to work as well as perform music in Fort Worth and lived there until his death on May 22, 2001, at age 66. He is buried in Fort Worth.

Discography

Shadow 104: Jim Harless and the Lonesome Valley Boys - Banjo Bells / Rock & Roll Fever Ain't Got Me 

Sources
• Find a Grave entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Thanks to Jim Harless' daughter-in-law Brenda, who gave us a little insight into his career.

Gene Jones

Gene Jones & the Drifters - Pride (Mississippi Sound No.#), 1979
My friend Marshal and I have been into the careers of the Jones family, four siblings that made a few country records in the 1970s. Although being active in Louisiana, they originally hailed from Mississippi. Marshal found another part of their puzzle with a previously unknown recording of Gene Jones.

Gene A. Jones was born on August 11, 1935, in Waynesboro, Mississippi, to Luther Edward and Rose Elmedia Jones. Jones' middle name was Autry, so he was named after singing cowboy star Gene Autry. Gene grew up in a musical talented family, his brothers Luke and Devon as well as his sister Nancy became recording artists well. All of the siblings - eight in total - played music instruments and often they would gather to play music together. Although Mississippi born, many of the Jones siblings were drawn to Louisiana and so was Gene - at least for some time. In 1955, Jones married Carol Jean Glover on St. Charles, Louisiana. She was his lifelong wife. They later returned to Jones' Mississippi home.

The Joneses made music throughout their lives and performed under the name of the "Roseland Drifters", playing such venues as the Moose Lodge in Natchitoches Parish or the Rose Room in New Orleans. THeir repertoire consisted mainly of cover song by artists such as Kitty Wells, Faron Young, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and others. In the 1970s, they began making recordings. Devon and Nancy Jones had a record out in the early 1970s. One of the songs, "Set You Free", was later also recorded by Gene Jones. Both Gene and Luke Jones made recordings at Precision Recording Studio in Picayune, Mississippi, a small city just across the border from Louisiana. 

The recordings at Precision resulted in one single under Luke's name and another one under Gene's name, which included his version of his siblings' song "Set You Free" plus a twangy, steel guitar-drenched song entitled "Pride". It appeared on the small Mississippi Sound label from Picayune. This is the only known record of Gene Jones. We couldn't find any newspaper mentions of him except for his obituary, though he performed in public frequently.

Jones lived around New Orleans for many years but later moved to Kentwood, Louisiana, a small town just south of the state border to Mississippi. Gene Jones passed away on October 24, 1984, at the age of 49 years. He is buried at Ellis Cemetery in Franklinton, Louisiana.

Discography

Mississippi Sound No.#: Gene Jones & the Drifters - Set You Free / Pride (1979)

See also
• Devon & Nancy / Luke Jones

Sources
• Thanks to Shannon Possoit and Debbie Cagle for providing additional information on their family's career and for Marshal Martin conducting the interview.
• Find a Grave entry
• Obituary (The Daily Star, October 24, 1986)