Jimmy Dallas on Westport

Jimmy Dallas - I've Got a Right to Know (Westport 45-131), 1957

Jimmy Dallas, a rather unknown name in country music history, was a long-time figure on the Kansas City country music scene. Beginning in the early 1950s, Dallas made numerous records for local labels, appeared on various radio and television stations, and performed regularly well into the 1990s. His story has not been told properly, however - possibly because Dallas always stuck to country music and therefore never came to the attention of curious rock'n'roll collectors.

Jimmy Dallas was born Keith Beverly Kissee on July 26, 1927, in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, located directly at the Arkansas-Missouri state border. While his father Benjamin Walter Kissee also hailed from Mammoth Springs, his grandfather originally came from Missouri. He had three more siblings and one of his brothers, Elmo Lincoln Kissee, also became a country music singer in Kansas City under the name of "Elmo Linn". By 1935, the Kissee family lived in the rural area of Afton, Fulton County, south of Mammoth Springs, where Dallas attended elementary school.

Jimmy Dallas, early 1950s
Cowtown Jubilee promo picture

At some point after 1940, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and started his career in music probably in the early 1950s, adopting the stage name "Jimmy Dallas". By 1952, he was working with KCMO in Kansas City and was a cast member of the station's "Cowtown Jubilee", a live stage show much in the style of its competitor in Kansas City, "Brush Creek Follies". Dallas signed his first recording contract in early 1952 with the local Central label and recorded "Be Happy" b/w "(When You're) Singing a Hillbilly Song" (Central #001), backed by Al Phillips and his Frontier Four. A year later, Dallas recorded for another local record label, the Sho-Me label, and two records were released that year.

Local entrepreneur Dave Ruf had started the Westport label in Kansas City in 1955 and one of the first artists to be signed to the new imprint was Jimmy Dallas (his brother Elmo recorded for the same label subsequently). Around April that year, Dallas recorded two of his own compositions for Westport, "I'm No Good for You Anymore" b/w "Good Intentions" (Westport #127), released around May 1955. It was followed by two more discs in 1956 and 1957, including duets with Cathy Justice (a member of the Wesport Kids, another act on the label). Dave Ruf had also worked out an agreement with Bell Records executives, which lead to the release of Dallas' Westport recordings in Australia and New Zealand in 1958.

By 1955, Dallas had moved from KCMO to KIMO in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. The Cowtown Jubilee had moved to that station as well and was still on air by then with Dallas being still a cast member.

Billboard January 14, 1956

Contrary to many of his fellow country music entertainers, Dallas never got much into rock'n'roll, he always performed down home country music. In 1959, he hosted the "Jimmy Dallas Show" on WDAF-TV, which translated to KMBC-TV later that year. The show featured appearances by Dallas as well as other artists like the Country Styleers, Cherokee Johnnie and Mary Bee. Around the same time he also worked as a DJ on KANS in Kansas City. There was a break in Dallas' recording career after his stint with Westport and it was not until 1960 that a record by him hit the market again. This time, he got the chance to record for a major label, Decca Records. His only single for the label, "Hurtin' In My Heart" b/w "My Kind of Love" (Decca #9-31133), was his most unusual record, as it featured a slight teen pop influence and an updated, much more commercial and urban Nashville sound.

The Decca single saw the light of day in late summer of 1960 but obviously sold only disappointingly as it remained Dallas' only release for the label. A third song recorded for Decca, "Can't Win", remained unreleased. Another recording hiatus came for Dallas afterwards, this time for six years. The following years saw Dallas working around Kansas City, often as a DJ but also as a live act. He was back in the studio in 1966, when he recorded for Jim Ward's Edgewater, Colorado, based CLW record label, comprising "Nobody But You" b/w "Look at Me (CLW #6607). This was recorded with a vocal group called the Valley Trio and was likely produced in Nashville again. It had a great country chugger sound but unfortunately, was not made for the charts.

Another unheard single came into existence around 1968, when Dallas and his brother Elmo Linn worked with Bud Throne, who operated his own Throne label out of Independence, Missouri. Apart from backing up singer Sandy Sans, Dallas also recorded one solo disc for the label under the name of "Jimmy Dallis", "Web of Love" b/w "Every Body Says" (Throne #505).

The 1970s saw Dallas recording steadily for Triune Records and Graceland Records, two labels based in Hendersonville and Nashville respectively. By 1973, Dallas was program director of KBIL-AM, a country music radio station in Kansas City. In 1978, Dallas recorded his first, self-titled long-play album for the Kansa label, which also resulted in another single release that same year. Dallas stopped recording at the end of the 1970s. However, Kansa Records released a CD in Dallas' later years with many of his 1970s songs.

Billboard April 28, 1973

In the 1980s, Hobie Shepp, another Kansas City country music personality, reunited the surviving members of both Brush Creek Follies and Cowtown Jubilee shows. Arkansas Red, another performer on the Jubilee, remembered: "[I] worked with Jimmy [Dallas] on the old Cowtown Jubilee show at the Ivanhoe Temple in Kansas City back in the early fifties. Back in the eighties, Hobie Shepp of the Cowtown Wranglers [house band of the Cowtown Jubilee, e.g.] found me and invited me to come perform at a 're-union' show of all the old Brush Creek and Cowtown Jubilee people still around. That was the last time I saw Jimmy Dallas, or Hobie. It was great to see them all again... for the last time. Had some great memories of the Cowtown Jubilee, Dal Stallard, Tiny Tillman, Milt Dickey, and all the crew." Dallas opened his own bar on Highway 40 in Kansas City that lasted well into the 1990s. Dallas would also perform in his venue during these years. "[...] He was the show every nite and the place was packed on weekends. Super nice guy and great entertainer [...]," recalled his bookmaker.

Jimmy Dallas spent his last years in his longtime residence of Independence and passed away on September 28, 2004, at the age of 77 years. He left behind a wealth of country music recordings that still waits to be re-released properly.

Discography

See 45cat.com for a listing of Jimmy Dallas' 45rpm records (see sources section). Note that the LPs and Dallas' first record on Central Records are not included.

Recommended reading

• Westport Records Story
• Tony Wayne on Westport
• Alvis Wayne on Westport

Sources

• Jimmy Dallas on 45cat

• Jimmy Dallas on Discogs

• Jimmy Dallas on Hillbilly-Music.com

• Find a Grave entry

• Official Census documents retrieved through Ancestry.com