Nash's B.B. label

By Nash: The B.B. label

Coming up next in our string of Murray Nash related posts is a feature about B.B. Records, one of his many independent and short-lived ventures. B.B. was located in Nash's new home on 198 Kenner Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee. He had moved there after leaving his business partners Ray Scrivener and Charles Bingham, with whom he had operated Murray Nash Associates, Inc. After Nash's unsuccessful try to run Spangle Records' subsidiary Audio Music Company with Floyd Whited and Brien Fisher in February/March 1958, B.B. was probably his next undertaking in the music business.

The label started approximately in the summer of 1958 and the first known release was by the Dixieland Drifters (B.B. #45-222). There were possibly earlier discs issued but those have yet to be discovered. Publisher on all of the label's records was Ashna Music, Nash's own firm.

Pictured left is a June 23, 1958, Billboard mention of the Dixieland Drifters' new release on "Murray Nash's new B.B. label." One week later, on June 30, the magazine reviewed the disc.

The Dixieland Drifters were a bluegrass band from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and worked with Nash on and off well into the early 1960s. Members included Buck Turner, Norman Blake, Howell Culpepper, Peanuts Faircloth, and a lot of other local musicians who played mostly for a short time with the band. They had a total of three releases on B.B.

Nash only released a handful of singles on B.B., ca. from mid 1958 up to late 1959. By then, he had started a new label, Do-Ra-Me Records, which had a much more prolific output than its precursor.

For further reading, see also:

• By Nash: The MusiCenter label

• Joe Reavis' Recording Studio

• The Do-Ra-Me label

• The Hap label

Discography

B.B. 45-222

Dixieland Drifters

The Trot (Blake) / Walk Easy (Blake)

45-F786 / 45-F787

1958

Billboard C&W review on June 30, 1958

B.B. 45-223

Dixieland Drifters 

Don't You Be Still (Blake-Culpepper-Evans-Powell) / Church Steeples & White Flowers (Blake-Culpepper-Evans-Powell)

45-F 798 / 45-F 799

B.B. 45-224

Dixieland Drifters Quartet

Will You Meet Me () / Glory Glory (Blake-Culpepper-Evans-Powell)

? / F-802

B.B. 45-225

Johnny Varnell & Jim Pipkins

What Can I Do Without You () / Blue Tears in Your Eyes ()

B.B. 45-226

Ralph Pruett

Someone Like You (Biggs-Biggs-Robbins) / Louise (Pruett)

F-812 / F-813