Cash McCall on Topic

Cash McCall - My Friend Johnny (Topic 8010), 1965
Not connected with the blues musician of the same name, country singer Cash McCall was an uprising talent during the mid-1960s in the music scene. What predicted him from being a star is lost to history. He had a string of releases on independent labels but national success eluded him. However, he built but a reputation as a local radio stalwart in his Michigan home.

In 1963, Billboard reported that a British country artist named Cash McCall recorded for Ember Records in the UK. He is also probably the same who had a string of releases in Italy but is not connected with Cash McCall on Topic.

Today's featured Cash McCall was born Larry Thomas Maske on April 16, 1939. He probably hailed from Michigan and started his career in the early 1960s, playing locally around Jackson, Michigan, as a guitarist, bassist, and singer. He used the stage name "Cash McCall" for his musical activities, probably unaware of the other performers that used the same pseudonym. McCall also worked as a DJ by 1964 on WIBM in Jackson, before switching to the city's WJCO in November that year. The station underwent a change at that time and changed its programming to a country music format. McCall had a morning as well as afternoon show and soon became the station's program director. During his career, McCall would perform with several bands. At that time, his group was called the Greenbacks.

McCall started his recording career in 1962 on the Memphis Executive label with "The Ballad of Billie Sol" b/w "Breaking Up" (Executive #1019, September 1962). Both songs were co-written by local Memphis singer Jay Rainwater. The disc seems to be out of place location-wise but I found no other hints about a fourth artist of the same name.

In 1965, McCall began recording for Bill Brock's Topic Records in Nashville. His first single coupled "Once in Every Lifetime" and "My Friend Johnny" (Topic #8010), which appeared around October. Later that year, he followed up with "In Time" / "My Best Friend" (Topic #8014). Both "In Time" and "Once in Every Lifetime" were "predicted to reach the Hot Country Singles Charts" according to Billboard but seem to have failed in the end. In May 1966, "Don't Give Me a Chance" appeared on Topic #8022, which was promoted by Topic as a "smash country hit" in Billboard. Around the same time, "Shoot Low Sheriff" on the Sincere label was released (Sincere #BB-833-6).

McCall eventually left WJCO but returned to the station in early 1971 to his early morning slot. Around the same time, the Greenbacks disbanded and McCall formed a new group called "Free Soil." By 1974, he was backed by the Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboys and started a tour with them through Canada that summer, booked by Cat Billue Enterprises. Billboard reported on October 12, 1974:

SIOUX STE. MARIE, Ont. - Country music reached new dimensions this week when Cash McCall & his Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboy Band began perform behind a strip act here. Strippers heretofore had not been known to the strains of country music. McCall and his group are at the Lock City Hotel here, where the show is taking place.

McCall and the Stardust Cowboys toured Canada well into the next year. Michael Kirby, one of the band's musicians, recalled in 2023: "I played keyboards in the Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboys in late 1974 into 1975, having met the band in Northern Ontario, playing in a different band, when their guitarist and drummer quit. 'Cash" and Johnny recruited me, and I called my drummer friend Jim back in Toledo. [...] We were only together for six or so months, but the adventures during that time play a prominent role [in my upcoming book]." 

McCall and his bands toured extensively but eventually returned to Jackson. In the 1980s, he continued to work for WJCO radio and TV as well as performing around town in bars and jam sessions. By that time, he had achieved good reputation among fellow radio men and musicians alike. "Always the teacher, he mentored young performers but also warned of the dark side of the business. He mentored us in an old falling down farmhouse converted into a radio studio, always playing classic country. [...] By this point in his life, he did most jobs at the station including custodian. He was selling ads, had a morning and afternoon show, and played live until 2 a.m. many nights. The performer spent years jamming at local night spots like the Eagles Clubs. We always wondered when he slept!" recalled Parrish L. Stahl in McCall's obituary.

Cash McCall passed away on May 16, 2016, at the age of 77 years at Allegiance Health in Jackson County, Michigan. 

Discography

Executive 1019: Cash McCall - The Ballad of Billie Sol / Breaking Up (Sept. 1962)
Topic 8010: Cash McCall - My Friend Johnny / Once in Every Lifetime (1965)
Topic 8014: Cash McCall - In Time / My Best Friend (Nov. 1965)
Topic 8022: Cash McCall - Don't Give Me a Chance / The Picker's Story (May 1966)
Sincere BB-833-6: Cash McCall - The Fool in Me / Shoot Low, Sheriff (Sept. 1966)

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Obituary

• Parrish L. Stahl: "'Cash' McCall Fondly  Remembered" (The Exponent), 2016