The Big Beat from Big Spring
Hank Harral's Caprock Records
Among the many small labels that were scattered across Texas in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Caprock Records became one of the more prominent in later years. Its rockabilly and rock'n'roll recordings brought the label to the rockabilly revival fans' attention and resulted in White Label Records' 1981 compilation "Tank Town Boogie", which brought the label to a wider audience for the first time.
Caprock was one of several small West Texas labels - among them Gaylo Records (owned by Ben Hall), Bo-Kay Records (owned by Jesse Smith), and the Edmoral and Winston labels (owned by Slim Willet) - that emerged during the mid to late 1950s and captured the music and sounds of an era when country music was still deep-rooted in the region but rock'n'roll had certainly left an impact on the rural audiences. Moreover, the music and its lyrics represented the everyday life of the people that more than often was influenced by the booming oil industry.
Early Life of Hank Harral
The person behind Caprock Records was Hank Harral, a musician, composer and radio DJ. When Harral founded Caprock Records, he was already in his mid-forties. He was born Shallie A. Harral on September 2, 1913, in the small town of Albion, Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, near the tri-state area where the state borders of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas meet. Although Harral would spent most of his life in the Texas-New Mexico border region, he was always proud to be a "son of Oklahoma", a feeling he would later incorporate in his songs (such as "Oklahoma Land"). As a child, Harral was heavily influenced and fascinated by radio and therefore, it was no surprise that he later started a career in radio. Following the death of his mother, Harral moved to Corsicana, Texas, to stay with his grandmother, though this only lasted for a short time. In 1926, Harral moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he lived with his uncle, and two years later, at the age of 15 years, Harral had taken up the guitar and first appeared on radio stations KGRS (billed as "The Happy Yodeler") and KDAG. Later, he became known as "Hank the Cowhand" due to the cowboy songs he performed on air. Although living in different places during his life, Harral made his home base in West Texas and East New Mexico henceforth.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Harral performed with several groups, however details are sketchy so it could be that the following information is messed up. At KGRS, Harral got his own radio show and founded his own band, the Air Sweet Boys. Afterwards, a stint in Clovis, New Mexico, followed, where he first took a job at KICA as an announcer in 1933 and also worked at KSIG both as an artist and as an announcer. In addition, he performed with a band called the Texas Wranglers during this time. In 1947, he moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he found work with KSEL and became the station's program director.
First recordings in Lubbock
Harral not only appeared on local radio, he also began a career as a recording artist in the late 1940s. He had written several songs previously and in 1947, he decided it was time to record some of his own material. With a band called the Plains Riders, which included Lee Searsy on vocals and rhythm guitar, Clyde Perkins on lead guitar, Duke Baker on fiddle, and Tollie Stephenson on bass, Harral recorded six songs, all of which remained unreleased at the time, however. Another session two or three years later produced another four unissued tapes. Harral had also recorded a mysterious, earlier session around 1948 with Merl Lindsay and the Oklahoma Nightriders but details or any tapes have been lost over the years.
Finally, Star Talent Records from Dallas took some of Harral's recordings from a 1950 session and released them on 78rpm format. Billboard reported in June 1950 that Harral had signed with the label and mentioned previous recordings for Modern Records (though this seems to be a mistake). Credited to "Hank Harral and his Palomino Cowhands", "Dream Band Boogie" b/w "Dilly Dally Boogie" made up the first release on Star Talent #760. Harral was clearly influenced by the boogie craze that was going through country music in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His boogie oriented material did not only reflect the trends in country music at that time, it also foreshadowed the rockabilly and rock'n'roll music that would evolve a couple of years later.
Two more records appeared by Harral on Star Talent, including the noteworthy Korean War themed "When They Raised the U N Flag in South Korea" and another boogie number, "Red Barn Boogie" (a song Harral had recorded earlier but stayed unreleased). Another single followed for the small Tanner label in 1951 or 1952, before Harral took a break from recording.
The first half of the 1950s saw Harral work with several radio stations. In early 1951, he switched from KSEL in Lubbock to KTFY in Brownsfield, Texas, but changed stations again in May that year, airing over KWFT, Wichita Falls, Texas. He did not work there long, though, and moved to KCLV, Clovis, New Mexico around fall 1952. By March 1956, he could be heard over a little station out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, called KGRT.
The Big Beat on Caprock
Harral transferred to Big Spring, Texas, in early 1957, where he worked for KHEM, the only full-time country music station in that area. He presented the "Hank Harral Show" and the "Howard County Hoedown", two disc jockey segments (although Harral preferred the term "announcer"). After a break of five to six years from recording, Harral decided to set up his own record label, Caprock Records, which came into existence in 1957. The name derived from the Llano estacado, a mesa in the eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas areas, that also reached as far as Big Spring. The mesa is sometimes also simply called "Caprock".
The label was likely intended to serve as a vehicle to release Harral's own material (of 16 released discs, four were by Harral and he likely participated in more of them as a musician). However, he soon also found other local talent to record and release on Caprock. It fitted quite well for Harral that Ben Hall operated his Hi Fidelity House studio out of Big Spring, which served as a recording facility for many of the Caprock releases. Many of the recordings made for Caprock included the studio's usual session musicians, including Weldon Myrick on lead or steel guitar, Red Stone on rhythm guitar, and Ben Hall's wife Dina on bass.
The debut release of his new label comprised two of his own recordings, "Fabulous Oklahoma" b/w "(There's a) Picture In My Heart" (#100), issued in late 1957. Although the label released only 16 discs over a three-year stretch, the output reflected local Texas music trends and tastes: dance halls' western swing, oilfield honky-tonk, and even rockabilly and rock'n'roll trenched material. West Texas western swing band leader Hoyle Nix had a total of three releases on the label, Jimmy Simpson recorded one of his infamous odes to the Texas oilfields, and releases like Durwood Daly's "That's the Way It Goes" (a Johnny Cash styled rockabilly song) or Max Alexander's "Rock, Rock, Rock, Everybody" represented the ongoing rock'n'roll craze. Harral even took a nod in the same direction with his "Tank Town Boogie", though performance and material could have been done eight to ten years earlier. In fact, "Tank Town Boogie" became probably both Harral's and the label's most popular song, as the boogie drenched piece also appeals to rockabilly collectors and became a prime example for oilfield folklore.
Max Alexander's plain but effective "Rock, Rock, Rock Everybody" from late 1959 marked the last release on the label and Harral closed Caprock in 1960.
Later years
Harral continued to work with radio stations in New Mexico and Texas after shutting down Caprock. However, he never made further commercial recordings. He moved across the border to New Mexico at some point in his later life and, although being old enough to retire, was working at a station in Roswell by 1984, doing shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Radio had remained his passion all of his life. He also served as secretary in the local Roswell Musicians' Union. In 1981, Cees Klop of Collector Records in the Netherlands had released a 15 tracks LP called "Tank Town Boogie", compiling some of the highlights of Caprock's output. If Harral was aware of this reisssue is not known.
Hank Harral died December 28, 1985, at the age of 72 years. He and his wife Shauna are buried at Mission Garden of Memories Cemetery in Clovis, New Mexico. In 2010, the British Archive of Country Music released a CD containing Harral's complete solo recordings, including his unreleased material from the late 1940s.
Caprock was one of several small West Texas labels - among them Gaylo Records (owned by Ben Hall), Bo-Kay Records (owned by Jesse Smith), and the Edmoral and Winston labels (owned by Slim Willet) - that emerged during the mid to late 1950s and captured the music and sounds of an era when country music was still deep-rooted in the region but rock'n'roll had certainly left an impact on the rural audiences. Moreover, the music and its lyrics represented the everyday life of the people that more than often was influenced by the booming oil industry.
Early Life of Hank Harral
The person behind Caprock Records was Hank Harral, a musician, composer and radio DJ. When Harral founded Caprock Records, he was already in his mid-forties. He was born Shallie A. Harral on September 2, 1913, in the small town of Albion, Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, near the tri-state area where the state borders of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas meet. Although Harral would spent most of his life in the Texas-New Mexico border region, he was always proud to be a "son of Oklahoma", a feeling he would later incorporate in his songs (such as "Oklahoma Land"). As a child, Harral was heavily influenced and fascinated by radio and therefore, it was no surprise that he later started a career in radio. Following the death of his mother, Harral moved to Corsicana, Texas, to stay with his grandmother, though this only lasted for a short time. In 1926, Harral moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he lived with his uncle, and two years later, at the age of 15 years, Harral had taken up the guitar and first appeared on radio stations KGRS (billed as "The Happy Yodeler") and KDAG. Later, he became known as "Hank the Cowhand" due to the cowboy songs he performed on air. Although living in different places during his life, Harral made his home base in West Texas and East New Mexico henceforth.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Harral performed with several groups, however details are sketchy so it could be that the following information is messed up. At KGRS, Harral got his own radio show and founded his own band, the Air Sweet Boys. Afterwards, a stint in Clovis, New Mexico, followed, where he first took a job at KICA as an announcer in 1933 and also worked at KSIG both as an artist and as an announcer. In addition, he performed with a band called the Texas Wranglers during this time. In 1947, he moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he found work with KSEL and became the station's program director.
 |
| Hank Harral, ca. 1950s from the back cover of White Label WLP8831 |
First recordings in Lubbock
Harral not only appeared on local radio, he also began a career as a recording artist in the late 1940s. He had written several songs previously and in 1947, he decided it was time to record some of his own material. With a band called the Plains Riders, which included Lee Searsy on vocals and rhythm guitar, Clyde Perkins on lead guitar, Duke Baker on fiddle, and Tollie Stephenson on bass, Harral recorded six songs, all of which remained unreleased at the time, however. Another session two or three years later produced another four unissued tapes. Harral had also recorded a mysterious, earlier session around 1948 with Merl Lindsay and the Oklahoma Nightriders but details or any tapes have been lost over the years.
Finally, Star Talent Records from Dallas took some of Harral's recordings from a 1950 session and released them on 78rpm format. Billboard reported in June 1950 that Harral had signed with the label and mentioned previous recordings for Modern Records (though this seems to be a mistake). Credited to "Hank Harral and his Palomino Cowhands", "Dream Band Boogie" b/w "Dilly Dally Boogie" made up the first release on Star Talent #760. Harral was clearly influenced by the boogie craze that was going through country music in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His boogie oriented material did not only reflect the trends in country music at that time, it also foreshadowed the rockabilly and rock'n'roll music that would evolve a couple of years later.
Two more records appeared by Harral on Star Talent, including the noteworthy Korean War themed "When They Raised the U N Flag in South Korea" and another boogie number, "Red Barn Boogie" (a song Harral had recorded earlier but stayed unreleased). Another single followed for the small Tanner label in 1951 or 1952, before Harral took a break from recording.
 |
| Billboard December 16, 1950 |
The Big Beat on Caprock
Harral transferred to Big Spring, Texas, in early 1957, where he worked for KHEM, the only full-time country music station in that area. He presented the "Hank Harral Show" and the "Howard County Hoedown", two disc jockey segments (although Harral preferred the term "announcer"). After a break of five to six years from recording, Harral decided to set up his own record label, Caprock Records, which came into existence in 1957. The name derived from the Llano estacado, a mesa in the eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas areas, that also reached as far as Big Spring. The mesa is sometimes also simply called "Caprock".
 |
| Billboard June 24, 1956 |
The label was likely intended to serve as a vehicle to release Harral's own material (of 16 released discs, four were by Harral and he likely participated in more of them as a musician). However, he soon also found other local talent to record and release on Caprock. It fitted quite well for Harral that Ben Hall operated his Hi Fidelity House studio out of Big Spring, which served as a recording facility for many of the Caprock releases. Many of the recordings made for Caprock included the studio's usual session musicians, including Weldon Myrick on lead or steel guitar, Red Stone on rhythm guitar, and Ben Hall's wife Dina on bass.
The debut release of his new label comprised two of his own recordings, "Fabulous Oklahoma" b/w "(There's a) Picture In My Heart" (#100), issued in late 1957. Although the label released only 16 discs over a three-year stretch, the output reflected local Texas music trends and tastes: dance halls' western swing, oilfield honky-tonk, and even rockabilly and rock'n'roll trenched material. West Texas western swing band leader Hoyle Nix had a total of three releases on the label, Jimmy Simpson recorded one of his infamous odes to the Texas oilfields, and releases like Durwood Daly's "That's the Way It Goes" (a Johnny Cash styled rockabilly song) or Max Alexander's "Rock, Rock, Rock, Everybody" represented the ongoing rock'n'roll craze. Harral even took a nod in the same direction with his "Tank Town Boogie", though performance and material could have been done eight to ten years earlier. In fact, "Tank Town Boogie" became probably both Harral's and the label's most popular song, as the boogie drenched piece also appeals to rockabilly collectors and became a prime example for oilfield folklore.
Max Alexander's plain but effective "Rock, Rock, Rock Everybody" from late 1959 marked the last release on the label and Harral closed Caprock in 1960.
Later years
Harral continued to work with radio stations in New Mexico and Texas after shutting down Caprock. However, he never made further commercial recordings. He moved across the border to New Mexico at some point in his later life and, although being old enough to retire, was working at a station in Roswell by 1984, doing shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Radio had remained his passion all of his life. He also served as secretary in the local Roswell Musicians' Union. In 1981, Cees Klop of Collector Records in the Netherlands had released a 15 tracks LP called "Tank Town Boogie", compiling some of the highlights of Caprock's output. If Harral was aware of this reisssue is not known.
Hank Harral died December 28, 1985, at the age of 72 years. He and his wife Shauna are buried at Mission Garden of Memories Cemetery in Clovis, New Mexico. In 2010, the British Archive of Country Music released a CD containing Harral's complete solo recordings, including his unreleased material from the late 1940s.
See also:
Recommended reading
Sources
• Entries at 45cat, 45worlds 78rpm and 45worlds vinyl albums
• Sheena B. Stief, Kristen L. Figgins, Rebecca Day Babcock: "Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and from the West Texas Oilpatch" (University of Oklahoma Press), pages 161-163, 2021
• Joe Carr, Alan Munde: "Prairie Nights to Neon Lights: The Story of Country Music in West Texas" (Texas Tech University Press), pages 74-76, 1997
• Phillip J. Tricker: "Hank Harral with the Plain Riders & his Palomino Cowhands" (British Archive of Country Music), liner notes, 2010
• Phillip J. Tricker: "Hank Harral with the Plain Riders & his Palomino Cowhands" (British Archive of Country Music), liner notes, 2010
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