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Wednesday, February 8, 2023

The Fendermen on Soma

The Fendermen - Mule Skinner Blues (Soma 1137), 1960

The Fendermen were Phil Humprey on guitar and vocals as well as Jim Sundquist on lead guitar. Both were students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the late 1950s and, coincidentally, both were born on November 26, 1937. Reportedly, they had played both in bands before but decided to team up as a duo when they met. The name of the newborn duo was simple - "Fendermen" because both played  Fender guitars (a Telecaster and a Stratocaster).

They played the bars in their region and around late 1959, started playing their electrified, up-tempo version of the old Jimmie Rodgers song "Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues)". The inspiration for the vastly different arrangement of "Mule Skinner Blues" came from Phil Humphrey, who had heard a similar version by Jody (Joe D.) Gibson, who had recorded the song on the Tetra label in 1957. Surprisingly, as Humphrey once stated, he had neither heard Jimmie Rodgers' original version nor the Bill Monroe or Maddox Brothers & Rose versions.

After encouraging reactions from their audiences, Sundquist and Humphrey recorded their version of "Mule Skinner Blues" as well as their original "Janice". Both recordings featured only the guitar and voices of Sundquist and Humphrey, no other instruments were used. The recording was supervised by William Dreger, who owned the Middleton Music Store in Middleton, Wisconsin, and the session possibly took place at Dreger's store.

Through Ronnie Conway, a record salesman, the tapes went to Jim Kirchstein, owner of Cuca Records, who released both songs on Cuca #1003 in January 1960. Feedback from radio stations was positive but only a small amount of copies was pressed and RCA was not willing to press more immidiately. Therefore, Kirchstein worked out an agreement with Amos Heilicher of Soma Records (though not a profitable deal for Kirchstein) to release the songs with wider distribution.

Before Heilicher released the songs, he took the Fendermen to Kay Bank Studios in Minneapolis to re-cut "Mule Skinner Blues". Released on Soma #1137 in April that year, Heilicher replaced the original flip side "Janice" with an instrumental the Fendermen had cut at Kay Bank, "Torture". "Mule Skinner Blues" eventually reached #5 on Billboard's pop charts, #16 on the C&W charts and also became an international seller, reaching #32 in the UK on Top Rank.

The success of "Mule Skinner Blues" sent the Fendermen on tours across the country and to national television shows like Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". To repeat the success, the duo was rushed back into the studio, where they cut a cover of Huey Smith's "Don't You Just Know It" along with another instrumental, "Beach Party." The single (Soma #1142), released ca. August 1960, was a total failure, unfortunately, as it reached only #110 on the pop charts. A third disc was released in early 1961, "Heartbreakin' Special" b/w Can't You Wait" (Soma #1155), which failed to make the charts altogether.

Billboard March 13, 1961

An album was released in 1960 or 1961 by Soma but soon, the Fendermen went separate ways. Jim Sundquist recorded for Cuca as "Jimmy Sun and the Radiants", trying to repeat the success with covers of "Cocaine Blues" and "Molly and Ten Brooks" to no avail. Humphrey led his own version of the Fendermen, recording for the Saggy label.

Phil Humphrey's own version of the Fendermen, ca. 1961

Sundquist remained active as a musician and he reunited with Humphreys for two shows in 2005. Sundquist died in 2013. Phil Humphrey died in 2016.

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