Updates

- Added a discography on the Gene Mooney post.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Johnnie Leach on Round Up

Johnnie Leach and the Country Gentlemen - Faded Love (Round Up No.#), 1971

Here we have some fine Tulsa western swing, from a local outfit Johnnie Leach and the Country Gentlemen. "Faded Love" is of course the 1950 Bob Wills hit, a standard in western swing and one of my favorites. Naturally I had to buy this record.

The Round Up label (no connection to a label of the same name from Nashville) had at least three releases, all of them by Leach. It was based in Catoosa, a suburb of Tulsa, and it seems all of its releases were manufactured by Rite Record Productions from Cincinnati.

I could not really find out much about Leach or the label. Judging from a fitting Find a Grave entry, he was probably Johnnie A. Leach, born on July 2, 1926, and passed away on February 5, 2002. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Claremore, also near Tulsa. I suspect him to be the leader of a local western swing act, the Country Gentlemen. Leach was not the vocalist but co-wrote at least two of their songs, "Home Maker" and "Three Empty Chairs". Vocalists in the group included Robert Hill and Bob Bintliff.

Discography

Round Up 28531/2: Johnnie Leach and the Country Gentlemen - Three Empty Chairs / Lone Star Rag
Round Up 28533/4: Johnnie Leach and the Country Gentlemen - Home Maker / Under the Double Eagle
Round Up 28535/6: Johnnie Leach and the Country Gentlemen - Faded Love / Maiden's Prayer

Sources
Find a Grave entry
Information on all three Round Up discs thanks to Western Red

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