Music from Ferriday, Louisiana
The Story of Melvin Doge and Myrl Recording Company
The year 1961 was the starting point for the label group of Dodge Records, Myrl Records (probably the flagship company) and Lluvia Records. These labels were operated by local engineer Melvin Dodge (1907-1983) in Ferriday, Concordia Parish, Louisiana. All three labels were heavily active in 1961 but ceased activities afterwards with only very few singles being released in the following years.
Melvin D. Dodge was born on August 18, 1907, in Louisiana and was a longtime resident of Concordia Parish. He was the oldest child of George Warren Dodge, no information has turned up on his mother so far. By 1937 he had married Myrl Foreman and their daughter Juanita was born the same year. Son Percy followed in 1940. 1940 census documents list his occupation as "farming" in Wildsville, Louisiana (between Jonesville and Ferriday). Dodge served during World War II and possibly acquired his knowledge in electronics in the military. Dodge, Myrl and their children still lived with his father and his siblings in 1950. He eventually became an engineer and had become president of B & D Electronics as well as DEB Electronics, Inc. by 1961. It seems he specialized in inventing electronic motors for space craft and cars.
By the early 1960s, Dodge had become interest in music business and went into partnership with LaCharles Harper. Harper, also listed as LeCharles Harper or simply Charles Harper, was a blues, R&B and soul songwriter. He was active around Houston, Texas, in the 1950s and 1960s but obviously also had connections to Ferriday. He composed such songs as "Barefoot Rock" (Little Junior Parker, 1958) or "Little Boy Blue" (Bobby "Blue" Bland, 1958) and founded his own publishing firm Star-Flite in the 1950s. Harper became the main songwriter for Dodge's labels in 1961.
Dodge Records was of course a reference to Melvin Dodge and Myrl Records was named after Dodge's wife. Both labels started in July 1961. R&B singer Artie Golden and the Mighty Trojans with "If I Could See My Baby (One More Time)" b/w "Goodbye My Love" (Dodge #801) made the start on Dodge, while rock'n'roll singer Earl Cupit had the debut release on Myrl with "Don't Touch Me" b/w "I Always Do" (Myrl #401). Myrl also had a short-lived "Spiritual Series" and its first disc also appeared in July by the Original Soul Revivers, "Lord, I've Done You Wrong" b/w "Lord, Don't Turn Me Away" (Myrl #1201). The Lluvia label came into existence a few months later with its earliest known disc, "She Don't Cry in Vain" b/w "Dizzee" (Lluvia #5051, October 1961) by Percy & his Rockin' Aces (which involved singer Wayne Prince and possibly Dodge's son Percy, who was an avid guitarist). On July 22, 1961, Cash Box reported: "Melvin Dodge, Myrl Records exec, thrilled with reaction to all 4 releases of the newly-formed diskery. Included are Little Shirley Jean’s 'I’ll Get Even With You,' Earl Cupit’s 'Don’t Touch Me,' Sonny Hodges’ 'The Flame' and the Original Soul Revivers’ 'Lord I’ve Done You Wrong.'"
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| Billboard December 18, 1961 |
Dodge put considerable money into promotion, publishing several ads in Cash Box and Billboard (even a BB one-page ad). He also sent out promo copies to radio stations as well as aforementioned magazines and his labels gained frequent mention in Cash Box and Billboard. Several releases enjoyed airplay in different areas of the market and Dodge's strategy was probably to lease those records to labels. And it worked. A lot of releases were taken over by bigger labels and even overseas based companies. The Megatons' Dodge disc (ex-Sun rockabillies Billy Lee Riley & His Little Green Men) was nationally released by Checker Records (Chess subsidiary). Riley also recorded under another alias, "Darron Lee", for Myrl and those recordings were released through Top Rank in Israel and Belgium as well as through Triola in Norway. Material by Dee-Dee Gaudet, the Mighty Trojans (both Dodge) and Percy & the Rockin' Aces (Lluvia) was re-released by Starlite in the UK.
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| Billboard March 3, 1962 |
However, newspaper articles paint a different picture. The Sentinel reported on July 17, 1968, that Dodge planned to built a new recording studio and pressing plant for his Myrl Recording Company in Ferriday. The facility was said to be in business by September 1968 but the News Star carried the same text on December 7, 1968, implying that construction had not begun yet. It was reported in 1970 that Dodge visited the Old South Jamboree, a Louisiana based country stage show, to discover new female talent for Myrl Records. However, no discs are known to have been released in this time period.
Melvin Dodge passed away on May 7, 1983, at the age of 75 years in Natchez. He is buried there at Greenlawn Memorial Park.
Recommended reading
Sources
• 45cat entries for Dodge Records, Myrl Records, Lluvia Records, and Global Records
• Discogs entry for Myrl and Luvia
• Official census records accessed through ancestry.com
• Official census records accessed through ancestry.com
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