Gene Williams & Band - Don Picks the Banjo (Sound of Country Music 1501), ca. 1970
Gene Williams was one of Northeast Arkansas' most prolific country music promoters. From the early 1960s through the 1970s, 1980s, and well into the 2000s, he was active promoting concerts, shows, recordings, and its artists. He also diversified his business interest by investing in different other branches, including real estate and newspapers but people in Northeast Arkansas regions will probably remember him best for his country music shows.
Born in 1938 in the small town of Tyronza, Poinsett County, Arkansas, Williams' father moved the family to the Dyess colony just a bit southwest of Tyronza, in 1943. Dyess was a farming community built on swamp land. The Cash family was living in Dyess, too, and one of the Cashs, namely Johnny, would go on to have international fame of course. While in high school, Williams began organizing local concerts with singers from Memphis. When he graduated from high school in 1956, Johnny Cash was already becoming a star in Memphis and inspired by his success, Williams took a job at radio KWEM in Memphis in 1957. As Williams not a musician himself (although he later liked to pose with guitars for photos), he chose upon a career in radio and promotion.
He went into partnership with co-worker Buford Cody to found the Co & Wi label in late 1960, then started the live stage show "Cotton Town Jubilee" in early 1962 and a few months later set up his next record label, the Cotton Town Jubilee label. This imprint released several singles and albums until around 1965 by artists that appeared regularly on Williams' show. He also set out on the road with the Jubilee cast and played shows across the whole Mid-South.
In late 1963, Williams replaced the Cotton Town Jubilee show, which also aired over KWAM, with a new TV show entitled "Gene Williams' Country Junction" on KAIT-TV from Jonesboro. During the next years, this show became popular with audiences not only in Arkansas but across the Mid-South in different states. Until 1970, Williams produced records by the artists of his shows to sell at shows. He even produced two music movies called "The Sound of Country Music" (1969) and "Country Music Jamboree" (1970) plus accompanying records. For this purpose, he set up the short-lived Sound of Country Music label, also releasing selected album tracks on 45rpm discs. This was the case with today's selection "Don Picks the Banjo", an instrumental track by Williams' band spotlighting banjo picker Don Settlemoir. The flip side was "Parkin, Arkansas", a song sung by Country Junction cast member Charlie Fritts. Both songs appeared in the "Country Music Jamboree" movie.
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| Don Settlemoir around 1970 as a member of the Country Junction Band |
Neither the movie nor the single became a hit. Williams continued to work in country music promotions but had diversified his interests by that point. The Country Junction show came to an end in 1978 and was replaced with the "Gene Williams Show". He suffered from health problems in his later years, much caused by his lifelong smoking, and Williams passed away in 2011.
See also
Sources
• This post is based on my article "The Cotton Town Jubilee Records Story", which appeared in American Music Magazine 145 in September 2017.
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