Ramon Maupin

Rocking Rufus from Memphis
The Story of Ramon Maupin

This text is based on an excerpt from American Music Magazine #152 (December 2019)

I wrote about Memphis singer and songwriter Ramon Maupin back in 2019 for American Music Magazine as part of my extensive look on Fernwood Records. However, as my focus was not set on Maupin but on the record label, I now feel his story can be extended as well. And, moreover, I want to correct a few false statements I made back then.

A native of Memphis, Ramon Maupin was a mainstay in the city’s music scene without causing a stir. He left behind three singles on Memphis labels and a couple of songs recorded by other artists. Maupin also had the honor to have the first release on Fernwood after Billy Lee Riley switched to Sun.

Maupin was a vocalist and guitarist with the Dixie Ramblers in 1956 when Wallace was searching for a singer to replace Riley. He found compensation in Maupin, who recorded his "No Chance" / "Love Gone" inn 1956 in Wallace’s tiny garage studio. Asked by Steve Kelemen, Maupin remembered his record as follows: "I remember it played on a jukebox down in Memphis for over a year and sold a few thousand copies. I remember someone saying ‘That song of yours ain’t country. It ain’t R&R. It ain’t nothing.’ It kind of hurt my feelings a little bit. Then I got to thinking about it and said well that makes it different, don’t it. So I didn’t feel bad about it later on." For "No Chance", this was definitely the case but "Love Gone" was a strictly country cut with dreamy steel guitar fills by Bud Deckelman.

Maupin, however, proved that he could rock with two more records on Fernwood (1958) and the Buford Cody/Jody Chastain owned Memphis imprint (1961). Regarding his second Fernwood single "Rocking Rufus" / "What's the Use", recording and release date information is disputed. It was reportedly recorded in November of 1957 and released by Wallace at the tail end of the year in December. There are copies which have "JAN 24 1958" stamped on the label (which was usually done at radio stations when they were receiving their copy), which supports the December 1957 release date. Though, the song wasn’t copyrighted until March 12, 1958. Both "Rockin’ Rufus" and "What’s the Use" are great examples of late 1950s Memphis rock ’n’ roll, with a solid drum beat and a shuffling and tickling piano in the back ground. The faster side, "Rockin’ Rufus", featured the help of sax man Ace Cannon, who was the inspiration for the song, as Maupin recalled: […] He [Ace Cannon] made an impression on me because he was such a good player. I said well, I’m going to write a song about this sax player and I got him to play on it." Apart from Maupin and Cannon, the line-up included Scotty Moore on guitar, Stan Kesler on bass, and unknown musicians on piano and drums.

In a letter to the local Midland, Texas, record shop owner Cecil "Pop" Holifield dated February 22, 1958, Fernwood label manager Scotty Moore explained about Maupin’s record: "Ramon Maupin’s #105 ‘What’s the Use’ has been slowly picking up speed here. I just signed a release on it to Sparton of Canada." Concrete numbers of sales for this release are not documented but obviously, the disc did not sell too much outside the Memphis area, although Moore must have put faith in it, as his comment in this letter emphasizes. The Canadian release carried the number Sparton #4-552R.

Maupin's third and last single release came in 1961 for the newly founded Memphis record label. Again, Maupin provided the debut release for this company, comprising the rocker "Hey Rena", written by Memphis artist Fuller Todd, and the slower paced "(Maybe) Tomorrow We'll Know", a Fuller Todd-Jody Chastain work. Maupin had already signed with Memphis in October 1959, after his second Fernwood single had not clicked, but the recording and release process was evolving slowly. A session was set up not until the next year, using the Fernwood studio on North Main Street, with an unknown line-up of musicians. The two songs weren't released by Cody and Chastain until early 1961, when they finally hit the market on Memphis #101. Again, the record sold only locally. As an interesting side note, Harold Jenkins alias Conway Twitty heard "Tomorrow We'll Know" and covered his for MGM Records, although his version remained unreleased, unfortunately.

Billboard February 27, 1961, C&W review

Catalog of Copyright Entries

However, Maupin continued his music career, although he made no more commercial recordings under his own name. He was a close associate of Charlie Feathers, who became some kind of a mentor to him. Maupin played rhythm guitar for about 15 years in Feathers’ background band, performing with Tommy Tucker for a time in a West Memphis club. Rumor goes that Maupin joined Feathers’ Musical Warriors for a short time in 1956 as a drummer, a claim that likely can only be cleared by Maupin himself.

Maupin was not only a good vocalist but also a talented songwriter, He had penned all of his Fernwood material by himself and some of his composition were also recorded by other artists. Already in 1958, Jimmy Pritchett recorded Maupin's "Nothing On My Mind" for Stan Kesler's Crystal label. With former Sun recording artist Sonny Wilson, Maupin wrote "Troubled Times", which was recorded by Wilson and saw release on the Plaza and Candix labels in 1961. Charlie Feathers also recorded their joint composition "Jungle Fever" for Charlie Kahn’s Kay label in December 1958 at radio WHBQ. With Roland Janes on lead guitar, Maupin remembered performing rhythm guitar on some of the takes, though he was not sure if the issued take featured his playing. "Jungle Fever" song became Maupin's most covered song with versions by the Cramps, the Wild Wax Combo, Tav Falco, the Nomads, and others. Maupin took also part in one of Feathers’ sessions held in 1968 at the Select-O-Hits studios in Memphis as a rhythm guitarist. With Feathers, Maupin also penned "Why Pretend I Can Win" and Feathers recorded Maupin's "It's Just That Song" in 1976 for Vetco.

In later years, Maupin recorded mostly privately at home with his family and kept music as a hobby. Some sources stated that Maupin passed away in the 1980s, which is not true. In the 2000s, he made his home in Starksville, Mississippi and made a short appearance in 2008 on a WFMU Charlie Feathers special broadcast. In February 2011, Maupin performed at the opening of the exhibition "Roots of Rockabilly" at the Rogers Historical Museum in Rogers, Arkansas. The exhibit dealt with Slim Wallace (who was from nearby Paragould, Arkansas) and his Fernwood record label. This is the last time we heard of Ramon Maupin.

If anyone knows about Ramon Maupin's whereabouts or has more information on him, please feel free to contact me.

See also
• The Memphis label

Sources
• Dave Travis: "Memphis Rockabillies, Hillbillies & Honky Tonkers, Volume 4" (2004), Stomper Time Records, liner notes
• Ronald "Slim" Wallace Exhibit (arkansasonline.com)
• Charlie Feathers Tribute radio show on WFMU with special guests Billy Miller, Bubba Feathers, and Ramon Maupin
• Obituary of Ramon Maupin's mother
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• 45cat entry
• Discogs
• Sonny Wilson 45cat entry

Lee Carzle on Erwin

Lee Carzle with Bobby Mizzel and the Le-Bow's - I'm askin' But I'm Not Gettin' (Erwin E-77), 1957 (or 1959)
Lee Carzle Hood was born on October 7, 1935, to Sim Andrew and Dollie L. Hood in Alabama. He grew up with five siblings. In the late 1940s, Hood served his country and spent time overseas in Saudi Arabia around 1949. Upon his return in 1950, he lived in Mississippi but eventually returned to Alabama. In November 1956, Hood married Shirley Oral Lane in Jefferson County, Alabama (which includes the state's capital Birmingham). The couple had two daughters.

Lee Carzle Hood, late 1950s

Hood was also a singer and musician. In the mid- to late 1950s, he linked up with local Birmingham musician, songwriter, and manager Leon Bowman, who in turn organized a deal with Marshall Ellis' Erwin record label from Memphis, Tennessee. As Lee Carzle, Hood recorded "I'm Askin' But I'm Not Gettin'" and "What's In Store for Me" and both Bowman originals. He was backed by local Birminham pianost Bobby Mizzell as well as the Le-Bow's, probably Bowman's own group. 

Terry Gordon of the excellent "Rockin' Country Style" discography project gives the release date as December 1957 (estimated) and it seems that most others, including Adam Komorowski in his liner notes for the Proper Records box set "Rocking Memphis", adapted this date. However, a Birmingham News article from September 13, 1959, mentions that "Lee Carzle has gone on record for Erwin [...] both sides of which were written by Leon Brown [!]." So this means the record either did not come into existence until 1959 or it indeed came out in late 1957 but did not get any recognition from the local press until two years later.

Come 1961, Hood had signed a deal with the Starday subsidiary Nashville Records and recorded two singles for the label. "Doorway to Your Heart" b/w "Two Eyes, Two Arms, Two Lips" was released that year on Nashville #5032. Again, both songs were composed by Leon Bowman. A second single followed three years later in 1964 with two songs Hood had penned with his sister Euell, "I'll Go to the Jumping Off Place with You" and "I've Never Made a Hit" (Nashville # 5193). It seems that this was his last release.

In the 1980s and in the 2000s, European rockabilly collections started featuring Carzle's "I'm Askin' But I'm Not Gettin'". Hood passed away on February 8, 2008, at the age of 72 years in Walker County, Alabama. He is buried in adjacent Marion County.

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• Familysearch.org

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• 45cat entry

Don McKinnon on Sound Stage 7

Don McKinnon - Country Guitar (Sound Stage 7 45-2529), 1964

Not a household name in country music history, Don McKinnon was a songwriter in the late 1950s and 1960s, having made the majority of his work in the Nashville music scene. Besides that, he also recorded occasionally, including this gem of mid 1960s Nashville country. He is not to be confused with the west coast radio personality of the same name, who was killed in the 1960s.

Donald Ladson "Don" McKinnon was born on December 30, 1933, to Willie Ladson and Mary Grace McKinnon in Eastman, Georgia, where he grew up on a farm. McKinnon became interested in music at an early age and eventually became a multi-instrumentalist, playing piano, guitar, bass, steel guitar, and harpsichord. One day, McKinnon was at a farmer's market in Atlanta, sitting on a bulk of watermelons, singing and playing his guitar. As it happened, country singer Red Sovine witnessed the young singer and advised him to try his luck in Nashville.

By 1959, McKinnon was under contract with Blanche Carter's music publishing in Augusta. At that time, he had already written about 150 songs. However, he followed Sovine's advice and went to Music City, U.S.A. in the early 1960s, where he soon became acquainted with some of the big names in country music.

McKinnon's debut single was released in 1961 on the Beltone label and he followed up with a single on the newly founded Sound Stage 7 label, a subsidiary of Monument Records. "Country Guitar" b/w "Sing Me a Sad Song, Willie" were of course McKinnon originals and produced by Hank Cochran, who worked for Pamper Music. Despite guest spots on the Grand Ole Opry and in Las Vegas, none of his singles really caught on and McKinnon enjoyed a rather quiet life - first in the Augusta, Georgia, area and since 1960 in Beech Island, South Carolina. He had another more release on the Antenna label in 1966 and two more singles out on the Soundwaves label in the 1980s. Although he was also an accomplished singer, he never found the big break as a performer, recording only sporadically, but enjoyed success as a composer.

Billboard June 1, 1963

In 1963, Hank Snow had recorded his "Town of Laredo" and Snow obviously took a liking at McKinnon, supporting him and possibly making him acquainted with Hal Smith. Smith, who worked with Pamper Music, signed him to a songwriter's contract the same year. In 1966, Johnny Cash cut his version of McKinnon's "Bottom of a Mountain", which was also recorded by Tex Williams two years later. In 1970, Carl Phillips recorded his "Such a Short Time (to Forget So Much)". Many lesser known artists cut his songs during the 1960s and 1970s as well.

In the 1980s, his career was boosted one last time, as he shot a music video with his song "Crippled Cowboy", inspired by a Vietnam veteran he had met, and he released the video under his nickname of "Tracker" (he got that name because of his hunting passion). The moderate success in turn led to several appearances on Nashville TV network. He also operated a very short-lived record label in the late 1980s, Tracker Records.

McKinnon retired from music and his day job in 1993 and spent his time with his family, with his part-time leather holsters business, hunting, and quick-draw pistol shooting, taking part in several contests. His wife Mary, who was also a songwriter, died in 2013. Don McKinnon followed her on June 15, 2016, in Aiken, South Carolina, at the age of 82 years. He is buried at First Baptist Church of Beech Island Cemetery in his adopted hometown of Beech Island.

Discography

Beltone 1013: Should I Kiss You / I See In the Paper (1961)
Sound Stage 7 2529: Country Guitar / Sing Me a Sad Song Willie (1964)
Antenna 6442: Blues / Fat, Fat, Fat (1966)
Soundwaves 4805: If I Die Tomorrow / Roses (and Other Lovely Things) (1988)
Soundwaves 4809: Bottom of a Mountain / Such a Short Time to Forget (1988)

See also
• New Star and Gaylor / Pamper Music and Its Labels

Sources
• Don Rhodes: "McKinnon was everyday man who wrote country hits" (2016), Augusta Chronicle
• Obituary
• Find a Grave entry
• 45cat entry
• Discogs

Leon Bowman

Black Widow Spider

The Story of Leon Bowman

The Birmingham, Alabama, music scene had close connections to its bigger counterpart in Memphis during the 1950s and early 1960s. Several country and rock'n'roll singers from Birmingham recorded for Memphis labels, including Tex Dixon, Hoyt Johnson, Sherry Crane, among others. In addition, there was a group of singers like Lendon Smith, Junior Thompson and Buddy Bain & Kay Wayne out of Florence, Alabama, that recorded for Meteor Records in Memphis in the mid-1950s.

Alabama native Leon Bowman never recorded for a Memphis label but he was responsible for getting some Birmingham talent onto labels like Stomper Time Records. Although he recorded a single under his own name, Bowman was more of a songwriter and manager.

Born Leon Fleming Bowman on June 3, 1917, to Noah Arthur and Lillie Getrude (Hardin) Bowman, he was raised likely in Calhoun County or St. Clair County, Alabama, northwest of Birmingham. Bowman grew up in a large family with nine siblings, four sisters, and nine brothers, and many of them later settled in Birmingham. As a young man, he moved to Decatur, Alabama, took up the profession of a barber and worked at Herman Hinz' barber shop on 2nd Avenue.

World War II interrupted Bowman's plans and he was drafted, serving in the US Navy. He was stationed in Memphis, Tennessee, possibly developing early ties to the city during this time, and spent 18 months on sea as a ship's service man. He was discharged around November 1945 and returned to Decatur, taking up his job with Hinz again. In 1950, Bowman was appointed by Alabama Govenor "Big Jim" Folsom to serve honorably as a lieutenant colonel in the state militia. This duty lasted five years.

In the meantime, Bowman had married Norma Chatham and the couple would raise three daughters and four sons. At some point in the 1950s, Bowman moved his family to the Birmingham area, where, by 1958, he had become manager of the Arcadia Barber Shop located in the Five Points West Shopping Center. At least a year earlier, Bowman had found his way into the local music scene of Birmingham, playing guitar and writing songs. 

Leon Bowman
(bad quality copy from WLP 8873)

Alabama boy Lee Carzle Hood was probably the first to record Bowman's songs. As Lee Carzle, he recorded "I'm Askin' But I'm Not Gettin'" and "What's In Store for Me", both Bowman originals, for the Memphis based Erwin label. The deal with Erwin Records, owned by Marshall Ellis, was set up by Bowman possibly with the help of Jim Atkins, an Alabama based DJ, promoter, and singer, who had recently brought Hoyt Johnson, another local, to the attention of Marshall Ellis. Terry Gordon of the excellent "Rockin' Country Style" discography project gives the release date as December 1957 (estimated) and it seems that most others, including Adam Komorowski in his liner notes for the Proper Records box set "Rockin' Memphis", adapted the date. However, a Birmingham News article from September 13, 1959, mentions that "Lee Carzle has gone on record for Erwin [...] both sides of which were written by Leon Brown [!]." So this means the record either did not come into existence until 1959 or it did not get any recognition from the local press until 1959.

Either way, Bowman made his way into the local music scene. He became involved in Homer Milan's Birmingham based Reed record label in some way, spending time in its studio, managing some of its artists, and supplying song material. Bowman also had a release out on Reed under his own name, his sole commercial record. Released in 1958, it was an extended play disc featuring four tracks: "Searching for Love", "Rocking the Blues", "Black Widow Spider", and "Looking For My Rib". For 41 years old Bowman, these tracks were surprisingly rocking. There were also a few unreleased tapes that did not see the light of day until the 1980s.

Bowman began managing rock'n'roll singer Ronnie Moore and they made use of the Memphis connection again, securing a release of "You Have This and More" b/w "Take a Look at the Moon" on Eddie Bond's Stomper Time label in 1959. Bond, who went on to become Memphis' top country music star, was friends with Marshall Ellis. Ellis also manufactured Bruce Brakefield's "Rain Boy" b/w "In Your Heart" on Bowman's own L-Flem-Bow label.

This label only lasted for the one Brakefield release but in 1960, Bowman was back at it with a brand new label, the aptly named Teen's Choice Records. The first known release was devoted to Ronnie Moore again, "Time for School" b/w "Sweet Shop Doll" (#TC-7). The catalogue numbers suggest that there were earlier releases prior to this but none have been found so far. It was #TC-8 that secured the label its place in rockabilly history. Tiny Tim & the Tornadoes recorded "I've Gotta Find Someone", a rip-roaring guitar driven rockabilly number, backed with "My One Desire", released in 1960. Tiny Tim's real name was Tim Bowman, a cousin of Leon Bowman. A third release in 1960 featured Jerry Lee Johnson & the Roulettes. It seems Bowman's Teen Choice label went out of business afterwards.

During the early 1960s, Birmingham artists like Othell Sullivan, Walter "Tex" Dixon (alias Mason Dixon), and Lee Carzle continued to record Bowman's songs for different labels. But by the middle of the decade, his activies in music had ceased. He continued to live in Birmingham until his death on January 13, 1977, at the age of 59 years. He is buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.

The European rockabilly revival brought unknown artists like Bowman to the attention of music fans and collectors. In the 1980s, Dutch record collector Cees Klop visited Alabama and tracked down Bowman's family. Apparently, Bowman had buried unsold copies of the Tiny Tim release in his garden on Pleasant Grove Road and shortly after his widow had told Klop the story, both found themselfes digging out those records in the garden. You can see a lot of those copies being sold now on ebay, discogs, or in sales lists. Klop introduced both Leon and Tiny Bowman's recordings as well as many other associated music through his White Label LPs to young, European audiences and made them household names among rockabilly record collectors.

High resolution version of the picture shown above
(made with AI)

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• Discogs

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• 45cat entry

• Official records access through ancestry.com

• Several Birmingham News articles 1944 - 1963

Bill Haley on Decca

Bill Haley and His Comets - Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie (Decca 9-29713), 1955

This record was one of my acquisitions last year and although I was very familiar with the songs on it, having them on CD and in digital format, I thought it was nice to have them on original 45rpm record. You can't go wrong with Bill Haley and the Comets. I consider him being the first real star of rock'n'roll music.

"Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie" was recorded on September 22, 1955, at Decca's recording studio at the Pythian Temple in New York City. Present that day were Haley on vocals and rhythm guitar, Franny Beecher on lead guitar, Billy Williamson on steel guitar, Rudy Pompillli on saxophone, Johnny Grande on piano, Al Rex on bass, and Cliff Leeman on drums. It was the first session for Rex and Pompilli as Comets, as they replaced bassist Marshall Lytle and sax player Joey Ambrose. Rex had performed earlier with Haley when he was still playing more  country music oriented material. Studio drummer Cliff Leeman was brought in for Dick Richards, who had left as well. Also recorded that day was the song "R-O-C-K" and, the next day with the same line-up, "The Saints of Rock'n'Roll" and "Burn That Candle".

Billboard October 22, 1955, pop review

Billboard November 12, 1955

Sound-wise, all four recordings followed the pattern of Haley's big 1954 hit "Rock Around the Clock". "Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie" had been written by Haley three years earlier for his former guitarist Danny Cedrone, who had his own version released in September 1954 with his Esquire Boys on Guyden Records. Haley's own version was coupled with "Burn That Candle" on Decca #29713 in November 1955. It became a #16 Billboard pop best sellers hit in the US and #4 hit in the UK for Haley and the Comets. 

Bill Haley and the Comets, mid 1950s

Sources

• German Wikipedia entry / English Wikipedia entry

• 45cat

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

Loyal Records (Birmingham, Al.)

No, No Satan!

The Story of Loyal Records

Loyal Records was a long-lasting record label in the field of country gospel music. Operated by bluegrass and gospel singer Walter Bailes of the famous Bailes Brothers, Loyal produced estimated 700 records throughout its active years from 1960 until around 1971. Based in various locations, the label released the bulk of material out of its Birmingham, Alabama, offices.

Owner Walter Bailes was born on January 17, 1920, in Kanawha County, West Virginia. Musical talent rooted in the Bailes family as Walter and his brothers John ("Johnnie"), Kyle, and Homer all played instruments and sang. Raised in poverty, the brothers grew up with traditional old-time folk music and sacred hymns. In the late 1930s, the brothers appeared on radio stations across the state of West Virginia in various combinations, including WSAZ in Huntington but also stations in Charleston, Bluefield, and Beckley.

The Bailes Brothers live on stage of the Grand Ole Opry, mid-1940s

At the recommendation of Roy Acuff, who had witnessed them perform, Johnnie and Walter Bailes moved to Nashville in the mid-1940s, where they gained a recording contract with Columbia Records and became regulars on the WSM Grand Ole Opry. They later also recorded for King Records. The duo relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1946 and found work with KWKH. Two years later, the Bailes Brothers became cast members of the station's newly started Louisiana Hayride and developed into early stars of the show. Walter Bailes became a minister with evangelical churches in 1947 and in 1949 the duo act broke up. Homer would become a reverend, too, in Louisiana. The Bailes Brothers continued to perform solo and in various combinations but seldomly all four of them stood on stage. 

From his Shreveport home base, Walter Bailes set out to attend revivals and church meetings across the country. From 1953 until 1957, he worked with his brother Johnnie again but this time as a pure gospel act. By 1957, Bailes could be found managing Carl Butler and was working with WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a short time. 

By October 1960, Bailes had a country and gospel DJ show on KXAR in Hope, Southwest Arkansas, and around the same time, founded Loyal Records. Billboard reported that "Walter Bailes [...] has formed his own label, Loyal Records, to promote gospel songs and singers. Bailey also plans to launch his own publishing company, Wal-Fran, with headquarters for both firms at 1111 Rendall Street, Shreveport, La." Wal-Fran was likely an acronym for Walter and Frankie, his wife. From the same address, which was likely his home, he also sold "religious supplies" through newspaper ads, including bibles, sheet music, record players, and sacred records. 

Birmingham Post Herald 
October 26, 1962

Among the first acts Bailes recorded were Jimmie and Lillian Hall, the Sullivan Family (a South Alabama based group), Bill Franklin, and Rabe Perkins (another Alabama artist). The Alabama connection was already evident here, and soon, Walter would move his operations to this state. This might have been influenced by the fact that his brother Kyle was already living there.

However, before Bailes relocated to the deep south, he made a stop in another town. In 1961, he moved the label to Edwardsville, Illinois, a city located in the west of the state a few miles away from St. Louis, Missouri. However, this lasted only a short time as Bailes moved once more in early 1962, this time to Birmingham, Alabama, where Loyal Records had its headquarters until its closure in the early 1970s. 

By May 1962, he had begun working with WIXI, a local station, and the Birmingham News reported in December 1962 that Bailes had a weekday radio show known as "Gospel Request Time". He worked as the station's "religious director" eventually. It is possible that at least some of the Loyal releases were cut at this station. In addition, he taped his DJ shows for KXEN in Fort Worth, Texas, and XEG in Monterrey, Mexico, for broadcasting. It was especially the latter with its 100,000 watts that provided Bailes with a wide coverage and he probably sold a good batch of his Loyal releases through this channel.

Many of the Loyal recording artists were local bluegrass and country gospel artist. It is probable that many of the releases were custom pressings for those unknown singers and bands. This assumption is underlined by the fact that some Loyal releases from the 1969-1970 time period feature a Tylertown, Mississippi, address. Among the better known artists on the labels were Johnny Rion (from the St. Louis area), Jimmy Murphy, Walter Dixon (also known as "Tex" or "Mason" Dixon), Rabe Perkins, and the recordings of the Bailes Brothers.

Walter Bailes closed down Loyal Records around 1971 after more than 10 years of activity and several hundred singles, EPs, and LPs for local country gospel artists. For him, it might have been a business or a way to spread the Gospel (or perhaps both) but for record collectors and musicologists, he preserved unique and unfiltered documents of American music. While the Bailes Brothers' recordings have been reissued by labels like Cattle Records, Bear Family Records, and Old Homestead Records, the Loyal recordings still need to be reissued in an adequate way.

Bailes eventually moved to Tennessee, where he operated White Dove Records out of Gallatin. This label released a few records by the Bailes Brothers and a few more LPs by other bluegrass groups but never reached the extent of his Loyal operation. He also continued to play gospel meetings and a few bluegrass festivals with Kyle. Walter Bailes passed away on November 17, 2000, in Sevierville, Tennessee.

Sources
• Gospel Jubilee Discography listings: Shreveport - Edwardsville - Birmingham - Tylertown
• Discogs (also entry for White Dove)
• Walter Bailes Find a Grave entry
• West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

Bobby Reed on Modco

Bobby Reed - Pipelining Man (Modco 1000-1), unknown year
(Courtesy of Western Red from "If That Ain't Country")
Among the several Bobby Reeds in the music business, this singer was presumably active in the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area. First because he recorded for several Arkansas based record labels, some of them even from the northwestern corner of the state, and second because one of the songs he wrote and performed was called "Fort Smith Arkansas Women".

However, Reed started his career in Texas. He was also quite a songwriter, as BMI lists 32 compositions by him. He made his debut in 1961 with a band called "The Vallants" on the Texas based Rainbow label with two songs, "Honey Bee" and "This Love of Mine". Both songs were published by Pappy Daily's Glad Music. At that time, Reed was performing rock'n'roll music. He followed up with two more singles on the Texas based Van and Cyclone labels in 1964 and 1965 respectively. Van was owned by Charles and Bobby Vanmeter and located in Lake Jackson near Houston, while Cyclone was based in Bryan or Houston.

It seems that Reed moved north at some point between 1965 and 1968 to the Fort Smith, Northwestern Arkansas, area. In 1968, he began recording for Wayne Raney's Rimrock label with a single disc and even an album in 1970. In between, he recorded for John Capps' K-Ark label from Nashville. This session produced his song "Fort Smith Arkansas Women".

Our selection was recorded for the Modco label from Lincoln, Arkansas, a small town that is located between Fort Smith and the Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers region. "Pipelining Man", produced by a certain R. J. Reed, is the top side from that single and features some nice fills by lead and steel guitar as well as piano. The flip side was "Battle at the Picket Line".

I don't know what happened with Bobby Reed after 1970. My research turned up a certain Bobby D. Reed who was born in 1938 in Phoenix, Arizona, and died in 2016 in Bald Knob, Arkansas (three hours away from Fort Smith). His obituary mentions that he "would spend his time visiting the nursing homes always taking his guitar so he could sing to the residents. His favorite song was 'God is Love.'" So this guy could be the same Bobby Reed.

If anyone has more information or recollections on Bobby Reed, please feel free to share them via e-mail or leave a comment!

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Discogs

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• BMI

• Bobby D. Reed Find a Grave entry

Ervin T. Rouse

Inventor of the Orange Blossom Special

Ervin T. Rouse

Among the old-time folk and country music performers in the Miami-Dade area, Ervin Rouse was possibly the earliest known, the most famous nationally, and one of the most bizarre. He is best remembered for writing "Orange Blossom Special", a fiddle tune that developed a life of its own, though Rouse was not instantly recognized with the fame.

Ervin Thomas Lidel Rouse was born on September 19, 1918, to Ernest Haywood and Eloise "Ella" Rouse  near Cove City, Craven County, North Carolina. One of 14 children, the family probably went through hard times in a rural area during the 1920s and certainly suffered even more when the Great Depression hit the United States. Among his brothers were Earl Bryan (born in 1911) and Ernest Gordon (born 1914), who eventually performed music with Ervin.

Rouse took up the fiddle as a child and left the family at a very early age - when he was eight years old - to perform with vaudeville shows around New York and Boston. He joined his brothers on the RKO Vaudeville Circuit in 1928 and remained with that outfit until 1933. At one point, he and his brother Gordon also traveled the country with an evangelist, supporting his preaching with their fiddling. Ervin even appeared with Glenn Miller's orchestra as a vocalist for a brief time later that decade. In June 1936, the Rouse brothers, consisting of Ervin and Earl on fiddles and Gordon on guitar, made their recording debut in New York City for the ARC label group. Several titles were cut in two sessions but only one disc was released on the infrequently used ARC imprint, "Pedal Your Blues Away" b/w "I'm So Tired" (#6-09-54).

Rouse settled in Miami in 1938, when he bought a house there, and continued to perform regionally. A year later, Rouse witnessed the christening of a new train that was operated by the Seaboard Air Line Railway. That train went from New York to Miami and back and was called "The Orange Blossom Special". It was the inspiration for Rouse's fast fiddle piece, originally titled "South Florida Blues" but then renamed it in honor of the train, and imitated the sounds of the Special and its speed. Rouse never rode that train actually but the song eventually became linked forever with his name.

In 1939, the brothers worked the infamous "Village Barn" in New York City, worked as songwriters for Bob Miller's publishing company and, that year in June, Ervin and Gordon, accompanied by brother Jack, recorded again, this time for RCA Victor's Bluebird label. At least six songs were cut that day, again in New York City, all of which saw release on Bluebird as well as the Montgomery Ward chain label. Among them were traditionals like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (made popular by the Carter Family) but also originals like "Craven County Blues" and, of course, "Orange Blossom Special". It was the beginning of a long list of recordings in the years to come. Rouse copyrighted the song in 1938, though, according to Kip Lornell in the book "Capitol Bluegrass", the first (though unreleased) version was recorded by Roy Hall's Blue Ridge Entertainers for Vocalion in November that year, followed by fiddler Walter Hurd (as "Train Special") for Bluebird in February 1939.

In the late 1930s, Rouse had met another young fiddler originally from Lake City, Florida. Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise had been born there in 1915 and met Rouse while living in Jacksonville, Florida. According to Wise, he helped Rouse to compose the melody, though other artists have uttered the theory that Rouse simply taught Wise the tune. Bill Monroe and his newly formed group, the Bluegrass Boys, recorded "Orange Blossom Special" in October 1941 with Art Wooten on fiddle. Bluebird released the result with "The Coupon Song" on #B-8893 in December that year. Monroe's frequent appearances at the nationally known Grand Ole Opry surely helped to boost the popularity of the song. Rouse himself was once invited to the Opry but turned down the offer in favor of staying in Florida.

UK sheet music cover of "Orange Blossom Special"

After World War II until the mid 1950s, several more artists recorded their version of "Orange Blossom Special", including Sleepy McDaniel & his Radio Playboys (D.C./Paragon, 1947), Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith (Capitol, 1947), North Carolina Ridge Runners (Security, ca. 1947), Jerry & Sky (MGM, 1949), Preston Ward (Kentucky, 1952), Tommy Jackson (Dot, 1953), the Stanley Brothers (Mercury, 1955), among others.

Moon Mullican recorded Rouse's "Sweeter That the Flowers" for King Records in 1947 and it became another standard with nearly 30 different versions, including those by Shorty Long, Esco Hankins, Carl Story, the Stanley Brothers, or Bobby Bare. Rouse never recorded an own commercial version. His only surviving recording is a home tape from the 1970s, on which he played the song with his ex-wife's brother Virgil.

Maybe due to Mullican's hit version on King or maybe not, Ervin Rouse and his brothers became affiliated with the King label themselves in the early 1950s. They got to know Henry Stone, originally a record distributor who had turned to producing records. He owned a small record label, Rockin', on which the brothers' "Loan Me a Buck" and a new version of "Orange Blossom Special" was released in the fall 1953. When King Records bought out the Rockin' label, Stone became an A&R scout for King's DeLuxe label and headed its Miami office. He transferred the brothers to DeLuxe and reissued the single. The Rouse Brothers held a few more sessions for DeLuxe (engineered by Bob Miller, who worked as King exec bny then) until 1954 and two more singles resulted.

DeLuxe's flirtation with country music ended in the mid 1950s and the triumph of rock'n'roll sidelined the popularity of "Orange Blossom Special". It was not until Johnny Cash recorded his version of the song for Columbia in 1964 that the song started a second life. Cash recorded the song on December 20, 1964, at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Although it was a fiddle tune, Cash's version did not feature a fiddle but instrumental breaks by Charlie McCoy on harmonica and Boots Randolph on saxophone. Released in early January 1965, it peaked #3 on Billboard's C&W charts.

Sheet music cover of Johnny Cash's version

After Cash recorded it, he wanted to know the man who wrote it and made the connection to Rouse via Miami country DJ Cracker Jim Brooker. When Cash played a concert in Miami, he invited Rouse to come on stage and perform "Orange Blossom Special" with him. "I brought Ervin up to play the fiddle, and he absolutely killed it" remembered Cash decades later.

By then, Ervin and Gordon were living in the swamps in a small community in Collier County outside of Miami, keeping music as a sideline and performing locally at rough bars for the local fishermen and gator hunters. It was a stark contrast, from living in suburban Miami and working the city's resort hotels, to the hard, sweaty life in the Big Cypress swamps and its small though venues. In the 1970s, a few local journalists and just as few music scholars set out to visit Rouse in order to interview him, which failed in most cases as Rouse, although surely entertaining, rather told exaggerated stories and hokum instead of reliable facts. 

Rouse had to battle declining health and alcoholism in later years. He passed away on July 8, 1981, in Miami-Dade County, Florida, at the age of 62 years. He is buried at Southern Memorial Park in North Miami. His brother Gordon died in 1995.

Recommended reading

• Lonesome Lefty's Scratchy Attic

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• 45worlds/78rpm entry

• 45worlds/78rpm list of "Orange Blossom Special" releases

• Praguefrank Country Music Discographies entry

• Chubby Wise hillbilly-music.com entry

• SecondHandSongs

• NCpedia

• Randy Noles: "Orange Blossom Boys - The Untold Story of Ervin Rouse, Chubby Wise and the World's Most Famous Fiddle Tune" (Centerstream Publishing), 2002 

• Tony Russell, Bob Pinson: "Country Music Records" (Oxford University Press), 2004, p. 815

• "The Encyclopedia of Country Music" (Rouse brothers biography by Charles K. Wolfe) (Country Music Foundation), 1998, p. 460-461 

• Kip Lornell: "Capitol Bluegrass - Hillbilly Music Meets Washington, D.C." (Oxford University), 2020, p. 32

Brown's Recording Studio

Brown's Recording Studio

Sherwood, Arkansas

Recently, I stumbled across a recording studio in Sherwood, Brown's Recording Studio. This name was printed on several 1970s singles and albums with producing credit sometimes going to Maxine Brown. No doubt, this was the same Maxine Brown who was part of the country family group the Browns (along with her sister Bonnie Brown and Jim Ed Brown). The studio was obviously operated by her and possibly by Bonnie Brown as well, who also sometimes appears as a producer.

Early promo picture of the Browns, mid 1950s

Maxine Brown was born in 1931 in Campti, Louisiana, but her family moved to a farm near Sparkman, Arkansas when she was very young. Brown would later call Arkansas her home state. The family later moved to Pine Bluff. In the early 1950s, she and her brother James Edward, nicknamed Jim Ed, started singing, having their first appearance at the Barnyard Frolic in Little Rock, and signed a recording contract with the Fabor label in 1954 as a duo. They enjoyed early success with "Looking Back to See" the same year, then signed with RCA-Victor and, in 1955 with the addition of sister Bonnie, became "The Browns". They appeared on the Louisiana Hayride and the Ozark Jubilee and had more hits throughout the 1950s, most notable "The Three Bells".

After Jim Ed started recording solo, the group disbanded in 1968. Maxine Brown had a brief solo career in the late 1960s, signing with Chart Records and having a hit with "Sugar Cane County". She then recorded for Plantation in 1970 but stopped releasing records afterwards.

There is not but information available on the internet what Brown then did. She returned to Arkansas and obviously started Brown's Recording Studio around 1972 in Sherwood, a city north of Little Rock. The studio had an in-house label, Sherwood Records, which had at least two releases by Harry Blanton and Dan Emory. The label was active in 1974 but there were earlier recordings custom produced for other labels as well (including Charles Saulsberry II, Seventh House, the El Dorados, and the Gospel Tones).

It seems that Brown's Recording Studio was out of business by 1975. Brown went out of the music business and passed away in 2019 in Little Rock. 

Recommended reading

• The Gospel Tones on The Good, Bad & Ugly Gospel Record Barn

Sources

• The Browns and Maxine Brown Wikipedia entries

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas

• Maxine Brown 45cat entry

• Sherwood Records 45cat entry

• Discogs

Ernest & Donald Thibodeaux on Lanor

Ernest & Donald Thibodeaux - Robert Special (Lanor 1000), 1982

I found this record in New Orleans in 2023 and got me some real fine, original cajun music. Ernest Thibodeaux performed with one of cajun music's stars, Nathan Abshire, and had a career in music on his own for more than half a century.

Ernest Joseph Thibodeaux was born on October 9, 1925, in the small community of Mermantau near Jennings, Louisiana. Music was a part of his life early on, as his father Clobule played cajun music, too. Thibodeaux started playing at the age of 10 years and taught himself to play guitar, fiddle, bass, and drums. At the age of 13, he met fiddler Will Kegley and the Lake Charles Playboys and began performing with them.

Following World War II, Kegley and Thibodeaux regularly played the local Pine Grove Club dance hall in Evangeline. In 1948, Kegley's sister Oziet joined on drums, making it a trio. Dance hall owner Telasfore Esthay suggested including an accordion. Thibodeaux found  an accordionist in Nathan Abshire, who joined as well. The Pine Grove Boys were born. The next year, Jim Baker and Atlis Frujia on steel guitar made the band complete. Thanks to the owner of the Avalon Club, Quincy Davis, the band was signed to a recording contract with George Khoury and Virgil Bozeman and their various labels that same year. However, in May 1949 Abshire and Thibodeaux held a session at a Lake Charles radio station backed by Earl DeMary's band. This session produced the first version of "Pine Grove Blues", which became a regional hit.

Thibodeaux recorded with Abshire and various line-ups until 1955. Credited not only to the Pine Grove Boys but to various band names, the results were released on Khoury and Bozeman's various labels: Oklahoma Tornado (OT), Lyric, Khoury's, and Bob Tanner's Hot Rod label. Many of those discs were good sellers regionally but the band did not saw much money from it. Thibodeaux remained with the Pine Grove Boys until the late 1950s, then left the group but continued performing locally.

He regularly played Fred's Lounge in Mamou in the decades to come. Today's selection came into existence not until 1982, recorded for the Jennings based Lanor label's custom series. It featured Ernest Thibodeaux plus Donald Thibodeaux on accordion and Robert Thibodeaux on vocals. As far as I can tell, all three men were not (or not directly) related. Both "Robert Special" and "Hilda's Waltz" are fine examples of traditional cajun music. Ernest and Donald Thibodeaux, the latter also played at Fred's Lounge, eventually recorded the album "Fred's Hot Step" for Arhoolie with Ernest on drums.

In 1996, Ernest Thibodeaux was inducted in Fred's Lounge Wall of Fame and became a member of the French Cajun Music Association Hall of Fame in 1999. He passed away on August 18, 2006, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, at the age of 80 years.

Recommended reading

• Ann Savoy Collection (Interview with Ernest Thibodeaux)

Sources

Ernest Thibodeaux

• This Week in Cajun Music Facebook post

• Find a Grave entry

• Nathan Abshire Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

• 45cat entry and Nathan Abshire 45worlds/78rpm entry

• Discogs

Donald Thibodeaux

• Downhome Music: Fred's Hot step by Donald Thibodeaux and Cajun Fever

Hank Williams on MGM

Hank Williams with his Drifting Cowboys - I Won't Be Home No More (MGM K11533), 1953

I'm always fond of some Hank Williams! I can really feel why so many people loved his music and why he was an inspiration for so many singers and musicians. His music and his voice have something you can't find anywhere else. Here is one of my favorite Hank songs, "I Won't Be Home No More". I won't go into detail here on his career - there has been written so much about him - but let me give you a bit of background info on this particular recording.

"I Won't Be Home No More" was recorded on July 11, 1952 at the Castle Studio, located in the Tulane Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Apart from Williams on vocals and rhythm guitar, the line-up included Jack Shook on acoustic guitar, Chet Atkins on electric lead guitar, Don Helms on steel guitar, Jerry Rivers on fiddle, and Ernie Newton on bass. Also recorded that day were "Be Careful of Stones That You Throw", "Why Don't You Make Up Your Mind", and the mega hit "You Win Again".

Billboard July 11, 1953, C&W review

Coupled with "My Love for You (Has Turned to Hate)", a song originally recorded by Williams already in 1947 for Sterling, "I Won't Be Home No More" was released in July 1953 (MGM #11533) on both 45rpm and 78rpm format. By then, Williams had been dead for seven months but MGM still turned out recordings of him frequently and many of those posthumous released songs became hits and standards. "I Won't Be Home No More" was no exception, reaching #4 on Billboard's best selling country singles.

Similar to "You Win Again", the song is believed to cover the relationship and break-up with Williams' wife Audrey. In fact, both were legally divorced the day before Williams recorded it.

Sources
• 45cat entry
• 45worlds/78rpm entry
• Wikipedia entry
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

Dave Hillhouse & Ellis Mize - the Runabouts

The Runabouts, early 1960s. From left to right (prob.):
Stan Hopkins, Bobby Davis, Chuck Booker,
unknown sax player, Ellis Mize

The Runabouts

During the 1950s and 1960s, many groups performed and recorded in and around Memphis, Tennessee. One of those groups was the Runabouts, a name that was used several times by different combos across the early 1960s United States.

The Memphis based Runabouts were centered around David "Dave" Hillhouse and Ellis Mize, both vocalists and guitarists. Hillhouse was born in 1937 and probably hailed from Memphis. James Ellis Mize was probably born around 1936. By 1958, Mize was bassist with Eddie Bond's Stompers and took part in several recording sessions. The first of these took place in April 1958 at the Sun Studio, recording "This Old Heart of Mine" and "Show Me", which remained unreleased, however.

In 1960, Mize joined forces with Dave Hillhouse to form the Runabouts. They became acquainted with Buford Cody and Gene Williams, who started their Co & Wi record label around the same time. Pianist Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith, who had come from Jackson, Tennessee, with Kenny Parchman's band to Memphis in 1957, joined as well. With the addition of Stan Hopkins on bass and Chuck Booker on drums, the Runabouts were chosen to back up Bobby Davis on his Co & Wi single "Run Don't Walk" b/w "Standing at Her Door", released in 1961.

Also in 1961, the Runabouts held their solo session for Co & Wi. With the same line-up at Stan Kesler's Echo studio, they recorded "The Prom" and "When I Get the Blues" (Co & Wi #114, 1961). According to UK music enthusiast Dave Travis, who eventually bought the Co & Wi label, this single was the best seller for Buford Cody's labels. This probably caught the attention of the bigger Jubilee label, which released the group's "Train" b/w "Bring Back My Baby" in October 1961, being the first release in the label's new (and short-lived) country & western series. At the same time, the group was a featured act on Gene Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee in Memphis, which also aired over KWAM. Although Williams set up his record label of the same name in 1962 to record many of the show's performers, the Runabouts never had a release on it.

Billboard October 23, 1961, C&W review

The Jubilee disc became the Runabouts' last single. By 1964, Mize had returned to performing with the Stompers and recorded a few more sessions with them during this year as their lead guitarist. He remained associated with Bond, recording two duets with Kay Campbell in the early 1970s for Bond's Tab label. Around the same time, Mize was a country music DJ on KWAM FM (his colleagues included Bond and Chuck Comer). He was not only a good musician but also a bit of a songwriter, penning most of the Runabouts' material as well as songs for other artists (including "Hole In My Pocket" for Jim Morgan, another singer who was associated with Bond).

Dave Travis managed to track down both Hillhouse and Mize in the 1980s. Apparently, both still performed together. At a gig in Millington, a suburb of Memphis, in the winter of 1986, they performed a version of "The Prom" for Travis (much to the surprise of the rest of the audience, which was rather accustomed to country music). Sadly, Hillhouse lost his battle with cancer the following year. Ellis Mize continued to perform occasionally and, as far as I could find out, still resides in Millington.

Cees Klop's White Label Records released two different takes on "The Prom" and "When I Get the Blues" on his 1987 LP "Memphis, Rock and Roll Capital of the World, Vol. 4". The released versions had been already re-issued by Klop in 1973 on "Rare Rock-a-Billy". In 1988, the Sunjay label from Sweden released those versions as well on "Memphis Rockabilly, Vol. 2" plus the unreleased "Glad We Talked It Over".

Discography

Co & Wi C-112: Bobby Davis - Walk Don't Run / Bobby Davis and the (Runabouts) - Standing at Her Door (ca. 1961)
Co & Wi C-114: The Runabouts - The Prom / When I Get the Blues (1961)
Jubilee 9-1000: The Runabouts - Train / Bring My Baby Back (1961)

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Discogs

• Memphis Radio 1971

• Eddie Bond entry on Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• David Hillhouse Find a Grave entry

• Official census records accessed through ancestry.com

• Dave Travis: Memphis Rockabillies, Hillbillies & Honky Tonkers, Vol. 4: The Memphis Records Story" (2004), Stomper Time Records

Rudy Gaddis on Custom

Rudy Gaddis - Wild Train (Custom 121), 1965

Rudy Gaddis' influence and fame was limited to the East Texas regions around Tyler but his name will always be linked with one song, "Uranium Fever", which he composed and recorded in the mid 1950s. The song, which bears more than just a little similarity to Hank Williams' "Kaw-Liga", was an expression of atomic war's impact on the US society and became a much cited example of it eventually.

Rudolph Joe "Rudy" Gaddis was born on September 3, 1926, in Ben Wheeler, Van Zandt County, Texas, to Joe Marlin and Mattie Henry Gaddis. Though born in Van Zandt County, he spent much of his life in adjacent Smith County. Gaddis served his country during World War II in the US Navy. He married Ella Jane Smith in 1951, with whom he had three children. The marriage was eventually divorced.

By the mid 1950s, Gaddis had taken up music and was performing in the honky tonks of Tyler, Smith County, with his band, the Lone Star Rangers. He had developed a vocal style similar to Hank Snow and released his debut single "Girl from Mars" b/w "Garden of Roses" for the Liberty label in 1954.

He got the chance to record for Beaumont, Texas, based Starday Records in 1955. A session was arranged for him in October that year, which produced "Uranium Fever" and "My Tears Are a Measure" (Starday #217). The recording place is sometimes given as Gold Star Studio in Houston, Texas, but more often as a radio station in Shreveport, Louisiana. Although "Uranium Fever" later gained some popularity in the record collectors scene - especially among those who explored the cultural phenomenons of the cold war and atomic era - it was no hit for Gaddis back then.

Rudy Gaddis in the early 1960s
(taken from the back of his Custom LP)

Around that time, Gaddis was managed by Texas DJ Art Roberts. He continued to release 45s on small, local labels in the 1950s and early 1960s, including Kathy, Faith, and Flash. In 1963, he began his work with record producer and label owner Curtis Kirk, who ran the Custom Sound Studio in Tyler and his own label, Custom Records. This resulted in one album and several singles on the label. Today's featured single, "Small Boy and his Dog" b/w "Wild Train", also resulted from Gaddis' association with Kirk and was released on Custom #121.

Gaddis continued to record without much success. Throughout the years, Gaddis was also heard on local radio and television. His "Rudy Gaddis Lone Star Rangers Show" was the first TV show to air on KLTV. His last record, "Bass Fishermen", appeared on the G.M. label in 1983. Some of Gaddis' songs have also been recorded by other artists, including Joe Paul Nichols, the Redmon Brothers, Presten Bodin, Shirl, Lexie Johnson, among others.

Gaddis ceased musical activities in the 1980s. His second wife Paulette died in 2006, Rudy Gaddis followed her a few months later on November 11, 2006, at the age of 80 years. He is buried at Overton City Cemetery in Overton, Texas.

Billboard May 15, 1982

Discography

Singles
Liberty 103: Girl from Mars / Garden of Roses (1954)
Starday 217: My Tears Are a Measure / Uranium Fever (1955)
Kathy 2614: Stranger with a Colt 45 / A Young Boy and a Teenage Girl
Faith 3618: Lost in the Mountains / He Is Watching, Watching, Watching (1962)
Flash 100-9: Winona Hoedown / Old Ely
Custom 105: Hard Luck-Double Trouble / Don't Take the Rap (1963)
Alta 103: Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette / Old Ely, the Big Texas Steer (1964)
Custom 121: Small Boy and his Dog / Wild Train (1965)
Custom 126: Everybody Wants Somethin' / I've Been There Once (1966)
Love 781: Sandy Land Farm / How Much Is a Memory Worth
Love 783: Countryville / My Love
Country America: A Boy Named Texas / Big Sandy Opry (1980)
G.M. 183: Big Bass Fishermen (Stereo) / Big Bass Fisherman (Mono) (1983)

Albums
Custom 115: Garden of Roses (1963)

Sources
• Find a Grave entry
• Entries at 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm
• Discogs
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Gospel Jubilee entry
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
• Atomic Platters (Wayback Machine)
• Tim Smolko, Joanna Smolko: "Atomic Tunes: The Cold War in American and British Popular Music" (Indiana University Press), 2021