L. J. Foret on Ciro

L. J. Foret and the Country Boys - Fille de Houma (Ciro 1005), 1965

Here's one of the finds I brought back home when I visited Louisiana in 2023. I think I found this disc in a record shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans.  L. J. Foret was a cajun musician from Houma, Louisiana, area, where the Ciro label was also located. Houma is located southwest of New Orleans, about an hour away.

Lawrence Joseph "L. J." Foret was born on June 30, 1930, in Houma, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Foret was born in a time when it was common to speak French instead of English and many of his songs later reflected that. He started his career in music at the age of 14 years in 1944, when he joined his father's band, the Town Serenaders, a group that played the dance halls of the region. Foret learned to play guitar, fiddle, drums, and sang. By 1949, he had his own radio show on KCIL but had to interrupt his career when Uncle Sam came calling in 1952 and Foret had to serve in the Korean War. That same year, he had married Beverly Babin, with whom he had two sons. During his military service, he hosted a radio show for fellow soldiers and entertained the troops with personal appearances as well.

Upon his discharge, he formed his own band, "L. J. Foret and the Country Boys", and returned to hosting his Sunday morning show on KCIL. He didn't record commercially until the 1960s. His debut single appeared in 1965 on the Arelro label, comprising "Someone Who Didn't Care" b/w "Don't Scatter the Pieces of My Heart" (#450). The same year, he started recording for the local Ciro label and we feature his label debut on Ciro #1005, "Fille de Houma (Girl from Houma)" b/w "Pas Christmas Poor les Pauvre (No Christmas for the Poor)" (note that it is correctly spelled "Pas Christmas Pour les Pauvre"). Although both songs were sung in French by Foret, the musical arrangement is rather country than cajun. The songwriter on both sides was probably Donald Babin, Foret's wife's brother.

Foret releases a few more singles on Ciro during 1965 and switched to other local labels throughout the years, including Houma, Ajae's, Starbarn, and La Louisianne. He recorded his only full-fledged album on La Louisianne in the 1970s. In 1972, he started his own local TV show on KHMA, which lasted for two years. In 1970, his son Ronnie joined his band, followed in 1975 by Foret's younger son Bobby. During his career, Foret opened for such country stars as Loretta Lynn, Mel Tillis, Minnie Pearl, Jack Greene, Jimmy C. Newman, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ernest Tubb, Stonewall Jackson, and Conway Twitty.

A stroke in 1983 limited his possibilities to perform but Foret didn't give up music, playing occasionally with family and friends around Houma. He was inducted into the Cajun Hall of Fame in 2000 and passed away on September 12, 2002, due to cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the Westbank Musicians Hall of Fame in 203.

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Westbank Musicians Hall of Fame (Facebook page)

• Wikipedia entry

• Find a Grave entry

• "LocalCajun musician L.J. Foret succumbs to cancer" (Houma Today)

Big Howdy Records

Big Howdy Records

Country Sounds from the Pear River Valley

Big Howdy Records was a local record label from the Louisiana-Mississippi border region. Based in different towns of the Pearl River Valley, the label released numerous singles between 1959 and 1977. The man behind this operation was Hack Kennedy, who mostly relied on country material for his releases.

Daily News, December 19, 1958

Big Howdy Records came into existence in the first half of 1959 and was the brainchild of Hastel Joseph "Hack" Kennedy (1915-1994). Kennedy was born in Washington Parish, Louisiana, and by the 1930s, had made the move to New Orleans. He had acquired basic skills on the guitar and joined the city's thriving music scene. He also developed a sense for a profitable business during those years and eventually began promoting country music shows. By then, he had relocated to the Pearl River Valley in the Louisiana-Mississippi border region.

There was, maybe, another man involved in the  Big Howdy label, too, namely country radio engineer and DJ Hardin Leon "Red" Smith (1928-1995). Smith had built up a reputation as a popular radio disc jockey by then, having worked at WBOK in New Orleans and WCKY in Cincinnati, among smaller stations in Texas and Kansas. By late 1958, he was at WHXY in Bogalusa and hosted the "Big Howdy Show" weekdays, which he had already aired over WBOK. In December 1958, he added a Saturday night live stage show called the "Big Howdy Jamboree" from the Redwood Theatre in Bogalusa and this show was broadcast over WHXY, too.

When WHXY changed owners in February 1959 and became WBOX, Smith and the show moved to WIKC. Already in January 1959, Smith had reinstalled the "Big Howdy Show" on local WARB in Covington, Louisiana. It was around that time that Hack Kennedy started Big Howdy Records in Bogalusa and the label was seemingly intended as an outlet to release recordings by the Jamboree's regular cast members. The name of the record label came almost certainly from Smith's shows. When Dave Travis purchased Big Howdy Records in 1990s, he spoke extensively to Hack Kennedy but in his memory, no one talked about neither Red Smith nor the radio shows being part of the company cosmos. In case Smith was a part owner of the Big Howdy label, he dropped out at an early age, leaving Kennedy as the sole owner.

The debut release went to Jeff Daniels alias Luke McDaniel, a Mississippi born country and rockabilly singer. McDaniel had just split with Sun Records from Memphis, an unsuccessful collaboration, and appeared on the Big Howdy Jamboree frequently during late 1958 and early 1959. His record, "Switch Blade Sam" b/w "You're Still On My Mind", appeared in May 1959 on Big Howdy #777 credited to "Jeff Daniels". While "You're Still On My Mind" was the country ballad that enjoyed some success after its original release, the rock'n'roll side "Switch Blade Sam" became the sought-after song during the rockabilly revival. McDaniel was accompanied by the Hicks Sisters on vocals, another Jamboree act.

While the Big Howdy Jamboree probably did not survive past April 1959, the Big Howdy record label did. The early and mid 1960s saw releases by such artists as B.J. Johnson, another local DJ, and Vern Pullens (both performed at the Pearl River Valley Jamboree, also staged at the Redwood), while later that decade Kennedy pulled talent from the Hayride, another Southeast Louisiana stage show. The majority of the releases featured country music with the occasional rockabilly side by McDaniel.

Kennedy and B.J. Johnson built a small recording studio in the early 1960s in Angie, some 13 miles north of Bogalusa. With the Angie Sound Studio being finished, Big Howdy Records moved to this location as well. Johnson, due to his DJ profession an expert for running a studio control board, engineered many of the sessions at the studio during the 1960s. Around 1971, Kennedy and his record label moved one more time, just across the border to Picayune, Mississippi.

Kennedy released discs on Big Howdy and short-lived off-shot/custom labels like Big B and Angie Ville until 1977. Dave Travis bought the label in 1994 and reissued a good portion of Big Howdy's recordings in 2017 on a 33-track CD entitled "Rockabillies, Hillbillies, and Honky Tonkers from Mississippi and Louisiana - The Big Howdy Recording Company Story".

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Hack Johnson Find a Grave entry

• Dave Travis: "Rockabillies, Hillbillies & Honky Tonkers from Mississippi and Louisiana - The Big Howdy Recording Company Story" (Stomper Time Records), liner notes, 2017
• Thanks to Dave Travis for additionally answering my questions and sharing his memories with me.

Tex & Cliff Grimsley

The Louisiana Show Men

The Story of Tex and Cliff Grimsley

Tex Grimsley and his brother Cliff had many occupations: entertainer, fiddle maker, songwriter, recording artist. During their career, they participated in many historical music events but their legacy is buried under bright stars of their more famous companions like Webb Pierce.

Ennis Marcel "Tex" Grimsley was born on January 17, 1921, in the small town of Logansport, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, on the western border of the state. He was the older brothers - Willie Clifton "Dizzy Fingers" Grimsley followed on October 18, 1922. The brothers came from a musically talented family; her mother had a total of 10 siblings, all but one played an instrument. Tex learned to play the fiddle from his uncle Butch Spraggins at the age of seven years and began building fiddles at the age of 14. Cliff also learned different instruments but eventually settled with the steel guitar.

Tex Grimsley, prob. early 1940s
during his military service

Tex and Cliff Grimsley became members of Jimmie Davis' election campaign band around 1943-1944, when he was running for the position of Louisiana governor. In 1946-1947, Tex Grimsley was part of Jim Hall's Radio Rangers that played in Richmond, Virginia. This band played more jazz-leaning arrangements and Grimsley "cut my teeth on that stuff", as he later remembered in a newspaper article. He returned to Louisiana, and in 1947, Grimsley made his recording debut, having one release on Deb Dyer's Red Barn label out of Chicago, "Sorry for You" b/w "It's All Coming Back to You".

Around the same time, the Grimsley brothers had begun working around Shreveport (about an hour north of their birthplace) and had a band known as the "Uncle Tex and his Texas Showboys". They appeared on radio KWKH and were one of the first acts to appear on the first broadcast of the station's Louisiana Hayride in April 1948. During these years, the brothers played at the Hayride with such artists as the Bailes Brothers, Johnnie & Jack and Kitty Wells, the Mercer Brothers, and Hank Williams.

Another early star of the Louisiana Hayride was Webb Pierce, who made himself a name in the Shreveport scene as well. Pierce set up Pacemaker Records in 1950, a small label that released discs by local artists. At that time, the Texas Showmen included Tex on fiddle, Sunny Harville on fiddle, Cliff on vocals, steel and standard guitar, and Don Davis on bass. The band recorded two records for Pacemaker, including their original version of Tex and Cliff's composition "Walking the Dog".Vocals duties were taken over by Cliff on this song and its flip side, "Teardrops". In 1951, both songs were also leased to Ivin Ballen' Gotham label from Philadelphia.

Webb Pierce signed with Decca Records in 1951 and found initial success with the label. In 1953, he covered "Walking the Dog" and his version was released as the flip side of his #1 hit "There Stands the Glass". The Pierce version of "Walking the Dog" reached #3 on Billboard's C&W as well and secured Tex and Cliff Grimsley with a good batch of royalties. The song became a minor standard in country music, being covered by at least 18 different artists over the years. They also co-wrote "The Glass That Stands Beside You" with Pierce, a reference to Pierce's earlier hit. The song was recorded by Jean Shepard for Capitol Records in 1954.

Pierce invited Cliff (and possibly also Tex) to join his band and embark on a tour across the world but the Grimsleys declined. They rather stayed in Louisiana and never regretted it. Music was only a part-time adventure for both. Tex worked as a safety and claims officer, building and repairing fiddles in addition. However, both kept on performing throughout the decades and although they did not make any recordings under their own name beyond 1951, they recorded occasionally with other artists. 

Tex and Cliff Grimsley settled in Bossier City, where both continued to perform locally. Tex also continued to build and repair fiddles. He married in 1979, teaching his wife Mary how to play the fiddle and she became a talent in her own right.

Shreveport Journal November 4, 1975

Tex and his then-current band, the Red River Boys, were often featured on the Keithville Jamboree, a local stage show out of Keithville south of Shreveport. Tex became Louisiana State Fiddling Champion in 1977, 1980, and 1982, and was also inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, in the 1980s. He kept on performing with his wife Mary well into the 1990s. Tex had taught her how to play the instrument.

Tex Grimsley around 1975

In recent years, two acetates by Tex Grimsley have turned up in online auctions, featuring the songs "Don't Forget Your Mother", "He Set the World Free", "Every Body's Blues", and "Sweetheart Divine". In 2025, my good friend Marshal Martin unearthed another acetate by Grimsley featuring early 1950s live performances.

Tex Grimsley died in 2002 in Shreveport, Louisiana. His brother Cliff died 20 years later on December 3, 2022, at the age of 100 years.

Sources
• Find a Grave entry for Tex Grimsley and for Cliff Grimsley
• SecondHandSongs
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• The Intelligencer obituary
• 45cat.com/78rpm entry

Ronald Rip Cannaday

Rip Cannaday, mid-1970s

God and Country
The Story of Rip Cannaday

The South has produced a sheer unbelievable amount of musicians and entertainers. When record pressing became affordable in the mid-1950s, a vast number of these singers was recorded and preserved for future generations. One of them was Rip Cannaday, a country and gospel singer from Louisiana, who has entertained audiences for more than 60 years. 

On the Banks of Castor Creek
Ronald G. "Rip" Cannaday was born on January 17, 1937, on the banks of Castor Creek in Winn Parish, Louisiana, but grew up in Tullos outside of Jena, Louisiana. Like many people from this region, Cannaday comes from an oil field worker family. His father worked on the oil fields and in fact, Cannaday grew up in an oil camp. While his father went to work, his mother stayed home to take care of the children. Their home was a little shack, which initially had no electricity or running water. 

Music was a welcomed entertainment in a hard life and Cannaday grew up hearing country music from stations WSM out of Nashville and KWKH out of Shreveport. The barn dances and hoedowns were another source of music for the family. Cannaday's favorite singer became Jimmie Rodgers: "There was a man that lived on the other side of Castor Creek. I would wade through Castor Creek and go to his house. He had all of Jimmie Rodgers' 78s, I would lay on the floor and listen to him all day," Cannaday remembered in 2025 to Marshal Martin, who traced him down for several interviews. At age ten, he got himself a guitar and a songbook to learn.

The Country Boys
The Cannaday family moved to Harrisonburg, Catahoula Parish, when Cannaday was 14 years old and in school, he was extremely good in sports. But music was still on his mind, and with school friends Bud Brady and Marvin Tyler, he formed a band entitled "The Country Boys." Cannaday sang and played acoustic guitar while Brady played lap steel guitar and Tyler was on washtub bass. It was the mid-1950s and the boys took every possibility to play churches, auditoriums, and private gatherings. Their repertoire included country hits of the day, some of Elvis Presley's early rockabilly songs, as well as gospel hymns like "The Old Country Church" and "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea." 

Rip Cannaday in 1956

Black Land Soil
After graduating from high school, the Country Boys disbanded, and Cannaday married his high school sweetheart. He began working on the oil fields like his father. One time, his job took him to Yazoo City, Mississippi. However, his boss got so drunk there, Cannaday quit on the spot and hitch-hiked back to Louisiana. On his way back home, he wrote a song called "Black Land Soil", which he would record about ten years later. He became a regular cast member of Don Wiley's Catahoula Country Music Show in 1962 and had his own monthly morning show on KTCO in Columbia, Louisiana, which lasted for eight years. Cannaday was also heard regularly on KCKW in Jena, with his old friend Bud Brady hosting the show. 

Already in the mid-1960s, Cannaday had written many songs and together with fellow singer Ray Prince, went down to Lake Charles to audition for Eddie Shuler, owner of Goldband Records. Nothing came of it, although Shuler reportedly took some of Cannaday's compositions.

With the Catahoula Playboys, the house band for the Catahoula Country Music Show, Cannaday made his recording debut. The session took place at a radio station in Winnsboro and produced "Black Land Soil" and "I'm Just Laughing to Keep from Crying" for L.D. Knox's Delta label. The record became popular in the region and on local radio; Cannaday sold copies every week at the Catahoula Coutry Music Show as well. After the Delta single, Cannaday shifted from country to gospel music and began performing the church circuit in North Louisiana, South Arkansas, and West Mississippi.

God and Country
In the early 1970s, a gospel quartet came to Harrisonburg to perform at the local church. One of the members was Carlton Brown, who operated Herald Records in Brookhaven, Mississippi (not to be confused with the company of the same name from New Jersey). Brown offered Cannaday the chance to record a full-fledged album, which he did one day in 1976. Ten songs were laid down in Brown's recording studio that day, which saw release on the LP "God and Country": Again, the album proved to be popular and Cannaday would even produce 8-track tapes of it to meet the demand.

The Catahoula News Booster September 18, 1975

When the Catahoula Country Music Show ended its run, Cannaday focused solely on the church circuit and became a popular performer. He worked again with Carlton Brown in 1987, recording a bluegrass-tinged album with such musicians as Emmet Sullivan on banjo, Steve Myers on bass, and Joe Cook on mandolin, fiddle, and guitar. He kept on performing but would not record again until 2010, when he made his third album for Lighthouse Records. The label was owned by Gary Cater, a Vietnam veteran from Saint Joseph, Northeast Louisiana, who also played rhythm guitar on the album. It was followed by two more CDs in 2015 and 2019. Cannaday remained an active entertainer until 2020, then the Covid pandemic hit and he called it a day. 

Rediscovery
Rip Cannaday resides in Jonesville nowadays. He has been interviewed several times by Marshal Martin in 2024 and 2025 and has donated several recordings and pictures to the Southern Music Research Center. "In September 2024 I was in Jena for the first time. I went to a flea market and one of the vendors had a bunch of records in the middle of the stack. I pulled out 'God and Country' by Ronald 'Rip' Cannaday," Marshal recalls how he learned of him. "I said to myself 'This looks interesting' so I paid $0.50 and went on my way. I brought it home and looked at it closely and realized that all the songs are originals. Some of the songs are pretty good and I wanted to learn more. So to Google I went. The first thing that popped up was a newspaper article by him written in February 2024 so that gave me hope that he was still alive. About a month later, I called the Jena Times and they gave me his contact information. So later that evening, I called him and the rest is history. Without Rip, we wouldn’t know about the Catahoula Country Music Show or we wouldn’t know how rich Catahoula Parish is in music history."

Discography

Singles
Delta 0008: Ronald "Rip" Cannaday - Black Land Soil / I'm Just Laughing to Keep from Crying (1966)

Albums
Herald HLP-7651: Ronald (Rip) Cannaday - God and Country (1976)
Cap [unknown #]: Rip Cannaday - These Memories (1986)
Lighthouse [unknown #]: Rip Cannaday - Fond Memories and the Old Washtub (2010)
Unknown label: Rip Cannaday - In My Time (2015)
Unknown label: Rip Cannaday -  Rip Cannaday Sings True Stories (2019)

See also
• The Catahoula Country Music Show
• Ray Prince: Forgotten Louisiana Songster

Sources
• Craig Franklin: "Rip Cannaday Featured in SMRC" (The Jena Times), 2025
• Southern Music Research Center
• Discogs
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9iqPpwtCHiDOMLCYrkv-kc4jzJFtDUq

Devon & Nancy / Luke Jones

Devon & Nancy - Set You Free (Velvet Ear 45-41072), 1972
The duo of Devon & Nancy was a local act from Marthaville, a tiny community in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. We know a bit about Devon Elburn Jones. He came from a musical family, his brother Luke was a musician, too, and Luke made at least two records under his own name. They also had a sister named Nancy and it could possibly be her singing on this primitive but charming country performance. This Velvet Ear release was made in 1972 and was probably a vanity pressing made through Houston Recorders. It seems to have been their only release. 

Devon's brother Luther Lenwood "Luke" Jones was born February 11, 1945, and spent his service with the US Army in Germany. Coming from a musically inclined family, Luke and Devon played in the family band that performed locally in clubs and lounges. Luke Jones had at least two records out during his lifetime. One of them was on the Lou Anna label in 1979, recorded at Precision studio in Picayune, Mississippi. The disc coupled "This Feeling Deep Inside Is Killing Me", written by nearby Catahoula Parish singer Ray Prince, and a Johnny Cash cover, "Folsom Prison Blues". The other one was on Roseland Records, a small imprint from Bridge City, a New Orleans suburb. Luke Jones eventually moved to Northport, Alabama. He passed away from cancer on January 25, 2024, in Natchitoches.

Devon Jones nowadays resides in Keithville, south of Shreveport.

Discography

Velvet Ear 45-41072: Devon & Nancy - Set You Free / He'll Walk Right Out on You (1972)
Lou Anna 101: Luke Jones & the Drifters - This Feeling Deep Inside Is Killing Me / Folsom Prison Blues (1979)
Roseland 1001: Luke Jones & the Roseland Drifters - The Best I Have / House of Blue Lovers (1982)

Sources
• Luke Jones 45cat entry
• Luke Jones Find a Grave obituary
• Official records accessed through Ancestry.com
• White Pages

Ray Prince

Ray Prince
Forgotten Louisiana Songster

Ray Prince was a local Louisiana singer, guitarist, and songwriter, who entertained audiences from the 1960s until his death in the early 2020s. In the 1960s, he was associated with legendary producer Eddie Shuler and although he submitted a few of his song works, he never recorded commercially.

Thomas Ray Prince was born on March 6, 1928, to Joseph Wilson Prince, Sr., and Josie Dees Prince in the small hamlet of Trout, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. His mother was born in 1903 in Alabama and was said to have been a distant relative of another Alabama native: Hank Williams. Prince had an older sibling, which sadly died as an infant in 1924, a sister Rita and a younger brother Joseph Wilson Jr., who became a reverend eventually.

Prince was drafted during Word War II. Along the way, Prince took up music and learned to play guitar. By the early 1960s, he had established himself as a local singer and became a steady performer on Don Wiley's Catahoula Country Music Show in Catahoula Parish. Prince also played the local churches during the 1960s and 1970s.

Catahoula News, December 19, 1963

Prince was a talented and very busy songwriter, sometimes working with his mother. It is said he wrote several hundreds songs during the decades, though the majority of them have never been registered or properly documented. Story goes that Prince and his mother Josie were the original composers of "Wings of a Dove", a smash country and pop hit for Ferlin Husky in 1960. "Ray told me that story several times. He said that he and his mother wrote the song and sent it to a Nashville publishing company from an ad that was in a country music magazine. I absolutely believe him, I never knew of Ray to lie about anything. Back in the day Nashville publishing companies were known for stealing songs," Rodney Hutchison, a local Catahoula Parish resident, recalls. This story have been brought up by different people who knew Prince. The songwriting credit on Husky's record release went to Bob Ferguson, who claimed to write it in 1958.

Prince regularly worked with another local singer, Rip Cannaday. Both men contacted producer Eddie Shuler, owner of Goldband Records in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in the mid 1960s to pitch their songs to him and maybe even to land a recording contract of their own. However, nothing happened. Shuler took four of Prince's songs and registered them with BMI (adding his name as a co-writer), though no recordings by him or other artists surfaced. Those songs included "Diddly Daddily Doo", "I'm Putting Her Picture Away", "Not Much Love Anymore", and "Sands or Arabia". However, one of his songs was recorded - by Luke Jones, a local Natchitoches Parish country singer.

While Cannaday recorded several albums throughout the decades, Prince never recorded commercially. However, Cannaday taped many home recordings of him and Prince singing songs together, sometimes even with Prince's mother Josie. Some of these tapes were recently submitted to the Southern Music Research Center through the efforts of Marshal Martin.

Prince was married to Esther Bradford, meeting her late in his life. Esther also sang, and she can be heard on some of Prince's home recordings as well. Prince spent all his life around Harrisonburg, Louisiana, and continued to play churches and at nursing homes even as an elderly man. Ray Prince passed away on January 4, 2021, at the age of 92 years in Pollock, Louisiana. He is buried at Belah Cemetery in Trout, La Salle Parish. Many people in both Catahoula and LaSalle Parishes still remember Prince very fondly.

See also

• Catahoula Country Music Show

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• BMI search

• Offical records accessed through Ancestry.com

Elsa (Al) Robinson

Al Robinson, late 1940s

Elsa "Al" Robinson - The Friendly Hill Billy

My good friend Marshal pointed me towards another local Louisiana musician and sooner than later, I found myself researching the story of Elsa "Al" Robinson, the "friendly hill billy". He seems to have been one of those persons that were larger than life. Among his many occupations, he was an insurance salesman, a songwriter, singer, radio announcer, politician, and probably more. He worked on local radio in both Arkansas and Louisiana, although the latter became his adopted home. He is not to be confused with several showmen of the same name: he is neither blues singer Alvin "Al" Robinson from New Orleans, nor Jamaican reggae artist Al Robinson nor ventriloquist Al Robinson.

From the research I did, it seems to me that Robinson was not only quite a "talker" but also a very conservative man. Therefore, I'd like to point out that much information used here came from the liner notes of his sole album, which he wrote himself, or from newspaper advertisements or published political statements that also used his own words.

Born Elsa Boyd Robinson on November 30, 1910, in West Tennessee, he grew up on a farm learning about and working in live stock and farming at daytime and practicing on his guitar at night. In the late 1920s, he was intrigued by the music of America's blue yodeler, Jimmie Rodgers, who became his main influence. By his own account, he graduated from high school (although census documents indicate he left elementary school after completing the 7th grade) around the same time.

He moved to Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, in 1931, and began broadcasting on KALB in Alexandria four years later. On those early shows, he appeared solo with his guitar but was not paid for his appearances. For some time, Robinson worked on a drag line on the banks of the Red River, where wrote many a song along the way. By 1940, he lived in a rented house in Alexandria with his first wife Jessie Edna and worked as an insurance salesman.

World War II interrupted his career. Robinson intended to join the US Navy in February 1942 but was rejected. A year later, he began serving in the US Army for a short time but was honorably discharged due to disability in September 1943. Robinson then became involved in local politics, running unsuccessfully for the Rapides Parish house of representatives. This setback ended his political ambitions or some years but he kept on supporting other local politicians if he considered them worth it. He continued his profession as an entertainer as well.

In 1944, it was reported that he performed on KTHS in Hot Springs, Arkansas, followed by a stint on KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. According to Robinson, he worked with such artists as Wayne Raney, Ray Duke, the Wilburn Brothers and Eddy Arnold while at KLCN. In 1945, Robinson returned to Louisiana and began singing over KALB in Alexandria from 1945 until 1946. At the same time, he revamped his act by founding a band, the Red River Ramblers. Robinson was then heard on KWKH in Shreveport from 1946 until 1948, again on KALB around 1950 and early 1951, and later that year, appeared on KVOB. Along the way, he also spent time on WNOE and WWL in New Orleans, WFAA in Dallas, and on WREC in Memphis. In those early years, he often appeared as "Elsa Robinson, the friendly hill billy" whereas he would later change his stage name to Elsa (Al) Robinson and finally to "Uncle Al" Robinson. He began a longtime association with KSYL in 1952, which would last until 1960 when the station's manager shortened Robinson's airtime, who in turn left the station. 

By 1950, he had married his second wife Clara and was living with her and their three sons in Tangipahoa Parish. Apart from entertaining, Robinson remained active in politics throughout the years and in 1952, he ran for Congress. His political agenda was ultra-conservative, to say the least, and he supported racial segregation as much as he wanted to stop immigration and supported outlawing communism. He entered the race of the House of Representatives again in 1955 and for the Congress in 1958 but apparently success eluded him.

Billboard April 24, 1962

Instead, he concentrated on his music and radio work. By April 1962, he was manager of KWCL in Oak Grove, Louisiana, a small country station in the tri-state area of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A year later, he had a show on KVOP in Bastrop, Louisiana, in the same region. In 1966, he purchased a small, "flat broke" station in Centreville, Mississippi, and "made it pay off within a short time" (as Robinson put it in his own words). However, "two years later the Civil Rights people, in rioting from Baton Rouge to Memphis, over the route I was on, I was wiped out, my station was completely destroyed. A thorough job was done, they wrecked all equipment and had it on fire when I reached there to open up in the early morning [...]."

After this incident, Robinson mostly concentrated on writing and performing music. In the 1970s, he released what seems to be his only commercial record, an album entitled "Funny Facts and Songs" on the Slidell, Louisiana, based independent One-Way Records. It seems it sold in good quantities around Alexandria as Marshal Martin found five copies of it in just one year.

Elsa "Al" Robinson passed away on September 3, 1993.

Sources

• Official cencus records accessed through Ancestry.com

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Several newspapter items from the Alexandria News Talk
• Al Robinson: "Funny Facts and Songs" (One-Way Records), liner notes

Roy Cagle

Roy Cagle around 1963

Roy Cagle - Natchitoches Country Soul Man

I have recently dived into the local music scenes of Louisiana much due to a Bear Family CD project I curated and researched. It is always amazing how much local music you discover when you dive a bit deeper. Accidently, while looking for something different, I stumbled across Roy Cagle, who was a local singer from Natchitoches Parish in Northwest Louisiana. Cagle recorded a few singles during the 1960s and 1970s for different labels and was adept at different styles, including country, soul, and rock'n'roll. My local Louisiana correspondent and fellow record collector Marshal Martin found out that Cagle enjoyed some popularity in the region: "My dad worked out there [Robeline] for almost 20 years. [...] I mentioned him [Roy Cagle] to my dad and he said people talked about him a good bit while he was out there. He said he lived out in Marthaville, which is about 15 minutes outside of Robeline."   

Glyn Roy Cagle, Sr., was born on December 3, 1941, in Robeline, a tiny community in Natchitoches Parish. Born to Herbert and Mary Jordan Cagle, he had a sister, Thelma, and a brother, Vernon. Cagle was musically talented and learned to play different instruments. He was taught piano by his friend Leonard Parker and it later became his main instrument.

He likely began to perform in the late 1950s, when rock'n'roll was still big but eventually changed his style towards country and soul music. It is likely, however, that he incorporated different genres into his repertoire to meet the demands of his audiences. In 1962, he had founded a band which could be seen on local TV station KALB from Alexandria, Louisiana. For some time around 1963, Cagle worked with the Parker Brothers from nearby Natchitoches. While the brothers' band disbanded at some point, he continued to work with Jesse Parker on and off during the 1960s and 1970s. Interviewed about Cagle by Marshal Martin, Parker remembered that Cagle had a big old Hammond organ and they "dragged that thing everywhere. Dragged it through the snow, climbed it upstairs. Wherever Roy went, that organ went, too."

The Natchitoches Enterprise, September 6, 1962

Throughout the years, Cagle also made a few records. Probably his first was for the Ville Platte based Hi-Lite label, featuring "Reelin' & Rockin'" b/w "I Need My Baby". I would place this into the early 1960s time frame, though there is really no hint to a date. On this disc, Cagle is in fine rock'n'roll mood with a Chuck Berry cover and an original song. At that time, Cagle was associated with Floyd Soileau's Ville Platte based Flat Town Music publishing company - Soileau owned the legendary JIN label - and Cagle co-wrote the songs "Love Me" and "Stay with Me", which were recorded by Rufus & Roscoe on the R&R label. At one point, Cagle also auditioned at Paula Records, one of Louisiana's biggest record labels, but the owner turned him down as he said Cagle's songs sounded too much like the material they already issued. After that, Cagle never tried to get on a bigger label.

Around 1971, Cagle cut two soul records with (probably) different studio bands for the Graham Cracker and Soul Train labels. "I Can't Find It", from Soul Train #RFM-411, became a worthy collectors item in soul music circles. In 1978, he and bassist/guitarist/vocalist Tim Murphy were members of the country rock band "Snuff Ridge" and the combo cut an album of country covers in Shreveport, though details escape me. Finally, Cagle had a record out on J.D. Miller's Showtime label in 1981.

Cagle kept on performing locally throughout the years. He had married Shelia Pleasant in 1971 and they had six children. He suffered from declining health in 2021 and passed away on December 21, 2021, in Shreveport at the age of 80 years. 

See also

• RFM - The Mysterious Record Company

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• 45cat entry

• Rockin' Country Style

• Discogs entry for Roy Cagle and for Flat Town Music Company

• Timmy Murphy Band
• Special thanks to Marshal Martin for researching a good bit on the spot!

Willie Gregg

Willie Gregg

Country King of the Golden Triangle

Willie Gregg came to my attention in 2013, when I purchased his Waterflow 45 featuring a superb cover of Merle Haggard's "If You Want to Be My Woman". The recording is pure country bop with a great steel guitar break. The song prompted my to look out for more Gregg records and over the years, I managed to add four more discs to my collection. Looking for the next swinging country bopper, I learned that Gregg specialized more in tearjerkers like his signature song "You Fool". For years, I chased down every hint to find information on him but in most cases, was left without any substantial details. This has now changed thanks to an extensive search in the newspaper.com archives.

Willie Clyde Gregg was born on February 20, 1940, to John D.  and Evelyn Gregg in Port Arthur, Texas. At that time, the family was living on West 18th Street. Located on the banks of Sabine Lake, Port Arthur is part of a metropolitan area that also includes the cities Groves, Beaumont, and a bit more east, Orange, also known as the "Golden Triangle". This area is the far southeastern corner of Texas next to Louisiana. Apparently, the Gregg family name is quite common in this area so it was not an easy task to track down the right family. 

As a young man, Gregg began working as a butcher, a profession would also occupy in later years. In 1961, Gregg enlisted in the US Army and was sent overseas for service in Europe. His military time included a long-time stint in Germany and it was there that he started singing and playing the guitar. Called "the best singer on the post", he quickly organized a band and played the German taverns around the post for three years. 

He returned to the US and civilian life in 1965 and it seems, right after his return, threw himself into the Southeast Texas music scene. He joined Bertis Savoy's band, the Velvetones, and performed with this outfit regularly at the Club 87 outside of Orange on Highway 87. Savoy was a disc jockey on KHGM, a musician and also emceed shows in the area. Gregg would work with Savoy for several years.

The Orange Leader, January 12, 1966

During this time, Gregg had the chance to make his first record. Billy Thompson, a western swing musician who had performed with the likes of Hank Thompson and the Miller Brothers Band, owned the Kay-Bar-Dane record label in Orange and released Gregg's "You Fool" b/w "I'll Find You" in 1966 (#044). He was backed by the Velvetones on this disc and both songs turned out as soft country ballads. The Orange Leader newspaper mentioned on December 21, 1966, that "You Fool" was "popular in the immediate area and is among the top rated recordings of country-western music in Alabama". Indeed, "You Fool" became THE song of Gregg's career, as he would record another three versions of it throughout the years. 

Gregg stayed with the Velvetones through 1967 but formed his own band around 1968, the Country Kings, and landed a spot at Bendy's Danceland (later called the High Chaparral), a club in Bridge City, halfway between Groves and Orange. The same year, he released two more singles. For Bridge-Way Records, a local Houston imprint, he recorded "Rebel" b/w "A Heart Afraid to Break", and Gregg re-cut "You Fool" along with "How Long" for J.D. Miller's Ringo label in Crowley, Louisiana. All of them were in the same vein as his debut - soft, slow country ballads but without any hints of Nashville overproductions. With Gregg's calm singing voice and slight steel guitar fills, these recordings feature a down-to-earth charm.

Gregg continued to perform in the area and had at least two more records released. In 1969, he and the Country Kings cut the Merle Haggard song "If You Want to Be My Woman" - a great country shuffle - with a ballad, "She's No Good". Both songs appeared on Tee Bruce's Waterflow label (#702). Bruce was a producer based in the same area as Gregg and was instrumental in bringing Cajun music onto Texas radio. Gregg's records were solid sellers in his home regions but did not break out of the regional scene. Though, he would soon be rewarded with another shot at the market.

Fellow Texan Tommy Hill, who had been a chief engineer and producer at Starday Records, led the Stop label in Nashville around this time and Gregg was given the chance to record one single for the company in 1971. Along with a third version of "You Fool", he also cut the Larry Kingston composition "The Girls in Milwaukee" and both were released on Stop #1532. Again, it failed to chart and his trip to the bright lights of Music City USA seems to have ended afterwards.

Gregg kept on performing throughout the 1970s in such spots as the Sparkle Paradise in Bridge City, the Cotton Cay in Orange, or the Club 88. In fact, he and his band held down a regular gig at the Cotton Cay for six consecutive years. In December 1969, Gregg had renamed his band "The Fools" in reference to his signature song. The group included Gregg on vocals and rhythm guitar, Johnny Husband on lead guitar, Bobby Tyler on bass, and Gene Edgerly on drums.

The Orange Leader, January 12, 1973

He stopped performing in 1980 and began working as a carpenter, operating his own shop on Melcer Road with the help of his father-in-law, manufacturing cabinets of all kinds. By then, he was living in Little Cypress north of Orange. However, he had returned to occasional performing two years later. In the late 1980s, Gregg led a band called the Honky Tonk Cowboys, which included himself on vocals and rhythm guitar, his old friend Bertis Savoy on lead guitar, Elton Brently on fiddle, Marvin Walston on bass, and Tommy Wolford on drums.

Willie Gregg was married (and divorced) at least three times and had a total of five children. He eventually returned to working as a butcher. Gregg lived in Buna, Texas, north of Orange, in the early 2000s and passed away on September 10, 2005, at the age of 65 years.

Discography

Kay-Bar Dane KBD-044: Willie Gregg and the Velvetones - You Fool / I'll Find You (1966)
Ringo 2001: Willie Gregg - You Fool / How Long (1968)
Bridge-Way 1003: Willie Gregg - Rebel / A Heart Afraid to Break (1968)
Waterflow 702: Willie Gregg and the Country Kings - She's No Good / If You Want to Be My Woman (1969)
Stop ST 1532: Willie Gregg - You Fool / The Girls in Milwaukee (1971)

See also

• Willie Gregg on Stop

• Willie Gregg on Bridge-Way

• Willie Gregg on Kay-Bar Dane

• Willie Gregg on Waterflow

Sources

• Discogs

• 45cat

• Various issues of the Orange Leader 1961-2005

• Official census records accessed through Ancestry.com 

RFM

Image courtesy of Marshal Martin

While researching a certain record for a Bear Family project, I stumbled across something very interesting. Jesse Parker's record "Hound Dog" on Gilda Records bears the number RFM-412 on the record label. Since I found no other releases on the Gilda label, I researched the RFM prefix and discovered that there were a few more records that shared this very same prefix and the same numerical system (see discography below). While the label names are different, all records seem to have been from the same time period (early 1970s) and most of them from the same region (three from the Natchitoches region and one from Daingerfield, East Texas).

However, I was not able to find out what RFM stands for. I suspect it's a numerical system assigned by a recording studio, which custom-produced those releases. Sidney J. Wakefield's pressing plant from Arizona was often used for pressing the records. Producers were such names as Roy Hines, Vernon Pleasant, and Ernest Self. But what was RFM? And where was it located? 

If anyone knows more about RFM, the labels or the artists, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me via the contact form. Thank you!

Discography

Graham Cracker RFM-406: C.L. and the Playmates - All These Moments / Lonely Street
Graham Cracker RFM-407: Roy Cagle with the Playmates - Somehow, I Still Love You / You'll Never Change
Kana RFM-408: Kanaan - Leave It / Something Inside (1971)
Soul Train RFM-411: Roy Cagle and the Peoples Choice - Just One Kiss / I Can't Find It (ca. 1973)
Gilda RFM-412: Jesse Parker and the Peoples Choice - Congratulations / Hound Dog (ca. 1973)

Sources

• 45cat entries: [1], [2], [3]
• C.L. & the Playmates on Rockin' Hood

Catahoula Country Music Show

Don Wiley and the Catahoula Playboys, 1960s
from left to right: Ruble Tendle Wright (piano), Gene King (guitar), Peggy Forman,
J.C. Henderson (guitar), Don Wiley (guitar), Sidney McLemore (guitar),
John Brown, Sr. (drums), Junior Trisler (bass), and Bill Landrum (steel guitar)

The Catahoula Country Music Show was a local country music stage and TV show, centered around local musician Don Wiley and his band. By the beginning of the 1960s, the golden age of American radio and the big radio barn dance shows was over. Casts of thirty or more acts were too expensive. However, on local basis, such shows were still in demand on a smaller scale. The Catahoula Country Music Show from Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, is such an example.

The Olla Tullos Signal, September 9, 1966

The house band of the show were the Catahoula Playboys, led by vocalist and guitarist Donald Ray "Don" Wiley, Sr. He was born on December 26, 1931, to Robert "Bob" and Myrtle Wiley in Catahoula Parish and married Ruthine Leola Book in 1951. She later appeared on her husband's shows as well. Wiley worked for the Lakeside Ford car dealership in Jonesville, Catahoula Parish, and also had a mobile home dealership in Ferriday. By 1962, he had also organized a band known as the "Catahoula Playboys" that played local dates and toured the Central Louisiana areas.

The Catahoula News,
September 12, 1963

The Catahoula Country Music Show developed out of a July 1962 charity event for infant Gary Wright, who was in need of a heart operation. Soon the funds were raised, which saved Gary's life, and the popularity of the show prompted Wiley and his band to organize it as a regular feature, beginning in September that year. The Catahoula Country Music Show was born. It was first held at the Fort Theater (sometimes also spelled Ford or Fout) in Harrisonburg, the parish seat. Eventually, the old theater building was demolished and the show moved to the former Keith Department Store on Front Street in nearby Jonesville. The building was later promoted as the "Catahoula Country Music Show Auditorium".

The show soon began to attract not only large crowds but also attention outside of Catahoula Parish. By September 1963, the show was carried by KVNV, a station from Ferriday. By February 1966, it was also featured on KALB-TV from Alexandria. The band also had a Sunday morning show on that station and KNOE from Monroe also televised the show at some point. Apart from the Playboys and other local talent like Tommie French, Rip Cannaday, Ray Prince, the Covington Trio, Penny Sue Franklin, Happy Fats, or Alex Broussard, the show regularly featured national stars like Freddie Fender, Jim & Jessie, Carl Story, Bill Monroe, and many others.

The Catahoula Playboys included Don Wiley on vocals and guitar, Gene King on electric guitar, J.C. "Catfish" Henderson on guitar, Bill Landrum on steel guitar, Ruble Tendle Wright on piano, Junior Trisler on upright bass, and Bobby Dan Massey on drums. Of course, the line-up varied over the years and some members came and others left. In their first years of existence, the Playboys played a mixture of country music, pop, cajun, bluegrass, and a bit of rock'n'roll. However, they developed more and more into a bluegrass band throughout the years, eventually featuring Frank Thompson on fiddle and an unknown banjo player. 

In 1966, the band made one 45rpm record for the local Catahoula label, which was followed by an album entitled "Voices of Catahoula" around 1968. They also made another LP around the same time on the Zundak label, "Catahoula Country Time". Several of the show's regulars made records as well. The Catahoula Country Music Show lasted well-into the 1970s, at least until 1973. Ruble Wright and Bill Landrum eventually had their own show in Colfax, the Louisiana Jamboree, which was much in the same style as Don Wiley's show. Wiley spent the 1980s and 1990s playing with his bluegrass band across the state. He was also a member of the Bluegrass Music Association.

J.C. Henderson died in 1995, while Wiley passed away on February 9, 2000. Ruble Wright died in 2010 and Billy Landrum in 2015.

We close this post now with the words that Wiley used to sign off his shows: "May you take a likin' to the lord... and he take a likin' to you. Bye cycle!"

Discography

45rpm
Catahoula 1001: The Bottle Let Me Down / Jambalaya (1966)

Albums
Catahoula No. ?: Voices of Catahoula (ca. 1968)
Zundak No.?: Catahoula Country Time (ca. 1968)

Sources

• Discogs

• Southern Music Research Center: Material on Rip Cannaday

• Don Wiley obituary
 • Don Wiley Find a Grave entry

• Musician Tommie French coming to CCF Coffee Hour

• Ruble Wright obituary

• 1970s Hippiebillie Country Albums

• Thanks to Marshal Martin, who brought the show to my attention and provided a lot of information and photo material!