Peak Records

The King Clothiers' Short Venture Into Music Production
Lansky Brothers' Peak Records

Among the many smaller labels in Memphis' music history, the Peak record label stands out due to its unusual ownership. Guy and Bernard Lansky, simply known as the Lansky Brothers, owned a clothing shop on Beale Street, known as "Lansky Bros. Men's Shop", which gained international fame as Elvis Presley's clothier. One of the lesser known aspects is that the brothers also went into the recording business in 1958, building a small recording studio in the back of their shop and founding the Peak label.

What became the Lansky Bros. shop started in 1946 on 126 Beale Street as Lansky Bros. Army Surplus store, selling leftover Army supplies from World War II, which had come to an end a year earlier. The Lanskys were Memphis born and Guy Lansky served his country during World War II, running an Army surplus store in Italy.

By the early 1950s, Army supply was harder to come by but, on the other hand, there was a growing market for young men's clothes, especially for the jazz and rhythm and blues scene. The brothers jumped at the chance and remodeled their store, developing it into a full-fledged clothes shop for men. The store soon gained popularity, especially among the many young, hip musicians like B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Lee Riley, Little Willie John, Little Richard, Pat Boone, and of course Elvis Presley.

In 1958, Presley had developed from being a southern "western bop" singer to a national cultural phenomenon and rock'n'roll was the thing. Every record label tried to find their own Elvis, no matter if it was a small independent company or a major record label. The Lanskys thought that, too, and - probably from the money they earned with the store - they invested in a small recording studio behind their warehouse which they named "American Recording".

Apparently, the venture was established by ten different business men from Memphis, many of them being silent partners, though. According to Billboard, iron manufacturer Abe Sauer was chairman of the board and Bernie Freiden probably took over the function of musical director. Curtis Foster also served as an executive for the label. Another of those ten businessmen was Howard R. Chambers, who did a lot of songwriting for the label. The Lanskys' exact occupation with the label remains foggy, unfortunately.

Billboard August 10, 1958: "Peak Records Sells Artist By the Piece"
Article on Peak's business strategy

In contrast to other labels, the Peak venture was set up a little bit different by the board. According to a Billboard article from August 10, 1959, the Peak label put half of the financial means behind the artists' first release, seeking for investors to put on the other half to finance the issue. This principle should continue until after the fourth release of an artists, when profits should be paid to the investors (if the discs were successful). This strategy was not fruitful likely, as no artist on Peak had more than two releases. The article mentions further that Peak had already ten discs released that way but the truth was that nothing was released at that time and that its first issue was still months away - it was, likely, not even planned. This, however, would change within three months.

The label's first recording artist was 17-years old rock'n'roller named Eddie Cash, who was a regular visitor to the brothers' store. Cash was managed by Bill Harris, who had previously worked with Harold Jenkins (alias Conway Twitty). Cash later told John Burton: "Howard Chambers was in Lansky's talking to Bill Harris, bass player and manager of Harold Jenkins. They mentioned Eddie Cash, Guy Lansky jumped in, saying: 'Is that the kid who won the contest at Treadwell High School? He buys his clothes in here. We want him to be out first release! So Chambers got in touch with Eddie and within a couple of weeks the record was written, recorded and issued."

The record that was mentioned was "Doing All Right", written by Howard Chambers, and "Land of Promises", written by Cash and his guitarist Gerald Hunsucker. Both recordings saw release in November 1958 on Peak #1001. Cash promoted the disc heavily and it reached high chart positions in several local charts, including in Memphis. It was local DJ George Klein's "Pick of the Week" the same month it was released. However, the Lansky's were inexperienced in the record business and had no proper distribution. When record stores from the east coast started demanding copies, they could not match the demand and the record died before it could develop into a national hit.

Another early production of American Recording was Dale Vaughn's "How Can You Be Mean to Me" b/w "High Steppin'" from 1958, though released not on Peak but probably recorded at the Lanskys' studio. It saw release on the Von label (unrelated to the Booneville, Mississippi, label of the same name). In 1959, American Recording launched a second, short-lived label entitled Al-Be Records, which released one disc each by Jay Rainwater and Charlie Fury and the Rebel Rockets.

Peak signed the Morgan Twins, a rock'n'roll duo from Little Rock, Arkansas, in May 1959 and released their "Sittin' at the Drive-In" around June the same year before they released another Eddie Cash single, "Come on Home" b/w "Day After Day" (Peak #1010, 1959), which went nowhere, unfortunately. Cash then left Peak, disappointed by the lack of promotion and distribution, and recorded at Fernwood (released on the Dot subsidiary Todd) as well as for Roulette.

There were a few more releases in 1960 by an artist named Paul Little and by Memphis famous wrestler Sputnik Monroe, who had a large following in the city's black community and was a customer at the Lanskys' store, but that pretty much was it. Sputnik Monroe was in good company, as several Memphis wrestlers cut a record, hoping to push their careers. The same applied to Monroe. Asked by his wife who would ever buy his record (as Monroe was so untalented he "couldn't carry a tune in a bucket" as cited in Aaron D. Horton's book "Identity in Professional Wrestling"), he replied "nobody" but he hoped to further his wrestling career with it. Soon after, he left Memphis.

There could have been a few more releases judging from the label's catalog number systems but no more have turned up so far. The Peak story ended already in 1960, only two years after it had begun.

The Lanskys Bros. shop remained a household institution in Memphis and it still is up to this day, although the original building is not used by the company any longer. The shop, now located in the Peabody Hotel building, is run by second and third generation family members and has experienced a boom recently due to the popularity of the movie "Elvis". Guy Lansky died in 2005, his brother Bernard Lansky followed in 2012.

Discography

Peak Records
1001: Eddie Cash and the Cashiers - Doing All Right / Land of Promises (Nov. 1959)
1002-1007: ?
1008: Morgan Twins - Sittin' in the Drive-In / Don't You Think It's Nice (June 1959)
1009:
1010: Eddie Cash and the Cashiers - Day After Day / Come On Home (1959)
155: Sputnik Monroe - Sputnik Hires a Band / Man That's the South
188: Paul Little - Turn Around Baby / I Want to Walk with You (Jan. 1960)

Al-Be Records
148: Jay Rainwater - Without You / The Girl I Left Behind
167: Charlie Fury and the Rebel Rockets - Reptile / Sump'n Else (March 1959)

Sources
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• 45cat entry for Peak and Al-Be
• Wikipedia entry
• John Beifuss: "From Elvis to Oscar - The Story of Lansky Brothers and its place in Memphis history" (The Commercial Appeal)
• Eddie Cash biography on BlackCat Rockabilly (Wayback Machine)
• Peak Records of Memphis
• various Billboard news items
• Robert Gordon: "It Came from Memphis" (Atria Books), 2001, pages 33-37
• Allison Graham, Sharon Monteith: "The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 18" (University of North Carolina Press), 2011, page 314
• Aaron D. Horton: "Identity in Professional Wrestling" (McFarland Inc. Publishers), 2018, pages 223-224

Charlie Rich on Phillips Int.

Charlie Rich - Everything I Do Is Wrong (Phillips Int. 3552), 1960
Charlie Rich ranks among the most famous and influential musicians that ever came out of Arkansas. Rich, unlike many of his contemporaries at Sun, had a jazz background, then switched to rock'n'roll and finally found his home in country music. Though, he was adept at many styles and could switch easily from one to another.

Charles Allan Rich was born in 1932 in Colt, East Arkansas, near Forrest City and not too far away from Memphis, too. His parents, who were very religious people, influenced him through the gospel music they played and sang. Blues came to Rich through a black sharecropper named C.J. Allen, who taught him blues piano, and he found further joy in playing jazz, performing saxophone in the high school band.

A young Charlie Rich, ca. 1950s

He formed the Velvetones while doing service in Enid, Oklahoma, but he and his wife returned to the West Memphis area and became farmers in 1955. He kept on performing locally around Memphis, playing jazz and R&B covers as well as writing his own material. He auditioned at Sun Records but was rejected for being "too jazzy" but became a studio musician for the label in 1958. His piano playing can be heard on numerous recordings, including those by Johnny Cash, Bill Justis, Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, and others.

He began recording in his own right for the Sun subsidiary label Phillips International in 1958 but his first two releases failed to chart. It was his third single that became a hit record, one of the last that came out of the Sun/Phillips house actually. The top side was "Lonely Weekends", a rock'n'roll song written by Rich. It reached #22 on Billboard's Hot 100. The flip side, "Everything I Do Is Wrong", an equally good rock'n'roll piece from his pen, is rather forgotten today. Both songs were recorded on October 14, 1959, at Sun' studio on Union Avenue, featuring Rich on vocals and piano, Roland Janes on guitar, Billy Lee Riley on bass, Martin Willis on saxophone, and Jimmy Van Eaton on drums. They were released on Phillips Int. #3552 in January 1960.

Rich kept on recording for Phillips Int. and Sun both as a studio musician and name artist but further success eluded him. He switched to the RCA-Victor owned Groove label, where he scored some small hits and moved once again, this time to the RCA parent label. He also recorded for Smash and Hi during the 1960s but it was not until he signed with Epic that his most successful era began. He scored several #1 country hits during the 1970s, including "Behind Closed Doors", and many of his hits also crossed over to the pop charts.

Charlie Rich, 1970s

His successful days were over by the 1980s and Rich's heavy drinking caused trouble since the 1970s. He semi-retired, playing only occasionally. He died in 1995.

Sources
• Wikipedia entry
• Find a Grave entry
• 45cat entry
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry

Jim Owens on Shock

Jim Owens - Two Shadows (Shock 1005), ca. 1972

Here were have a well-produced, early 1970s country performance from Memphis. Owens was already on the Memphis scene by the early 1960s. He had recorded "Davey Jones Locker" for Marshall Ellis' local Erwin record label, though I couldn't determine exact release information. This song later found its way on a 1986 Ace LP "Memphis Honky Tonk Hillbilly". Around the time Owens recorded for Erwin, he was also part of Gene Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee stage show that originated from Memphis in the early 1960s and also aired over KWAM. Unfortunately, I was not able to come up with more information about Owens.

Shock Records was owned by Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith, who came from Jackson, Tennessee, to Memphis in the mid 1950s as part of Kenny Parchman's band. He soon found work as a pianist with different bands, venues, and recording studios. He also recorded as a solo artist during the 1960s and 1970s without much success. He set up the Shock label in the early 1970s and apart from his own releases, recorded a few local Memphis artists, including Jim Owens.

See also
• Jerry Smith on Shock

Sources
• Discogs

Joe Manuel

Joe Manuel

Not to be confused with the more famous cajun musician of the same name, Joe Manuel was a popular country music entertainer of the 1940s and 1950s in Memphis. He played an important role in giving young Memphis musicians a stage to present their talents - his Saturday Night Jamboree hosted a number of later rockabilly artists and in addition, his radio show was popular all over the mid-south in the 1950s.

Born Joseph Manuel to Thomas and Arrie Manuel on March 26, 1912, he was from Northwest Alabama like fellow Memphis country entertainer Gene Steele. Joe's father was born in Texas but lived in Alabama when he married Arrie Wilburn in 1913. When Arrie died in 1938, Thomas married Willie B. Waldrep. The Manuel family hailed from the small community of Town Creek, Alabama, but relocated to the Arkansas delta region when Joe was a small boy. They lived the hard life of sharecroppers and Manuel and his brothers were raised on farms in the Mississippi River regions. As a teenager, he left Arkansas and joined a carnival, where he met comedian Dave Perkins. Perkins took the youngster under his wing and mentored him how to entertain people.

Manuel then took up the guitar and singing, becoming an entertainer in his own right. By the early 1930s, he was back in Arkansas and began appearing on local radio stations. He had made the move to the region's metropolis, Memphis, by 1933 and began performing on WNBR, which eventually became WMPS after it was acquired by the Memphis Press-Scimitar. The station was an affiliate of the Blue Network (which evolved into ABC) and for a while in the 1930s, Manuel's radio shows were beamed over the network into several states.

By 1940, Manuel had married Elizabeth A. Van Hooser, with whom he had a daughter, Dotty. Manuel was married several times, a fact that he also incorporated into his songs (like "Alimony Blues"). In 1942, he was married to Margaret Mary "Elsie" Keywood, which gave birth to another daughter Sylvia.

Following World War II, Manuel worked a radio station in Dallas, Texas, for a short time but despite the good offer from the station, he returned to Memphis due to family responsibilities (which also included his son Larry by then). Upon his return to the city, he hooked up with WHBQ, which transferred his show to an early morning slot. As Manuel's show matched perfectly with many farmers' breakfast time in the surrounding Memphis areas, it became a huge success among the rural audiences. As WHBQ was a 5,000 watts station, Manuel was heard as far away as Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, and Kentucky.

In 1948, television reached Memphis but Manuel did not transfer to the new medium. His popularity ceased and his radio show came to an end in 1950. He stayed out of radio business for about two years but returned to the airwaves in 1952, then appearing on KWEM in West Memphis, where he started a daily broadcast. By then, an idea had grown on Manuel. He noticed the many young, talented singers in the city and wanted to create a possibility for them to present themselves. He introduced a live stage show patterned after the Grand Ole Opry, which he called the Saturday Night Jamboree. The show started in 1953 and took place at the Goodwyn Institute in Memphis. It quickly drew crowds and became successful enough that KWEM began airing the shows live. Apart from his own band (which also included his son Larry on accordion), acts like Johnny Cash, Eddie Bond, Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Marcus Van Story and band, Charlie Feathers, and others who became known as rockabilly legends appeared on Manuel's stage.

Despite his popularity, Manuel made only few recordings and none of them were released in a commercial way. Probably in 1954, he and his band laid down a couple of recordings at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service. Some of them were jingles for bread companies and found release on 78rpm discs released by the Action Advertising Agency credited to "Dreamy Joe". Those included "Hardin's Bread Boogie" and "Holsum Boogie" and as the titles reveal, they were hot country boogie numbers. His "Holsum Boogie" became so popular with listeners in South Illinois that Manuel and his band were once invited by the Holsum Bread Company to perform in front of a 11,000 audience in Anna, Illinois.

Advertisement sign for Holsum Bread

It was especially lead guitarist Lee Adkins' playing that foreshadowed the rockabilly sounds, which would evolve about two years later in Memphis. There was a third boogie number called "Daisy Bread Boogie" as well as "Alimony Blues", a song written by Manuel already in the early 1940s with its lyrics bearing a lot of self-reference. It featured yodeling in the style of Jimmie Rodgers by Manuel and enjoyed great popularity among his radio and live audiences. Those two recordings were apparently not released at the time. Apart from Manuel on vocals and rhythm guitar and Adkins on electric lead guitar, the line-up also included Danny Chambers on bass.

The Saturday Night Jamboree ended in 1954 as the Goodwyn Institute's auditorium was closed down for remodeling and a year later, Manuel was sidelined by Sun Records' young rockabilly artists. He continued to broadcast on and off for KWEM but did not make recordings anymore. His son Larry recorded for Eddie Bond's Stomper Time label in 1959.

Joe Manuel died on July 16, 1959, at the age of 47 years from melanoma cancer. He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Memphis. His daughter Sharon was born shortly after his passing.

Discography

Label No.#	Artist Credit	A / B side	Date
Action Prod. 101	Dreamy Joe	Holsum Boogie / You’ve Done Me Wrong
Action Prod. 101/2	Dreamy Joe	You’ve Done Me Wrong / Hardin’s Bread Boogie

See also
• Gene Steele - The Singing Salesman of Memphis

Recommended reading
• Hillbilly-Music.com
(note: this side is mixing up "Cajun" Joe Manuel and Memphis' Joe Manuel)
• Larry Manuel collection at Wilson Special Collections Libraries
• Photo of Joe and Larry Manuel with Marcus Van Story (Memphis Public Libraries)

Sources
• Biography on "Remembering the Shoals"
• Ancestors page
• Find a Grave entry
• 45worlds.com/78rpm entry
• Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins, Hank Davis: "The Sun Country Boy" (Bear Family Records), liner notes, 2013

Gene Steele

Gene Steele - the Singing Salesman of Memphis

Gene Steele was a longtime performer in Memphis. He was already there in the late 1930s, when nobody even dreamt of something like rock'n'roll, and Steele was still there when Sun Records was making noise in the whole country with this hybrid of country and rhythm & blues. During the years, Steele was heard on radio by dozens of later Memphis rock'n'roll performers - both black and white and had an impact on several performers' careers.

Steele was born on October 22, 1908, in the small town of Kennedy, Northwest Alabama, near the Mississippi border. By the late 1930s, Steele had made his way to the mid-west's regional metropolis Memphis and began appearing on local radio around 1939. He became a mainstay on WMC, which hosted several country performers throughout the years such as the Delmore Brothers and Slim Rhodes' Mountaineers.

In July 1939, Steele recorded his first session for the Vocalion label at the Gayoso Hotel in Memphis. On four of the recorded numbers, he was backed by the Swift Jewel Cowboys, a Memphis jazz and western swing group which had recorded at the same location the previous days. The cuts included the bluesy "Freight Train Blues" with some Jimmie Rodgers inspired yodeling by Steele. Steele also recorded "Rio Grande Moon" and "Just a Little of the Blues" with a smaller combo that included possibly Gene Bagett.

In the early 1940s, Steele's band had become known as the "Sunny Southerners", playing on WMC and six nights a week at venues in Memphis and surrounding areas like Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. For a short time in the spring of 1942, this band included Kelland Clark and Boudleaux Bryant, who later became famous as a songwriter with his wife Felice. However, Clark and Bryant did not stay very long with Steele, as they left in April that year for Detroit.

Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Steele remained a fixture on Memphis radio and became known as the "Singing Salesman" on his morning show. Sometimes, he was also billed "King of the Hillbillies". Quite a few now legendary Memphis artists referenced to his broadcasts, like future R&B and Soul singer Bobby "Blue" Bland. Charles Farley cites Bland in his book "Soul of the Man": "I've always been concerned singing. First spirituals and then white country blues - you know, what they call hillbilly. There used to be a morning radio show here in Memphis, Gene Steele, the Singing Salesman, and when I listened to him sing 'Take That Night Train to Memphis', I got interested in hillbilly music and in coming to Memphis."

The Courier News (Blytheville, Arkansas)
August 4, 1949

Steele also became friends with Marshall Grant, who had come to Memphis in 1947, worked as a mechanic at the same company as guitarist Luther Perkins. Both joined with Johnny Cash in the early 1950s and Steele happened to work as a salesman at the same company as Grant and Perkins. Steele, who was a veteran performer by then, advised Grant how to tune an upright bass when he switched from guitar to bass. Grant remembered: "And so I bought it [the bass] and took it home. Put it in my car and took it back to the shop, went back to work, had to work it on my car and lay it on top of the seat, as a lot of bass people did. But anyhow, I called John, and I said 'Luther's got this guitar, and I got a bass, and I don't know how in the hell you tune this thing.' So there was a person that worked at Auto Sales there, his name was Gene Steele, and he was a salesman there, and he had a little band. So I went to Gene the next day and said 'Gene, how in hell do you tune a bass?' He said 'I don't know but we're doin' a little gig tonight, and I'll ask the bass player.' He came back the next morning with a picture drawn in his hand [showing] G, D, A and E, just like the top four strings on a guitar. So I called John, and Luther was working on the other side of the shop, and I said 'Look here Luther, this is how you tune this little sucker'. And I said 'Let's get together tonight, tune it and make some music.'"

Paul Burlison, who became lead guitarist with the Johnny Burnette Rock'n'Roll Trio, remembered "they [the radio station] had a place there for people to sit and watch while it was broadcast live" as written in Tav Falco's book "Ghosts Behind the Sun". Burlison also recalled watching acts like Al Burns, Bobby Knight, and Gene Steele. By 1954, Steele had done more than 3,300 programs with the same sponsor and his early morning show had become an institution. 

I could not find any traces of Steele's activities past 1954. He was possibly sidelined by the emerging trend of rock'n'roll and changes in the radio business. Gene Steele died in 1984.

In the 1970s, Sun Records researchers found uncredited tapes in the studio's vaults, containing recordings of "Alimony Blues" and "Daisy Bread Boogie" cut around 1953/1954. In the first instance, these were wrongly attributed to Earl Peterson, who had recorded for Sun around the same time. Then, in the 1980s, Memphis bassist Bill Diehl assured these tapes had been recorded by Gene Steele and for many years, this was accepted as true although further investigations failed due to Steele's death. A couple of 1990s and early 2000s reissues credited those songs to Steele, too, but new researches some 30 years later by Martin Hawkins, Colin Escott and Hank Davis revealed that these songs were written and recorded by veteran Memphis country performer Joe Manuel and not by Steele. Manuel had been commissioned by an Ohio bakery to produce a jingle for their Daisy Bread brand.

The same likely applies to more tracks recorded at Sun and released on the Memphis based Action Productions label under the pseudonym "Dreamy Joe" (which was more likely Joe Manuel). The label was part of the Action Advertising Agency and the songs intended to be ads for the Holsum and Hardin bakeries. Only few copies were pressed and later wrongly credited to Steele. The recordings included more boogie-oriented numbers like "Holsum Boogie" and "Hardin's Bread Boogie". 

Discography

Label No.#	Artist Credit	A / B side	Date
Vocalion 05068	Gene Steele	Here’s Your Opportunity / Don’t Wait ‘Till We’re Old and Grey	09-1939
Conqueror 9336	Gene Steele	Here’s Your Opportunity / Don’t Wait ‘Till We’re Old and Grey	1939
Vocalion 05135	Gene Steele	Rio Grande Moon / Ride’em, Cowboy, Ride’em	1939
Conqueror 9337	Gene Steele	Rio Grande Moon / Ride’em, Cowboy, Ride’em	1939
Vocalion 05204	Gene Steele	Freight Train Blues / Just a Little of the Blues	11-1939
Okeh 05204	Gene Steele	Freight Train Blues / Just a Little of the Blues	1939

See also
• Swift Jewel Cowboys

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• 45worlds/78rpm entry

• Discogs

• Charles Farley: "Soul of the Man: Bobby 'Blue' Bland" (University Press of Mississippi), 2011, pages 47-48

• Bobbie Malone, Bill C. Malone: "Nashville's Songwriting Sweethearts: The Boudleaux and Felice Bryant Story" (University of Oklahoma Press), 2020

• Steve Turner: "The Man Called CASH: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend" (W Publishing Group), 2004

• Michael Streissguth: "Johnny Cash - The Biography" (Da Capo Press), 2006

• Tav Falco: "Ghosts Behind the Sun - Splendor, Enigma & Death" (Elektron Ebooks), 2023

• "Broadcasting, Telecasting Volume 47" (1954)

• various Billboard News Items

• Colin Escott, Martin Hawkins, Hank Davis: "The Sun Country Boy" (Bear Family Records), liner notes, 2013

Swift Jewel Cowboys

The Swift Jewel Cobwoys at the Mid-South Fair in Memphis, 1938

Cowboy Swing in Memphis
The Story of the Swift Jewel Cowboys

Among Memphis' 1930s and 1940s country music acts, the Swift Jewel Cowboys were one of the few groups that made recordings. They were much heavier on jazz than Bob Wills or Milton Brown - with nods to Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway - but used the cowboy image quite heavier, too. They were on Memphis radio for much of the 1930s and inspired many future musicians through their broadcasts, including Sonny Burgess and Bill Justis.

The group was the brainchild of Frank B. Collins, manager of Jewel Oil & Shortening Company's refinery in Houston, Texas. Collins had searched for a possibility to promote the company's salad dressing and other products. To underline the down home image of his employer's products, he chose to set up a cowboy band to provide "old time entertainment with tunes and songs of yesterday". Though, it would become obvious soon that the Swift Jewel Cowboys were not an old-time string band but a hot western swing act.

The group came into existence in April 8, 1933, performing personal appearances around Houston. They mostly played at grocery stores and openings of supermarkets, while attendees served a Swift Jewel packet-top as a free ticket to their shows. Early members of the Swift Jewel Cowboys included singer and guitarist Elmer "Slim" Hall (the only known founding member), guitarist Texas Jim Lewis, who later founded his own group, the Lone Star Cowboys, and, hired by Lewis, steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe, who went on to write music history as part of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys.

More than a year after their founding, the group was transferred to Memphis, Tennessee, as in the fall of 1934, Frank Collins had been sent to the Memphis Swift Jewel office, too. In Memphis, the band began daily broadcasts on WMC, beginning on November 4, 1934. By March 1936, they had switched to WREC in Memphis and could be also heard on KRLA in Little Rock, Arkansas, and on WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee, broadening their popularity across the whole Mid-South. Their morning show even became part of of national syndicated CBS network for eight months in 1938.

One of the Swift Jewel Cowboys
on a rodeo

Their appearances had broadened, too, since their arrival in Memphis. To be a band member, it was not only demanded by manger Frank Collins to be a good musician, singer, and songwriter, but also to be able to ride. Naturally, they performed at many rodeos but also at fairs, vaudeville shows, school houses, hospitals and probably many more venues and occasions.

By then, the line-up of the Swift Jewel Cowboys had underwent some major changes. The band now included Slim Hall on vocals and guitar, David "Pee Wee" Wamble on bass (joining in late 1936 or early 1938), piano, and vocals (he could also play cornet and trumpet), Clifford "Kokomo" Crocker on vocals and accordion, Alfredo "Jose Cortes" Casares on fiddle (who hailed from Monterey, Mexico), Farris "Lefty" Ingram on fiddle and clarinet (from Hickman, Kentucky, joining in early 1936), as well as Calvin "Curly" Noland on bass and vocals. Teenage multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Riddle filled in when some of the members were on vacation and Jim Sanders, originally from Alabama, acted as a manager (besides Collins) and scripted their shows.

This line-up recorded a three-day session in July 1939 at Memphis' Gayoso Hotel for Vocalion Records. One some of the recordings, they were joined by Jimmy Riddle on harmonica. Of course there were songs like "Raggin' the Rails" and "My Untrue Cowgirl" that tried to erase the illusion of a cowboy band but the musicians' repertoire consisted rather of jazzy tunes and standards like "Memphis Blues", "Kansas City Blues" or "Fan It". Their recordings were released on Vocalion (and one disc on OKeh) during 1939 and 1940, the first being "Willie the Weeper" b/w "Memphis Oomph! (Is It True)" on Vocalion #05052 in August 1939. Some of their recordings were later reissued in the late 1940s by Columbia Records, who was the parent company of Vocalion and OKeh.

By 1942, times had changed. World War II had brought restrictions to the USA that made it hard for the band to maintain their busy touring schedule. In addition, some of the members were drafted and the band decided to disband in the summer of 1942, playing a farewell concert on the 4th of July at Memphis' Fairgrounds. Most of the members remained in the music business, many of them on a local or regional level, however.

An old can of Swift's Jewel

Sources
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entry
• 45worlds/78rpm entry
• Flickr.com
• Joe Bone: "Pee Wee Wamble - Last of the Swift Jewel Cowboys" (obituary)
• Bob Pinson: "Encyclopedia of Country Music" (Oxford University Press), 1998, page 520
• Tony Russell: "Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost" (Oxford University Press), 2010
• Tony Russell: "Chuck Wagon Swing" (liner notes), String Records LP
• Richard Carlin: "Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary" (Routledge), 2003, page 232

The Lonesome Rhodes on RCA-Victor

The Lonesome Rhodes (Sandy and Donna) - "Nothin' But Heartaches Here" (RCA-Victor 47-9134), 1967

The Lonesome Rhodes were Sandra (nicknamed Sandy) and Donna Christine Rhodes, daughters of Perry Hilburn "Dusty" Rhodes and "Dot" Rhodes, who, along with Dusty's brothers Ethmer Cletus "Slim" Rhodes and Gilbert R. "Speck" Rhodes, were members of Slim Rhodes' Mountaineers, longtime Memphis country music performers and once Sun recording artists.

Of course born into a musical family, both Sandra and Donna were blessed with the same talent and naturally got their early music education from their family. A career in music was predicted and in 1964, they released their debut "How Much Can a Lonely Heart Stand" b/w "Why, Why, Why" on the local Memphis based Penthouse label (#5001) in 1964 as "The Rhodes Sisters". This record came to the attention of the bigger independent Dot label and the sisters re-recorded it for release on Dot in May that year. A single on the Dial label followed in 1965. At that time, their sound was a mixture of country and pop music.

Sandra and Donna came to the attention of country music singer Skeeter Davis, who had recorded their "How Much Can a Lonely Heart Stand" for RCA-Victor in 1963, scoring a minor hit withh it (#17 C&W, #47 Hot 100). She supported the sisters and signed them to her Crestwood publishing firm and by the mid 1960s, Sandra and Donna were recording and performing as "The Lonesome Rhodes". Their style was far from the sounds of the Rhodes family band but like their father and uncles had experimented with the new rock'n'roll sounds of the 1950s, Sandra and Donna were mixing country, soul, pop, and rock into their own brand of music.

They held their first session for RCA-Victor in August 1966 at RCA's studio in Nashville, Tennessee, produced by either Felton Jarvis or Chet Atkins. Although the exact line-up is unknown, it is probable they were accompanied by some of Nashville's A-Team musicians. From this very first session hails today's selection, the driving "Nothin' But Heartaches Here", a great slice of music with a style not clearly assigned to one genre. It's a little bit of country, a little bit of pop, and a little bit of rock. Paired with "The Least You Could Have Done", it saw release as the Lonesome Rhodes' second single on RCA-Victor #47-9134 in March 1967.

Probably too indefinable for the record company to promote on the one hand and for the public on the other, the single didn't reach the charts. All of their other RCA releases, five in total, shared the same fate and the Rhodes recorded their last session for the label in July 1967 with their final RCA disc appearing a year later in September 1968 ("The Lights of Dallas" b/w "I'm Missing You", #47-9629). A self-titled album of their recordings was released by RCA the same year.

Already in May 1967, Sandra had a solo release out on the Senat label, for which she worked with Wes Farrell. She was married to Memphis songwriter-producer-musician Charles Romain "Charlie" Chalmers and along with sister Donna they formed a trio that produced soul music under different names into the 1980s. They first recorded for Diamond and Hi as "The Joint Venture" in 1969 and 1972 respectively, then as "Rhodes, Chalmers and Rhodes" (later shortened to RCR) for Warner Brothers in 1975 and finally for the Florida based Radio label in 1980.

Besides that, both Sandra and Donna released solo discs during those years. Sandra recorded one single and one album for Fantasy in 1972, which was also released in the Netherlands the following year. Donna had a single on Epic out in 1968 as well as a solo album released on the same label in 1971, then recorded for Hi in 1973, Charlsand in 1974, for Unidisc in 1982 (which saw also release in Canada and the Netherlands on Ramshorn), and for Mahogany.

Chalmers also produced two releases on Sandra and Donna's mother Dot Rhodes for Epic in the early 1970s. RCR was also busy in the 1970s recording with many of Memphis' southern soul stars such as Aretha Franklin, Al Green, OV Wright, Willie Mitchell, and others, therefore playing an important part in the development of soul. 

Sandra Rhodes and Charlie Chalmers eventually divorced but kept on working together closely. They recorded with British soul singer Reuben James in 1994 and also backed Al Green on his 2005 album "I Can't Stop", produced by Willie Mitchell. Around that time, Sandra was residing in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, playing guitar at local country shows, joined occasionally by her sister Donna.

Sources

• Several entries on 45cat: The Rhodes Sisters/The Lonesome Rhodes, Sandra Rhodes, Donna Rhodes, Dot Rhodes, Rhodes, Chalmers and Rhodes

• Donna Rhodes on Discogs

• Rhodes, Chalmer and Rhodes on Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven

• Dusty Rhodes Find a Grave entry

Allen Wingate a.k.a. Allen Page

Allen Page
1950s Moon Records promo picture

Between Moon and Sun - Between Sin and Salvation
The Story of Allan Wingate a.k.a. Allen Page

Cordell Jackson's Moon record label, and in particular Jackson herself, became a cult phenomenon in 1980s Memphis. And the label's most prolific recording artist was Allen Page, who has - unfortunately - found little acclaim since his records came out in the 1950s. However, he probably would have dismissed it being celebrated as a rockabilly hero as he became a preacher under his real name Allen Wingate. From the 1960s onwards, he found his satisfaction in traveling around the country and preaching the gospel.

Many other artists that recorded in Memphis during the 1950s and early 1960s came from the rural areas of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In contrast, Allen Lamar Wingate, to give him his full name, came from the city of Tampa, located on the sunny west coast of Florida. There, he was born on August 14, 1936. His mother Corrine Elizabeth Eiland would not marry his father Woodroow Wingate until about a month after Wingate's birth. Though, the relationship broke up soon after and they divorced a year later. During World War II, Wingate's mother worked at Tampa's ship yard to support the family. She had married Glen Burnside, whom she divorced in 1945, however.

In 1956, Wingate moved to Memphis, which was the place to be for rock'n'roll music. By then, he was probably already married to his wife Joann. Their oldest son James had already been born and Allen Lamar jr. followed in October 1956. By then, Wingate had started performing in Memphis night clubs under the name of "Allen Page" and had taken up composing songs with his wife, too. It was probably around the same time that he went into Memphis' Sun Studio and auditioned. A demo tape entitled "What Else Could I Do" with Wingate on vocals and guitar, backed up by upright bass and electric guitar, has survived. However, the audition went nowhere. Though, two of the songs Wingate and his wife had written were recorded by Ernie Barton in March 1958 for Phillips Int., "Stairway to Nowhere" and "Raining the Blues".

Following his unsuccessful Sun audition, Wingate came to the attention of Cordell Jackson, a pioneering woman in music business who had founded her own record label Moon Records shortly before. Wingate recorded his debut "Honeysuckle" b/w "High School Sweater" (Moon #301), both penned by him and Joann, in 1957 but without much success. This was not because Wingate wasn't talented; Moon Records was a local Memphis business without proper distribution and the recordings itself were too provincial for the national market. The record had enough exposure to stir a cover version, though: "High School Sweater" was recorded a couple of months later by Arkansas born singer Kenny Owens.

Cordell Jackson obviously had faith in the young singer, as she produced a total of four singles on him and the first three we released straight in a row. All of them were first-class Memphis rock'n'roll but none of them caught on. His "She's the One That Got It" was written by him for his wife. While Wingate was a talented songwriter and composed most of his recorded material on his own, he also cut Cordell Jackson's "Dateless Night" and "Oh! Baby". The latter, along with "I Wish You Were Wishing" (a song he recorded twice for Moon), was released on Moon #307 in 1960 and became not only Wingate's final single on the label but also the label's last release altogether. He had cut it with the Big Four, a group that had also recorded in its own right for Moon.

Billboard June 13, 1960, pop review

By then, it had become obvious that Wingate's moment to reach stardom as a rock'n'roll artist had passed. The hard-driving rockabilly that was produced under Cordell Jackson's supervision had definitely gone out of fashion by 1960. Wingate was heavy on alcohol, cigarettes and drugs by 1963 but one night in August that year, he found faith and - in his own memories - never touched any of it again. He became an evangelist and with companions like brothers Billy and Tommy Brown, spent much of the 1960s traveling the country and preaching the word of God. Billy Brown, who was also from Florida and had embarked on a country and rock'n'roll music career much like Wingate, had experienced similar set-backs and had drifted into alcoholism. He later told stories of such miracles as deaf ears opened, blind eyes could see, immediate healing, etc., that occurred while traveling with Wingate. Besides traveling the United States, Wingate's extended tours also took him to Canada, Mexico, and Panama.

Joann and Allen Wingate, ca. 1978
Taken from the back of their album "Beyond the Sunset"

Back to the music. Wingate recorded a four song EP of uptempo country gospel, including a version of Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light", in 1965. An accompanying LP was released simultaneously with more cuts. For a while, the Wingate family lived in Sharonville, near Cincinnati, Ohio, where a couple of recordings were made with his wife and his son James. Eventually, much of his family would take part in his recordings. At least two more LPs followed in the 1970s, which make up a total of four albums by Wingate known to me. Probably more recordings were done throughout the years and released on LP or cassette.

Wingate settled his family in the fall of 1975 in New Smyrna Beach, on the east coast of Florida, where he founded the New Smyrna Beach Church of God and served the community as its pastor until his death. Allen Wingate passed away on April 26, 1993, in his adopted hometown of New Smyrna Beach. He is buried at Sea Pines Memorial Gardens in Edgewater, Florida. He was survived by his wife Joann as well as eight children and 22 grandchildren.

Since 1975, Wingate's rock'n'roll recordings were re-released consequently in Europe. Collector Records released two of his Moon recordings that year on the "Super Rock a Billy, Part A" LP and since then, Wingate's songs have been reissued numerous times, including on LPs and CDs put out by Moon Records. Wingate's take on "I Saw the Light" saw also release on the 2018 "Hillbillies in Hell" compilation.

Allan Wingate performs "I've Found a Better Way" at the
Belleview, Mississippi, Church of God, ca.1980s

Discography

Singles
Moon 301: Allen Page and the Crowns with the Moon Beams - Honeysuckle / High School Sweater (1957)
Moon 302: Allen Page with the Deltones - I Wish You Were Wishing / Dateless Night (1958)
Moon 303: Allen Page - She's the One That's Got It / Sugar Tree (1958)
Moon 307: Allen Page with Sandy and Sue and the Big Four - I Wish You Were Wishing / Oh! Baby (1960)
No label No.#: Evangelist Allen Wingate - It's Different Now / I'm Counting On Jesus / I Saw the Light / At Calvary (1965)

LPs
No label No.#: Evangelist Allen Wingate - Beyond the Sunset: Songs from Me for You (1965)
The Evening Light No.#: Allen and Joann Wingate - He Set Me Free (1974)
The Evening Light No.#: Allen Wingate and the Family of God Singers - That Old Fashioned Salvation (1978)
Unknown label No.#: Allen Wingate Family Singers - All for His Glory

See also

• Ernie Barton on Phillips Int. 

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Rate Your Music
• Discogs entries for Allen Page and Allen Wingate
• Find a Grave entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Gospel Jubilee entry
• Information on Corrine Elizabeth (Eiland) Wingate on WikiTree
• Allen Lamar Wingate, Jr., obituary
• That's All Rite Mama: Evangelist Allen Wingate
• Various Wingate family members commented on Youtube videos of Allen Wingate's gospel recordings. Thanks for the information provided!

Plastic Products - The Hub of Rock'n'Roll

Former Plastic Products Quonset huts at 1746 Chelsea Avenue in Memphis
Source: Google Street View

Buster Williams' Plastic Products Company
The Hub of Rock'n'Roll in Memphis

Many independent, small and private record labels from 1955 onwards used such big custom pressing services as Rite from Cincinnati or RCA's pressing plant from New Jersey. One of the smaller independent pressing plants was Buster Williams' Plastic Products from Memphis, who served the whole south in the early 1950s. Among the now famous record labels which pressed records at Plastic Products were Sun, Meteor, Hi, Fernwood, Atlantic, and many others.

Robert E. "Buster" Williams originally hailed from Enterprise, Mississippi, where he first worked as a peanut salesman while still in his teens and later owned a drug store. Williams was already an experienced business man when he set up Plastic Products in 1949. He had worked as a distributor for Wurlitzer jukeboxes in the Memphis area and by the end of World War II, had founded Music Sales distribution together with Clarence Camp (husband of Celia Camp, future co-owner of Home of the Blues Records) on 680 Union Avenue in Memphis. Soon after its founding, the company began distribution for many independent labels, including Gilt-Edge, Mercury, Excelsior, Exclusive, National, Sterling, among others. An office in New Orleans was established and Music Sales became a successful record distributor in the south and south-west.

Billboard ad from its March 9, 1957, issue. "Shipments made from PLASTIC PRODUCTS, Memphis, and SOUTHERN PLASTICS, Nashville.

A talented entrepreneur and engineer, Williams sensed that there was a gap in the record market and founded his pressing plant "Plastic Products Incorporated" in Memphis on 1746 Chelsea Avenue. On this property were four Quonset huts that housed the plant's offices, shipping and printing operations, compounding equipment and the actual presses. At the start, much of the used equipment was designed by Williams himself. Actually, it started with one Quonset hut but soon, Williams extended his operations and more huts were added. Plastic Products rapidly became the favorite plant among many independent labels in the south. When Sam Phillips founded Sun Records, he began using Buster Williams' plant as well as Music Sales for distribution.

Hi, Fernwood, Meteor, Stax, Atlantic, MGM, Chess, Holiday Inn, and many other, much smaller, labels pressed their records there, too. Williams, a self-made entrepreneur, knew the difficulties independent labels had to deal with and offered lavish credits for these companies. By 1956, Plastic Products was pressing for 49 different record labels and turned out more than 65,000 records a day. The plant therefore played an important role in the development of popular music, especially in creating and spreading rock'n'roll. Nearly all of the Memphis based labels would press their records at Plastic Products in 1959, though it made up only 10% of the whole outcome at that time.

The same year, Plastic Products was so busy pressing records that the orders exceeded the capacities of Williams' plant in Memphis by far. He built another plant in Coldwater, Mississippi (a little south of Memphis), which became known as Coldwater Industries. A third plant was built in the early 1970s near the Memphis Airport to manufacture 8-track tapes. Around the same time, Eastern Manufacturing in Philadelphia was acquired by Plastic Products as well.

Billboard September 12, 1970

By 1973, the end of Plastic Products was in sight. During the past years, Stax Records had become Plastic's biggest customer but when the label experienced financial problems, it could not pay the incoming bills from Plastic Products. A strike at Coldwater followed in 1975 and Plastic Products never received a majority of the sum the company had demanded from Stax. Finally, Buster Williams' son, whose interest lay rather in oil industry than in record pressing business, closed the pressing plants altogether.

Buster Williams passed away in 1992 at the age of 83 years. About a year later, his son sold two of the Quonset huts and later also sold the remaining two. In 2012, a marker was erected at 1746 Chelsea to keep the history of the "hub of rock'n'roll" alive. Some of Williams' children were present at the ceremony but according to Memphis part-time music historian John Shaw, the family is still reluctant to open up their archives which prevents a detailed history of the pressing catalogue.

Sources
• Discogs (List of Plastic Products pressings)
• Historical Marker Database
• ScottyMoore.net
• Bill Dries: "Marking History: North Memphis landmark recognized for musical contributions" (Memphis Daily News)

Home of the Blues Records

Home of the Blues Records
On the Street Where Blues Were Born

I recently made contacts with ancestors of Ruben Cherry and Celia Camp, owners of the Home of the Blues label, a mostly overlooked Memphis record label. Both Cherry and Camp were influential figures in the city's music scene, though they are forgotten nowadays. During its years active in the 1960s, the Home of the Blues label released recordings mostly in the rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues genres. The label was active from 1960 until 1964 and had only limited commercial success. Though it was part of the development of southern soul music and an early nest of this music's forerunners.

The Beginnings
The Home of the Blues record label was founded by Ruben Cherry, who also operated the Home of the Blues record shop. Cherry, a native Memphian born there in 1923, had opened the shop in the mid 1940s after World War II and soon, it became a music institution in the city. Cherry was known for his eccentric behavior and colorful appearance. Located on Beale Street, which is still the city’s amusement alley with countless juke joints and bars featuring live blues music, the shop was named aptly “Home of the Blues” (with its slogan “on the street where blues were born”). Soon, it developed into a music hot spot for both black and white customers as the shop offered all kinds of musical genres. Some of the now famous personalities that entered Cherry’s store frequently were local DJ Dewey Phillips, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash (who also composed his song “Home of the Blues” inspired by the shop), or members of the Johnny Burnette Trio, including guitarist Paul Burlison.

The shop enjoyed financial help by Cherry’s aunt Celia G. Camp, who operated a jukebox and pinball machine distribution company called Southern Amusement Company in Memphis. Camp, who also held several other business interests, would eventually finance the Home of the Blues record label, too.

The Home of the Blues Record Company, as it was officially called, was founded on July 15, 1960, by Cherry and Camp, both being owners of the company. While Cherry was responsible for the creative part of the business, which included spotting and signing recording artists, Camp took care of the financial issues of the company. Though sharing the name, the record shop and the record label were separate businesses operated by Cherry (and Camp). Other people involved in the label were Arthur Baldwin as vice president, Max Goldstein as vice president of sales, Ray Meaders as promotion man, and Wolf Lebovitz, who joined the label as a company secretary, dealing also with some of its partner labels. Lebovitz was married to Celia Camp’s adopted niece Dorothy.

The Artists - The Recordings
The first artist to record for Home of the Blues was R&B singer Roy Brown, who had cut numerous discs for several labels before. His “Don’t Break My Heart” b/w “A Man with the Blues” (HOTB #107) appeared already in July 1960. Although Brown had been a successful singer with several chart hits in the 1940s, his debut for the Home of the Blues label did not reach the charts. Brown had a total of four releases on the label and in Brown’s own memory, his third single, a duet with Mamie Dell called “Oh So Wonderful” from early 1961, sold well at least locally. According to Brown, around 44,000 copies were sold in Memphis but due to missing distribution, failed to sell outside of the city.

By August, another singer had been signed to the label, namely Dave Dixon, whose recordings “You Satisfy” and “You Don’t Love Me No More” (HOTB #108) were released the same month but did not sell better than its precursor.

What became probably the label’s biggest success in commercial terms was a song by the 5 Royales, another R&B act that had enjoyed successful years in the early 1950s while recording for Apollo Records. Their “Please, Please Please”, released with the flip side “I Got to Know” (HOTB #112) in October the same year, reached #114 on Billboard’s “Bubbling Under” chart.

From 1960 until 1962, more artists recorded for the label and many of them were influential musicians in the blues and R&B fields. Larry Birdsong, Willie Mitchell (who made his first attempts as a producer for Cherry), and Willie Cobbs were some of them. Billy Lee Riley, who had recorded rockabilly for Sun Records in the 1950s, recorded a single for the label in 1961, as did Billy Adams, another former Sun recording artist.

By 1961, Cherry and Camp had worked out an agreement with the Vee-Jay record label to release Home of the Blues material also on the Vee-Jay label for national distribution. This deal soon transferred to  ABC-Paramount Records after the company purchased Vee-Jay. However, the output of Home of the Blues material on its partner companies remained very limited and did not add any success.

Cherry and Camp created a couple of subsidiary labels, including Rufus Records, Six-O-Six Records, 1st Records, and Zab Records. Only few singles were released on these off-shots and they remained without commercial success.

Demise
The label’s last release came nearly exactly two years after its debut in August 1962 with Jimmy “Louisiana” Dotson’s “Search No More” b/w “I Feel Alright” (HOTB #244). After a two years existence without a major chart hit, the Home of the Blues label came to an end. There could have been more recording sessions during 1963 and 1964 - and there were a few copyright registrations - but apparently the label did not release any new singles.

Around the same time, Celia G. Camp had divorced from her first husband Clarence Camp but had remarried a man by the name of Ward Hodge a year later. Hodge in turn was the manager of a female teenage singer, who recorded for the company’s 1st Records subsidiary when she was still underage. According to local Memphis part-time music historian John Shaw, the singer’s parents sued Ward and Celia Hodge, which – according to Shaw – “may have occasioned the label's closing”.

Cash Box magazine reported on November 24, 1967, that Ruben Cherry had moved his Home of the Blues record shop from Beale Street to 147 South Main Street due to urban renewal in Downtown Memphis. Three years later, in 1970, Celia Camp sold the Home of the Blues label, catalog and recording tapes to Wayne McGinnis’ Memphis Record Company. Unfortunately, the Home of the Blues master tapes were stolen from McGinnis’ office and have not turned up since. Ruben Cherry died in 1976 at the age of 52 years in Memphis. Celia Camp passed away in 1979. After their deaths, Wayne McGinnis in turn sold the company to British music enthusiast and entrepreneur Dave Travis in 1991.

In recent years, confusion has been raised to who the rightfully owner of the Home of the Blues material is. Steve LaVere, who is considered to be a rather dubious character in music business, claimed to have the rights to the label. As it turned out, Wolf Lebovitz, who was in the possession of numerous unreleased Home of the Blues tapes, assigned the rights to LaVere. Although LaVere managed to transfer the song catalog to his Delta Haze publishing firm before he died, Dave Travis had already bought the Memphis Music Company, including the Home of the Blues label, from Wayne McGinnis, emphasizing that his deal was legally set up with the person who inherited the rights to the label.

Home of the Blues sign in Memphis, 2023, marking the beginning of Beale Street.
The name "Home of the Blues" was adopted by the city of Memphis for marketing purposes.

Legacy
In contrast to other Memphis labels, the Home of the Blues label had been of little interest to reissue record companies and scholars in the past. In 1995, the Japanese P-Vine label released three CDs with Home of the Blues material. The British Stomper Time label, known for various reissue albums of Memphis music, released another two CDs containing Home of the Blues recordings. Most recently, German Bear Family Records has released two 10-track LPs with Home of the Blues material in 2021. The label is briefly mentioned at Memphis’ Stax Museum of American Soul Music as well as the Rock’n’Soul Museum, also located in the city.

While the Home of the Blues record label did not gain much national chart success, the recordings of the label bridged the gap between Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rhythm and Blues, and the development of Soul music in Memphis, Detroit and Philadelphia. However, it was probably Ruben Cherry’s record shop that had a much deeper impact on the musical education of many influential Memphis musicians, including B.B. King, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash. The latter not only borrowed the Home of the Blues name as a tribute for one of his songs, but also acknowledged the shop as an influence on him during his 1992 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech.

The Congress of the United States, in a motion brought by Rep. Steve Cohen, designated the phrase “Home of the Blues” to the city of Memphis, which uses it as the city’s nickname and slogan for music tourism promotion. It is also used for Beale Street and can be seen on the gates marking the street.

Recommended reading
• Howdy at his 45 blog has also two songs by Larry Birdsong on Home of the Blues. See here and here.

Sources
• 45cat entry
• Ruben Cherry Find a Grave entry
• Tony Wilkinson: "Home of the Blues Label and Record Shop Story" (American Music Magazine #133), 2013
• Thanks to Bruce Frager, a relative of Ruben Cherry and Celia Camp, for providing additional material and for keeping the memory of Home of the Blues Records alive!