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.

B.J. Johnson

B.J. the D.J.
The Story of B.J. Johnson

Many country music fans will recognize the hit song "B.J. the D.J.", made famous in 1963 by Stonewall Jackson. But few know that this songs was inspired by a real person, namely B.J. Johnson from Mississippi, a singer, DJ, and songwriter for more than twenty years.

Byron J. Johnson was born on September 3, 1928, to Bruner and Lula Magdelen Johnson in a community in Hancock County, Mississippi, known to locals as "the Kiln" (the n being silent). Named after the kiln ovens that could be found in that area during the early 19th century. From the 1860s up to the late 1920s, the Kiln was home to many timber mills, which brought the community a fast growing. But then, the Great Depression hit hard, affecting also the Johnson family. The timber industry was practically non-existent in the Kiln in the 1930s and it harmed the community so hard that at one point, the Kiln was a ghost town. Many of the residents moved to nearby cities like Picayune or, to earn a living, worked as moonshiners. If the Johnson family remained there or if they moved is not known but Johnson later made his home in Picayune for sure.

He was drafted during World War II and served his country in the US Army. By the mid 1950s, Johnson had discovered he could make a living with country music and could be heard on a local radio station. He met up with another local performer, Vern Pullens, whom Johnson connected with Houston, Texas, label owner Bennie Hess. While Pullens recorded solo for Hess' Spade label, Johnson got the chance to record two duets with Pullens as well, "What Am I to Do" and "Country Boys Dream", which were released by Hess on Spade #135 in May 1957.

Billboard January 4, 1960, C&W review

While these first two songs were penned by Pullens, it soon became obvious that Johnson was a talented songwriter, too. He connected with another Houston based producer, Pappy Daily, who had founded Starday Records in 1953 but by 1957, had left the operation and formed his own label, D Records. Johnson had a total of three released on D, the first one being "You Were Only Fooling" (written by Johnson) and "True Affection" (co-written by fellow ex-Spade artist Ray Doggett), released on D #1031. It was the latter that secured Johnson a place in rockabilly fans' hearts, although it was upbeat country music at best.

Two more singles followed on D, "Our Love Is Not Worth Living For" b/w "It's Wrong for Me to Love You" (#1058, both co-written with Vern Pullens) in the spring of 1959 and a reissue of their Spade single. The following year, Johnson began his long-lasting association with Hack Kennedy's Big Howdy record label from Bogalusa, Louisiana - located half an hour from his home base of Picayune. Throughout the years, Johnson recorded three discs for the label but also worked with Kennedy as a record producer and songwriter. 

Besides his career as a recording artist, producer, and songwriter, Johnson continued to work as a DJ and a live performer. He could be heard regularly on Bogalusa's Pearl River Valley Jamboree during the 1950s and appeared at the 1966 Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Day in Lucedale, Mississippi. He had such a busy schedule during these years that Nashville songwriter Hugh X. Lewis, a friend of Johnson's, wrote the song "B.J. the D.J." inspired by Johnson's life (although, in contrast to the song's tragic ending, Johnson was not killed in a car accident). Though, the words of the song aptly described Johnson's hectic and dangerous lifestyle, rushing from job to job without sleep. Recorded by Stonewall Jackson in 1963 for Columbia and took it to #1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

One could assume this brought Johnson into the spotlight as well but this was not the case. He sometimes went by the name of B.J. the D.J. Johnson and started to record his singles in Nashville but they were still released on local Mississippi and Louisiana labels. He cut a slew of discs during the 1960s and 1970s for such labels as Big Howdy (1960/1967/1969), Carma (1961-1965), Nugget (1963-1964), JB (ca. 1965), Circle G (ca. 1967), River City (1972), Myrna (1973), Mississippi Sound (1976), and Lynn. His 1964 Nugget single "Let the Party Be Over" was one of his more successful releases. It was listed by Billboard in its October 31, 1964, issue as a chart potential/"bubbling under" contender.

Billboard April 14, 1973

Johnson's activities apparently ceased in the late 1970s. B.J. Johnson passed away on December 15, 1997, at the age of 69 years in Picayune. He is buried at West Union Memorial Cemetery in Carriere, Mississippi.

See also
• The Pearl River Valley Jamboree
• Who is Vern Pullens?
• Penny Records
• The Spade Records Story

Sources
• Find a Grave entry
• 45cat entry
• Discogs
• B.J. the D.J. song history (Wikipedia)

Vern Pullens

Who was Vern Pullens?
The Story of the Pearl River Country Rocker

For decades, a sketchy biography of Vern Pullens has been floating around - but do we really know his story? I guess not. His claim to fame was the rockabilly double sider "Bop Crazy Baby" b/w "It's My Life" that he recorded for the Spade label, which began his decades spanning recording career. Pullens was a country singer first and rock'n'roll only second, though he occasionally recorded rockabilly throughout the years.

Right from the start, there is some sketchiness. Adam Komorowski sums it up in his biographical sketch on Pulles for the "Classic Rockabilly" CD box: "No exact date of birth is recorded for Vern Pullens but it is likely that it was in the late '20s. Also in doubt is his place of birth, variously cited as Bogalusa, Louisiana, and Picayne, Mississippi, but it is probable that it was Picayne." The place Komorowski mentions as "Picayne" is actually Picayune, which is less than half an hour away from Bogalusa. My intense research regarding this issue hailed no evidence to proof either assumption. I found a man named Monroe Paul Pullen, who turned out not to be Vern Pullens, however. It was my fellow researcher Volker Houghton who got me on the right track. He pointed me towards the grave of I.V. Pullens, which turned out to be the man I was looking for.

It is clear that Pullens hailed from the rural region known as the Pearl River Valley, Mississippi, which is also the border region to Louisiana. He was born there on March 9, 1931. His parents, Thomas Floyd Pullens, Sr., and Sarah Jane (Henley) Pullens were children of this rural and isolated region as well. Pullens came from a large family with at least ten siblings. By 1940, when he attended the local elementary school, the family was living in rural Pearl River County. Pullens' father earned a living as a farm hand but was also known to have been a reverend and therefore, the family was likely opposed to sacred music. Growing up in a rural area, Pullens was also likely influenced by the country sounds of the day.

It is possible that Pullens served his country during the late 1940s or early 1950s but no documents that would indicate a military service could be traced down so far. By the mid 1950s, Pullens was working as a bricklayer and a performer with a local country outfit on weekends. In 1956, label owner Bennie Hess was traveling the eastern Louisiana/southwestern Mississippi regions in search of local talent to record on his new label, Spade Records. Hess, a Texas born singer, producer and promoter (mostly a self-promoter, though), had started his musical career in the late 1920s and started recording in the 1940s. Following his contract with Mercury Records (which had ended abruptly as Mercury had found out Hess bootlegged his recordings for the company on his own small label), Hess started a string of labels to produce his own records. He went into partnership with Doyle Jones to form Spade Records in the latter part of 1956 and embraced the new rockabilly sounds on the label.

Pullens and Hess possibly came in touch through B.J. Johnson, a Picayune based singer, songwriter, and DJ. Hess was impressed enough with Pullens to arrange a recording session for him in September that year at radio KTRH in Houston. Pullens traveled the approximately 200 miles from Pearl River Valley to Houston to cut not only what was his first session but also Spade's debut release. He was backed by local session men, of which only bassist Lou Fresley's name has survived. Four tracks were recorded that day: "Bop Crazy Baby", "It's My Life", "Would You Be Happy", and a raved up rockabilly version of the old standard "Mama Don't Allow No Boppin'". The first two were chosen by Hess for single release on Spade #1927 around October. It was pressed on both 45rpm and 78rpm formats.

Hess released another single on Pullens, though they headed into another direction and tried out with a traditional country style that Pullens was used to. Spade #1930 featured Pullens' "Would You Be Happy", a rockaballad from the previous session with echo, slap bass, and spicy lead guitar, and a stone-hard country weeper "It Took One Moment". Released in late 1956 or early 1957, it shared the fate of its precursor and went nowhere. A third and last single was released on Spade around May 1957, featuring two country duets with B.J. Johnson, "What Am I to Do" and "Country Boys Dream" (#1935). It also showed that Pullens was a bit of a songwriter, too, as both songs were his originals. BMI lists a total of 38 compositions by him.

Billboard January 5, 1957

Apart from the rural stamp these recordings had, the biggest problem was the missing distribution network of Spade. Hess' only distributor was Pappy Daily of Starday, who nevertheless used his connections to rather promote his own biggest star at the time, George Jones. Speaking of Pappy Daily, he re-released "What Am I to Do" and "Country Boys Dream" on his own D record label (#1107 in the fall of 1959). This deal probably came into existence through B.J. Johnson again, who recorded for D during 1958-1959 as Byron Johnson.

However, the single failed to stimulate any greater success and it remained their only effort for the label. Pullens kept on performing in the Mississippi-Louisiana border region and in 1957, became a cast member of a local Saturday night live stage show, the Pearl River Valley Jamboree, which aired over WHXY from Bogalusa. He was lead guitarist for the show's house band and remained with the cast until 1959.

Pullens then began working with Hack Kennedy, who had founded Big Howdy Records in Bogalusa two years earlier. Two country singles appeared in the second half of 1960, including an answer song to Hank Locklin's big 1958 hit "Send Me the Pillow (That You Dream On)", written by Pullens "I Sent You the Pillow (That I Dreamed On)". Answer songs were popular in those days and at the same time, the Browns turned their version of the original into a moderate hit, so Hack Kennedy possibly took the chance to cash in on the success.

Though, a hit was not in sight for Pullens and he spent some time in Nashville, Tennessee, possibly hoping to get a better deal while being at the center of country music. He recorded a single for the independent Voice of Country label in 1968, "How Long Now" / "Just at Sundown" (Voice of Country #117) but was back at Big Howdy the next year, recording and working with both Hack Kennedy and B.J. Johnson again.

By the early 1970s, Bennie Hess had moved his operations to Nashville, too, and rockabilly music was gaining popularity among young British music lovers. This did not remained unnoticed by Hess and he reactivated his Spade label. Hess' first move was to lease "Mama Don't Allow No Boppin'", "Would You Be Happy", and "Bop Crazy Baby" to the British Injun label for release in 1972. In 1975, Pullens cut a new session for Hess that included the songs "Long Gone", "Rock On Mabel" and the first version of "You Don't Mean to Make Me Cry", all of which were issued by Spade in the UK.

Rockabilly remained popular and in the summer of 1979, Bill Kilgore approached  Pullens to make more recordings. Kilgore had a small record label in Deer Park, Texas, Rock-It Records, which specialized in rockabilly music and he arranged a session for Pullens at the birthplace of rock'n'roll, in Memphis, Tennessee. The session took place at American Sound Studio, engineered by Stan Kesler, and featured a line-up of legendary Memphis rockabilly musicians: Al Hopson on lead guitar, Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith on piano, Marcus Van Story on bass, and Jimmy Van Eaton on drums. It was a split-session with Memphis music stalwart Eddie Bond, who recorded a slew of tracks with the same band. From Pullens' songs, a new version of "You Don't Mean to Make Me Cry" and "Jitterbuggin' Baby" were released on single (Rock-It #105). These and more tracks from the session were released in Europe through Rockhouse Records in the mid 1980s.

In the early 1970s, Pullens had returned to rural Mississippi and settled in Carriere, a small town outside of Picayune. There, he set up his own record label Sun Down Records, on which he released country music by local artists throughout the 1970s and also had two releases under his own name on the label. Though he had returned to Mississippi, he retained his connections to Nashville and produced most of the Sun Down releases there. The label's most successful release became Roger Rainy's "Breaker, Breaker" from 1975, which became a Top 20 country hit.

On the performing side, Pullens continued to play locally in Mississippi but had given up recording after his 1979 Memphis session. He spent his last years in Mississippi and passed away on July 19, 2000, at the age of 69 years (although his death date is usually given as 2001). He is buried at Henleyfield Cemetery in Pearl River County. His 1950s and 1970s rockabilly recordings have been reissued over and over again since the 1970s but a quality re-release of his complete recordings is still missing. The Cramps, British psychobilly band, cited "Bop Crazy Baby" as one of their influences.

See also
• The Pearl River Valley Jamboree
• Spade Records story
• Penny Records

Recommended reading
• Bear Family Records
• Sun Down Records discography

Sources
• Find a Grave entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• Various entries at 45cat and 45worlds: 45cat, 45worlds/CD albums, 45worlds/Vinyl albums
• Discogs
• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies entries (Beware of some wrong and inconsistent information)
• Bennie Hess at the Texas State Historical Association
• Adam Komowski: "Classic Rockabilly" (liner notes), Proper Records (2006)
• Official census records accessed through Ancestry.com

Penny Records (Picayune, Mississippi)

Picayune, Mississippi, in the 1970s

Picayune, Mississippi - a 11.000 people city in Pearl River County, Mississippi, near the Mississippi/Louisiana state border. The city's legacy in music history is limited, very limited. But it has a few contributions to offer. Country comic and Picayune native Jerry Clower recorded his live LP "Live in Picayune" for MCA at a charity event of the city's Women's Club. Allegedly also a son of the city was rockabilly and country singer Vern Pullens - although others say he was born in nearby Bogalusa, Louisiana.

However, Picayune was once home to record labels and a recording studio. Yes, more than one label - including Penny Records. The name "Picayune" drives from the french word "picaillon", which itself rooted in "picaioun", which was the name of a coin from the Savoy region in Europe. So the label's name "Penny" is probably a reference to the city name's history.

The label started in the early 1970s from a house on Chateau Cove road in the northeast of the city near Highway 59. Possibly also operating from that address was Precision Recording Studio, were many of the label's recordings were cut. Until early 2026, I could not tell you who the owner was but I sensed a connection to Hack Kennedy's Big Howdy label, which had been originally located in the Bogalusa area but had moved to Picayune as well by the early 1970s. Some of the Penny releases bear the Big Howdy publishing stamp. And I was right!

I contacted Dave Travis, British country/rockabilly music enthusiast, musician, and label owner. He bought the Big Howdy label from Hack Kennedy in the 1990s, so I had high hopes he could tell me more about the connection between Big Howdy and Penny. When he visited Hack Kennedy in 1994, Kennedy mentioned that he and his friend Dayward Penny (another reference to the label name) went into partnership to form Penny Records. Dayward Penny was a local country singer, who had recorded for Big Howdy prevsiously.

The formation of Penny Records apparently took place after Kennedy had moved to Picayune. However, when Kennedy sold Big Howdy to Dave, the Penny label was also part of that deal. Dave assumes that Kennedy outbought Dayward Penny at some later point and became the sole owner.

1406 Chateau Cove in Picayune, where Penny Records was located in the 1970s
Source: Google Street View

Picayune country disc jockey B.J. Johnson ("B.J. the D.J.") also penned some of the songs released on the label and more than likely had a hand in the label, too. Johnson had recorded for Big Howdy and was partner with Hack Kennedy in their Angie Sound Studio in Angie, Louisiana, where many of the Big Howdy recordings took place. It is my understanding that Kennedy and Johnson built Precision after Kennedy's move to Picayune.

The Precision Recording Studio had its life of its own. While many of the Penny releases were recorded there, the studio served as an outlet for other local labels throughout the 1970s. The discs were mainly pressed by Atwell Record Pressing in Lafayette, Tennessee (including the Penny releases). B.J. Johnson, who appears as the songwriter on some Penny productions, also produced records at the Precision studio.

Discography

Label No.#	Artist Credit	A / B side	Date
103	Wayne Morse	Don’t Hide Your Heart / Pull Down the Blind’s Momma
104
105	Joe Brady	You’re the Reason I’m Leaving / You Were Only Fooling
106	Jerry Evans	Go on Home / Your Old Standby
107	Harvey Mansfield	Keep That Country Music Playing / You Destroyed My Life
108
109
110
111	Jerry Evans	Catch the Wind / I’m Walking the Dog	1972
112
113
114
115	E.J. Saucier	Mr. Warden / Little Girl	1972
126	Spectrum	Forever and Always / Made for Me	1973
126	Country Comfort feat. Bobby Boyles	Words / Got You On My Mind	1974
127	Johnnie Kirk	Wicked Women / Big Bad Stuff	1974
128	Gwen Bush	If You Got Leaving On Your Mind / I Don’t Want to Live (Without His Love)	1974
129
130	Billy Mulkey	Give Me Freedom / Let’s Fight	1975
131	Tommy Gray	Broken Heart Repairman / ?
177	Patty Mason and the Slade Gang	Constantly / Hickory Hollar’s Tramp
178	Cleat Wooley	That’s Why I’m Walking / You Can’t Stop the Rain from Falling	1971
201	Jerry Evans	Green, Green Grass of Home / Rhythm of the Rain	1975

See also
• Big Howdy Records
• Vern Pullens
• The Pearl River Valley Jamboree

Sources
• Thanks to Dave Travis for sharing his recollections and knowledge with me.
• 45cat entry
• Discord entries for Penny Records and Precision Sound Studio
• Locals Only