Delmore Brothers in Memphis

Good Times in Memphis
The Delmore Brothers in Bluff City

The 1940s and early 1950s saw a lot of country music talent passing through the city of Memphis. Although it became well-known as the "home of the blues" and the "birthplace of rock'n'roll", country music had been always present in the city. Since the late 1920s, it had been a center for the major label's field recordings for blues, jazz, gospel, and old-time folk music as well. 

I have featured several Memphis country artists before, including Doc McQueen, Shelby Follin, Clyde Leoppard's Snearly Ranch Boys, Joe Manuel, among others, but the Delmore Brothers were probably the most popular and successful (commercial-wise) among those performers. Alton and Rabon Delmore were heard over Memphis radio on and off during the 1940s, spreading their blues and boogie-branded kind of country music across the Mid-South.

From the Hills of Alabama...
The Delmores hailed from northern Alabama, from Elkmont, to be precise, where Alton was born on December 25, 1906, and Rabon on December 3, 1916. The brothers grew up listening to folk and gospel music (her mother composed shaped-note gospel songs) and started singing as a duo at local fiddlers contests. The new medium of radio seemed to be perfect for their soft voices and their rising popularity led to a first record release on Columbia in 1931 ("Got the Kansas City Blues" b/w "Alabama Lullaby", #15724-D).

...to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville
This first record went nowhere, much due to the economic depression and the Columbia label's demise, but they landed a job on WSM's Grand Ole Opry in 1933. Although the Opry was just one of several barn dance shows back then, WSM's strong signal beamed their voices into the listeners' homes within a wide radius. They started recording for RCA Victor's Bluebird label the same year and stayed with the label into the early 1940s. Many of their sides were also released on the warehouse chain Montgomery Ward's in-house label, therefore enjoying even wider distribution, and some saw distribution in Canada, Australia, South Africa, and even India.

The Delmores had a bluesy style and concentrated on their own material instead of covers or standards. Their popularity grew and by 1936, the Delmore Brothers were the most popular Opry act. They began a shorter stint with Decca in 1940 which ended due to World War II. Following a disagreement with the management, they left the Opry and, like it was common for many country entertainers back then, roamed the country in search of radio station work. They came to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1943, where they began broadcasting on powerhouse WLW and signed with Syd Nathan's independent King record label - their first record was released in late 1944.

Memphis Down in Dixie
Rabon left the act for a short time, working a defense job, and Alton continued to perform solo on WLW. Near the end of World War II, the station refused to hire Rabon again (probably due to his alcohol abuse) and the brothers left Cincinnati. After a short stop in Indianapolis, they ended up in Memphis. There, they began appearing on WMC, one of the city's oldest radio stations that carried a lot of other country performers as well, including Slim Rhodes' Mountaineers and Gene Steele. 

The Delmores at WMC in Memphis

The Delmores' act at that time also included harmonica player Wayne Raney, who hailed from Wolf Bayou, Arkansas, and was living in Memphis by then. Raney had worked in Covington, Kentucky, south of Cincinnati across the Ohio River but somehow, the threesome had never met. In Memphis, Raney decided to approach them and went over to the Delmores' house in West Memphis. After a good jam on the front porch, he was in. As a trio, they also worked personal appearances around Memphis and across the Mississippi in West Memphis and surrounding Arkansas areas. Their blues drenched sound fitted perfectly to Memphis and was completed by Raney's harmonica. Sometimes, they were augmented by another harmonica wizard, Lonnie Glosson. The Delmores began experimenting with boogie elements, too, a trend in country music that just had started, and in May 1946, "Hillbilly Boogie" (King #527) was released. It was the beginning of a series of country boogie songs that foreshadowed the development of rockabilly. However by late 1946, the brothers left Memphis for the first time because they had "burned the area out" and started another trip of radio station hopping. 

By November 1947, they were back in Memphis at WMC but left again only to return for some time in 1948. In 1949, they were working in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when their "Blues Stay Away from Me" climbed the Billboard country & western charts and eventually hit the #1 spot. They were back in Memphis in the early 1950s, rubbing shoulders with another, younger brother act - Ira and Charlie Loudermilk, better known as the Louvin Brothers, who had come to Memphis as part of Eddie Hill's band in 1946 or 1947.

According to Charlie Louvin, as cited by Charles K. Wolfe in his book "In Close Harmony", the Delmores were performing on smaller stations in Blytheville, Arkansas (probably KLCN), and some in West Memphis, during this time (though they would live in Memphis). "Alton and Rabon had the identical, the same setup as Ira and I. One teetotaller and one who couldn't stay sober" Louvin recalled. One time the Louvins and the Delmores were playing a ballpark stage with Raney and Glosson: "At the time, Arkansas was dry, and Rabon, he absolutely had to have a drink, so Ira said he'd ride with him. They went all the way back to Memphis, ten or twelve miles, to get some booze. Even with Ira drinkin' a little bit, Rabon scared him to death coming back through West Memphis at a very high rate of speed."

Billboard June 1, 1946

Billboard November 22, 1947

Leaving Memphis
The Delmores left Memphis for good around 1951 and hopped from station to station, ending their career in Houston, Texas. There, Alton decided to go full-time into songwriting while Rabon had been unreliable either way due to his alcoholism. In addition, he was diagnosed with cancer and an operation in 1952 could not bring any improvement of his health. He passed away the same year a day after his 36th birthday on December 4.

Ira and Charlie Louvin were heavily inspired by the Delmores sound and they would even record a Delmore Brothers tribute album some years later. During their Memphis days, the Delmores also inspired other future stars. Elvis Presley was probably used to listen them and lots of other, future rockers and country singers would. Alton fell into oblivion after his brother's death and went out of the music business, bitter and disillusioned. He moved back to Alabama and gave it one last shot in 1959, recording his sole solo record, "Good Times in Memphis" b/w "Thunder Across the Border" for Ernie Tucker's Linco label across the border in Fayetteville, Tennessee. He passed away on June 8, 1964.

See also
• Good Times in Fayetteville - Ernest Tucker and the Preservation of Rock'n'Roll
• Wayne Raney - King of the Talking Harmonica

Sources
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• Hillbilly-Music.com entry
• Alton Delmore 45cat entry
• Jeffrey J. Lange: "Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly" (University of Georgia Press), 2004, page 236
• Charles K. Wolfe: "In Close Harmony - The Story of the Louvin Brothers" (University Press of Mississippi), 1996, p. 100-102
• Charles K. Wolfe: "Classic Country - Legends of Country Music" (Routledge), 2001, p. 115
• Alton Delmore: Truth Is Stranger Than Publicity" (Country Music Foundation Press), 1977

Sylvia Mobley on Santo

Sylvia Mobley - If I Had You Again (Santo #502), 1962 

Sylvia Mobley has been present on the Memphis, Arkansas, and Nashville country music scenes steadily during the 1960s and 1970s, though she never found the acclaim she deserved. She worked with some of the most infamous figures of these scenes, though never achieving much commercial success. Some of her early recordings are now favorites in rock'n'roll record collectors circles and original copies can fetch up some money.

Born Sylvia Mae Robinson on April 28, 1941, in Marshall, Searcy County, Arkansas, she was one of four children of Charles Herman and Lois Marie Robinson. At the time of her birth, her mother was only sixteen years old. Supposedly in the late 1950s, she married Billy Sigman, with whom she had a son, Carson Vail. Her marriage with Billy Sigman obviously did not last long, as she had remarried by the early 1960s. Her new husband was Justin Lee "Bud" Mobley, who stayed with her the rest of her life.

In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Mobley once was managed by DJ, singer, and band leader Jimmy Haggett, who enjoyed some popularity in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas. Haggett had ties to Memphis as he had recorded for Sun and Meteor during the 1950s and it is possible that he connected Mobley with the Memphis music scene. To start her career as a recording artist, Mobley made the trip to Memphis across the Mississippi  River and got the chance to record for one of the smaller labels in the city, Wayne McGinnis' Santo Records. McGinnis had been an artist in his own right, cutting a superb rockabilly disc in 1956 for Meteor, and had created his own Santo label shortly before Mobley arrived on the scene.

In March 1962, her first single appeared with a romping country rocker entitled "All My Myself", backed by "If I Had You Again" on Santo #502. Judging from the publishing and songwriting credits on the record, her debut for Santo was recorded at Slim Wallace's Fernwood studio and leased to Santo afterwards. Signs of success are not reported for this record but soon, Mobley made herself a name in the local country music scene. Her searing vocals seemed to be perfect for country music.

Sylvia Mobley and the Cotton Town Jubilee band live on stage, ca. mid 1960s
From left to right: poss. Bill Medlock, Jake Tullock, Mobley, Ken Burge, Johnny Duncan

By 1964, she had been discovered by Gene Williams, a local DJ, record label owner, and stage show host. He put Mobley on his Country Junction TV show that was broadcast from Jonesboro, Arkansas, and also gave her the chance to lay down some more recordings. Williams' right hand, Style Wooten, who later went on to become the "king of custom recording" in Memphis, produced another fine country rocker with her, "Every Time I See You", and the country weeper "Tell Me Clouds". Also involved in this production were DJ and singer Chuck Comer plus an unknown, Bozy Moore. The results were released on Wooten's Big Style label and distributed by Williams' Cotton Town Jubilee enterprise.

More or less simultaneously, Williams released "Are You Sorry b/w "Worried Over You" on his own Cotton Town Jubilee label (#113) in 1964 and followed up with a re-release of "Every Time I See You", backed with "I'm Not Alone Anymore" (Cotton Town Jubilee #115) in early spring of 1965. That same year, Williams paired Mobley with Memphis music stalwart Eddie Bond, who released a single on her on his Millionaire label, "Hearts Have a Language" b/w "In and Out of Love" (Millionaire #660S-0885). During this time, Mobley recorded songs from the pen of more or less familiar names. "Worried Over You" was written by Marlon Grisham (known in rockabilly circles for "Ain't That a Dilly" on Cover), "I'm Not Alone Anymore" by Chuck Comer, and "In and Out of Love" by Melvin Endsley, who also wrote the big hit "Singing the Blues" and was affiliated with Gene Williams at that time.

None of her singles so far had stimulated any success, which was probably due to the fact that promotion and distribution of the discs were limited on all labels. Around the mid 1960s, Mobley was still performing on the Country Junction TV show and recorded two more records for the Lake City, Arkansas, based Jeopardy label, which comprised songs penned by Leland Davis, an Arkansas based musician, and Glenn Honeycutt, a 1950s Sun Records artist.

By the late 1960s, she had made the move to Nashville, probably in order to give her career a boost in the capitol of country music. In 1969, she recorded a single for the once glorious Starday label, which had passed its heyday at that time already. In 1974, two more singles followed for the Villa label. In the mid 1970s, Mobley teamed up with famous guitarist turned producer Scotty Moore, lead guitarist for Elvis Presley and producer in his own right, and recorded a whole album for the Belle Meade label, "My Needs are You", which resulted also in a few more singles.

By 1976, after recording unsuccessfully for 14 years, it became clear that Mobley's chance of becoming a star had passed. However, she remained her ties with the entertainment industry, in a different sense though, and drove whirlwind bus tours across Nashville. She had one last album out on the Rays Gold label in 1984, entitled "Songs for Ma Ma".

In 2009, her husband died at the age of 76 years. Mobley, who had remained in the Nashville area, spent her last years at Elmcroft Assisted Living Facility and passed away July 10, 2017, at the age of 76 years in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

See also

• Sylvia Mobley discography

Sources

• Find a Grave entry

• The Tennessean obituary 

• 45cat entry

• Rockin' Country Style entry

Billy Bailey on CMC

Billy Bailey and the Country Drifters - Return from Viet Nam (CMC 1014), 1973

Here we have a Vietnam war era song, as there were so many back then. However, to my knowledge, it's the first war era themed song on this blog. The armed truce between the United States and North Vietnam came into existence in January 1973, so this record was a pretty up-to-date political comment.

Billy Bailey may have been the singer's real name or not, we do not know. If there's anyone out there who knew him, please leave a comment and delight us with his story. His band, the "Country Drifters," remain as obscure as the vocalist. Nevetheless, I sense a connection with another CMC record, as the Country Dirfters appear also on this record here (different singer, though). 

Read more on CMC Records:

• Billy Price on CMC

• Johnny Lee on Delta

Billy Price on CMC

Billy Price and the Drifters - Two Different Worlds (CMC 745C-0932), 1968

Billy Price must have been a big Hank Williams fan, since he chose to cut two of the Drifting Cowboy's old numbers, "Two Different Worlds" and "You Win Again." Price's nasal voice seems to fit quite good to these songs and despite his limited singing abilities, the recordings come out quite enjoyable (mainly because of the background band, another reference to Williams).

Another discl from the chaotic numbered CMC label, owned by Dan Craft in West Memphis, Arkansas. See also CMC discography on Arkansas 45rpm Records.

Cindy Price on Delta

 Cindy Price - Our Love Is Like Sunshine (Delta DR-1003)

Judging from the sound of this record, it was recorded and released in the 1970s. I wasn't able to turn up any info on Cindy Price, unfortunately, but the background band is credited as "Marianna Jamboree Band." It is likely this was the house band of the "Arkansas Jamboree" in Marianna, Arkansas, a live stage show that also included rockabilly musician Jimmy Evans and his daughter Debbie for years. Country music singer Truman Lankford was also part of that show for five years. The Arkansas Jamboree was produced partially by Jack Richard Northrup and also released a LP (see here). It is neither to be confused with the "Arkansas Jamboree Barndance" (later renamed "Barnyard Frolic"), which aired over KLRA from 1946 until 1960 in Little Rock, nor with the 1980s Arkansas Jamboree in Hot Springs.

Delta Records was one of the labels Dan Craft was operating out of his recording studio in West Memphis, Arkansas, which is located only 50 miles northeast of Marianna. Songwriter Harold F. "Buddy" Clements registered six different songs with BMI. Apart from that, he left no info behind. The publishing firm Jamdan also published compositions by Sonny Blake, who also recorded for Dan Craft.

Read more:

• Johnny Lee on Delta

Johnny Lee on Delta

  Johnny Lee - Middle Tennessee Blues (Delta DR-1006), unknown year
Here's a record I have only little information on. The Delta record label was based - as shown on the label - on 1119 East Broadway in West Memphis, Arkansas. Here's an excerpt from Rachel Sylva's essay "Walk Through History: Downtown West Memphis" (see here) that deals with the historic buildings of West Memphis:

To the east of the "Home Away from Home" building at 1117 E. Broadway, there was a large 1-story building with at least 2 storefronts. Craft’s Record Store was located in one side at 1119 E. Broadway until 1977 (or 1979?) when a fire in the dress shop next door spread to their building and they were both destroyed. The Crafts had a recording studio in the back of the building at 1119 E. Broadway with a music store and insurance business up front.  

The Craft brothers were most likely Dan Craft and his brothers. Dan had at least two records released. One with Chuck Comer on Style Wooten's Big Style label in 1964 ("Date with the Angels" / "Secret Love", Big Style #104) and the other on Craft Records, which was probably his own venture. It featured "Gone, Gone, She's Gone" b/w "Don't Say Goodbye" under the name of "Dan and the Craftsmen / Vocals with the Craft Bros." and credited Gene Williams' Cottontown Publ. from West Memphis with publishing, thus it was released sometimes between 1962 and 1965.

The Delta label as well as CMC Records, which was operated from the same adress, were likely run by Dan Craft. Chuck Comer, Sonny Blake, Doug Stone, and others recorded for CMC. Memphis artist and radio personality Jim Climer (a friend of Eddie Bond's) recorded a gospel disc for Delta. I wonder of the producer of this disc, Stan Neill, was also Stan Neal, who was at one point a member of Eddie Bond's band in Memphis.

And Johnny Lee? Of course not the same Johnny Lee of 1970s country-pop fame. This singer performs two Jimmie Rodgers style recordings. In fact, the flip of this one is a cover of Rodgers' "Waiting for a Train." 

To the right 1117 Broadway and across the street in the left half of the picture
1119 Brodway, where Dan Craft's shop and studio was located.

Sonny Williams on CTJ, Part 2

Sonny Williams - Play Me a Country Song (Cotton Town Jubilee 116), 1964
Another interesting offering by Sonny Williams on the Cotton Town Jubilee label. Both "Too Much Competition" as well as its flip side "Play Me a Country Song" were written by songwriter Melvin Endsley, most famous for penning "Singing the Blues." 

Composer Melvin Endsley (1934-2004) hailed from Drasco, Arkansas, near Heber Springs. He suffered from polio as a child and was chained to a wheel chair all his life. While being at a Crippled Children's Hospital in Memphis, he learned to play guitar and after his return to Drasco, began performing on local radio. In 1954, he wrote "Singing the Blues" and held a first demo session in 1955 at the Hickory Studio, Nashville. Marty Robbins and Guy Mitchell had a big hit with "Singing the Blues" in 1956. In December of that year, he began recording for RCA-Victor, switched to MGM in 1959 and then to Hickory in 1960. He held one unissued session in 1960 for Eddie Bond's Stomper Time label and returned to Memphis for another session in 1965, this time for the Millionaire label (another Eddie Bond venture). From 1967 onwards, he recorded for his own Mel-Ark label. Listen to one of Endsley's RCA-Victor singles on Some Local Loser.

Read more:

• Gene Williams on Cotton Town Jubilee
• Sonny Williams on CTJ, Part 1
• Cotton Town Jubilee discography

• Cotton Town Jubilee label story

Sonny Williams on CTJ, Part 1

Sonny Williams - Foot Prints on the Floor (Cotton Town Jubilee 104)
Following up on my post on Gene Williams' own Cotton Town Jubilee release, here's another offering from this interesting record company. Sonny Williams had the first release on the label but today's disc was his second outing from around 1962, "Foot Prints on the Floor" b/w "I'd Give It All to Be with You." He would go on to release two more singles on the label. The A side is an uptempo country song, written by Bob Forshee, whose compositions were recorded also by other Cotton Town Jubilee artists. The flip is a weeper from the pen of Chuck Comer, an Arkansas DJ and recording artist (Vaden, Cotton Town Jubilee, CMC).

There were several singers that performed as "Sonny Williams". This one was born James Kirby Williams in Memphis. He also performed on Gene Williams stage show "Cotton Town Jubilee" (KWAM, Memphis, Tenn.). He is not the same artist that recorded for Coin, Raynard, USA, and Country Sound. 

Read more:

• Gene Williams on Cotton Town Jubile
• Cotton Town Jubilee discography

• Cotton Town Jubilee label story

My Son in Service

  Gene Williams - My Son in Service (Cotton Town Jubilee 95), 1965
Gene Williams and his Cotton Town Jubilee label were the subject of a post before. Today's selection is a short, spoken comment on the Vietnam war. Here's a little background information on Gene Williams, taken from my previous post.

Williams was born 1938 in Tyronza, Arkansas, and attended high school in Dyess, Arkansas. He started his career in the radio business in 1958 when he took a job as a DJ on KWAM in Memphis, Tennessee. Eventually he became also the station's sales manager and began promoting Grand Ole Opry acts such as Flatt & Scruggs. In 1962, he created a new Country music stage show he called "Cotton Town Jubilee," which debuted on January 27, 1962. It was a live show held at the Rosewood Theater in Memphis and broadcasted over KWAM every Saturday night, featuring local singers and musicians as well as guest stars from the Opry. James O'Gwynn was the first guest star to appear on the show.

Williams soon extended his activities by founding his own record company in the spring of 1962, the Cotton Town Jubilee label based in West Memphis, Arkansas. In addition, he also set up a music publishing company. The first record release was by Sonny Williams, a singer who was a regular cast member of the Cotton Town Jubilee show. Other Cotton Town Jubilee releases include discs by Cousin Jake & Uncle Josh, Sylvia Mobley, Chuck Comer, and others. On November 4, 1963, Williams debuted on KAIT-TV in Jonesboro, Arkansas with his new show, the "Gene Williams Country Junction Show," which eventually would run until his death in 2011.

Gene Williams' "My Son in Service" was the flip side to "Christmas Poem" by Kenny Owens. Released in 1965, both tunes were written by Norman Beal, who composed another Vietnam war related song in 1966 entitled "The War in Vietnam." The numbering of this disc is somehow a mystery. The label shows the number #95 as well as 723C-95. There was another record on the Cotton Town Jubilee label that fits into that numerical system. A disc by Charles Norris and the Magnolia Playboys has no number on the label but etched in the dead wax, showing #99. All other Cotton Town Jubilee records are numbered in a 100 onwards series.

Read more on the Cotton Town Jubilee label