Dave Hillhouse & Ellis Mize - the Runabouts

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

The Runabouts

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

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

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

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

Billboard October 23, 1961, C&W review

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

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

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

Discography

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

Sources

• 45cat entry

• Discogs

• Memphis Radio 1971

• Eddie Bond entry on Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• David Hillhouse Find a Grave entry

• Official census records accessed through ancestry.com

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

Rudy Gaddis on Custom

Rudy Gaddis - Wild Train (Custom 121), 1965

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billboard May 15, 1982

Discography

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

Albums
Custom 115: Garden of Roses (1963)

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

Leon Starr

Leon Starr - Back in the USA (Stomper Time unissued)
Memphis pianist Leon Starr recorded steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s, though he managed to leave behind no trace. My attempt to gain some more knowledge about his live through Findagrave.com and Ancestry.com was unsuccessful. However, it is Dave Travis who has some information for us in his booklet to his Stomper Time Records CD reissue.

Leon Starr

Leon Starr became a member of Eddie Bond's Stompers in 1958 or 1959. At the same time, Bond established his own Stomper Time record label (after his two-year term with Mercury and a short stint with Pappy Daily's D label). Starr was the pianist of the band but also a versatile singer. Bond gave him the chance to cut a few covers of rock'n'roll songs: "Back in the USA", "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "My Baby Left Me", and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On". No info concerning the recording date, location, and line-up has survived, although it seems probable that Starr is playing piano on those tracks with backing by the Stompers. Although fine recordings, Bond did not release them at the time.

Starr left the Stompers around 1962 or 1963 but remained associated with Bond. He held down a steady gig at Bond's Western Lounge in Memphis and recorded for his Millionaire label in 1966. By then, Starr played country music. He continued to release solo singles in the years to come for small Memphis labels: a country single for Style Wooten's Allandale Records (1968), a fuzz garage guitar gem with the Fire Birds on Clyde Leoppard's VU Records (1968), country duets on John Cook's Blake Records with a female performer named "Little Sis" (1974), and more country music on the Bachelor and III label.

There are also two tracks by Starr that found its way onto a 2015 Stomper Time CD, "Memphis Country Favorites and Rarities, Vol. 4". The tracks are "Last Date" (an instrumental probably featuring Starr's piano playing) and a cover of Faron Young's 1950s hit "Alone with You". However, I have no release and label information on these tracks. What happened to Starr afterwards is a mystery. If someone can point me towards more information, please feel free to contact me.

Discography

Millionaire MM-120
Leon Starr
Honey Child (B. Huskey; J. Surber) / Have I Wasted My Time (A. Kyle; R. Needham)
1966

Allandale 3684

Leon Starr

Just Like That (Joe B. Cartwright) / That Kind of Living (Joe B. Cartwright)

W4KM-0883 / W4KM-0884 (RCA)

1968

"Producers: Style Wooten & Sam Neil"

VU 45-101

Leon Starr and the Fire Birds / The Fire Birds

Little Live Wire (Arthur Kyle) / Endless Dream (A. Kyle; H. Hunton)
1968

Blake 2-276

Leon Starr & Little Sis / Little Sis

Common Law Wife (A. Chipman) / The Lord Knows You're Drinking (A. Chipman)
1974

Blake 2-276
Little Sis / Leon Starr
Red Rover (N. Cooper) / The Town of Love (D. Cooper, Jr.)
1974

Bachelor and III 1101

Leon Starr

My Name's Trouble (Don Miller) / I Can't See My Way (to Go On Living) (Don Miller)
"Produced by Nonconnah"

Recommended reading
• Some Local Loser

See also
• That Million Dollar Memphis Sound

Sources
• Discogs
• 45cat entry
• Dave Travis: "Memphis Rockabillies, Hillbillies & Honky Tonkers: The Stomper Time Records Story" (2001), liner notes, Stomper Time Records

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.

Cowtown Jubilee (Kansas City)

Kansas City Star
September 19, 1952

The Place to Go Is the Ivanhoe!

The Cowtown Jubilee from Kansas City, Missouri

By the time the Cowtown Jubilee show was launched, Kansas City audiences were already used to hearing a similar program, the "Brush Creek Follies". The Follies had been on air since 1938 and proved to be quite popular for its radio station, KMBC. Rival station WHB started its own live stage show, however, and the Cowtown Jubilee was born.

Kansas City Star
November 24, 1950

The first show took place on September 23, 1950. Initially, WHB, one of Kansas City's oldest radio stations, was home to the Cowtown Jubilee. However, the show switched to KCMO in 1952. The Jubilee was sponsored by the Sunny Slope Chapter of American War Dads, a charity organisation. The show was held on Saturday nights at the Ivanhoe Temple, an auditorium in Kansas City that had a capacity of nearly 2,000 seats. After the stage show portion had ended, a square dance took place at the auditorium. The Ivanhoe Temple had been previously home to the Brush Creek Follies for many years, which had moved to another venue by then, however. 

One might think that two shows of the same format would include the same musicians but that was not the case. Kansas City's pool of country musicians was big enough to furnish both shows with different entertainers. The Cowtown Jubilee offered a stage for a younger generation of singers, including Jimmy Dallas and Elmo Linn, Milt Dickey, Balin' Wire Bob Strack, the Sons of the Golden West, Peggy Clark, Cora Rice, Betty Riley, Neal Burris, Don Sullivan, and many more. Hobie Shep was also a featured act on the show, he also led the house band, the Cowtown Wranglers, and helped out as an emcee. In the early years of the Jubilee, local comedian Frank "Whizzo" Wiziarde was the emcee but he was replaced with Dal Stallard (probably with the move from WHB to KCMO).

When TV became the more popular medium, the Cowtown Jubilee ended its broadcast over KCMO, instead switching to television air time on WDAF-TV. It appears that the show was also carried by radio KCKN during this time. While the cast remained, the show was now hosted by Roch "Uncle Virgil" Ulmer, a local radio and TV personality. This incarnation of the Cowtown Jubilee remained on air until 1959, when the final episode was broadcast in October that year.

Kansas City Times
November 9, 1968

It was especially Hobie Shep who kept the memory of the Cowtown Jubilee and Brush Creek Follies alive. He organized a reunion show of both casts in November 1968 at Memorial Hall in Kansas City and would do so infrequently well into the 1990s.

Sources

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Various newspaper items (incl. depicted ads)

Elaine Gay

Miss Miami Juke Box
The Story of Elaine Gay (Rouse)

Elaine Gay made a couple of noteworthy recordings during the mid 1950s for Syd Nathan's DeLuxe label, a subsidiary of his King Records imprint. A blend of country music, pop, and rhythm and blues, Gay was a talented singer and astonishingly versatile considering the fact that she was an offspring of the famous Rouse family.

She was born Elaine Eloise Rouse in Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina, on August 10, 1935. The daughter of Jack Rouse, she was born into a musical inclined family. Jack's brothers were Earl, Gordon, and the most famous of them all, Ervin Rouse. Together, they performed as the Rouse Brothers and made various recordings in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including the famous and influential "Orange Blossom Special".

By the end of the 1930s, some of the Rouse Brothers had moved to Miami, Florida, including Elaine's family. She attended high school, where she took part in plays and operettas. Around 1952, when she was sixteen years old, she made her first public appearance at the Village Inn in Washington, D.C. It was her father Jack who encouraged her to start a career in music. By 1954, she appeared regularly on local WITV in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Billboard January 22, 1955

Miami music entrepreneur and head of DeLuxe's Miami office Henry Stone had already called her uncles into a recording studio in the early 1950s and he discovered that young a Elaine was a talent in her own right. A recording session for her was set up on February 20, 1954, in Miami, and four songs where recorded with accompaniment by Jerry Vaughn's orchestra. From this session, the two originals "Love" and "Deep Secret" were chosen for her debut single on DeLuxe #2021 the same year. Henry Stone, who had become her manager by then, made a deal with the AMOA (Amusement Machine Operators' Association) of Miami, containing a sponsorship of the association and promotion in Dade Country's jukeboxes. For that purpose, Elaine Gay was dubbed "Miss Miami Juke Box".

A second disc was released directly afterwards. The top side was a duet with her father Jack, a cover of the Wanda Jackson-Billy Gray hit "You Can't Have My Love", and the flip was a song co-written with sometimes-Miami-performer Buddy Starcher and country songwriter Mary Jean Shurtz entitled "Am I the One to Blame". Her recordings were not classic country style; her debut single was pure pop, while her second outing were

Two more records followed on DeLuxe - one in late 1954 or early 1955 featuring Elaine's cover of "Rock Love" (a hit for the Fontaine Sisters and written by King executive Henry Glover) and her last for the label, again featuring covers ("Blueberry Hill" and "Polly Wolly Doodle O-Day"). It was a usual strategy of King/DeLuxe label head Syd Nathan to let his country artists cover his R&B hits and vice-versa. This way, Nathan was guaranteed to keep money in-house.

Sheet music for "Rock Love" as recorded by Elaine Gay,
1954 or 1955

Charts success eluded her singles and no more sessions followed. Some of her discs were released in the UK on Parlophone, though DeLuxe dropped her from its roster.

Afterwards, her trail grows cold. If anyone has more information about Elaine Gay, please feel free to leave a comment or sent an e-mail!

Discography

DeLuxe 2021: Love / Deep Secret (1954)
Parlophone MSP 6140: Love / Instantly (1954)
DeLuxe 2022: Elaine Gay and Jack - You Can't Have My Love / Elaine Gay - Am I the One to Blame (1954)
DeLuxe 2027: My Dearest Darling / A Little Bit of Love
DeLuxe 2029: Ebony Eyes / Rock Love (1955)
DeLuxe 2037: Blueberry Hill / Polly Wolly Doodle O-Day (1955)

See also
• The Story of "You Can't Have My Love"

Sources
• Discogs
• 45cat entry
• Rockin' Country Style entry
• King Records Discography

Tex & Cliff Grimsley

The Louisiana Show Men

The Story of Tex and Cliff Grimsley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shreveport Journal November 4, 1975

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

Tex Grimsley around 1975

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

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

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

Brush Creek Follies

Stage of the Brush Creek Follies, ca. 1947

The One...the Only...the Famous... Don't Miss the

KMBC Brush Creek Follies

KMBC's "Brush Creek Follies" was Kansas City's longest running and probably most imported country music show of all time. Kansas City was a music city. Jazz being the most prominent example but country music was very popular in the "Heart of America" as well. With clubs, radio stations, and record labels offering artists exposure, the city had a lively country scene for decades. Of course, there had to be a country music live stage show, which was a popular format in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and Kansas City's own "Brush Creek Follies" became one of the nation's early radio favorite radio programs.

The Brush Creek Follies show originated from radio KMBC (Midland Broadcasting Company), which was located many years at the Pickwick Hotel in Kansas City. The station's founder and president was Arthur B. Church, Jr., who had programmed old-time folk and early country music since the early 1930s. He was well aware that KMBC also reached a rural audience outside of Kansas City. In 1938, he picked up the popular barn dance radio format for this market and launched KMBC's own live stage show, which became known as the Brush Creek Follies.

Kansas City Journal January 8, 1938
Ad for the first episode of the "Brush Creek Follies"

The first show took place on January 8, 1938, at the Ivanhoe Temple with portions being broadcast live on KMBC. This large auditorium would be the home of the show for many years, although the Follies were briefly staged at other locations as well. In usual manner, the stage was constructed to look like an old barn in order to create a rural atmosphere. The cast featured not only musicians but a variety of entertainers like comedian Jed Starkey, a blackface guy called George Washington White or magician Tim West. The show was emceed by Hiram Higsby, who had previously worked at WLS' National Barn Dance in Chicago. Singers and musicians included some of KMBC's mainstays such as Colorado Pete (real name George Martin), Kit and Kay, the Oklahoma Wranglers, Tex Owens (writer of "Cattle Call"), the Prairie Pioneers, Charlie Pryor, and many others. Of course, the cast would change over the years and featured many performers of local and national fame.

The show became an instant hit with the live audiences and radio listeners. During the early years of the Follies, the Columbia Broadcasting System carried portions of the show, beaming it out across the United States and thus making it the second most-popular show of its type right after the National Barn Dance. The Grand Ole Opry would not become the nation's number one country music show until after World War II.

The war affected the show's run, which was suspended for a brief time from March 1942 until November 1942 due to the US government's appeal to save tire rubber. Since many of the show's attandees came from rural areas outside of Kansas City and traveled far distances, manager Arthur B. Church decided it would be better to sign off until the situation improved. However, KMBC aired a studio version of the show without a live audience.

After returning to the big stage, the Follies were not broadcast by CBS anymore. The Follies were replaced another time with a studio version from November 1947 until January 1948 due to a conflict between the KMBC management and the American Guild of Variety Artists. A studio version replaced the live stage show but the Follies returned to its usual format on January 17 and remained a popular outlet for live country music in the next years.

In 1950, the Brush Creek Follies received competition in form of the Cowtown Jubilee, a similar format produced initially by WHB and soon thereafter by KCMO. The Cowtown Jubilee was staged at the Ivanhoe Temple, once the home of the Follies, which had moved to the Memorial Hall earlier. In 1951, KMBC moved to facilities on 11th and Central Street (formerly the Ararat Temple), where the station staged the Brush Creek Follies in their own auditorium from that point on.

The Kansas City Times December 8, 1950
Ads for Brush Creek Follies and Cowtown Jubilee

In September 1954, the Kansas City Star announced that both the Follies and the Cowtown Jubilee were held as one show at the Ivanhoe Temple, merging both casts into one. However, this fusion did not last long as KMBC discontinued the Brush Creek Follies at the end of the year due to another labor disput with the union, which demanded to double the performers' salary due to simultanous broadcasts for radio and TV. The station's management refused and ended the Brush Creek Follies. Regardless of the moral nature of this decision, the Follies ended shortly after the "Golden Age" of both radio and country music ended, too. TV and rock'n'roll would soon end a lot of similar shows all across the United States. 

There has been considerable effort put into the preservation and documentation of the Brush Creek Follies. The University of Missouri-Kansas City maintains a website for the show's history and several items are part of the ArchiveGrid database. Magazines have written about the long-time gone radio show and performers like Irene Diercks (one half of Kit and Kay) were interviewed. There are a few episodes available for listening on YouTube.

Recommended reading

• Midwest Geonology Center

• ArchiveGrid

• Charlie Pryor and the Brush Creek Follies

Sources

• University of Missouri-Kansas City Brush Creek Follies website

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• The Story Behind the Legendary Local Radio Show Brush Creek Follies (KansasCityMag)

• Fountain City Frequency

Ronald Rip Cannaday

Rip Cannaday, mid-1970s

God and Country
The Story of Rip Cannaday

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

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

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

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

Rip Cannaday in 1956

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

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

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

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

The Catahoula News Booster September 18, 1975

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

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

Discography

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

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

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

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

Buddy Durham on Emperor

Buddy Durham - Precious Memories (Emperor 430-EM-H-5-60 Hymn Album 5), 1960

Fiddler Buddy Durham is probably best known today for his work with country and rockabilly artist Hardrock Gunter. But Durham had a career of his own, though he is not as good remembered as his fellow WWVA  Jamboree cast member. Durham was not only a musician but owned his own record label, through which he released numerous EPs and 45s.

Buddy Durham

James B. "Buddy" Durham was born in June 22, 1920. His birthplace is disputed. While Drew Beisswenger states that Durham was born in Dallas, Texas, in his book "North American Fiddle Music", author Ivan M. Tribe called him a "Mississippi-born" in his "The Jamboree in Wheeling" book. However, Durham took up music professionally at a very early stage. When he was eight years old, he joined the Durham family band that appeared across the United States on such stations as WLS in Chicago, WSM in Nashville, or WBZ in Boston. His sister Juanita would have a career on her own as well.

He was working in Texas radio but also could be heard on stations in other states, appearing on such shows as the Renfro Valley Barn Dance. In 1954, he came to Wheeling, West Virginia, and became a cast member of WWVA's Jamboree for the next ten years. His wife Marion appeared with him as well until 1959, when she became pregnant.

In 1954, Durham and Hardrock Gunter, who was working the WWVA Jamboree as well during that time, recorded "Fiddle Bop", which was first released on Cross Country and then on Sun Records in Memphis. In 1955, Durham set up Emperor Records, a label that mainly served as an outlet to release his own recordings. Over the next years, he issued countless, short fiddle renditions of traditional tunes, own compositions, gospel songs, or popular standards on single and extended play 45s. In between, he recorded for Cross Country and Ridgecrest as well.

Billboard July 18, 1960

Apart from his own works, he also recorded local talent such as the Wright Brothers, Lucky Rogers, Rudy Thacker, the Cook Brothers, Curly O'Brien, Ken Lighter, and others. Hardrock Gunter released his rockabilly novelty "Whoo! I Mean Whee!"on Emperor and he collaborated with Durham again on "Hillbilly Twist", which was released in the US first on Emperor, then on Starday and on Sparton in Canada. Durham would use the WWVA studio for recording probably all of the Emperor cuts.

Durham left the WWVA Jamboree in 1964 the same year, recorded a square dance album for Columbia. Durham passed away on March 14, 2005, at the age of 84 years. He is buried at Hendersonville Memorial Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee, near Nashville. The British Archive of Country Music released a 20-track CD in 2012 with the best of Durham's recordings.

Recommended reading

• Rockin' Country Style entry

• Gospel Jubilee entry

• SecondHandSongs

• British Archive of Country Music

Sources

• Tony Russell: "Country Music Originals - The Legends and the Lost (Oxford University Press), 2010, p. 3

•  Drew Beisswenger: "North American Fiddle Music: A Research and Information Guide" (Routledge)

• Ivan M. Tribe, Jacob L. Bapst: "The Jamboree in Wheeling" (Arcadia Publishing), 2020, p. 43

• 45cat entry

• Hillbilly-Music.com entry

• Find a Grave entry

• Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies

Westport Records (Kansas City)

Westport Records

The Wagon Wheel Label from the Port of the West

Kansas City had never the reputation as a big recording center but in the late 1940s, the 1950s and early 1960s, there were a lot of country and rock'n'roll artists in the city. Clubs and bars gave artists countless oportunities to entertain audiences on stage, radio stations like KCMO and its live programs boosted local talents popularity and small record labels were willing to release locally recorded music. One of those labels was Westport Records, which issued a string of more than 20 singles between 1954 and 1962.

Westport Records was formed in 1954 by Dave Ruf and his brothers as an outlet to record both their children's family band known in Kansas City as the Westport Kids. The first single released by the new label was Westport 125 by the Westport Kids called "Right Or Wrong" / "Hold Me My Darling". Westport started out as a country label, recording also such artists as local radio performers Milt Dickey and Jimmy Dallas. The label's headquarters was located in West Port, once an indepentend town but by the 1950s already a city district of Kansas City.

Westport Kids promo card

Rockabilly singer Alvis Wayne came to the label in September 1956. He became the label's most successful artist, though he never visited Kansas City. Wayne was Texas based and recorded all his sessions in Corpus Christi and Houston. The recording contract was set up by Tony Wayne, who was Alvis Wayne's mentor and background musician along with the Rhythm Wranglers. Alvis Wayne's first record on Westport was "Swing Bop Boogie / Sleep Rock-a-Roll Rock-a-Baby", which got only little airplay in Texas and sold about 2,000 copies. Wayne's next record, also recorded in a little studio on Corpus Christi, was Westport's and also Wayne's biggest record. "Don't Mean Maybe Baby" was issued in 1957 and got good reviews by Cashbox and charted in South Texas at #1, leaving behind Elvis Presley. Though, the national top 100 charts were still far far away.

Billboard March 9, 1959

Wayne's last record on Westport came out in September 1958 on Westport 140, the slightly pop oriented "Lay Your Head On My Shoulder" / "You're the One". During the years of 1956, 1957 and 1958, Westport had continued to release singles by Milt Dickey, one record by Alvis Wayne's back-up band Tony Wayne & the Rhythm Wranglers, the Westport Kids, Big Bob Dougherty, and Jimmy Dallas. The label releaed another rockabilly single in early 1959 with Lee Finn's "High Class Feelin'" / "Pour Me a Glass of Wine" (#141), which became a local hit in Kansas City.

The company's last issue came out on Westport 145 by Gene Chapman, probably in 1962. After that, the label was closed down by the Ruf brothers. Westport never gained a national hit, just releasing singles for the local market and having fair success with it during the 1950s. The total output were only about 22 singles in seven years. There has been two unofficial CD reissues with the complete Westport catalogue so far.

See also

• Tony Wayne on Westport

• Alvis Wayne on Westport

• Jimmy Dallas on Westport

Sources

• 45cat entry and 45cat/78rpm entry

• various Billboard issues

Bill Johnson alias Sky Johnson

Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson's "A Wound Time Can't Erase" was not only one of the most successful songs sung by Stonewall Jackson, it was also one of his most beautiful hit tunes. Johnson, as the composer of the song, remained in the shadow of Jackson's success. Before he made his way to  Nashville, Johnson was an active performer in the Miami music scene.

Born William Donald Johnson, he was a steel guitarist, singer, and songwriter. By 1954, he had begun performing locally around Miami. He was part of Tommy Spurlin & the Southern Boys until around 1956, leaving when the band decided to take their style more towards rock'n'roll. He was also part of Happy Harold Thaxton's local live stage show "Old South Jamboree" as the house band's steel guitarist.

December 12, 1959
Source: Volker Houghton

Johnson made a lot of connections during these years. Kent Westberry, Snuffy Smith, Wayne Gray, Charlie McCoy, Bill Phillips, and many more were working in the area and some of them eventually found enduring success in Nashville. He started writing songs with guitarist Wayne Gray, who in turn performed with Kent Westberry's Chaperones locally, including "Cute Chick" and "Initials in the Tree". Johnson made his way to Nashville already in 1957. There, he recorded as "Sky Johnson" for the small Cactus label his own composition "A Wound Time Can't Erase" and the George Dumas song "If My Love Had Wings". Dumas was a half-brother of the aforementioned Tommy Spurlin and played bass with the Southern Boys.

Released on Cactus #1501 around summer 1957, it was soon picked up by the bigger independent label Dot (#15620) and also saw release in New Zealand on London and in Canada on Quality. Though, the single did not make the charts. It was not until 1961 when Stonewall Jackson covered the tune that it got recognition. His version was released late that year on Columbia and it entered the charts the following January, peaking eventually at #3.

Jackson would record another song of Johnson's, "How Many Lies Can I Tell", in 1969. Marty Robbins had another hit with Johnson's "The Best Part of the Living" in 1971, which reached #6 on both the American and Canadian country charts. Johnson has a total of 26 songs registered with BMI, although only "A Wound Time Can't Erase" and "The Best Part of the Living" became hits.

Sources

• 45cat entry (Sky Johnson)

• BMI search

• Kent Westberry: "I've Got a Song to Write" (Dorrance Publishing Co.), 2020, page 5

Jimmy Ganzberg on Jet

Jimmy Ganzberg with the Sound of the Crowns - Rebel Yell (Jet No.#), 1958
Among the numerous Indianapolis rock'n'roll artists, Jimmy Ganzberg is one of the lesser known nowadays. He recorded a couple of 45s for a local label, Jet Records, and is still active musically to present day.

Born James Leroy Ganzberg around 1940 in Indianapolis, he attended Arsenal Tech High School and afterwards studied music at Indiana University. He became a proficient piano player during his early years and, in the late 1950s, achieved popularity in Indianapolis for his wild, Jerry Lee Lewis styled playing and showmanship. He regularly appeared on local TV show "Teen Twirl".

It seems that Ganzberg had no own band but relied on other local outfits. He first recorded in 1959 for Charles E. Howard's Jet label, a local Indy company that had only small distribution. "Hang-Out" b/w "White Saddle Shoes" were recorded with local black saxophonists Jimmy Coe and Pooksie Johnson, Ganzberg's usual guitarist Jerry Lee Williams (who also dabbled in record production) plus additional unidentified musicians. His second Jet single, also released in 1959, came from the same session and comprised "Jo-Ellen" and "Ring and Wedding Veil".

At third single was released in 1960 featuring "Twilight and Tears" and "Rebel Yell", which were recorded on a different occasion with the Sound of the Crowns featuring Larry Goshen on drums. The band had been formerly known as the Crowns and played for some time with Jerry Lee Williams as well. None of Ganzberg's singles broke out of the regional market and he ceased from recording in the following years.

Ganzberg eventually moved to Alabama and is a member of the Alabama Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He toured the country with the Alabama Blues Brothers Band as a keyboarder since 1998. A few of his recordings have been reissued due to the rock'n'roll revival, for example on the 1980 Wendi LP "Dig That Rock & Roll from Indiana" from Australia and the 1997 Buffalo Bop CD "Strictly Instrumental, Vol. 3" from Germany.

Sources
• Jimmy Coe Discography
• Rock'n'Roll Schallplatten Forum (German)
• Indiana Music Makers
• Discogs
• 45cat entry