George Brinkley (Logan Records)

George Brinkley

CP-2384 - Hear His Call Today

CP-2385 - Wonderful, Marvelous Grace

Both songs wr. Brinkley, Gaylord Music Co.

Logan 3119
(1959)

★

George Willie Brinkley, age 97, of Henderson, KY, passed away at 8:51 p.m., Wednesday, January 1, 2020 at Lucy Smith King Care Center under the care of St. Anthony’s Hospice in Henderson, KY.
George was a member of Immanuel Baptist Temple for forty years and present member of Grace Point Church.

He served in WWII with the 851st Aviation Engineers in the United States Army Air Force and he was a Kentucky Colonel. George was the last surviving member of the Les Smithhart Super X Cowboys; a popular television and radio program running in the 1950s. He was a talented musician who enjoyed singing in church and with a gospel group Henderson's Ohio Valley Gospel Group.

 

Cold Steel Door (Curt Gibson)

 Curt Gibson

CP-2388 ~ Cold Steel Door
(J. Logan) Lonzo & Oscar (BMI)

CP-2389 ~ Don't You Think It's Time
(C. Gibson) Gaylord Music

Cullman 6417
(1959)

Cash Box, Nov. 14, 1959

Ring My Door Bell

Chuck Jones and  the Links

CP-3637 - Ring My Door Bell

Cochran

CP-3638  - Give My Heart A Break

B. Nelson, Nelson Pub. Co.

Belle Meade 424

1960

Not listed in the AS/PMA discography

Not listed in the Dan DeClark label discography

Dan Greer on S. & W.

Dan Greer

14969 ~ Swing'n Place [SW-711]
Dan Greer, Sandra Music, BMI

14970 ~ Old Beale Street  [SW-712]
Dan Greer, Sandra Music, BMI

S & W Records 207

1965

First record of this singer, writer and producer.  Probably recorded at Fernwood Studios (Ronald Wallace, owner)

From Dean Rudland, Beale Street Soul Man - The Sounds Of Memphis Sessions (Ace Records)

 

Dan Greer was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he moved to Memphis with his mother in the early 50s and lived close to the thriving musical scene on Beale Street. The talent he mixed with – William Bell, Maurice White, Louis Williams of the Ovations, Percy and Spencer Wiggins and many others – were part of the generation that underpinned the golden era of Memphis soul.

Dan returned to Holly Springs to attend art college, where he learned the techniques that have sustained him for the past five decades as a talented designer.  When he came back to Memphis he got into the music business.  After hanging out at Stax and Fernwood, he ended up working at Goldwax, alongside new songwriting partner George Jackson. The pair had their songs recorded by all the label’s biggest stars – James Carr, the Ovations and Spencer Wiggins – as well as releasing their own 45 under the name George & Greer. Their partnership fell apart when George was poached by Rick Hall to work exclusively at Fame.

More...

 

The Gospel Ways Trio (Circle "D" Records)

 

THE GOSPEL WAYS TRIO
 (Ronnie, Homer & Bill)

20405 - There's A light
20406 - Helping hand

Circle "D" 16

1967

THE GOSPEL WAYS TRIO
 (Ronnie, Homer & Bill)

 
20713 - I Find Peace (in a prayer)
20714 -  Beautiful Valley

Circle "D" 17

1967

Circle "D" Records
Speedwell, Tennessee


All songs wr. Dave Owens, Smokey Mountain Music, Knoxville, Tenn.

Southern Echoes on SE& L

Southern Echoes

20887 - Lord See About Me 

(Author Dotson) Sandra Music BMI

Time 2:45

20888 - I Was Brought Up Lord 

(Loyd White) Sandra Music BMI

Time 2:50

SE& L 480

Auctioned here (auction has sound clips)

"Gospel soul" probably from Memphis, Tennessee (same group on Champ and Designer?).

From late 1967 (November or December)

Stringbean on Cullman 6416

Stringbean

CP-2386 - Barn Yard Banjo Picking

CP-2387 - Train Special 500

Cullman 6416
1959

Cullman Records and Gaylord Music Co. were owned by James Harrell "Hal" Smith (1923-2008), Nashville musician, artist manager and television producer.

David Akeman (1916-1973), better known as Stringbean (or String Bean), was one of the Opry's major stars in the 1950s.

From Wikipedia :

Akeman was modest and unassuming, and he enjoyed hunting and fishing. Accustomed to the hard times of the Great Depression, Akeman and his wife Estelle lived frugally in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Their only indulgence was a Cadillac. Depression-era bank failures caused Akeman not to trust banks with his money. Gossip around Nashville was that Akeman kept large amounts of cash on hand, even though he was by no means wealthy by entertainment industry standards.

On Saturday night, November 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife returned home after he performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Both were shot dead shortly after their arrival. The killers had waited for hours. The bodies were discovered the following morning by their neighbor, Grandpa Jones.

Chewing Chewing Gum 

Noel Owen on M.C.M.

 

 

Noel Owen

CP-6171 - Come In My Darling

CP-6172 - Just A Wondering

both sides : wr. N.Owen, Kenny Marlow Music –BMI

MCM Records  3.377
Whitsett Lane, Nashville 11, Tenn.
1961

♦

Owen , one of 12 children , felt he was a heartbeat from stardom when Standard Coffee Co. transferred him from Courtland [Alabama] to Nashville to continue developing a route.   In his spare time , he kept up his songwriting and singing , pitching his creations to anyone who would listen , and pulling gigs wherever he could find a spot.

He finally landed a recording contract with a small company called MCM , cut a record and began spending even more time away from his young family.

Back then , marketing was pretty simple , he said You pitched your own records , and I went to about every country station around.   Every disc jockey I saw put the song on the air , and they'd tell me , 'You're on your way!'.

His wife , the former Jean Terry of Courtland , was having a hard time keeping track of her music-loving husband.  When Owen came home , the displeasure in her face was as plain as the pain in any old Hank Williams' tune.  At that late hour , she stood in the middle of the den between their two young sons , holding their hands.  Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Honey , I just can't stand this , I just can't stay here by myself anymore , she said.  Hadn't you rather be here with me and the boys than out on that old road?.

Owen asked his wife to please give him a chance , that he was closer than ever to realizing his dream , but she couldn't see it..  He brought his family back to Courtland in 1961.   After working as an agent for Mutual Savings Life Insurance Co. , in Decatur , he sold appliances for W.T. Grant.  He then joined the United States Department of Agricultural , working for 26 years as a meat inspector at Wayne Farms , retiring in 1992.

 ♦

 

Other Noel Owen records can be found on Myown, Star and  High Goal Records.

Globe Recording Studio, Sample Demos (LP)

Globe Recording Studio, inc.

Sample Demos

Side 1 - CP-5263

First Group
Demo No. 1's :

French Perfume
Our Moment Is Now
Too Little Too Late (By The Mystery Girl)

The Hand Of God
Daisy Chains And Cherry Earrings
On You It Looks So Good (By Sonny Marcel)

2nd Matadore (By Ken Richards

Demo No. 1pg

Misery Train (By Lee James)

Second Group
Demo No. 2's

Lonely Lips
Itching Heart
Good Little Girl (By Kris Arden)

Salt, Salt, Salt
Biggest Fool In Town (By Sammy Marshall)

and

I'm Through With You (By Ken Richards)

Side 2 - CP-5264

First Group
Demo No. 3's

Just Waiting For You
I Keep Praying (By Kris Arden)

Outside Of That
Crazy Dog Dance
Should I Tell My Heart (By Sammy Marshall)

I've Found An Angel (By Lee James)

The Image Of You (By Mary Kaye

And

Lucianna (By Gary Lawrence)

Second Group

Echo Demonstration; Demo No. 4's

I Wonder And Johnny You Left Me (By The Coquettes)

Demo No 5's

True Love Come Back (By The Markees)
And
Mood Indigo (By The Cones)

Ideal Bread, Sealtest And Rudy's Sausage Jingles

Samples (oddly presented) of songs recorded by the most prolific of the song-poem recording studio. Names of artists listed are all familiar to the song-poem collectors or discographers   However, none of these songs seems to be listed anywhere, except "Itching Heart" issued on the Dial label. See HERE.  Three commercial jingles are ending the side two.

Ebay seller has "sampled the samples" on Youtube,  here

Chuck Jones and The Rays (Belle Meade 143)

Chuck Jones and The Rays

CP-3045 —  Sweet Sweetheart 

Floyd Fellows and ?

CP-3046 — Those Jail House Blues 

Ernest Gruntlehner-Angelo Ventura

Hillsboro Music BMI

Belle Meade 143

February 1960

samples

Song poem record recorded by the Globe Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.  Co-writer of A_side died in 1982 :

Floyd G. Fellows – an electrical engineer and building official by vocation but a songwriter and ham radio operator by avocation – died Thrusday at the age of 75.

Mr Fellows liked to use the nickname the "Viscount of Nostalgia. "  He picked that up in 1975 when a record company released an album of songs he had written. " The record producer said my songs, most written within the past two or three years, sounded like they were oldtime songs," Mr. Fellows told a Times reporter.  So Fellows and the producer came up with the nostalgia name.

Mr. Fellows father operated a music store in Gloversville, N.Y.... Two floors of pianos, musical instruments of all sorts," he said during that 1975 interview. "I'd heard songs in my head for a long time, and in high school there was a course in melody writing.  I took it, and now, 50 years later I'm still at it.

Mr Fellows' other hobby was ham radio. "I've talked to people from all over the world," he said.  "Just about every state."

He resided at 2449 Duncan Drive in Belleair Bluffs.  He was born in Gloversville and moved here 10 years ago from Cincinnati.


Obituary, St.Petersburg Times June 25, 1982

Dave Wilburn on Redwing

Dave Wilburn

11435 - Why Can’t I Have You?
11436 - Ninety-One Pounds of Lovin’

Redwing

1963

One of the first records on the Redwing label. a label possibly owned by Hale Vance, a country singer and musician who also (later or about the same time?) worked as a distribution clerk at the Rogersville, TN Post Office.

The label issued some ten singles between 1963 and 1966. Two (Jay Earls and James Dotson) are listed in Rockin' Country Style.



.

Johnny Seals and the Rebelaires on Rebel

Johnny Seals and the Rebelaires

CP-6431 ~ You're The One
(A. Smith, Comodore BMI)

CP-6432 ~ My Babe
(W. Dixon, ARC BMI)

Rebel Records R 107/R 108
Memphis, Tenn.

1961


★

"You're The One" was first recorded by The Spiders (Imperial Records, 1954). The song was penned by guitarist, singer and songwriter Adolph Smith. Born in New Orleans in 1926; Smith worked with 50's vocal group The Monitors, and penned many tunes for The Spiders.

"My Babe" is the song written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter (Checker Records, 1955)

Both songs were compiled on the Rebel/Rebel Ace Records Story released by Stomper Time in 2002.

The booklet tells the story of labels owner (and singer) Shelby Smith. But there is no information at all about Johnny Seals or about the Rebelaires. No information found neither on the internet.

I am willing to believe that the Johnny Seals record is indeed on the same Rebel label that the one owned by Shelby Smith.

Doubt is allowed since on the same compilation we found Parker Cunningham's "Dry Run" from another Rebel label, out of South Pittsburg, owned by Bill Cooley, and a track by the Four Jacks probably from the Rebel label located in Little Rock, Arkansas and not related, .




.

G. Self on Acme

G. Self

CP-1245 ~ Roll On, Big Mama
CP-1246 ~ Crying Over You

Acme Records 1290

Both sides written by J.T. Kerr

★

"Just who was G. Self? Nothing is mentioned about him on the Web." wrote the Self Seekers, in their The Self Family Association Quarterly Online Newsletter Supplement (whew!) in 2002.

Same, ten years later.

This quite rare record is currently auctioned at ebay (label pictures above are borrowed from the auction). As I write, the highest bid is US$ 635.00; and three days left...

★

This recording was probably financed by J.T. Kerr who wrote both sides. This is perhaps the J.T. Kerr of Rockford, Tennessee, who died last year (age 81). If so, J.T. was then 27..

J.T. Kerr won more than 200 races on dirt and asphalt surfaces across the Southeast despite a racing career that started at age 38. After serving in the US Navy for 7 years he drove a truck for a local dairy and later worked as a machinist at Rockford Manufacturing plant. He also worked part-time as a mechanic. His mechanic work was so rewarding that he bought some land in 1964 and opened an auto salvage business called Kerr Auto Parts.

Obit 1, obit 2

★

Billboard ad, July 2, 1949


Acme

A moving label

Most of recordings on the Acme label were either never officially released or were distributed poorly. The label, owned by the Reverend Clifford Spurlock, "sometime preacher and borderline con man", recorded quartet music, hillbilly and sacred music. Artists were never paid. On the contrary, most were quite happy to pay for their records. The most Acme recorded act, The Carter Family, didn't pay for their recordings, but never received any royalties from the preacher Spurlock.

A.P. Carter tried one last time to get the Carter Family together and managed to get Sara to Bristol in 1952 to cut records for the Clifford Spurlock’s bargain label Acme. ...In 1957 A.P Joe and Janette put out their last round of records for Acme. In total they recorded almost 100 tracks for Acme Records. These included a 1956 recording made with Mrs. Jimmie Rodgers, which consisted of talk and a version of "In The Sweet Bye And Bye".

"Acme Broadcasting Co." is the earliest mention I've found of a business owned by the Reverend. The year was 1947 and the place was Elizabethtown, KY. Myrtle Spurlock Fuchs was the vice-president of the company and Ernest Fuchs, contractor and real estate interests, secretary-treasurer.

In 1949, ads shows Spurlock as president of the Acme Record and Radio Corporation in Columbia, Ky.

In July of 1950, Acme Recording Studios "now under original ownership and management" in Christine, KY.

In 1951-52, Campbellsville, KY is home of Acme Records Inc.

From August and December of 1952, we found Jim Stanton, "chief new amalgamated Acme and Rich-R-Tone records". No mention of Spurlock.

In 1957,Ed Romaniuk and Sister Elsie Pysar's EP bears a Greenville, TN P.O. Box.

In 1957/1958, one release has a Bright Shade, KY address.

From 1958 to 1962, Acme Enterprises is a lasting Manchester (Kentucky) address (located at 139 Bridge St.. as is Janet Records. Owner is Zeke Clements (1911-1994). Zeke's next business will be the prolific custom/vanity label Gold Standard in Nashville.

Steve Keith is also described as the owner of Acme Records. Hugh Watkins is promotion man with Acme Records and personal manager of Jay Fanning, a much promoted artist who had 6 releases on the Acme label in 1960-1961.

In the early sixties, few attempts to record "saleable" artists were made : Everybody was twistin' with The Pacesetters, while The Torques implored "Take Me With You". And Paducah native Jerry Crutchfield produced the Galaxies. And then that was the end of Acme Records.

The original owner, the good Reverend, was probably already gone elsewhere when the label folded. He and Mrs spurlock were seen in Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1962 and later in South Dakota where they spent 17 years in the service of God.

★

Acme Records discographies :

http://www.45rpmrecords.com/KY/Acme.php

Numerous Acme records are in the collection of the Wilson Library (193 titles listed)

★

<--- Rev. Clifford Spurlock

Died in Jamestown, KY, in January of 2004.

Whatever his sins, he will be forgiven

(because of the G. Self record indeed)

.

The Owens Family (Circle D 3)

The Owens Family With The Blue Valley Boys

10835 - Dreaming On A Dream Cloud
Vocal Dave And Alida Owens

10836 - Don't Pretend
Vocal Dave Owens And His Twin Sisters (Alida & Nila)

Circle “D” Records # 3

Both songs written by Dave Owens and published by Cumberland Music, BMI Speedwell, Tenn.

Circle "D" Records discography

Dave W. Owens (1920-2009)

Dave Owens age 89 of Speedwell, TN., was born May 27, 1920 and passed away December 25, 2009 at the UT Hospital in Knoxville, TN. He was of Baptist Faith and honorably served his country in the U.S. Army during WWII from 1942-1945.



.

The Del Rios on Bet..T

The Del Rios

CP-4977 ~ Heavenly Angel
CP-4978 ~ Dangerous Lover

Bet..T Records

(Memphis, Tennessee)

1961

The Del Rios, one of Memphis, TN's pioneering vocal groups, started in the '50s. Different guys came in and out, but one constant was William Bell. They performed on shows with Phineas Newborn, a Memphis jazz legend, and found regular employment in clubs. The initial Del Rios single dropped in 1956 on Meteor Records, a small label in Memphis; the single "Alone on a Rainy Night" b/w "Lizzie" increased the group's popularity locally but that's about it.

William Bell : "We would do two gigs on the weekend. We would play for the college kids at the Plantation Inn in West Memphis, right across the Mississippi river in Arkansas.owned by Betty Berger and her husband, which was like a high energy dance club, and then we had a later set at the Flamingo Room. Betty Berger was during that time a night club owner. She and her husband owned the Plantation Inn in West Memphis We recorded that single for her.”

Del Rios biography by Andrew Hamilton
Soulexpress article



Owner of Bet..T Records Bettye Berger was born in 1930.

In 1955, Bettye started to work on WHER, the worlds first all womens radio station created by Sam Phillips :

Crammed into an 18-by-35-ft. studio in a Holiday Inn in Memphis, WHER was the nation's first "all-girl" radio station—not that you couldn't tell from the decor. There were plush pastel carpets, walls painted aqua and pink and doors marked with colorful names like DOLL'S DEN and GIRL FRIDAY. "It was like walking into Disney World—and the girls were beautiful and sweet," recalls Berger more than 40 years later.

Through her connections with Sam, she meet the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. She only went on a few dates with the king. She wrote a ballad called 'Please Convince Me That You Love Me' that Elvis wanted to record at and speed it up in to a Rock n Roll style song and she refused. She laughs now by saying what a fool she was for not allowing Elvis to record it. (The song was recorded by Buddy Cunningham and issued on Phillips Int'l 3516 in November 1957.)

In 1959, she is credited (as Bettye Maddox) as the co-writer of several songs released on the West Coast American International label : "Campus Raid" (The Nighthoppers), "Headless Ghost" (the Nightmares) and "We Love The Dodgers" (Jimmie Maddin).

When she was 35, she joined a booking agency for musical artists. She was the only female agent the company had ever had. When a man did not pay her $1800 dollars for a booking, because she was a female and he thought that a woman shouldn't have that much money, she quit the firm that she was working with and created her own.

Her first client was Charlie Rich. Soon after word of her success spread, more and more artists became aware of the new, small, agency. Willie Mitchell, a trumpet player and an influential producer also joined her roster. At one point, her agency had outdone the national agency that she had previously worked for.

A entire chapter (by Laura Helper-Ferris) of "Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times", a book edited by Sarah Wilkerson Freeman and Beverly Bond, is devoted to Bettye Berger.

Another release on the same label. The address (201 S.Cleveland, Memphis) was also the address of Bettye's Continental Artists Inc., her booking agency.




-

Patsy Daughbeny on MCM

Patsy Daughbeny

MCM 783

Whitsett Lane
Nashville, TN

CP-4087 – What Do I Mean to You
CP-4088 - Baby What Are You Doing To Me

1960


*

Sharlet Sexton on Re-Echo 1008

Sharlet Sexton and the Tennessee Valley Boys

Re-Echo 1008

21473 - I Ain't Good For Nothin
‘cept pickin and singin

21474 - Boys Like You

Sample (both sides)

1968

Read more about Sharlet Sexton HERE (The Ohio Valley sound blog)


Picture label & audio samples : eBay (sprydiddle)



.

The Mar-Vels on Vel

The Mar-Vels

Vel 300
P.O. Box 1502
Jackson, Tenn

9971 ~ Somewhere Love Is Waiting
(Charles Dyer, Pure Gold & Sandra BMI)

9972 ~ Sixteen Tons
(Merle Travis)

Produced by J.L. Exum

Sample (both sides)


.

Belle Meade 1120

Chuck Jones

Belle Meade 1120

CP-2759 - My One And Only Darling (Earl E. Carlton)
CP-2760 - Don't Answer That Phone (Henry J. Carr)

Listed in the American Song-Poems Music Archives

Chuck Jones is the same singer as Sammy Marshall, Sonny Marshall, et al. One of his best, perhaps.

Don't Answer That Phone (Sample)


.

the Crownsmen Quartet on Re-Echo

the Crownsmen Quartet

Re-Echo Records #1005

18175 - Sweet Jesus

18176 - When God’s Chariot Comes

Side one written by Doris Akers. Manna Music Inc. is the publisher.

.