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Scorpio profile exchange :: 9 )
Scorpio - FABOR ROBISON
Born 3 November 1911, Beebe, Arkansas
Died September 1986, Minden, Louisiana
Fabor Robison was an influential (and controversial) independent record owner and talent scout in the 1950s. He played a crucial role in developing the early careers of Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton, the Browns, Mitchell Torok, Floyd Cramer, and others. After a tour in the army in World War II, where he had been a cook, Robison settled in California. There he worked for a time as a talent agent, with Johnny Horton and Les Anderson as his main clients. Robison started Abbott Records in 1951 (with funding from Sid Abbott, proprietor of Abbott Drugs), with the express purpose of recording Horton. The first ten releases on Abbott all featured Johnny Horton. Robison was unhappy with 4-Star's distribution of these records, so he considered peddling Horton's contract to a major label and Horton was signed to Mercury in mid-1952.
Robison also began working as a song hunter for American Music, travelling the country to find new talent and songs. He soon discovered a hotbed of young talent in Shreveport, Louisiana, home of the KWKH Louisiana Hayride. Not only did he find some of his best singers, but he also used the studios of KWKH and some of its staff musicians to make his records. These regular studio men included a young Floyd Cramer, steel guitarist Jimmy Day, and fiddlers Big Red and Little Red Hayes. Abbott released two # 1 country hits in 1953: "Mexican Joe" by Jim Reeves and "Caribbean" by Mitchell Torok.
The money was starting to pour in and Robison thought another label would be a wise investment. In October 1953, after having purchased full control of Abbott Records, Robison launched the Fabor label, on which he recorded important sides by the Browns and Ginny Wright. He soon expanded his recording activities to include his own studio in Southern California, where he used West Coast instrumental greats such as Speedy West and Roy Lanham. Like most independent record owners, Robison ultimately saw most of his biggest finds move onto major labels.
The Radio label was started in 1958 to handle the pop and rock & roll that now overshadowed country music. Some of Robison's Abbott and Fabor artists such as Bonnie Guitar, Ned Miller, Billy Barton and Johnny Russell appeared on the label, but mostly it was young hopefuls. While Robison had no hits with these youngsters, it showed his keen eye for talent as Bobby Lee Trammell, Dickie Podolor (as Ritchie Allen), Bonnie Guitar and Robert Luke Harshman (as Bobby Hart) would have long and significant careers in the music industry.
In 1959, Robison sold his music publishing and some masters to Jamie/Guyden Records. One correction (to my Mitchell Torok BTBWY piece of last week) is in order here : the version of Torok's "Caribbean" that made the pop charts in 1959 on Guyden was not a re-recording, but an alternate take from the 1953 Abbott sessions. Robison restarted Fabor in 1962 and scored a giant hit with Ned Miller's 1957 recording of "From A Jack To A King".
Then he sold all of Miller's catalog and his contract to Capitol in 1964. He produced Miller again in the late 1960s and then went to Brazil. ("When everything went sour, Robison would disappear for a while" writes Colin Escott in his Bear Family book on Johnny Horton.) In the 1970s or 1980s, he sold off whatever was left (together with some masters he had previously sold elsewhere) to the Shelby Singleton Corporation.
 Saturday, February 21, 2004 at 21:00 |
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Scorpio profile exchange :: 8 )
Scorpio - EDDIE HOLLAND
Born 30 October 1939, Detroit, Michigan
Eddie Holland was part of the songwriting and production team Holland / Dozier / Holland, with his brother Brian Holland (born 15 February 1941) and Lamont Dozier (born 16 June 1941), all from Detroit. Eddie was active in the Detroit music scene from the mid-50s onwards, leading the Fidelatones vocal group, and producing demo recordings for Jackie Wilson. In 1958, he met Berry Gordy, who produced a series of solo singles for Holland on Mercury Records and United Artists Records. Gordy signed Holland to his fledgling Motown Records concern in 1961, and was rewarded when Holland's "Jamie" became a hit (# 6 R&B, # 30 pop) in early 1962. Sung in a whining falsetto, "Jamie" owed a lot to the style of Jackie Wilson. The disc got a UK release on Fontana and that's when I first heard the name of Eddie Holland. I remember that I liked it at the time, but haven't heard it since. Holland achieved three further chart successes in 1964, among them "Leaving Here", which proved popular among British R&B bands. That year he also helped to inaugurate the Holland / Dozier / Holland partner- ship, Motown's most successful writing and production team of all time. Working mostly as the trio's lyricist, Holland was involved in a chain of hits, including twelve number ones (10 for the Supremes and two for the Four Tops). But I must add that, although Eddie co-wrote all the hits by the Supremes (at least until early 1968), the production was done by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, without Eddie. He was involved though in the production / writing for several other Motown acts, such as The Four Tops (Baby I Need Your Lovin', I Can't Help Myself, It's the Same Old Song, Reach Out I'll Be There, Bernadette, a.o.), Martha and the Vandellas (Heat Wave, Quicksand, etc.), The Isley Brothers (This Old Heart of Mine) and Marvin Gaye (Can I Get a Witness, How Sweet It Is). Eddie also collaborated with writer/producer Norman Whitfield on a series of singles by the Temptations, notably "I'm Losing You" and "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep". The same pairing evolved "He Was Really Saying Something" and "Needle In A Haystack" for the Velvelettes, while Holland also co-wrote Shorty Long's dancefloor classic, "Function At The Junction".
Holland / Dozier / Holland created the sound of an era (1962-68). Their songs are classics, covered countless times. But they had to fight with Berry Gordy for their royalties. They parted acrimoniously and formed their own labels Invictus and Hot Wax in 1968. The new labels had hits with The Chairmen of the Board (featuring General Norman Johnson, formerly of the Showmen, of "It Will Stand" fame), Freda Payne (whose "Band of Gold" topped the UK charts for six weeks in 1970) and the Honey Cone (featuring Edna Wright, Darlene Love's younger sister). Lamont Dozier went solo in 1972 (first on Invictus, then ABC) and scored several Top 10 R&B hits as a singer, some of which crossed over to the pop charts. The H-D-H trio made it up with Motown in 1983, returning with the Four Tops to produce them there again, though this time with considerably less success.
Saturday, February 21, 2004 at 20:21 |
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Scorpio profile exchange :: 7
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Scorpio - DAVE ALVIN
Born David Alvin, 11 November 1955, Downey, Los Angeles, California
Who can better represent what all American Roots music is all about nowadays but Dave Alvin? Along with big brother Phil, they formed The Blasters, who would possibly be the best ever rock'n'roll/rockabilly/rhythm 'n blues "revival" outfit there has ever been. Dave Alvin, and brother Phil, a few years older, were born in Downey, a working class suburb of Los Angeles. Their father was a worker at a local factory and was also an organizer at a local steelworker's union. Downey was also a center of the regional surf explosion of the early 60s, with group like the Chantays and the Rumblers as local heroes. But, this was the particular geographical situation, near South Central Los Angeles, a hot bed for post-war West Coast Rhythm 'n Blues, that would ultimately become the bedrock of the Alvins' musical tuition, along with rockabilly and the country sounds of the Bakersfield school.
Dave recalls his frequent trips with his brother to local pawnshops and thrift stores around Downey to buy old blues 45s and 78s, during the 60s, when he was just merely a teenager. The brothers also frequented local bars and lounges to hear live music, and the list of artists they saw is nothing short of impressive, ranging from Lloyd Glenn, Rabon Tarrant, Marcus Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner to Lee Allen! The two brothers also ended up hanging around with T-Bone Walker (an original blues guitarist, himself directly taught by Blind Lemon Jefferson) and Big Joe Turner, thus having first-hand musical education given by true legends.
In 1970, Phil Alvin had already formed a blues combo with John Bazz when they were taken under the management of Mary Franklin, a former blues songstress from the 40s and 50s. The combo gained some popularity during the 70s, with Gene Taylor joining (and living to join Canned Heat and later Ronnie Hawkins). By 1979, Phil had set up a country blues duo with Bill Bateman. With John Bazz on bass, Dave then joined the band. They christened themselves after West Coast blues guitarist Jimmy Cracklin' Blues Blasters.
Time was right in the then hot Los Angeles punk scene. The Blasters had a strong impact on the LA live circuit with their powerful brand of rockabilly music and this led to recording their first LP for the famed Ronny Weiser's Rolling Rock label. This now highly sought-after LP contained a host of covers ranging from rockabilly ("Crazy Baby", "Lone Wolf"), old time Country ("Never no More Blues"), Blues ("I Wish You Would"), R&B and Rock'n'Roll ("21 Days In Jail", "Buzz Buzz Buzz", "Barefoot Rock"), but it were the Dave Alvin penned songs that gave the album its identity. "American Music","Flat Top Joint", and "Marie Marie" were at least as good as the covers, showing the writing genius of a young Dave. "Marie Marie" was included in the soundtrack of a "rockabilly porn" movie "Teenage Cruisers", out on a Rhino LP. It was also covered by Welsh rocker and hit maker Shakin Stevens, who hit # 19 in the UK in 1980.
The future seemed to be bright for the Downey guys, a tour with Queen gave them good exposure and they were signed by major company Slash/Warner Bros. The band, now augmented by Gene Taylor on piano, and Steve Berlin and the legendary Lee Allen on saxes, quickly recorded their first Slash LP, simply titled "The Blasters". This is one of the great classic rock'n'roll LP's, including all the great Dave Alvin penned songs "Marie Marie", "American Music" (both re-recorded), "No Other Girl", "Border Radio", "So Long Baby Goodbye", "Hollywood Bed" along with great covers such as "I'm Shakin", "Never No More Blues" and "Stop The Clock". Hot on the heels of their new LP, the band undertook a tour of the US and England (they were a huge success over here in Europe), where they recorded their second release "Live At The Venue", on the last UK date in London in 1982. 1983 saw two tracks used in the "Street Of Fire" movie and the release of the Blasters second Slash studio LP "Red Rose", showcasing a more mature Dave Alvin addressing the problems of the working class people (maybe a legacy of daddy Alvin?) in songs such as "Red Rose", "Boomtown" and "Jubilee Train". One of the highlights of this record is "Long White Cadillac", an ode to Hank Williams, the lyrics of which are pure poetry in itself.
The Blasters' final album "Hard Line", which took almost a year to complete, was released in 1985. It was a departure from the traditional Blasters sound, with a more up-to-date production by John Cougar Mellencamp. Dave Alvin wrote almost all the tracks, with further Blasters' classics such as "Hey Girl", "Dark Night", "Help You Dream" and "Common Man". At this point, the musical directions of the two brothers were going apart, and Dave left the Blasters in early 1986 (letting Phil go on with the Blasters name) to pursue a solo career.
First solo release was "Every Night About This Time", issued on Epic in 1987. Dave's music had evolved from rockabilly to a kind of more up to date blues rock with "Fourth Of July", "Every Night About This Time", "Romeo's Escape" and re-cuts of "Long White Cadillac" or "Border Radio". Dave has always been a very prolific artist, and a string of albums followed during the 1990s, on the Californian Hightone label. "Blue Boulevard" (1991), with its duet with Dwight Yoakam on the rollkicking Bill Haley tribute "Haley's Comet" and "Museum Of Heart" in 1993 followed the same path. In 1994, Dave released an acoustic project called "King Of California" where he played a mix of Blasters covers, old country and blues mainly on acoustic guitar. This album was a stylistic departure and shows another facet of the man. I still think this is one of the best album Dave ever put out. Anyway, Dave must have felt quite happy with the result, as he released another country-blues based album in 1998, "Blackjack David". This showcases even more the high profile of Dave's songwriting and this album won him no less than a Grammy Award as Best Folk album of the year. In the same vein, 2000 saw the release of "Public Domain", a collection of old folk song from the turn of the century.
Dave Alvin has always been a very busy man, and the amount of groups or records he participated in or produced would be too long to list here. Among them, we can mention LA punk band X, the one-off Knitters (Dave with X members, who had a very good LP on Slash "Poor Little Critter On The Road" in 1986), hardcore punk band (!) The FleshEaters, the Soundtrack for the movie "Border Radio" (1987), production of 2 tracks for John Waters "Cry Baby", featuring James Intveld on vocals (1990), a very good album as producer and guitarist with Sun legend Sonny Burgess ("Tennessee Border" Hightone, 1992), production of the first Big Sandy album on Hightone, production of Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs. He usually also gave a hand to some of his friends and gets mentioned by Rosie Flores, The Beat Farmers, Chris Gaffney, John Doe and Katy Moffat. Last project Dave was involved in is Wanda Jackson latest album, "Heart Trouble".
Besides all those musical activities, Dave also writes poetry (as far as I know, he has followed University courses in English) and has a poetry book currently available "Any Rough Times Are Now Behind You". If you want to sample poetry about Big Joe Turner or California snow! A further volume shall be published soon, but nothing at the moment.
The Blasters music has stood the test of time. Dave Alvin has finally got some of the recognition he deserves and is a respected performer, guitarist, songwriter, and producer.
Recommended listening: I shall say "everything", but I will restrict to what I consider essential:
- The Blasters, "Testament"- The Complete Slash Recordings" 2CD Rhino
- Dave Alvin, "King Of California" Hightone
- Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men, "Interstate City" Hightone (live in Austin, TX, with a magnificent tribute to Lee Allen "Mister Lee")
- Dave Alvin, "Blackjack David" Hightone
- Dave Alvin, "Public Domain" Hightone
Recommended Reading: "Any Rough Times Are Now Behind You - Selected Poems & Writings 1979-1995" Incommunicado ISBN 1-884615-09-0
on the net: http://hello.apo.nmsu.edu/~sjnk/bullwinkle/bhist.html http://hello.apo.nmsu.edu/~sjnk/bullwinkle/blasters.html http://www.blastersnewsletter.com/ http://hello.apo.nmsu.edu/~sjnk/bullwinkle/dave.html
Saturday, February 21, 2004 at 19:07 |
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Scorpio profile exchange :: 7 )
Scorpio - BONNIE LOU
Born Mary Jo Kath, 27 October 1924, Talawanda, Illinois
Country and rockabilly performer Bonnie Lou grew up listening to Prairie Ramblers recordings featuring the yodeling cowgirl vocals of Patsy Montana. Bonnie also learned to yodel, both through those old records and the influence of her Swiss grand- mother. She also studied violin and guitar as a child. By 1 6 , she was singing on a radio show in Bloomington, IL; two years later, she was performing as Sally Carson with the Brush Creek Follies radio variety show, airing each Saturday from KMBC in Kansas City. The Brush Creek Follies program was regularly broadcast nationwide through the Columbia radio network. This valuable exposure led Bonnie ( or Mary, as she was still called then) to WLW in Ohio, where station exec Bill McLuskey hired her as a singer and yodeler with his Midwestern Hayride country & western radio program. He was also the one who christened Mary with the Bonnie Lou moniker. While with the Hayride, Bonnie performed regularly with the Girls of the Golden West, a cowboy yodeling combo she used to hear on WLS as a child. While a few of her radio performances were cut to acetate and eventually released, it wasn' t until the 1950s that Bonnie had any real success as a recording artist. Signing with the local Cincinnati label King in 1953, Bonnie had country hits with "Seven Lonely Days" and " Tennessee Wig Walk", both of which made the Top 10 in that year.
Seven Lonely Days! How well I remember the song. It was played frequently on Dutch radio, not only in the year it came out, but for many years after that. I wouldn' t know if this was the Bonnie Lou version or the Georgia Gibbs cover, which went to #5 on the pop charts. Maybe both. There were one or two Dutch covers (" Zeven Dagen Lang") and my older sister bought the sheet music and played it on the piano.
"Tennessee Wig Walk" also did well in Europe, climbing to #4 in the UK in 1954, on Parlophone. When the rockabilly sound hit, Bonnie recorded "Daddy-O" for King; the single went to #14 on the Billboard charts in 1955-1956. The Rusty York duet " Lah Dee Dah" followed in 1958. After another uneventful duet with York, Bonnie left King for another Cincinnati local, Fraternity. There she released several singles, though none found the success her early work for King had. " Friction Heat" is a good rocker, available on the Ace CD "All- American Rock 'n' Roll: The Fraternity profile, Vol. 2 ( Ace 822). Bonnie also continued to work with the Midwestern Hayride, which by this point had spun off the television program Louisiana Hayride. She eventually retired from the business and settled in Cincinnati with her husband, Mort.
Bonnie' s choice to work and live in Cincinnati prevented her from finding the nationwide fame that a contract with a major label would have. However, she was a prime mover in the first days of rockabilly, and has seen many of her early recordings reissued.
CD: Doin' the Tennessee Wig Walk : Best of King ( Westside WESF 102). Released in 2000. 26 tracks. There' s also a Dutch bootleg, " Bonnie Lou Sings" ( Globe, 31 tracks), which mixes King and Fraternity recordings.
Saturday, February 21, 2004 at 18:39 |
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