The American country singer, Kenny Roberts was born October 14, 1926 in Lenoir City, Tennessee. He will be remembered for his recordings, especially for “Choc’late Ice Cream Cone”, and “I Never See Maggie Alone”.  Along with Bill Haley, Kenny Roberts was a member of the Down Homers. Roberts died April 29, 2012 in Athol, Massachusetts, aged 85.

Bear Family Records has put out a CD album with 29 of his best songs, including  his greatest hits, “Choc’late Ice Cream Cone” and “I Never See Maggie Alone”.

The classic country brother sound and some of the greatest songs in traditional music! This is the first legitimate CD of the Bailes Brothers’ work, despite the fact that they were one of the most popular acts on the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride in the mid-to-late 1940s. Roy Acuff spotted them in Charleston, West Virginia and brought them to the Opry and to Columbia Records. Their complete Columbia recordings (1945-1947), reissued here for the first time, include Searching For A Soldier’s Grave, I Want To Be Loved But Only By You (later revived by Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper), Whiskey Is The Devil In Liquid Form, Oh So Many Years (revived by the Everly Brothers), and the Bailes Brothers’ great enduring classic, Dust On The Bible. The brothers’ tragic story is told in Eddie Stubbs’ exclusive essay with haunting first-person accounts from all the brothers and those who worked with them. Fans of old-time music, classic hillbilly and bluegrass really need this one!

In the Fall of 1948 Bob Wills sacked Tommy Duncan, his vocalist since 1936–and his vocalist on all those western swing classics. Duncan simply carried on undaunted. He began his solo career on Capitol, and this set comprises all of his Capitol, Natural, and Intro records made between 1949 and 1951. He re-made a few Wills classics, cut a few Jimmie Rodgers songs, and picked some great new songs, including Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy, Sick Sober And Sorry, There’s Not A Cow In Texas, All Star Boogie, and I’m Thru Wastin’ Time On You. These are forgotten gems!

New Catalog ready for download

Old time, bluegrass, traditional. Whatever you call them, WILMA LEE and STONEY COOPER kept it alive and kept it country. They sang and played their style of music as well as anyone ever has or ever will. The Grand Ole Opry and the Wheeling Jamboree made them stars…and stars they remained from the 1940s onward.

This 4-CD set includes all of Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper’s recordings for Rich-R-Tone, Columbia, and Hickory. Every locatable recording between 1947 and 1964 is included. Among the traditional music classics in this collection are Little Rosewood Casket, Wicked Path Of Sin, Tramp On The Street, Willy Roy The Crippled Boy, Walking My Lord Up Calvary’s Hill, Thirty Pieces Of Silver, Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow, and many more. They also recorded the original version of I Dreamed Of A Hillbilly Heaven, although it wasn’t released at the time (it is included here, though). Continue reading →

It may not be the bedrock of American oldies stations any longer – long replaced by the AOR of Journey, Foreigner and REO Speedwagon – but Doo Wop casts a long shadow. The nonsense syllables that defined a genre were first heard in the Turbans’ 1955 single When You Dance. Doo Wop – or, in the Turbans’ long hand “doo wop, be-dooby-dooby doo wop” gave a name to a specific strand of pop that lacked the violence and anarchy of its close cousin rock’n’roll, but is the exact sound that enters most peoples’ heads when they picture Anytown USA in 1956.

Bear Family Records has just released a set of five CDs, called Street Corner Symphonies, which all predate the Turbans’ hit, and all pre-date Rock Around the Clock, but are still identifiably Doo Wop. In the late forties and early fifties, teenagers were already harmonising on street corners, in subways, or in school gyms, searching for the echo to give their harmonies a fuller sound. The luckier vocal groups were hurried into a studio by a small-time entrepreneur and had a 78 or a 45 to show for their misspent youth. Once a while, one of the records clicked and the singers became stars. Continue reading →

Dear music lovers:

The doctor told me “boy, you don’t need no pills.” Just short intermissions between longer periods of computer time. So, a nice ice -cold beer and some The Netherlands versus Germany on TV sho’ cured my ill.

Due to steady requests, we will repeat the  second Wally Whyton / Bill Anderson interview feature this week. Further, we will repeat the McCartney special due to public demand. Since his birthday is still coming and Hannes Wader’s is still a few days away, we are more than happy to oblige!

And for the second time around, the rocking and wrangling lady from the Colorado plains, Liza Verschoor, will bring the house down on Saturday. Sunday finds her back to back

with our long time disc dabbler the Texas Hellkitten.

That really rocks!

Take it away girls!

Still burning,

Your Lighthouse