Hewas travellingback fromaholidayvisit
to his family inArkansas and stopped to pick
upapairofhitchhikerson the road.Theywere
SlimWallace and Jack Clement. Slim was a
truck driver with his ownmusical ambitions,
who frontedhis own country band, theDixie
Ramblers, while at the same time owning a
club inParagould,Arkansas. Jackhad recently
been discharged from the US Marines and
since returning home toMemphis had joined
the Dixie Ramblers as steel guitarist and
mandolin player. The three men hit it off
straightaway and inno timeBillywas apart of
the band.
Jack Clement could see the potential of
their new recruit, but not as a country singer,
more in the new style of hillbillybop thatwas
becoming sopopular throughout theSouth as
a result of the emergence of Elvis Presley. SlimWallace had customised his garage on
FernwoodDrive,Memphis, into amakeshift recording studio and two songswere recorded
there early in 1956, one of which, a medium paced bluesy rocker,
Trouble Bound
would
become Riley’s first release, although not as originally envisaged, onWallace’s fledgling
FernwoodRecords.
Jackplayed
TroubleBound
toSunRecords’ boss, SamPhillips andwas rewardedwith a
promise that if he could come upwith anup-tempo rockabilly song touse on the flip side,
hewouldnotonly release the recordbut thatClementhimselfwouldbeofferedemployment
5
