‘Louisiana Hayride’ mainstays Floyd Cramer, Jimmy Day,
Don Davis, Tommy Bishop, and Big Red Hayes. Though
it would be two years before the rockabilly genre was
officially born,
Blues In The Blue Of The Night
incorporated elements of swing, slap bass, and
electrified hillbilly fervor that foreshadowed the
musical movement to come.
Oklahoman Leonard Sipes traveled to
Bakersfield in 1952 on a family trip with his
girlfriend, future rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson.
He met Ferlin Husky at the Rainbow Gardens
dance hall and decided to stay. He moved in with
Ferlin, who eventually changed Sipes’ stage name
to Tommy Collins and helped him secure a
recording contract with Capitol Records. Though
Husky played guitar on Collins’ first Capitol session
in June of 1953, when
A Dear John Letter
took
off, Ferlin had to start touring and was unavailable
for future sessions. He hand-picked Buck Owens
to take his place.
“Buck wanted to know how I
got that guitar sound
,” Husky remembered in
2.
Untied
(Tommy Collins)
Capitol 3017
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