RED FOLEY Birmingham Bounce DECCA 1950

Here's music by Red Foley, "Birmingham Bounce."



Recorded in Nashville on April 3, 1950 and released on Decca #9-46234 during that same month.

Jo Ann Campbell - I'm The Girl From Wolverton Mountain (1962)

From 1962, here's Jo-Ann Campbell with "I'm The Girl From Wolverton Mountain."



This was the answer to the Claude King hit "Wolverton Mountain."



This is a British printing on Columbia Records (it was recorded and released here in the States through Cameo-Parkway).

I wonder it ol' Clifton Clowers knows about this.

I LOVE YOU A THOUSAND WAYS by Hawkshaw Hawkins (King-1950)

From King Records in 1950 (recorded on November 10 of that year), here's Hawkshaw Hawkins singing his version of the Lefty Frizzell-penned "I Love You A Thousand Ways."

Buck 'Em!

Here's the March 15th, 1966 telecast of the syndicated Buck Owens Ranch Show, with Buck and his Buckaroos (including the legendary Don Rich), Tommy Collins, and Kay Adams.

Claude King, Singer-Songwriter Best Remembered For Hit "Wolverton Mountain," R.I.P.

Claude King, the Country-and-Western music singer-songwriter best remembered for his 1962 hit "Wolverton Mountain," passed away on Thursday at Shreveport, Louisiana at the age of 90.

Mr. King, an original member of the Louisiana Hayride, a Shreveport-based radio production (out of KWKH Radio), that ran from 1948 until 1960.  This was the program that helped launch other entertainers such as Slim Whitman and Elvis Presley, wrote (along with Merle Kilgore) and sang a song about mountain man Clifton Clowers who did his darnedest to protect his daughter from suitors.

Here's Claude's 1962 hit recording.

Kitty Wells, Pioneering Country-and-Western Music Legend, R. I. P.

Kitty Wells, who nearly quit the music business at the time she recorded the breakthrough hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," only to open many door for numerous women in country and western music, passed away on Monday of complications from a stroke at her Madison, Tennessee home at age 92.

Miss Wells' 1952 recording, an answer to Hank Thompson's "Wild Side of Life," proved to be a major country-and-western hit.  It resonated with women who didn't take too kindly to the late Mr. Thompson's recording.

Kitty, who was married for 74 years to fellow c&w artist Johnnie Wright (of the singing duo Johnnie and Jack) until he passed away last September, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in her native Nashville in 1976.

During a recording career that lasted 27 years, Kitty placed 84 singles on the country charts, 38 of them in the top ten.

Earl Scruggs, Bluegrass Legend, R. I. P.

Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who helped profoundly change country and western music with fellow legend Bill Monroe and then later with guitarist Lester Flatt, passed away on Wednesday at a Nashville, Tennessee hospital at age 88 from natural causes.


An innovator who pioneered the modern banjo sound by using three fingers rather than the clawhammer style and thus turning the banjo from a  comedian's prop or part of the rhythm section into a lead instrument, Mr. Scruggs is remembered for his string-bending and lead runs that became known throughout the world as the "Scruggs-picking" style.


Earl was with Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys, whose debut during a post-World War II appearance on the Grand Ole Opry was considered a "big-bang" moment for the modern development of bluegrass and country music.  After leaving Mr. Monroe in the late 1940s, Earl then teamed up with Mr. Flatt in a bluegrass act that lasted until they broke up in 1969 over which direction to go musically.


The team of Flatt and Scruggs was best known for their 1949 recording of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown, " as well their 1962 recording of "The Ballad of Jed Clampett."


After breaking up with Lester (who passed away in 1979), Earl used three of his sons in the Earl Scruggs Revue.


Lester (posthumously) and Earl were inducted together into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985.


Here are Lester and Earl from a 1965 telecast performing "Foggy Mountain Breakdown.:




Rest in peace, Earl.

Gone: Ferlin Husky, R. I. P.

Country Music Hall-of-Famer Ferlin Husky, who helped opened the door for a California strain of country and western music, and who had more than 50 charted hits from the 1950s to the 1970s, passed away on Thursday at a Nashville-area hospital at age 85.  He had a history of heart trouble.


Among the big hits during Ferlin's career, "Dear John" ( a duet with Jean Shepard, 1953), "Gone" (1957), and "Wings of a Dove' (1960).

Time For Pee Wee!

NOT Pee Wee Herman, of course!

From 1949, here's Country Music Hall of Famer Pee Wee King with "Bull Fiddle Boogie."