On Wednesday, August 14, a segment based on my visit to Michigan Public headquarters a few weeks earlier was heard all over the state. On the day of broadcast, “Stateside” presented two features, and my appearance is the second. Click here to listen to the show via the web page for the August 14 edition of “Stateside.”
April Baer, host of the award-winning radio program, invited me to discuss a little bit about my book “Tomorrow Brings Memories — Detroit’s First Underground Record Company.”
Here’s a quick excerpt:
April Baer: The structure of the book has you spooling out the history of how these three [men] came together in little spurts and starts. And you’re very careful to show your work, in the places where we do have documentation of how they met, and how they worked together, and where you don’t. It kind of sounds like that’s the way you discovered it — in spurts and starts?
Craig Maki: Yes, absolutely. A local record collector named Cap Wortman hipped me to these records by loaning me a box of the 78s when I was about twenty-five years old … For several years I had no clue what was behind them, who did them — I had no idea they were done in the war era, during World War II. I thought for sure they were done after, because they sounded … so much more modern than the music I was used to hearing from the pre-war era.
“A gem of a book”
Also check out this post at Joel E. Turner’s “Fiction and Other Things” blog, in which he presents a thoughtful review of “Tomorrow Brings Memories.”
You may find related music in Wax Hound Press playlists at Spotify and YouTube!
And you may order your copy of the book online at lulu.com. I signed a limited number for the Book Beat in Oak Park, Michigan (and online here), and People’s Records in Detroit on Gratiot Avenue, near Eastern Market.
For more about the York Brothers’ “Hamtramck Mama,” see my post ‘Hamtramck Mama’ celebrates diamond anniversary.
Les and George quit their automotive jobs and played nightclubs and vaudeville theaters. They mixed comedy routines in their programs, with Les sometimes playing a slapstick routine as a backwards country hick he named Charles Muggleduck. The record’s notoriety drove local politicians to denounce it and threaten legal action, and the Detroit Free Press didn’t hesitate to reproduce samples of the song’s “hot” lyrics in its pages. [1]
Soon after moving to Nashville, Tennessee, from Michigan during the winter of 1958, Ralph Davis and his brothers Ken and Guy rustled up some gigs playing music in the city’s active night club scene.
During late 1957, Davis cut two original songs for Jack Brown of Fortune Records in Detroit. “There was a guy up there at Shelden Hall, just hanging around. He came up to me and asked if I’d like to make a record. I said, ‘I don’t know.’ He said, ‘Well, I got some pull over there at Fortune Records.’ So he told them. I went over there and talked with them, sang with a guitar. And they decided, if I’d get the right songs … you know,” he said.
After Davis returned from his hitch in the Marines, he found work in Detroit. “I was living up there with my wife and working at 
While his Fortune disk received little attention, the Clix record fared worse. However, it represents an imaginative exploration of rock’s combinatorial possibilities, being one of the first mixed-race rock’n’roll sessions in town. A black vocal group backed Williams and his bluegrass vocal style, along with saxophone, drums, electric guitar, bass, and piano. [8]
One of Southeast Michigan’s best-known country artists of the 20th century, Jimmy Williams promoted stars of Nashville on radio and in person during the 1960s. 
As promised in my post about the recent 
Keith: What was your impression of Elvis?
Craig: Did you have a manager?
Keith: When did you first start singing [professionally]?
Georgie: Whatever we felt that people wanted to hear at that particular time – you know, music changes pretty often, and at that time we’d just do whatever they requested. And sometimes it was somebody else’s song that we would do.
Last Monday, April 21, 2014, Jack Rainwater passed away quietly from a lengthy illness. His friend Andy Barron reported the Detroit guitarist and singer was 74 years old.
During the early 1930s, George and Leslie York sang and played guitars together in a group with two more of their brothers and an older sister for church and social events around their home town of Louisa, Kentucky. The York Brothers first entertained as a duo at WPAY radio Portsmouth, Ohio, around 1936. By 1938 they had moved to Detroit to work in its factories. Leslie had developed a songwriting habit that wouldn’t quit, and “… between cars on the assembly line, Leslie wrote his impressions of the Polish section of Hamtramck, Michigan, and called it ‘Hamtramck Mama’.” [1]
“Hamtramck Mama” reportedly sold 300,000 copies in Detroit, appearing on three different local record labels: Universal (at least two different pressings), Hot Wax, and Mellow. The York Brothers’ popularity led to lucrative bookings (mainly in Detroit, due to wartime travel restrictions) and more recordings issued by Detroit juke box vendors. In 1941 they signed a contract with major label Decca, which issued three records. After “Hamtramck Mama” hit, a few other C&W groups in Detroit made records for the Universal and Mellow labels, but the Yorks supplied Mellow Records with 
The Great Depression killed off most independent record companies, and it wasn’t until the York Brothers’ “Hamtramck Mama” of 1939 that country records began appearing on Detroit-based labels. From what I could tell, these were made for the jukebox business. “Hamtramck Mama” first appeared on the Universal label, cut at Universal Recording Studios on the east side (miles away from the Second Avenue building of United Sound Systems). The Universal record label issued records for only a few years, during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Was Jimmy Siracuse involved in Universal Recording Studios, whose activities began during the late 1930s? Universal updated its label design around 1941 (by the same designer, it appeared). Also in 1941, the Detroit Free Press published “Award made by F.P. poet,” (Dec. 30, p. 3) which mentioned a recording studio at the United Sound Systems address (5840 Second).
For this new opportunity, Powers and Kirkland brought in Clark Locker (a.k.a. Johnny Clark, drums), Bill Tipton (bass), and Stan Getz (lead guitar). Getz played bass for Jack Scott, and would only play for Powers if he let him pick lead guitar. Powers and Kirkland split the session, which probably occurred around the fall of 1957, each recording two numbers at United Sound. Kirkland sang, and played his own lead guitar, on “I Wonder If You Wonder” and “Come On Baby,” issued on Braxton’s Teen Life label (named after the Detroit-based newspaper), as well as Fox. [2]
Issued on Fox [4] as “Long Blond Hair, Red Rose Lips,” the performance is now regarded as a top-shelf rockabilly record, in part because of the guitarist’s point that it was “different.” Getz throttled his guitar, emphasizing the rhythm with a slick combination of flat pick attack and finger picking. Tipton pummeled the bass strings while Locker socked the drums with a relentless snap. And, a decade before the emergence of Detroit garage rock bands, Powers shouted the blues with the kind of ferocity and spirit later attributed to Bob Seger, the Unrelated Segments, and the MC5. With this record, Powers introduced his own style.
Boots Gilbert and Bob Sykes with Chuck Hatfield and his Treble-Aires
Last week, word finally came to us from University of Michigan Press that the book is at the printer’s. So here is the cover design, which includes a photo of Eddie Jackson and a slimmed-down lineup of his band the Swingsters, taken at an auto service station in Detroit, around 1958. Starting the year before, a recession hit the local entertainment business hard, and Jackson took a part-time job at this service station to supplement his income. He said he talked his boss into letting him entertain customers on the day of this shot. Herb Ivey played drums, and Billy Cooper the steel guitar. Ivey led his own bands in town, and also sang a good song. Besides Jackson, Cooper worked with Casey Clark in Detroit. Keith and I agreed that it was perfect for the cover of the book, with its “Car City” setting and country music performance by one of Detroit’s popular bandleaders.
In 1971, Morgan County boosters introduced the 
When the Wanderers moved north for bookings in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and at the Sand Bar near Houghton Lake, Franklin followed. Durden eventually settled down near Houghton Lake, where he played music, wrote songs, and made recordings until his death in 1999. Franklin continued performing in restaurants and nightclubs across Michigan, leading his own groups.
Franklin and company swung the beat on both sides of Saul’s first Redskin record (no. 500): Franklin’s “My Long Tall Gal From Tennessee” backed with “That’s All” (credited to “Saul-Travis” on the label, even though Merle Travis claimed full authorship on his 1946 recording for Capitol Records). The second record (no. 501) featured “Firecracker Stomp” (credited to Saul-Dalton), an instrumental with guitar and bass solos as explosive as its title. From the grooves of the flipside came “Oh What A Price You’ll Have To Pay,” a sweet, slow song by Franklin. From the start, Franklin’s vocals favored pop musical styles.
In early 1951 the group headed for a job at CKUA radio Edmonton, Alberta (Al Allen remained in Detroit). In June 
In 1934, twelve-year-old Victor Lewis left school and his home in east Tennessee. Eventually he found his way to Detroit, where he realized his passion in the theater and entertainment business. He first got hooked in burlesque theaters. “I was spellbound by the magic of the pitchmen,” he said. “I thought if I could do that I would never want for anything.” [1]
By the early 1960s, Lewis moved his office to Nashville. In May 1964 he produced the National Country Music Cavalcade of Stars, a country music variety show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, complete with closed circuit TV coverage. (This also featured Hank Williams Jr.)
Today is opening day in Detroit, and the Detroit Tigers are playing the New York Yankees at Comerica Park. In honor of the excitement, we present a tribute to the ol’ “Yankee Killer” 
“I believe I started out at the Kerrigan’s Bar. And then I played at the Yale Bar. … This was right in Detroit. Somewhere near Warren and John C. Lodge, now. It used to be Hamilton Street,” he said. By the time Wakefield joined, the Chain Mountain Boys had established themselves at the All States Bar on Cass Avenue near Michigan Avenue, downtown. “It had a balcony that seated so many, and the first floor. And this place was usually packed. … They had to turn people away.”
A 1971 edition of the magazine JEMF Quarterly (John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly) reproduced a letter from Fred Stanley, who included a little biography of himself and his address in Detroit, Michigan. After reading Mr. Stanley’s letter, I wrote him a letter stating who I was, and that I would be interested in meeting him.
“I play different from anybody,” he continued. “I don’t strum the guitar. I pick it. I play some like Riley Puckett.” In his many letters to me, he was always coming up with ideas for new songs.
Trained on the job as a welder, Forest Rye had grown up in Erin, Tennessee, west of Nashville. Born December 19, 1910, Rye learned to play fiddle and guitar before he left home in 1924. When Rye was a small boy, champion fiddler Walter Warden, from McEwen, Tennessee, and an early influence on 
By age seventeen, Rader was closer to understanding Mason’s answer to his question. Casey Clark had booked his Lazy Ranch Boys for a regular Friday night barn dance at the Pontiac Armory. Kitty Wells with Johnnie and Jack headlined the premier show. A more lucrative offer to play on the Boblo Island boats led Clark to recruit Rader to fill his remaining Pontiac dates. Rader hired steel guitarist Danny Weaver and bassist Rockey VanGieson. “We played a set of country, and country rock, then round dances, and finally a square dance,” he said. “Lonnie Barron used to sit in with me, … and I would sit in with him at his dance hall on Saturdays.” After the gig ended, Rader continued sitting in with bands and booking dances.
Around 1959-60 Rader made another record, this time with Detroit guitarist Al Allen and members of his band, the Sounds. Fortune owner Jack Brown issued Rader’s “Rockin’ The Blues” backed with “I Was A Fool” on Strate-8 (1501). Rader returned to Chicago with copies of his new single. When he met a disk jockey at a top rock ’n’ roll radio station, “The guy told me he’d make the record number one, if I paid him a thousand bucks,” said Rader. “Heck, I just turned around and walked out.”
Riddle’s last commercial effort was a 1971 single for Dixie Records, with two self-penned numbers. Riddle returned to the mix of honky tonk and western music he made previously for the Rio Grande label, featuring piano, steel, guitar, bass, and drums. Freddie Vel, co-writer of “You’re The Reason,” a hit song for Mickey Gilley (released on Dixie under Vel’s name), produced the session.
One humid August day in 2009, I spent the afternoon running around Fraser, Michigan, with Ricky Riddle’s ebullient sister-in-law Laura Riddle, trying to find the location of his grave. She knew it was at the top of St. John Cemetery, but the marker was gone. Ms. Riddle proceeded to take me on a whirlwind tour of Fraser. St. John Lutheran Church couldn’t inform us; the Fraser Public Library had no records; and Faulmann & Walsh, the funeral home where Riddle received his last rites in 1988, couldn’t help.
As the singer closed a set of pop tunes sprinkled with country-western hits, she noticed a sharply-dressed older man striding confidently toward her from a center table. For the next several nights, Mary Ford, her husband guitarist Les Paul, and their bassist, were to call a Detroit restaurant lounge their home, performing as the Les Paul Trio. As the gentleman waved down the singer, he revealed expensive cufflinks on his shirtsleeves while inviting her and her husband to join him and his wife at his table.
At Parker’s table, Paul and Ford dined at his expense. Parker and his wife returned night after night, eventually persuading the musicians to visit his office at the Music Hall building on Madison Street. During their booking in Detroit, the trio recorded two of Parker’s songs. Although unconfirmed, it sounds as though Paul overdubbed his guitar, producing two guitar parts trading solos. As with her Capitol recordings, Ford sang with her mouth very close to the microphone.
Legendary Detroit radio voice Johnny Williams, of CKLW Windsor/Detroit fame in the ’60s and ’70s started his career on Clark Road as Tom Chase in 1964.
Rader introduced me to several Detroit C&W musicians, including 
We’ve heard it over and over: During the 20th century, poor Appalachians hit the hillbilly highway north to Detroit, where they found work in factories and warehouses. … There’s truth in that, but it’s an oversimplification. Although Appalachians arrived in great numbers, people from all over the South landed in Detroit, working in a variety of industries. Many people started and operated their own businesses.
A torn, yellowed and undated newspaper clipping, still attached to a piece of vintage scrapbook page, shows Detroit’s Silver Sage Buckaroos. During the late 1930s and 1940s, the group performed cowboy music on WEXL radio Royal Oak. Around 1941 they cut a record for the Hot Wax label, produced by the Mellow Record Company based in the east side of Detroit, with vocalist Billy Casteel. (We don’t know whether Casteel is in this image.) Casteel and the Buckaroos recorded “Hollywood Mama,” a rewrite of the York Brothers’ 1939 hit “Hamtramck Mama,” along with “Wayne County Blues:”
Alabama native Bob Norton (seated at center) moved to Detroit before the war. After military service, he joined the Radio Rangers in Detroit. Led by Eddie Sosby, the band moved to KFAB Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1946. (See the December 1946 edition of 
