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In 1939 and 1940, Detroit residents witnessed a spectacular rise in popularity of a hillbilly novelty record. Les York reportedly wrote his song “Hamtramck Mama,” based on an old blues, while working the assembly line in a local automobile plant. He and his older brother George (born in 1910) performed as the York Brothers in local cafes and taverns that booked entertainment for crowds of fellow Appalachians who had come north looking for jobs. Born in Louisa, Kentucky, on August 23, 1917, Leslie York took up lead guitar, Hawaiian lap steel, and mandolin, and teamed up with George at WPAY radio in Portsmouth, Ohio, before they both headed to the Motor City.
The success of “Hamtramck Mama” also shook up the local music and entertainment industry. Never mind that it was country-western, a genre that typically achieved marginal success compared to big band jazz at the time — the 78 rpm disks sold like hotcakes at a church breakfast, eventually reaching juke boxes across the Midwest and Deep South. It represented the first time a piece of music written, recorded and manufactured in Detroit by an independent label, by people living in Detroit, sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Listen to: York Brothers – Hamtramck Mama
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]
After completing a short-lived deal with major label Decca, the York Brothers signed to one of the first — if not the first — independently-owned record companies in Detroit: Mellow Records. Within a couple of years, Les wrote and recorded dozens of songs that covered popular country-western styles, such as cowboy songs, heart songs, and blues. The addition of a bassist who could slap the strings provided many of the York Brothers’ early 1940s sides with a raucous rockabilly sound that other musicians capitalized on during the rock’n’roll craze of the mid-1950s.
Les and George left Detroit to join the U.S. Navy in 1944. After the end of World War II, they joined WSM radio’s “Grand Ole Opry” in Nashville, Tennessee, and signed contracts with the Bullet and later, King, record companies. In 1949, their fans in Detroit welcomed them back fulltime. Besides records, George and Les continued making music on stage, radio, and television in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana until 1953, when they moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas.
For several more years, through the mid-1960s, Les returned to Detroit each summer to entertain with local musicians Danny Richards and his Gold Star Cowboys. “Hamtramck Mama” remained a longtime favorite of Detroit audiences. In the end, Les, a prolific writer and imaginative musician, recorded several dozen original songs during his career — with and without George, who died in 1974. Les York passed away in 1984.
Click here to view a Detroit discography of the York Brothers’ earliest records. For a more detailed overview of Les and George York’s career, see the book “Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies” by Craig Maki with Keith Cady.
Listen to: York Brothers (feat. Les York) – River of Tears (live)
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Notes
- “‘Hamtramck Mama’ Getting the Deaf Ear in Hamtramck” Detroit Free Press (Saturday, April 10, 1940. Vol. 109, No. 352) 1.
Gibson Guitars declared 2013 as the Year of Les Paul, so here is a jaw-dropping discovery with a Detroit connection to the famous guitarist and Mary Ford early in their careers.
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.
Les Paul had recorded instrumental hits for Capitol Records since 1948, including pop standards such as “Lover” and “Nola” featuring groundbreaking multiple (overdubbed) guitar tracks. With Ford singing, the couple scored their first top ten vocal hit in early 1951 with the country-western song “Tennessee Waltz” (shut out of the number one spot by Patti Page‘s version for Mercury Records). They had more in store for ’51, including the number one “How High The Moon.” It is likely they met Detroit composer/publisher/record label owner Lou Parker before then.
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.
Listen to: The Humdingers – Remember Me
In late 1951, Parker issued a disk of the Les Paul Trio’s Detroit recordings on his Citation label, calling the performers The Humdingers. The record received an above-average score from Billboard magazine on December 29. As was the case with other productions on Citation (often due to less than adequate promotion), the record didn’t sell well.
In 1953, Detroit guitarist Al Allen met Lou Parker at a recording session for cowboy singer Bob Quinn. Among other songs, they were scheduled to cut “The Things You Used To Say,” which appeared on The Humdingers disk. Parker casually mentioned that Les Paul and Mary Ford also cut the song for him. Allen, a longtime and devoted fan of Paul’s, questioned Parker further, and he brought him a copy of The Humdingers record. (As far as we know, Parker did not issue Quinn’s version of the song.)
Listen to: The Humdingers – The Things You Used To Say
We don’t know if Parker hired Les Paul and Mary Ford to make demonstration recordings, or if they understood Parker intended to issue a commercial record. In any case, after their string of major hits in 1951, Les Paul and Mary Ford probably didn’t make recordings such as these while contracted to Capitol Records again.
Postscript
Around the same time as Les Paul and Mary Ford, Detroit country act Roy Hall and the Cohutta Mountain Boys recorded three records for Citation, under the alias “The Eagles.” Detroit bandleader Jack Luker (who used his own name) made two with members of the Cohutta Mountain Boys. The Cohutta Mountain Boys’ and Al Allen’s stories appear in the book “Detroit Country Music – Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies” from University of Michigan Press.
Of course, one would need weeks or months to present the connections between the labor movement and country-western music in Detroit during the 20th century. On this Labor Day, I’m reaching for low-hanging fruit by showing a couple of union-operated social halls used for country shows in Detroit 60 years ago.
12101 Mack Avenue is an address remembered fondly by longtime country music fans in Detroit. The site of the weekly “Lazy Ranch Boys Barn Dance” from 1952 to 1957, the union hall at 12101 Mack held many weekend stage shows by Casey Clark’s group (all members of local musician unions), which in turn hosted famous entertainers and guests from across the U.S.A. and Canada. Originally a Hudson local, the hall became the base for a Chrysler local after the demise of the Hudson Motor Car Company.
Photos from the past demonstrate Clark’s band’s popularity. When Clark and his partners first arrived to head the WJR “Big Barn Frolic” in 1952, the Saturday night show was held at the Dairyworkers Hall on 2nd Avenue in Highland Park (see a contemporary photo below).
Within a year, Clark and company moved to a larger space at 12101 Mack, where they packed in audiences with their stage shows, followed by square and round dances. Its location off Connor, near Chrysler’s east side facilities, easily drew country music fans who worked for Chrysler, many of whom lived in the surrounding area.
Read all about Casey Clark and the Lazy Ranch Boys, along with other artists who appeared on the “Big Barn Frolic,” such as Chuck Hatfield, Boots Gilbert, Al Allen, Roy Hall, May Hawks and the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in the book “Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies.”
Deke Dickerson‘s first book, The Strat in the Attic: Thrilling Stories of Guitar Archaeology, is about one of Dickerson’s favorite activities: tracking down vintage and unusual guitars. Dickerson is a well-traveled musician, and one of the stories in his book, “586 Guitars and a Trailer Full of Parts,” takes place in Detroit during the late 1990s. [1]
The family of Earl Gormaine, a former WEXL radio host, musician, and owner of an instrument shop called the Pick N Strum, needed to clean out his estate, and my friend Loney Charles was invited to assist a man who took the job.
Charles, a drummer who grew up in Flint, had no clue as to what he and his boss were about to undertake. When Dickerson came into town with his band, Charles invited him to check out the mess of guitars and instrument parts that he was sorting through. In his book, Dickerson described his astonishment at the amount and quality of the gear he saw.
Musician Gary McMullen, who played banjo, guitar, and bass for country-western and bluegrass groups around Detroit during the 1970s, including a lengthy gig with Casey Clark and Casey’s Kids, worked at the Pick N Strum. He recently shared some of his memories of the shop and Earl Gormaine.
“He had vintage instruments too,” said McMullen, “but he was an avid trader in instruments and stuff used to come into the shop – and then out – all the time. Lots of used instruments. At the time, he was one of the few local certified Martin dealers, and people used to drive for miles to buy and trade Martins from him. People knew he could be trusted, and they knew he knew his stuff. He specialized in acoustic instruments, but wouldn’t turn his back on good electric gear. I remember some great [Gibson] L5s that he had … I wanted one so bad. His store was also one of the few places that carried high quality banjos.
Earl was quite the eccentric in that he was totally absorbed in his music – all genres – and his wonderful store.
“His wife moved to Hawaii and he stayed behind to keep his business going. He would visit her once or twice a year, and I would run the store for him while he was gone. For the longest time, I was his sole teacher on both banjo and guitar. At one point, I remember having about thirty students there, which put me through college at Wayne State University. I also painted the place, and put a tar roof on it, because I was a starving young musician and college student who needed money,” said McMullen.
McMullen said Gormaine operated the Pick N Strum shop in three different spaces through the years. The first was located in Detroit on Cass Avenue, near Wayne State. The second stood on the southwest corner of Woodward Avenue and 14 Mile. Gormaine operated his last shop in a former paint store on the west side of Greenfield Road, between 12 and 13 Mile roads. Performers at the Raven Gallery, a folk music venue that Sweet Lorraine’s restaurant eventually moved into (on Greenfield, just north of 12 Mile), often visited the Pick N Strum, accompanied by Herb Cohen, owner of the Raven. Thanks to Cohen, McMullen met the likes of Eddie Adcock, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, and Danny Cox at the shop.
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Notes
- Deke Dickerson, The Strat in the Attic: Thrilling Stories of Guitar Archaeology (Minneapolis, Minn.: Voyageur Press, 2013).
- Gary McMullen interviewed by Craig Maki in 2013. He now plays Irish music with Blackthorn.
- Photograph of Earl Gormaine by Wayne T. Helfrich, all rights reserved.
- Photograph of Gary McMullen by Wayne T. Helfrich, all rights reserved.
Fans of longtime Detroit resident and country music bandleader Forest Rye are smiling at the thought of recordings they hadn’t heard before.
A record I’d never seen on the short-lived Alben label turned up recently. Detroit juke box and vending machine operator Ben Okum and his business partner Al Smith created the Alben Records Company in 1948. Okum issued the first version of Jimmy Work’s “Tennessee Border” on Alben 501 late that year (see “Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies” for Work’s story). Alben pressed a couple of other records, with red and silver labels, for the Rhythm and Blues market, but the label of the record in question had the blue and silver color scheme of Work’s record, and a catalog number of 601.
The artist’s name, Uncle Ruye, caught my eye because it appeared to be an alternative spelling of “Rye” – and Forest Rye was known to record under another name, Conrad Brooks, for records on Universal, Hot Wax, and Mellow. Furthermore, one side was titled “Crying My Eyes Out,” a song that Mercury Records issued in 1951 by Rye.
I Smiled At Her – Uncle Ruye and his Sage Hollow Boys
Crying My Eyes Out – Uncle Ruye and his Sage Hollow Boys
“The ‘I Smiled At Her (She Smiled At Me)’ song was sung to me by my cousin Katherine … She remembered it from when she was a young girl,” she said. [1]
Probably recorded in 1949, the Alben disc may have been an audition of sorts for Rye. Ben Okum developed ties with Mercury Records around that time, and Rye recorded a new version of “Crying My Eyes Out” along with three other originals for the Chicago-based label around 1950-51. [2]
Click here to read my original account of Forest Rye in Detroit.
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Notes
- Linda (Rye) Austin interviewed March 3, 2014
- “Crying My Eyes Out” b/w “After All These Years” Mercury 6328; “Midnight Boogie Blues” b/w “Won’t You Give Me A Little Loving” Mercury 6329
- Source: Advertisement for Boy Scouts benefit show at Saline High School in Saline, Michigan. Saline Observer. (Thursday, April 24, 1947. Vol. 64, No. 29) 2.
From the time she started singing in public, Patti Lynn’s vocal abilities and charm attracted the support of Detroit musicians and bandleaders such as Ford Nix, Eddie Jackson, Billy Martin, and Frankie Meadows. Click here to see Part One of the story of her music career.
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Lynn met her first husband when she performed at a Detroit car dealership. “He said, ‘I know a guy you gotta meet. His name is Eddie Jackson — a good friend of mine.’ He took me over to where Eddie was playing and he told Eddie, ‘You gotta listen to this girl sing.’ (You know, acting like a typical salesman.) … I started working with Eddie. Those were probably some of the best years of my life, ’cause Eddie was a great guy with an excellent sense of humor. And he just always had a good crowd around him. He was a lot of fun to work for.” [1]
According to Lynn, Jackson and his band worked forty-five minutes on stage and took fifteen-minute breaks all night long. Lynn sang three or four songs per set, and mingled with the crowd.
We used to jam a lot. We’d start Saturday night, after the bar closed, and we might be jammin’ come Monday morning. I can remember one club I worked where some of the musicians were … in the back room, on cases of beer taking a nap! [laughs]
“Back then, we used to party a lot after we got off work at the bar,” said Lynn. “And some of the parties would go all weekend. My ex-husband had a way of saying, ‘I’m gonna go to the store and I’ll be back in a few minutes,’ and he might show up three days later. He was always running into somebody he knew, so he’d keep on partying. One time he called me and said, ‘Honey, put me on a steak. I’m on my way home.’ And he called me three days later from Chicago! I can remember looking at Eddie saying, ‘Same old room, same old window, same old blues!’”
Lynn’s comment about the “same old blues” caught Jackson’s ear and he wrote “Blues I Can’t Hide.” “I’d write a line here and put away the sheet of paper until the next time something hit me,” said Jackson. It took a while to complete, but when it was done, he and his band the Swingsters cut it for the B-side of their Detroit hit “I’m Learning” in 1963. [2]
Same Old Blues
In 1964 Lynn’s husband set up a session for her at Fortune Records. “Oddly enough, [he] used to date Skeeter Davis. So he knew of this place [the Fortune studio], and of course Eddie knew of it,” she said. “They put their heads together and decided that’s where I ought to go to cut this record. They kind of made the arrangements. I was so green, I had no idea what was going on. I’d never been to a recording studio in my life.
“It was just a little home studio. I think that they were getting a good sound in there, compared to some of the other studios I’ve cut in since — even much higher-tech studios. I’m really amazed at the sound quality they got in there. I think Devora [a.k.a. Dorothy] Brown was onto something,” she said.
At the Fortune studio, Lynn sang as piano, steel, and guitar expertly traded solos. “Same Old Blues” backed with “One Faded Rose” was pressed on Fortune subsidiary label Hi-Q (no. 23). A disk jockey at WEXL started spinning the record, and Lynn said it reached the top of the station’s country music charts. “I was totally surprised that the record was being played,” she said. Lynn’s dissatisfaction with her vocal performances kept her from promoting the record, and it ran its course within a year.
Lynn soon joined Frankie Meadows and his band at the Wayside Bowling Lounge in Hazel Park. Lynn worked with Meadows when she cut “Don’t Hang Around My Door” b/w “The Mirror Behind The Bar” for the Glenn label (no. 3450). [3] She also sang a dab on other Glenn singles, including Frankie Meadows’ “Six Steps” (Glenn 3001) and WEXL disk jockey Jim Mitchell’s “Fillin’ In” (Glenn 3400).
Listen to: Don’t Hang Around My Door – Patti Lynn
Meadows and the band appeared on WKBD-TV Channel 50 every Saturday, around that time. “A lot of things were happening back then,” said Lynn. “We started playing bills with ‘Opry’ acts in town. We were busy. After that, a fella by the name of Paul Wade started booking me and I started doing some tours down in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio. I was on the road for a while.”
Don’t Hang Around My Door
Lynn divorced her husband and moved out West. When she returned to the Detroit area a few years later, she changed her stage name to Kelly Roberts. “After I moved back to Michigan, … an old friend looked me up. Buddy Childers had been in the business back when I was Patti Lynn. I met him when I started. He came over and told me, ‘You need to get back in the business.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no.’ He kept after me,” said Lynn. “We’d go out and do benefits and jamborees with guys like Jimmy Williams. … All the musicians would go to jamborees and jam all day. Practically every Sunday afternoon there would be a big jamboree going on someplace.
“In the seventies, I started working with Roy Sparks who bought the Moon Supper Club and turned it into Nashville North. … Another local group, Country’s Pride, was hired to play there, too. Debbie Grosse of the band had an opportunity to work with Charlie Louvin, so she left Country’s Pride and the guys got a-hold of me. I worked with them for quite a while,” she said.
She remarried, and formed a band called Kelly and Country with two old friends, Chuck Neely and Jay Preston. While Lynn held down a full-time job, the group worked nightly. “[After] I moved out to Clarkston, I was coming home from Port Huron every night, six nights a week — and I had to be at my job at seven in the morning — I was so tired, I ran off the road,” she said. “I was about an inch from a big sign on the expressway, and I thought, ‘I either have to get into the business and stay in it, or work a job. I can’t run on three hour’s sleep at night.’ … Jay moved to Tennessee, and I continued with my day job. I slid back, away from the music business, and that’s where I am today. I miss it. It’s never far from my mind.”
Lynn continued to sit in with friends once in a while.After retiring from her job, she bred Ragdoll show cats. “I’m at the point where it’s all nice memories,” she said.
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Notes
- Patti Lynn interviewed by Craig Maki in 1995
- Eddie Jackson interviewed by Craig Maki in 1995, 1996.
- Mona Kerry of Shreveport, Louisiana, cut “Don’t Hang Around My Door,” also for the Glenn label (Glenn 1501).
As the Davis Sisters’ first RCA-Victor single, “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know,” rose into the top of Billboard magazine’s country-western charts during the dog days of summer 1953, a midnight car accident claimed the life of lead singer Betty Jack Davis. Skeeter Davis, the other member of the duo and a survivor of the crash, fell into a depression while she recovered in hospital, and then in the home of Betty Jack’s parents near Covington, Kentucky. With encouragement from the Davis family, and commitment from Betty Jack’s older sister Georgie, the Davis Sisters soon returned to the road, to take advantage of the record’s popularity.
Nearly two years before, Betty Jack and Skeeter moved to Detroit, Michigan, at the invitation of bandleader Casey Clark, to sing on the WJR “Big Barn Frolic” radio jamboree, as well as personal appearances that producers Norman J. O’Neill, David Abadaher, and Clark booked in the region. O’Neill, a Detroit-based construction business owner, provided personal management to the Davis Sisters. In May 1953, Betty Jack and Skeeter made their first session for RCA-Victor in Nashville, Tennessee, and moved back to Kentucky. When Georgie stepped into her new role, the women cut ties with O’Neill. The Davis Sisters toured North America with major C&W entertainers, appeared as guests on barn dance radio programs, including the “Grand Ole Opry,” and recorded new songs until 1956, when Georgie settled down with her family, and Skeeter began singing solo.
On May 26, Memorial Day 2014, Craig Maki and Keith Cady visited with Georgie Davis. Here are highlights from the conversation.
Gotta Git A-Goin’
Georgie: We worked with [bandleader] Pee Wee King a lot. He took me on my first plane ride – insisted! I wasn’t gonna do it. No way, was I gonna get on that plane. And all the time he was scootin’ me along, and he got me right up there before I knew I was on it. Scared me to death. … He always had to get somewhere quick, so if he decided we were gonna sing with him, he’d take us with him. Because if he left us here, we might not get there [on time]. So that’s why he pushed us on the plane. But we worked with all of them. They’re all great, all of them. Eddy Arnold … There’s no better than Eddy Arnold. … We went all the way to California with him, doing show dates all the way. And Elvis [Presley] too. Elvis was on it.
Keith: What was your impression of Elvis?
Georgie: Well, he was a spoiled brat. [laughs] But, we learned to love him anyway. I love him even more, now. He was just somebody you had to, kinda, you know, deal with. He thought he was, uh … This is not a real good story for you young fellas, but – he loved the girls, and the girls loved him, of course – he walked in our dressing room unannounced, and I got mad at him. I said, “Listen here! You knock on that door when you walk in!” That didn’t mean anything to him, as far as that goes, but he never did walk in again. … He was a good guy, and he turned out to be a great guy.
Craig: When you were touring with the [RCA] Country Western Caravan, did you ride buses or cars? How did you travel?
Georgie: We were on a bus, hitting every city on that particular tour. It was a long tour and a lot of work, no sleep, and all that kind of stuff. Skeeter and I actually fell asleep on stage one night, because we couldn’t find any place to sleep. So we kind of curled up in a corner and took a little nap. [laughs] I don’t think anyone ever knew it, because they never mentioned it.
Craig: You were on the “Ozark Jubilee.”
Georgie: I was, but I don’t know if it’s in writing or not. Because I was filling in for … Kitty Wells. She couldn’t make it that night. And [Red Foley] asked me if I would sing with him. I said, “Sure” … But I think the papers would show that Kitty Wells was the singer on that show, even though it wasn’t.
Craig: I noticed on the [Davis Sisters] record, “I’ve Closed The Door,” you’re listed as one of the songwriters, along with Skeeter. Did you have a process for songwriting? Or picking songs to do? Did [someone] give you songs to do?
Georgie: Well, we more or less picked them. They’d give us so many, and then we had to choose from that, what they gave us. Because they had writers, you know, coming out of their ears. There were just plenty of writers. But, if they said we want you to do this, we did it, simple as that, I guess.
Keith: Did you ever find yourself recording a song that you …
Georgie: Didn’t like? Yeah. I can’t remember names of everything nowadays. … It was great fun, I can say that. … We took my oldest daughter – she was just a little tot, then – we’d take her with us, where we went. She loved it. She’d even stand on the stage and do some singing. [Editor’s note: Georgie had been married for several years before she joined the Davis Sisters act.]
Craig: Did you have a manager?
Georgie: Not really. The manager that they had when Betty Jack died was the only manager that they had. So, from different things that he had done, we decided that we didn’t want a manager. We’d do it ourselves.
Craig: So you were independent?
Georgie: Yeah, we were.
Craig: That must have taken some work.
Georgie: It did. But they would get in touch with us, if they wanted us on the show … and it was either yes or no, but most of the time it was yes. We’d go. We never had any qualms about it. We were always treated good. Nothing bad ever happened to us.
Fiddle Diddle Boogie
Keith: Before Skeeter and B.J. got together as the Davis Sisters and started recording, did you and your sister sing locally, as kids growing up? How did you get into music?
Georgie: We always sang, but we didn’t do anything, you know, in the music field. We just sang for our own amusement, and loved to sing. … We sang at church, and at places where we were asked to sing, like that. … We didn’t get paid for it, and I wasn’t looking for pay, at the time. We were just singing. We loved singing.
Keith: When did you first start singing [professionally]?
Georgie: When Betty Jack died, then I HAD to start singing, right then. The plan was that I would sing with them later. Because I had a little girl, we were going to wait until she got just a little bit bigger, and I was gonna be the third one singing. But because of that [accident], in order for us to, say, get a payday from our record, we had to start singing right then. Skeeter said, “Why don’t you sing with me now?” So that’s the way that we did it. Whether we could sing or not, [chuckles] we did it! But it worked out, it worked out OK.
Keith: When you and your sister sang together, would you sing harmony together?
Georgie: Yes. All our life.
Keith: Do you remember who would sing what part?
Georgie: I always did the harmony part, at that time. But Skeeter did the harmony on the records.
Keith: Right. That’s why I was curious [to know] if you would sing harmony with Betty Jack.
Georgie: Yes, I did.
Keith: Skeeter always sang the harmony on the records. Did you guys ever switch on other songs on the road, at all?
Georgie: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think we ever did that. They had us record so many songs at one time in New York. You know, they just kept piling them on, they didn’t want to run out of Davis Sisters, or run out of music, or something. So we did a whole lot of songs that we didn’t even like that much.
You’re Gone
Craig: Do you know if there were any plans to do an album?
Georgie: I have to say no, because I didn’t know about it, if they had any ideas about it. … Skeeter had a hit record – you probably know all about Skeeter [and] her hit records. She had a lot of hit records. And she did very well, with everything. So, I just kind of faded out of the picture. So that she could have her time.
Keith: Was that a conscious effort on your part? How was it decided to dissolve the Davis Sisters?
Georgie: Well, I don’t know exactly how that happened. I don’t know that we ever actually said, “We quit.” Because they would come back, occasionally, and want us to do something, and we’d turn it down, or we’d try to do it. Whichever it was.
Keith: So maybe, over the course of time, you just got to where you weren’t doing shows anymore?
Georgie: Right. Just not doing it. … But Skeeter tried to get us back together, shortly before she died. She thought it was time to get the Davis Sisters back together, and I was going over that in my mind, “Yeah, maybe so.” Different people would tell her, “She [Georgie] may not want to do that anymore. She’s been gone a long time.” And then she’d call and say, “Don’t you think we need to get the Davis Sisters back together?” It never happened.
Keith: It’s too bad. That would have been terrific to see you two, together.
Georgie: I regret it.
Tomorrow I’ll Cry
Keith: Do you get a chance to listen to your old records?
Georgie: Well, occasionally … I don’t do that often, ‘cause I cry too much. So I can’t let myself do that every day.
Keith: Happy tears, I hope?
Georgie: Well, some of them are. But they’re still tears. [chuckles] But yes, I love to sit down and listen to them once in a while. I’m usually by myself when I do that. You know, Betty Jack meant so much to us, some things can make me cry about her, you know, her life. And she loved music so much. She was the talent. Of the three of us, she was the talent. And it just broke my heart.
Craig: Everyone we spoke with who knew her, or had seen her in Detroit, remembered her as being a great singer. They were surprised at how young she was. … She was a very accomplished young lady, as far as singing [goes].
Georgie: She was the only one of us who could play an instrument. She was the only one that could do anything, really. She was just “it,” and we depended on her to lead us through it. Skeeter did great. She, of course, ended up with a lot of hit records. She did great.
Keith: You said your plan was for all three of you to sing together. Did the three of you ever sing together … ?
Georgie: At home?
Keith: … at parties and things?
Georgie: At home, yeah. We knew that we could do it. We just didn’t get the opportunity to get it done.
Everlovin’
Keith: Do you remember there being a most-requested song that you had?
Georgie: “I Forgot More” was our big hit, so we had to do that a lot. Every time we got up to sing, we had to do that one.
Keith: Did you get a chance to do some of your originals? I know you got a chance to record some originals. When you did live shows, did you get to do some of those, as well? Or was it just what you were asked to do?
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.
Craig: When we spoke on the phone … you mentioned that Andy Griffith was a favorite personality you ran into.
Georgie: Oh, yes. We loved him. He was on our show, the last show that we did. We went to California with Eddy Arnold. And him and Elvis, and all of us was on this one stage, you know. It was just great. So I have a good memory of that one.
Craig: Where was that? Was that in Los Angeles?
Georgie: Ummm. What studio would that have been? Now I can’t remember names. I don’t know which one it was. … There were so many towns on that trip. And we all went in … buses – not regular buses, but people’s buses. There was several of us. It was a whole line of traffic, you know. And Minnie Pearl. Is Minnie Pearl still alive?
Keith: No, she’s passed away.
Georgie: See, I haven’t been in Nashville for a long time. So I don’t know what’s going on. … We’ve got a … museum, here in Devou Park [the Behringer-Crawford Museum] … got the Davis Sisters in it. [They’ve] got a lot of stuff in there, from us.
Craig: We’ll have to visit that.
Georgie: I’m real proud of it. It’s great. They really did it well.
Craig: Thank you so much for letting us stop by, and for sharing your memories.
Georgie: Oh, it’s been fun.
Click here to read the post of session details, see photos, and hear sound clips of the Davis Sisters in Detroit, featuring Betty Jack. To read more about Casey Clark and the WJR “Big Barn Frolic,” see the book “Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys, and Rockabillies.”
On Sunday, October 14, before dawn, Ford Nix passed away in his sleep. A popular and personable man, Nix played a prominent role in Detroit’s 20th century country music scene.
Born in Blairsville, Georgia, in 1932, Nix was a young teen-ager when he discovered the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. His humorous nature was pretty well developed, so he picked up a banjo and combined picking and comedy in his act. After working with Ramblin’ Tommy Scott’s medicine shows in the region, at age 17 he moved to Detroit, where he hired into a Chrysler factory. In Michigan he made the rounds of barn dances and nightclubs, including Casey Clark’s shows. At the time, Nix’s bluegrass style presented a unique sound among the western swing and honky tonk played by most groups in town.
Nix entered the air force in 1953, spending most of his deployment in Japan. He played music with air force buddies, including Harold Jenkins, later known as Conway Twitty. Four years later, Nix picked up where he left off in Detroit, returning to Chrysler and jamming with Ray Taylor and others. By then, bluegrass in Detroit was attracting crowds in nightclubs, with the likes of Jimmy Martin, Curly Dan, Buster Turner, Jimmy Lee Williams, and Marvin Cobb leading groups and cutting records.
In 1959 Nix made his first record for Jim Henson’s Clix label in Troy, Michigan. In 1960 he joined the cast of Billy Martin’s “Michigan Jamboree,” a country music variety show on Jackson television. While keeping his job at Chrysler, Nix toured with stars from Nashville through the 1960s. He performed on Ernest Tubb’s “Midnight Jamboree” at WSM radio Nashville. He recorded with Wendy Smith at Fortune Records, and with the Supremes at Motown, where he cut some unreleased music (check out Robb Klein’s comment at the previous link). He also made his own albums, including one with Frank Buchanan, one of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, along with Roy McGinnis and the Sunnysiders.
Nix traveled quite a bit, and became a well-known and respected entertainer in both country and bluegrass circles. He retired from Chrysler in 1981, and concentrated on several business ventures besides playing music. I tell a lengthier tale in the Detroit country music book, which includes plenty of quotations from the inimitable Ford Nix.
He was a friendly, caring guy, but music always came first in his life. – Dave Larsh, musician [1]
Along with Luke Kelly, Forest Rye, and Arlee Barber, Jack Luker had a reputation during the 1940s for leading one of the popular country-western bands in Detroit. Luker’s group, the Tennessee Valley Boys, included guitarists Tommy Odom, Chuck Oakes, and Jeff Durham; rhythm guitarist/singer Lawton “Slim” Williams; bassists Harvey “Flash” Griner and Bill Hayes; fiddle player Frankie Brumbalough, and others.
Willie Thomas “Jack” Luker was born June 26, 1917. Luker’s cousin Lawton Williams was from Troy, Tennessee, in the northwest region of the state, so Luker may have come from the same area. His move to Michigan coincided with an influx of Southerners looking for work in the manufacturing industries of Detroit as the United States participated in World War II.
Luker may have planned to find a job in a factory, but he soon began entertaining in nightclubs such as the Park View, Dixie Belle, and Rose’s, all located on West Vernor in southwest Detroit, an area settled by workers from the South. [2] A charismatic, fun-loving man, Luker married and had three children.
Perhaps Luker’s first appearance on records was with Roy Hall’s Cohutta Mountain Boys – which included former members of Luker’s Tennessee Valley Boys (Tommy Odom, Flash Griner, and Frankie Brumbalough) – when the group cut “Dirty Boogie” for Fortune Records in 1949. Issued as Fortune 126, the record label listed personnel for the session, and Luker’s name was associated with rhythm guitar.
Listen to: Jack Luker – My Smokey Mountain Gal
In late 1951, Luker sang on two records for songwriter Lou Parker’s Citation label (catalog numbers 1158 and 1159), based in Detroit’s Music Hall building. The first release, reviewed by The Billboard magazine in its January 26, 1952, edition, “My Smokey Mountain Gal” (backed with “Whispering Lies”) was a bouncy western swing. [3] Luker’s vocal projected his easy-going personality and some joy. The music was played by a hot band, which probably included Roy Hall on piano, along with Flash Griner and Bud White (these musicians also recorded for Parker’s label), and unidentified trumpet player, giving the record a sound reminiscent of Merle Travis’ hit records of the late 1940s. Luker’s second Citation single included a slow heart song called “I Wish That I Could Tell You,” backed with another swinging dance number, “You’re A Little Bit Too Late.”
By the 1960s, Luker moved to Bay City, Michigan, and worked as a school bus driver, farmer and carpenter, while playing music at night and on weekends. Detroit guitarist Dave Larsh said Luker also had a radio show in Bay City during those years.
A Bay City record label named Wanda released what was perhaps Luker’s last recordings on vinyl (Wanda single no. 318). “Fool For Loving You,” another heart song, was backed with a revival of the Light Crust Doughboys’ 1939 “I’ll Keep On Loving You.” Judging by Luker’s recorded performances, he sought out the best musicians to work with on stages and studios.
According to Detroit guitarist Chuck Oakes, Luker retired to Northern Michigan. “Jack Luker later worked in Gladwin at several bars,” said Oakes. He worked at the Club 30 for years. I used to sit in with him and have fun.” [4] (Oakes also spent his retirement years near Gladwin.) In 1982, Luker moved back to Tennessee.
“I heard Jack finally went back to Tennessee and married his first wife all over again,” said Oakes. “He liked hunting and fishing. He went out hunting in the woods and they found him with his hounds out there, propped up against a tree and he was – He done gone.” During a hunting trip with a friend, Luker suffered a heart attack. He lay down beneath an old tree and passed away December 10, 1984.
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Notes
- Dave Larsh interviewed by Keith Cady in 2002.
- By the late 20th century, the population of southwest Detroit evolved into a community of Mexican immigrants, which brought another cultural change to local restaurants and shops.
- “Best Selling Retail Folk (Country & Western) Records” Billboard (Jan. 26, 1952. Vol. 64, No. 4) 33.
- Chuck Oakes interviewed by Keith Cady in 2000.
He could sing “Hawaiian War Chant” and make your hair stand on end. – Chuck Oakes [1]
During the summer of 1957, Colby’s Bowling Alley in Port Huron rocked with a boogie beat. Pianist Pete DeBree and his country-western band, the Wanderers, performed nightly. The new rock’n’roll music proved just as popular with Colby’s crowds as the old square dances. Lucky for DeBree, versatile singer Jimmy Franklin kept the dance floor bouncing, whether by crooning a Roy Acuff tune, shouting the blues, or calling a square dance.
Franklin wrote “Hey, Mr. Presley,” a tribute song to Elvis, and recorded it for Fortune Records in Detroit that year (issued on Fortune 200). For the flipside of the 45-rpm disk, Franklin came up with another screamer called “Long Tall Lou.” Not long after he cut these rockers, assembled into one of the wildest records to originate in Detroit, Franklin disappeared.
The Prairie Drifters
Around late 1947 or early 1948, Jimmy Franklin (born in 1927) made his recording debut in Dayton, Ohio, with Jimmie Saul and his Prairie Drifters, a country swing band. Franklin, who sang and played upright bass, and guitar, and his brother Marvin “Whitey” Franklin, who played steel guitar, had moved from West Liberty, Kentucky, to work in Dayton’s country music nightclubs after World War II.
The Prairie Drifters cut four sides, which Saul pressed on his Redskin label through an arrangement with Four Star Records of California. Bill McCall had operated Four Star, out of Pasadena, for just a few years. Besides finding artists for his label through talent agents, McCall chose music for his catalog through a custom service that gave him access to recordings he could license to issue on Four Star.
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.
Saul’s unidentified crackerjack band included electric guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar, upright bass, and fiddle. In 1947, guitarist Roy Lanham established a version of his group the Whippoorwhills in Dayton, including Doug Dalton (mandolin), Gene Monbeck (rhythm guitar) and Donald “Dusty” Rhoads (bass). [2] Members of the Whippoorwhills may have been at Saul’s session, which might explain: a) over-the-top country jazz performances, and b) why Dalton’s name appeared on “Firecracker Stomp.” [3] Guitarist Chuck Oakes, who worked Dayton nightclubs with the Franklin brothers at the time, said, “I used to know a bunch of guys in Dayton who were real good musicians and one of ’em was Doug Dalton, [another] was Dusty Rhoads, and the other guy was Gene Monbeck, and he had a Stromberg guitar that was made in New York, a beautiful thing. … They were all friends of mine.”
Listen to: Jimmy Franklin – My Long Tall Gal From Tennessee
Billboard magazine gave Saul’s first record a favorable review in its May 8, 1948, edition. [4] Around December 1948, Bill McCall paired “Firecracker Stomp” and “My Long Tall Gal From Tennessee” on his Four Star label, just a couple of releases after the Maddox Bros. and Rose’s popular recording of Woody Guthrie’s “Philadelphia Lawyer.”
A few years after Saul’s Four Star record came out, both songs appeared again. “Firecracker Stomp” was reissued on Four Star under the name Jimmie Lane, as the B-side to the Davis Sisters’ “Jealous Love” (leased from Fortune Records in 1953). In 1957, Franklin, with Pete DeBree and the Wanderers, burned down “My Long Tall Gal From Tennessee” to extract the hard-rocking “Long Tall Lou” for Fortune. [5]
The Franklin Brothers
While living in Dayton, the Franklin brothers met guitarist Chuck Oakes, and worked with him and rhythm guitarist Emerson “Happy” Moore for several weeks before Oakes and Moore moved to Detroit. Jimmy’s wife, Dimples Darlene, also played bass and performed comedy with her husband on stage. In June 1949 the Franklin brothers toured Canada as the Radio Rangers, landing at CHAB radio Moosejaw, Saskatoon. [6] The group moved to the Motor City by 1950.
In Detroit the Franklins easily found work in the jumping nightclub scene. Chuck Oakes hired them as soon as they arrived. In 1951, fiddler and comedian James “Chick” Stripling worked with the Franklins, along with guitarist Chuck Carroll, at the Roosevelt Lounge. It was one of Carroll’s first jobs in Detroit. “Jimmy did most of the singing, then,” said Carroll. “Chick Stripling played fiddle, … Al Allen played [guitar]. I guess they were playing music six nights a week and we [Carroll and Allen] took turns. I’d play about the first three nights, … he’d switch it around and I could have the weekends off.” [7]
In early 1951 the group headed for a job at CKUA radio Edmonton, Alberta (Al Allen remained in Detroit). In June Billboard reported, “Georgia Cotton Pickers, heard daily over CKUA, Edmonton, Alta., have cut four sides for 4-Star. Personnel includes Jimmy and Whitey Franklin; Chick Stripling, formerly with Sunshine Sue, WWVA, Wheeling, W.Va.; Chuck Carroll, who did some sides for Fortune, the Detroit label, and Dimples Darlene, Jimmy’s frau.” [8]
Listen to: Jimmie Saul’s Prairie Drifters – Firecracker Stomp
Twelve months later, Billboard said the Franklin Brothers were touring Canada with Wilf Carter, a.k.a. Montana Slim. [9] Chuck Carroll returned to Detroit by the start of 1952.
After the Canadian tour with Carter, the Franklin brothers returned to Detroit, where they played gigs with Chuck Oakes, Danny Richards, and Eddie Jackson. Stripling also returned to Detroit, playing fiddle in the Motor City’s country nightclubs through the 1960s.
Coming in Part 2: Jimmy Franklin heads west for TV and radio work, then returns to Port Huron and Detroit, where he cuts his most famous disk of all.
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Notes
- Chuck Oakes interviewed by Keith Cady in 2000.
- Rich Kienzle “Neither Fish Nor Fowl” Southwest Shuffle (New York: Routledge, 2003), 224.
- Jimmie Saul played the bass. This was confirmed by Happy Moore‘s wife Elizabeth to Craig Maki during conversation in February 2014. Also: After reading this story, researcher Kevin Coffey sent Craig Maki a note on May 6, 2013. Years ago, Coffey had a suspicion Roy Lanham played on “Firecracker Stomp.” He asked bassist Red Wootten, who was associated with Roy Lanham and Doug Dalton, if he recognized the musicians on the instrumental, and Wootten suggested Doug Dalton played fiddle on the session.
- “Record Reviews” Billboard (May 8, 1948. Vol. 60, No. 19), 127. “Franklin’s singing clear and well-phrased. Lyric a cut above average folk stuff, and the Drifters come on.”
- Jack and Dorothy Brown of Fortune Records leased their recording of the Davis Sisters “Jealous Love” to Four Star after the Davis Sisters signed a contract with RCA-Victor and left Detroit. Pete DeBree’s first single on Fortune was an instrumental called “Wanderers Blues” backed with a shuffling version of Hank Williams’ “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It,” sung by Bernie Sanders (no. 193, 1956).
- Johnny Sippel “American Folk Tunes” Billboard (June 11, 1949. Vol. 61, No. 24), 30, 34.
- Chuck Carroll interviewed by Keith Cady in 2000.
- Johnny Sippel “American Folk Tunes” Billboard (June 9, 1951. Vol. 63, No. 23) 30.
- Johnny Sippel “American Folk Tunes” Billboard (June 14, 1952. Vol. 64, No. 24), 59.
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.
Publication target is October 28. You may pre-order from U-M Press directly, or amazon.com. Watch this blog for an announcement about a book release party!
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” Frank Lary. During the pitcher’s years in Detroit, 1954 to 1964, Lary sometimes sat in with country-western groups in nightclubs and showcases around town.
Here’s a snapshot of Lary on stage with Swingsters bandleader Eddie Jackson (at left, singing his heart out), and guitarist Tracey White in back. Jackson remembered Lary by his nickname “Taters,” but announcer Ernie Harwell graciously helped us identify Lary by his regular handle. Probably from around 1960, this photo may have been shot at Caravan Gardens in Detroit. (Source: Keith Cady, courtesy Harvey White)
Casey Clark’s daughter Evelyn also stated that Lary sometimes performed a song or two with Clark’s Lazy Ranch Boys during weekend barn dances at the U.A.W. hall at 12101 Mack Avenue.
Go Tigers!
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Update
Tigers beat the Yankees 8 to 3!
