Freedom Records !

Jimmy Johnson & Jack Rhodes Ramblers.
Freedom Record # 5009 - 1950
Salt Your Pillow Down / Could You.

Jimmy Johnson will always be highly regarded in the world of 45 collecting for his two sided monster record on Starday . Number 561 - Woman Love / All Dressed Up is a highly prized slice of rural hick bop ! but before that he recorded this little masterpiece, released on Freedom in 1950 this is truly a stomper of a 78 record, searing lead guitar matched with Steel and Fiddle and of course the super vocals of Jimmy........a lil' cracker of early 50's country bop !

In 1952, Don Law of Columbia Recordscame to Dallas and cut Johnson at Jim Beck’sstudio accompanied by Jack Rhodes’ band on February 1rst. They recorded four songs, all originals that Rhodes had possibly bought off their writers, and brought additional musicians : Jimmie Rollins on lead, Joe Knight on rhythm and Bobby Garrett on steel. Two 78s came out out under the name ofJack Rhodes and his Lone Star Buddies, of which neither sold well.

August 1950 ACA Studio, 612 Westheimer, Houston. TX - Jimmy Johnson with Jack Rhodes Ramblers (Jimmy Johnson [vcl], Bobby Davis [el ld gt], Red Hayes [ac ld gt], Al Petty [steel], Leon Hayes or Doc Shelton [bass], Kennetth 'Little Red' Hayes [fiddle])
001 ACA 1727 SALT YOUR PILLOW DOWN Freedom 5009
002 ACA 1728 COULD YOU 5009 


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Peck Touchton and The Sunset Wranglers .
Freedom Record # 5028 - 1950
Walk Em' Off Blues / Lonely World.

If ever someone deserved to be a BIG county star then Peck Touchton was such an artist. A truly staggering vocalist and his output on Sarg and here on Freedom is unquestionably the finest rural bop you will ever hear !
Walk 'Em Off Blues is a mid tempo country blues hurricane of a song, it takes you by the hand and leads you through some magical guitar work by Raleigh Dykes and sweet Steel by James Bell and not forgetting Peck tortured country vocals, if you haven't guessed yet but I am a BIG BIG fan !

May 1950 ACA Sound And Film Studios, 5520-22 Washington Ave., Houston, TX – Peck Touchton and The Sunset Wranglers (Peck Touchton [vl/gt], Raleigh Dykes [ld gt], James Bell [steel], Pete ? [bass], Pat Thomas [fiddle])
001 ACA 1659 WALK‘ EM OFF BLUES Freedom 5028 Green Star 5028
002 ACA 1660LONELY WORLD Freedom 5028 

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Coye Wilcox 
Freedom Record - Test Press # 5040 - 1951
Look What Loves Done To Me / It's Nobody's Business.

Wilcox was born in Rusk, Texas . A tire plant worker by day and by night a tip top country singer . He was for a time a singer in The Jack Rhodes Band in early 1950, around this time he made some demos for Charlie Fitch at Sarg but saw no release, Undeterred he popped down to Houston and cut this release for Freedom, a pure county bop record, lashings of Steel and Lead Guitar and the rural vocal tone of Coye. A tip top record without doubt.

Jimmie Spear and The Bluebonnet Boys .
Freedom Record # 5005 - 1950
Mad At My Heart / Turn Me Around.

Not much is know of Jimmie, even a photo is proving hard to track down.The singing style is pure Hank Williams, which Spear would have absorbed from that artist's heavy touring and broadcasting in both Louisiana and Texas, well before Williams took over the nation's country jukeboxes. With the Bluebonnets, Spear used a band name as worn as the shoes of a Houston hobo. Delores & the Bluebonnet Boys and Dick Dyson & His Bluebonnet Boys were both well established Texas western swing bands well before Spear stepped into the studio.