Uranium Miners's Boogie / No Use To Feel Blue "And Start Cryin' Now"
Riley Walker - Vocals / Rhythm Guitar
Belva Walker (Riley's sister) - Piano
Gordon Hawkins - Bass
Charles Gallagher - Steel Guitar
Here is the first of Riley Walker and his self promoted records on his own label Atomic! 'Uranium Miner's Boogie'. He sold both his releases (78 & 45 rpm) at local bars, record stores and roadhouses around Salt Lake City for the princely sum of 98 cents!!
This is the better of the two releases IMO and is sought after by collectors on both formats, a real country boogie about a subject that was a major part of life and industry in and around Salt Lake City, Utah and down to Cortez in Colorado.
Prominent Piano and some superb Steel playing make this one helluva Uranium geiger counter boogie woogie!
Side A - Right Or Wrong (I'm Gonna Snuggle In Your Arms)
Side B - Hold Me Darling
Vocals by young Davie Ruf and it's a really catchy up tempo little tune, great sound, great fiddle and overall a really good hillbilly number. I has pretty much everything, superb steel and that good feel vibe. It does exactly what it says on tin, it bops in a hillbilly stylee!
The Westport Kids - Westport Records # 128 - May 1955
Side A - Yearning - Praying
Side B - Mama-I Won't Rock It
Catchy little number from the Westport Kids, the A side is on the slow side but is pretty decent, nice little tune with some nice female harmonies in a country style with the rather shabby lament half way through which is not needed.
The B side is sung by 9 year old Bobby Ruf and is a decent catchy tune but you might find it difficult to get past the rather annoying kid vocal which is OK but does itch your fillings every now and then.
Westport records released these Milt Dickey tracks in 1955, don't get me wrong these are very nice country songs, Milt has a decent voice and the musicianship is very good, but it feels and sound like the Rockabilly explosion a little further south had not quite reached Kansas City yet (or they refused to accept it) and just kept on insisting it was just a fad and it will pass. Either way, you can only love and gaze in wonder at the fantastic Westport label and the fact that Alvis Wayne woke them up just a year later with some damn fine Rockabilly releases.
Side A and you'll hear Milt singing a nice slow song about his bleeding heart and over the other side 'Television Love' is a little more up-tempo but never gets close to getting a tiny bit raucous, but is a better tune when all is said and done.
The Westport Kids - Westport Records # 130 - Dec 1955
Side A - You Kaint Take It With You
Side B - Your Kisses Turned Sour
(Photo) Members of the Westport Kids are: Cathy Ruf, Singer and accordion; Hank Ruf, steel guitar; Christine Ruf, singer and guitar; Betty Ruf, guitar; Bobby Ruf, age 6; and Dave Ruf, bass.
December 1952
The Westport Kids are in splendid form on this toe tapping ditty country tune, you get plenty of triple harmonies by Frank, Dave & Marvin, some great fiddle and steel and it really moves along at a jaunty pace and is actually a decent tune played really well.
Then over on the other side you get a really good up-tempo female vocal bopper sung by Christine Ruf and again you get hit with some great steel and fiddle, this is a real barn burner and proves that these Westport Kids were cooking up some fine country bop by the end of 1955.
JIMMY DALLAS ( with Cathy Justice) Westport Records # 131 - 1956 Who Do, Honey You Do / I've Got A Right To Know .
Here you get two fine tunes by Jimmy Dallas, the A side has Jimmy singing with Cathy Justice and a mighty fine duet it is, perfect mid tempo county bop, loads of great fiddle and steel. The flip is not as hot but delivers a strong heart felt slow love song, and Jimmy delivers a great strong vocal and both sides he is backed by The Westport Kids.
Jimmy Dallas (1927-2004, rn Keith B. Kissee) was a country performer famous on the KC scene of the 50’s. He had 3 releases on Westport. «Good Intentions» is a fine uptempo hillbilly tune : strong vocal, sawing fiddle and bright steel. «Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Mo » and « How Do ? Honey You Do » are duets sung with Cathy Justice.
Alvis Wayne With Al Hardy and his Southernaires (not Tony Wayne and his Rhythm Wranglers as noted on label)
Westport Records # 132 - Sept 1956
Side A - Swing Bop Boogie
Side B - Sleep, Rock-A-Roll Rock-A-Baby.
Alvis Wayne - Vocals/ Rhythm Guitar
with Al Hardy's Southernaires +
Chuck Harrison - Lead Guitar
Danny Walker - Drums
Hank Evans - Bass
Dusty Rhodes - Steel
Wally Bright - Piano
Alvis does rockabilly and he does it brilliantly with this 1956 Westport release. This is a double A side monster of rockabilly brilliance, this is top shelf porn rockabilly, the stuff that dreams are made of and in one word this is 'remarkable' hic-up vocals with a nervous delivery that will send you into orbit and lets not forget the out of this world steel playing by Dusty Rhodes, brilliant!!
The A side is most definitely all swing bop & loads of boogie, it just moves at a pace that will leave you speechless and smiling all at the same time.
Then flip that Blue label over and you get much more of the same, Alvis can sing, he can really sing and launches into some heavy echo laden stutterin' vocals with scorching guitar and mind blowing steel , it does not get any better than this, bop, bop, bop Alvis!
Alvis recorded not in Kansas City but only a few miles from his home in a converted, soundproof studio in a Corpus Christi machine shop. He cut his first sides in July 1956 with AI Hardy’s band backing him on three tracks of what Alvis thought was only a demo session. With Chuck Harrison on lead, Danny Walker on drums, Hank Evans on bass, Dusty Rhodes on steel, a blind pianist named Wally Bright and Alvis himself on rhythm guitar they recorded “Swing Bop Boogie”/”Sleep Rock-A-Roll Rock-A-Baby,” which was released as Westport 132. Both tunes feature astonishing steel work by Rhodes, who wrings some sci-fi sounds out of his instrument that surely would have impressed even steel virtuoso “Take It Away” Leon McAuliffe from Bob Will’s Texas Playboys. Not to be outdone, Chuck Harrison’s lead work is stinging, fiery and clever, betraying in its attack Harrison’s familiarity with Carl Perkins’s style
Born Franklin Delano Gulledge, 21 October 1932, Mill Creek, Arkansas Died 12 September 2003, Fayetteville, Arkansas
The station manager persuaded Frank to audition for Joe Leonard, who owned the Gainsville based Lin label and KGAF radio. Leonard was impressed by the uptempo hillbilly stuff on offer and a session was arranged for early '55 at the Cliff Herring Studio in Fort Worth, Texas.
Dallas songwriters Mietzl Miller and Bill Baker were commissioned to write a couple of songs, the first The Dirty Bird Song is a catchy uptempo item, not a million miles from Marvin Rainwater. The second number, Dig Them Squeaky Shoes is a plodding country rocker, with some nice guitar work from Frank. The resultant single (Lin 1009) failed to click on the charts but was a more than decent debut. Tell Me Why is probably the best song from the session, a real chugger, Franks vocals still very rural at his stage and the band on top form. It was written by bass player Marvin Pace, a local car salesman whose band, including fifteen year old piano playing son Johnny Pace, backed Frank billed as the Rock-Away Boys. For The Want Of Your Love is a country weeper with backing vocals from the pen of W.D.Patty who supplied songs to other Joe Leonard artists, most notably the excellent Buck Griffin but when released as Lin 1013 both sides sank without trace. ( Taken from RAB Hall of Fame)
