Blue Ribbon Records (Illinois)

 Blue Ribbon Records (Illinois) 

Jimmy Cox - Blue Ribbon Records # 1912 -1952

With Don Mason playing Electric Guitar.

Side A - I Had To Love You.

Side B - Blue Ribbon Waltz

Jimmy Cox along with Don Mason really turn it up to eleven on this scorcher on the Blue Ribbon label out of Illinois!

What you get here on the A side is pretty much what you'd expect from this label and year, top quality country where everything is in its place and it just sounds like perfection to me! sublime Guitar by Mr Mason , lovely smooth vovals by Jimmy and some weepy steel and boy it just sounds so purty!

Morgan Records!

 Dave Stogner and his Hayride Gang - 1951

Morgan Records # 102 

Side A - Tulsa Baby

Side B - Feather Pillow Rag.

Dave couldn't go wrong with this doozy! Western Swing Country boogie was in good hands with Dave and the Hayride Gang in 1951, Tulsa Baby is one of those toe tapping records that just swings with class from the first groove to the very last, top Fresno musicians and a tune that stays in your head for hours, this my friends is a right lil' belter!

Fortune Records!

York Bros. - Fortune Records # 120 - 1949.

Side A - Hamtrack Mama.

Side B - Highland Park Girl.

I have been after this record for a few years now and finally got one for a great price.

These are two great tunes, in the old days you would have called this a double A side and it is, a proper great record.

Hamtramck Mama is pure Hillbilly bop and you get all the great harmony vocals you would expect from George & Leslie York, plus the fantastic acoustic pickin' guitar that hits you right where it should, genius on all levels.

Then you flip the monster over and you get the tale of infidelity with a strange girl from Highland Park who eventually lets in her husband to give him a good hiding.

Two fantastic songs, way before their time of 1949, it sounds more like 51/52 to my ears. Perfect!

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Johnnie White and his Rhythm Rangers (featuring Skeets McDonald on vocals)

Fortune Records # 145 - 1950

Side A - Mean and Evil Blues

Side B - The Tattooed Lady 

Skeets McDonald and Johnnie White and his band really hit the ground running with this superb Western Swing/Hillbilly two sider. A masterpiece in writing and musicianship. For 1950 this is where Country swing & hillbilly combine to show some rockin' roots and a move towards what we today call Rockabilly, Skeets, as usual sounds quality and both songs and they both roll and swing with ease ........complete and mighty sweet!