Kentucky Records !

Jimmie Ballard 
Kentucky Records # 520 - 1952
Tappin' Boogie / Taint Big Enough .

Here we find Jimmie Ballard and some naughty lyrics about tapping that thing and Taint Big Enough ! superb boogie lead guitar punctuates the whole A side song , of course is complimented by some silky steel . Very underrated tune on the Kentucky label. 

Risque lyrics on both sides . 1952 Cincinnati, OH - Buffalo Johnson & His Herd (James “Jimmie” Ballard [vcl/gt + unknown musicians.Producer: Carl J. Burkhardt)

018 TAIN’T BIG ENOUGH Kentucky 4-520 

019 TAPPIN’ BOOGIE 4-520

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Harry Adams with Buffalo Johnson.

Kentucky Folk Records # 521 - 1952

Side A - Milk Bucket Boogie.

Side B - Arkansas Traveler.

This is hillbilly boogie at its finest! nothing sounds finer than a  'milk Bucket Boogie'. (recorded 1st by Reece Shipley) Harry Adams is up early with the alarm clock and is in great  form on this Kentucky Folk record out of Ohio! .......it has it all, great steel, guitar  & fiddle and  those humorous  lyrics make this one mighty fine record!

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Bobby Musgrrove 

Kentucky Records # 584 - 1954

Dollar Sign Heart / Be Still My Heart.

In 1954 Kentucky released this lil' beauty by Bobby Musgrove , Born in 1932 . Dollar Sign Heart is nothing to get hot under the collar about, just a really good country Hillbilly mid tempo tune, plenty of steel and searing guitar work and some fine singing by Mr Musgrove. Bobby went on to sign to King Records and dropped the 'Mus' from his surname and was better known through the 60's in country and gospel circles as Bobby Grove.

OT Records !

Virgel Bozman 
OT Records (Oklahoma Tornado) # 109 - 1950
Blues For Oklahoma / Don't Let It Grieve Your Little Heart

Sparse instrumentation is what you get here on the A side, this is pure rural hick bop ! you get some cool Steel and even a mandolin interjects every now and then ! So when you get to the second break you get a full dose of some rasping guitar, just wonderful and is the sort of stuff I just love ! The B side is just as cool but at a much more relaxing country slow to mid tempo pace with lashings of Steel sweeping through the whole song and some nice piano plinking away in the back ground ! 

This O.T. label was originally based in Westlake, a small town on Highway 10 in the Southwestern corner of Louisiana. The initials O.T. stood for Oklahoma Tornadoes, a group run by Virgel that had recorded for Bill Quinn’s Gold Star label. Among the members of this short lived, but important band, were Bennie Hess, and Cajun fiddler extraordinaire Floyd Le Blanc. . His brother, Harmon recorded Rockabilly on the Texas Sarg label. Another Bozman O.T. release, when the label was relocated to San Antonio, is the fine, more Western Swing in style, « Troubles, Troubles » (# 113), backed by the Circle C Boys. It’s driven along by a bass player who enjoys himself enormously.

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Cleo Harves with Lightning Guitar.

OT # 105 - 1949

Side A - Skinny Woman Boogie.

Side B - Crazy With The Blues

This is a great record but at the same time kinda strange because Cleo sounds like two different singers on the the two tunes. On the B side he sounds just like all Black blues singers of the period, vocals, guitar all fit typically in the Blues A-Z of how to make a Blues record, don't get me wrong he does it very well and is a class tune of it's style. But the A side is just bizarre, out of time, great and truly brilliant Country Blues thing with Cleo sounding like a Country White Blues singer. This side is right up my alley! it's clumsy, superb, wrong but right and at the end the whole thing just about falls apart with all members stopping at different times (you can imagine them all looking at each other nodding as if to say 'right stop now' .......it's a thing and sound of beauty and the wrong bits sound just perfect to me!

Republic records !

Lee Bonds & Sonny Sims 
Republic Records # 7041 - 1953
I'm Glad That I Love You / Give My Broken Heart A Break

Born in Alabama in 1924. Lee Bonds had two releases previous to to his Republic offerings in 1953 on the Tennessee Label. Bonds was a prolific writer and could certainly write a nice Country Honky Tonk tune.
This release on Republic has one side with Lee Bond and Sonny Sims and the other on his lonesome. The duet with Sonny is pure class, both have vocals that just melt into one, absolute class, great uptempo song with strong fiddle and Steel. The B side is more sedate and has Trumpet laden throughout by Bill Roberts along with some fine piano and Steel by Larry Garman and falls more into the Honky Tonk  category !

Speed Records !

Lattie Moore 
Speed record # 101 - 1953
Juke Joint Johnny / It's Good Enough For You.

Summer 1952 Buckley Record Shop, Union St., Nashville, TN – Lattie Moore (Lattie Moore [vcl/rh gt], Robert “Bobby” Phillips [steel], ? [bass], ? [fiddle]. Producer: Frank Innocenti)
003 SP-5 IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU Speed 101 45-101/Redita RLP-116
004 SP-6 JUKE JOINT JOHNNY Speed 101 

His first record, "Hideaway Heart"/"Married Troubles" (the latter
surely not autobiographical - Lattie has been married to Maxine Frost since December 1944),
 on the Arrow label from Indianapolis, is very
rare. One year after this 1951 debut came the recording that can be
considered as the first rock 'n' roll record out of Nashville, though
at the time nobody knew it. It is the original version of "Juke Joint
Johnny" (Lattie's own com-position), recorded for the Speed label.
Lots of people have cut this song, including Red Sovine, Eddie Bond
and Jim Atkins and the Pinetoppers. Lattie himself did a flat-out
rock 'n' roll version (as "Juke Box Johnnie") in December 1956, for
Arc Records. He cut 25 tracks for King, over two periods: 1953-1956
and 1959-1963. In 1958 he made two good singles for Starday, "Why Did
You Lie To Me" and "Too Hot To Handle". His only chart entry
was "Drunk Again" (King 5413) in 1961 (# 25 country). Another
drinking song, "Out Of Control", was co-written with George Jones.
Both men recorded their own version, the Jones record being the
biggest seller.

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Joedy Lea.
Speed Records # 104 - 1953
The Devil Paid Me / Sweet Little Baby

Joedy Lea wrote both songs on this platter credited as (Leavins) and his top notch band show real quality as they rip through The Devil Paid Me (With A Mother In Law) a mighty fine country swing number that bobs along at a superb rate of knots and is the stand out track on this record.

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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.

Sage And Sand Records

Lonnie Barron (The Mississippi Farm Boy) with The Farm Boys.

Sage and Sand Record # 201 - 1955

You're Not The First Girl / Sentimental Me, Sentimental She.

Two years after releasing this record Lonnie Barron was shot dead by a jealous husband who caught him with his lady, he was shot three times and was wearing full western attire at the time of the shooting.

On this record Lonnie sounds like an angel and is one of my favorite country tunes by him. Starts with some fine fiddle and Steel and then you get Lonnie pouring his heart out about the girl who broke his heart, this is utter quality and should be right up there when you wanna tell someone what country honky Tonk music is......play this and remember Mr Lonnie Barron .

Gone Records !

Jimmy Stone 
Gone Recording Corp # 5001 - March 1957.
Mine / Found. 

This was the first release from New York Label 'Gone' in 1957 . The A side Mine is a likeable slow tune with full backing vocals by  a Jordanaires type outfit but really nothing to get excited about, but flip it over and you get full twang guitar intro and then heavy echo laden vocals, but even though it's late into the 50's this tune still retains it's country Rockabilly origins and boy oh boy this is pure magic.