#King of the Hillbilly Piano Players

[travsd]

Moon Mullican: King of the Hillbilly Piano Players

Born this day, King of the Hillbilly Piano Players Aubrey Wilson “Moon” Mullican (1909-1967). Fittingly, in some years, his birthday falls on World Piano Day. Mullican is one of those musical figures known more for the scope of his influence than for his own chart success. Basically he was an early white adopter of the boogie-woogie piano style pioneered by black musicians. Mullican’s own…

[randomvarious]

Howard Roberts - “Lady Wants to Know” Swingin’ Jazz for Hipsters, Volume 1 Song released in 1978. Compilation released in 1997 Jazz

Howard Roberts might just be the most ubiquitous guitarist in American history. Most people probably don’t know his name, or even the fact that he was one of the greatest jazz guitarists who ever lived, but even if you haven’t heard of Howard Roberts, it’s pretty much a guarantee that you have heard him. Despite his preference for jazz, he can be heard on hundreds of film soundtracks, dozens of TV shows, and thousands of songs. He’s played with Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Chet Atkins, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Beach Boys, Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Ella Fitzgerald, the Jackson 5, Sonny and Cher, the Supremes, and the Monkees. He’s even referred to as the sixth Monkee for appearing on so many of the band’s recordings throughout the 60s. He was part of the legendary Wrecking Crew, a collective of L.A. session musicians, as well as Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. 

You can hear Roberts’ guitar in The Twilight Zone theme song, the Gilligan’s Island theme song, I Love Lucy, The Munsters, Bonanza, The Brady Bunch, Green Acres, Get Smart, Batman, Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Peter Gunn, Lost in Space, Dragnet, Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, The Odd Couple, Dick Van Dyke, I Dream of Jeannie, The Bill Cosby Show, Hawaii Five-O, The Jetsons, Little House on the Prairie, The Partridge Family, Petticoat Junction, The Flintstones, and The Addams Family. Movies his playing appears in include Barefoot in the Park, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Bullitt, Bye Bye Birdie, Camelot, Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry, The Exorcist, Forrest Gump, Hud, The Longest Yard, Our Man Flint, The Pink Panther, Slap Shot, West Side Story, and The Wild Bunch.

So, there’s like a near-100% chance you’ve heard Howard Roberts, but you probably just didn’t know it.

Howard Roberts was born in Phoenix and by age 18 had migrated to L.A., where he assumed the role of a starving artist. But by playing in the right clubs and having an immense guitar talent, he was noticed and his career grew. He was a super versatile player, able to adapt to just about any style, as evidenced in the aforementioned lists. But his true love was jazz, and as a jazz guitarist, he recorded over a dozen albums. In 1978, he did a one-off with the now-legendary west coast label Concord Jazz called The Real Howard Roberts. On that album appears a sweet song called “Lady Wants to Know”.

“Lady Wants to Know” has Howard Roberts playing a guitar that has that beachy, upwardly inflected, smooth jazz quality to it, and for a good bit of the song, that style predominates. But the compilation this song appears on is called Swingin’ Jazz for Hipsters, so it’s got to swing. And it does. Starting at about the 1:05 mark and lasting until about 2:50, Roberts and his backers revert back to a style of playing that’s reminiscent of some of our favorite 50s and 60s jazz records. Roberts ditches relaxing melodies for a faster, more advanced style, packing way more notes into phrases and almost sounds improvised. And on the back end of the swing segment, he allows Ross Tompkins to shine on piano. 

A pretty cool late 70s hybrid of smooth jazz and swing, led by a guitarist you’ve definitely heard before.

[americanahighways]

REVIEW: Clancy Jones "Found My Way"

REVIEW: Clancy Jones "Found My Way" #clancyjones #foundmyway #americanamusic #newmusic2022

Clancy Jones: Found My Way Southeast Texas born-Oklahoma ranch hand and former oil and gas boilermaker Clancy Jones makes a helluva splash with his first collection of songs, Found My Way, which will be released May 13. It’s said he shares DNA with the King of the Hillbilly Piano Player, Moon Mullican, a third cousin, so talent might be in his blood, but Jones’s sound is all his own—Hot and…

[ch-dld-bft-brit-omm]

RIP Vin Bruce

Vin Bruce - Dans La Louisianne  BCD 16895 AH 1 CD digipac with 36-page booklet GENRE Cajun TRACKS 20 PLAYING TIME 54:16 

 Long overdue set of Cajun icon Vin Bruce's very first recordings for COLUMBIA RECORDS spotlights a fascinating time and place in the development, popularity and rise of Cajun music and its inevitable collision with country and western at its mid-century apex. Hank Williams was so endeared to Bruce's music that he invited him to play his public wedding ceremony at New Orleans' Municipal Auditorium. Produced by Don Law, Vin's COLUMBIA sides represent the first time a Cajun artist was accompanied by Nashville's legendary session players. Among the highlights are Grady Martin multi-tasking on guitar, mandolin and fiddle, Owen Bradley on piano, Chet Atkins and Jack Shook on guitars, and other leading lights of the early Nashville era. For the first time ever, these groundbreaking sides are brought together with flawless sound quality, including four never-before-released tracks. Highlights include the hit Dans la Louisianne, the plaintive hillbilly blues My Mama Said, songs from the pens of Bruce, Atkins, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and Autry Inman, and the unreleased Cajun bopper Le délece, featuring Chet Atkins' stellar proto-rockabilly guitar picking. 

 INFORMATION Often called 'The King Of Cajun Music,' Vin Bruce is a South Louisiana treasure of unparalleled significance. His signing to COLUMBIA RECORDS in the early fifties was positively historical in more ways than one. The first Cajun artist to be marketed to the widespread record buying public by a major record company, his first single, Dans la Louisianne b/w Fille de la ville, was sung purely in French, but, like Harry Choates' Jole Blon before it, that didn't keep it from becoming a country music sensation. Hailing from Bayou Lafourche, below New Orleans, Vin and his peers Leroy Martin, Gene Rodrigue and Dudley Bernard developed their own stripe of Cajun music; an accordion-less string band style that was as much hillbilly as it was French. Vin's COLUMBIA sides brought that sound to the jukeboxes, airwaves and the Grand Ole Opry. Hank Williams was so endeared to Bruce's music that he invited him to play his public wedding ceremony at New Orleans' Municipal Auditorium. The authoritative booklet by Louisiana musicologist Michael Hurtt is the most detailed history of Vin Bruce and the Bayou Lafourche sound yet to be published, bringing together years of research, illuminating interviews and never-before-seen photographs. This set is a revelation for Cajun and country music fans alike. 

 TRACK LISTING Fille de la ville (Girl Of The Town) • Dans la Louisianne (In Louisiana) • Sweet Love • I Trusted You • Claire de la lune (Light Of TheMoon) • Je laissez mon coer (I Left My Heart) • Are You Forgetting • Knockin' On The Door • Goodbye To A Sweetheart (Hello To A Friend) • I'm Gonna Steal My Baby Back • My Mama Said • I'll Stay Single • La valse de St. Marie • Oh ma belle • Le délece • Si toi tu m'aime • Over An Ocean Of Golden Dreams • I Tried • Here Is The Bottle • Too Many Girls

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNSPsFk8wJk)

[weirdpaul]

Every Band I’ve Ever Seen Live!

Abdominal Snowmen

Abysme

Action Camp

The Afghan Whigs

Alabaster Box

Alan Astor

Alaska

Algebra Suicide

Align Alike

Allegheny Rhythm Rangers

Allies

Alpha Control Group

Alzo Boszormenyi

AM/FM

America Hearts

Amoeba Knievel

Anita Fix

Annie and the Bombers

An Offhand Way

The Anti-Psychotics

The Antiques

The Antiquities

The Aquabats

Assassinate Caesar!

Atom and His Package

Atomic Mosquitos

ATS

Auk Theater

Automatic Matty P

Aydin

Baby Bird

Baby Shakes

Bad Fathers

Bang Bang Lulu

BaggyPantsRich

Bald Mountain Band

The Bassturd

Bastard Bearded Irishmen

The Bastards of Fate

Bastro

Bat Zuppel

The Beagle Brothers

Beard Science

Bearsuit

Beasters

Beat Happening

The Bedspins

Ben Blanchard

Bennett-Blanchard

The Benquick

Big Mouth Strikes Again

Billy Castle

Billy Catfish

The Billy Nayer Show

Birdcloud

Birthday Suits

The Blandinas

Blast Off 3.0

The Bloated Sluts

Bloodbaby

Bloodless Cooties

Bloody Incisors

The Bloody Seamen

Blue Chair

Blue Oyster Cult

Blue Skies Collapse

Blunderbuss

Bob Log III

Bobby Conn

James Bogacz

Bomb Banks

Boom River

Bootsy Collins

Bottomless Pit

Bowhunter

Bradford Reed and the Amazing Pencilina

Brain Handle

Brass Chariot

Brass Panda

Braz Cubas

Brewer's Row

Broke Boland & the Dirty Pickles

Brown Angel

BS2000

Buddy Nutt

The Bumps

The Burndowns

Burning Cacti

Burnout War Cry

Butter Kings

Butthole Lipstick

The Buzzcocks

C-Money and Karl Kash

Cactus Wheelhouse

Camp PP

Canasta

Candy Machine Guns

Canned Hamm

Captain Catfeesh

Casino Bulldogs

Casy Stelitano

Catnip Coma

The Causey Way

Caustic Christ

The Ceiling Stares

Celebration

Centipede E'est

Cex

Channel Scorpion News

Charlie Anteater

Charlie Slick

The Cheats

Chestnut Station

Chet Vincent

Child Bite

Children of October

Choke City

Chris Leo

Chrome Moses

Churchbuilder

Chux Beta

City Dwelling Nature Seekers

The City Steps

The Claymores

The Clearing

Cloaca

Clownvis Presley

Cobalt Black

The Cocktails

The Code

Colin and the Shots

Colombian Express

Combustible Three

Concrete Elite

CooCoo Rockin' Time

The Copyrights

Corpus Christi

Cougars

Crank Radio

Creta Bourzia

Crisis in America

The Crow Flies

Crucial Unit

Crunk Witch

Cryptorchid Chipmunk

Curses and Kisses

Daily Grind

Daiquiri

Daniel Johnston

Danielson

Dark Lingo

Darren Keen

Dave Bernabo

David Liebe Hart

Dead City Dealers

Dean Cercone

Death of Samantha

Decaffeinated Grapefruit

Decision Way All-Stars

The Degenerettes

Demander

Deral Fenderson

Derek Deprator Band

Derica

Dethlehem

Developer

The Devil Dogs

The Devil is Electric

The Devil's Jukebox

Devin Russian

Devo

Die Kruezen

Dirtbag Diary

The Dirty Charms

Dirty Fences

Dirty Sunshine

Dirty Weekend

Discuss

Disrobe

Divine Seven

Divorce

Do Crimes

Don Caballero

Don Capicola

Dollar Shots

Donora

Doog

Dookie Houser Emcee

The Douglass Brothers

Down By Law

Downside

The Dozal Brothers

DQE

Drink Tax

The Dripp Brothers

Drug Dealer

Duckmandu

Duke of Uke

The Dumplings

Duo!

Dwarf Fortress

Ear to Ear

Earlimart

Earls of Industry

Ec8tor

Echolalia

Edie Sedgewick

Ed's Redeeming Qualities

Eggs

8 Cylinder

Eighty Eight Magnum

'85 Flood

El Boxeo

El Grosso

Electric Grandmother

The Elemental

Elephant Bones

Elf Power

Eli “Paperboy” Reed

Elliott Sussman

Elsinore

Ember Schrag

The Emergency

Emerson Jay

Emily Jo Fabiszewski

Endless Mike and the Beagle Club

Eoley Mullulay

Erectus Monotone

Eric and the Electric MP3 Player

Erika Carey & the Calamities

The Eruptions

Eskimo '88

Estelle

Eugene Chadbourne/Jimmy Carl Black

Euphonic Brew

Everyone Everywhere

Evolution Control Committee

Ezra Lbs

Face Down in Shit

Falon

Fancytramp

Fangs of the Panda

Fat White Family

Fate of Icarus

Jerry Fels and the Jerry Fels

Fezzwig

The Fife and Forth

The Fingers

Fire & Sex

The Fireworks

First Into Space

First Jason

First Person Singular

The Fizzies

Flaming Lips

The Fletch-heads

Flotation Device

Flotilla Way

Folk Implosion

The Forbidden Five

Forgotten Nobody

Four Dead Flowers

The Four Roses

Four Seasons Boys

Frank Barone

French Toast

Fry Jones

Gadgits

The Garden

The Garment District

Gary Musisko

Gary Twoman

Gentleman Auction House

George Willard

German Shepherd

Ghost Road

Gil Mantera's Party Dream

Girl Talk

Girl Trouble

Glad Girls

Go Pills

Go Pillx

The Goblins

The Goonies

Goonland

The Goops

The Gothees

Grand Buffet

Grand Piano

Granola Explosion

Grant Valdes

Gravel

The Graveyard Rockers

Great Ants

Greg Cislon

Groundwater Mafia

The Grow Ops

Grumpy

Guided By Voices

Guru Guru

Guyliners

Half Japanese

Happy Flowers

Har Mar Superstar

HARM

Hard Money

Harry and the Potters

Heaven & Hell

Heavy Cream

The Hecklers

Height

The Heiz

Helmet

Hell Yeah the Hellcats

The Helper T-Cells

The Heretics

The Hidden Twin

The Hi-Frequencies

The Hillbilly Varmints

The Hips

The Hodag

Hogwind

The Homostupids

The Hope Harveys

Hot Dog Forest

Hot Mess

Hotness

Houdini's Psychic Theater

House of Assassins

Household Stories

Hovland

Howard Jones

HTML

The Human Brains

Hungry Bill

Hurra Torpedo

I am the Lost Sea

I Speak Tree

Ian Semasko

Ice Capades

Icon Gallery

In the Wake of Giants

The Independents

Instead of Sleeping

International Espionage

The Invisible Nothings

IO

Irene Moon

Ivenfaint

J. Marinelli

Jack in Irons

Jack Medicine

Jack Sabbith

Jackson

Jad Fair

Jake and the Jakeman

Jam Messengers

Jana Bates

Jandek

Jane's Addiction

The Jasons

The Jealous Zealots

Jefferson Golfcart

Jericho Theory

The Jim Dandies

Jody Perigo & Laura Totten

Joe Jack Talcum

Joe Landes

Joey Molinaro

Johnny and the Razorblades

Johnny Locomotive & the Engineers

The Johnsons

Jonathan Hape

Jonathan Richman

Jonny Cohen

Joybox

JPS Brown

Judas Priest

The Juicy Girls

Juno Vega

Jupiter's Girlfriend

K-Hun

Kafka Romance Dissolver

Kalon

Karl Hendricks

Kazimier

Kevin Finn

Khaled

Kick Old Man

Kick the Can

Kill Or Be Killed

Kind of Like Spitting

King Karcass

King Kong

King Missile

kingdom Of Not

Kisswhistle

Kitty Pryde and the Shadowcats

Koala-T

Kracfive AllStars

The Kyle Sowashes

The Lady and the Monsters

Landing Strip

Landmonster!

Laura Kahl

Lavacola

Le Cachot

The Left Turns

Leonard Cohen Ensemble One

Leo's Operation

Les Georges Leningrad

The Lesser Apes

Let Them Eat Cake

Libre Duo

Life in Bed

The Limbs

Living Praise Choir

Liz and the Bandits

The Lobster Quadrille

Loose Interpretation

The Lopez

Lord Grunge

Lorelei

Lorenzo's Oil

Los Swamp Monsters

Lost Weekend

Lou Barlow

The Love Drunks

Lover 29

Lunachicks

Lung Mountain

Lydia Lunch

Mac Sabbath

Magic Wolf

Magnolia Electric Co.

Maguillacutty

The Main Events

The Make-up

Mama Spell

Man Found Dead

Manherringbone

Manhole

Margo Van Hoy

Mark Mallman

Marshmallow Pop Orchestra

Marumari

Marvin Dioxide

Massif

Master Mechanic

Maurice Rickard

Maxi-Pads

McCarthy Commission

MC Cliff B

MC Habitat

Meatballs/Fluxus

Mecca Normal

Medium Ugly

Meeting of Important People

Meisha

Meltdown

The Melvins

Bill Merante

The Meridians

Microwaves

Middle Children

Midge Cricket

Midnight Creeps

Midnite Snake

Mike Dillon Band

Mike Maimone

Mike Tamburo

Mikey C

Milagres

The Minders

Mindless Chaos

Miniature Giant

Miniature Table Concerts

Miss Massive Snowflake

Missile Toe

Missing Pilots

Modern Life

Modern Vending

Modey Lemon

Moldies and Monsters

The Molecules

Molesuit Choir

A Moment of Clarity

Mommy's Little Monster

Moonlight Motel

Moons of Saturn

Mortis

MOTO

Motorhead

The Motorpsychos

Mr. Funky

Mr. T Experience

MSC

The Muckrakers

Mud City Manglers

Murder of Bridges

Murphy's Law

Mustache Required

Mutant Mountain Boys

My Boyfriend the Pilot

My Captain, My Sea

My Dad is Dead

My Niece Denise

My Prodi

My Sexiest Mistake

My Superhero

The Name of This Band is Not Talking Heads

Nanako

Narse

Byron Nash and Plan B

Nathaniel Seer

The National Rifle

Nautical Almanac

The Need

Negative Reaction

Neighbors

Neil Hamburger

Nest

The New Alcindors

Newband

Nicholas Megalis

Night and the City

Night Shall Eat These Boys and Girls

Night Terror

The Noble Brats

Nobunny

Noctuelles

Northern Bushmen

The Northern Spy

Nosotros

Nox Boys

NRBQ

O Lendario Chucrobillyman

O.C. Feef

Oakley Hall

Octopus, Inc.

Odin Heed and the Headwinch

Ohmu

The Ohsees

On Vinyl

Only Flesh

The OPD

Orvill Rex

Ouais

Overseas

Owl Style

The Pacifist Femmes

PAK

Paleface

Pam Hanlin

Pancreatic Aardvarks

Parvulus Infectus

Patrick Elkins

Paul Green Rock Academy

Paul Kotheimer

Paul Labrise and the Trees

Paul Lynde 451

Paul Tabachnek

Pete Bush and the Hoi Polloi

Pete Donnelly

Pfunkt

The Phantom Maggots

Phat Free

Phat Man Dee

The Phone Calls

Phred Rainey

Piasa

Picasso Trigger

Pierogi Pizza

Pig Iron

Pikadori

Pinche Gringo

Pitchin' Woo

Pleaseeasaur

The Pleasureheads

Poingly

The Polyatomic

Polvo

Ponytail

Poopy Necroponde's Burgee Boys

The Pork Torta

Porno Tongue

Pox

PPDB

Presque Vu

Pretty Girls Make Graves

Professor Purple

Proto-martyr

Psycho-a-go-go

Puma Barrier

Quaranteened

R. Stevie Moore

The Radio Beats

Radio 4

Rainy Day Regatta

The Ramones

Rapscallionz

Ray Zen

Reason and Eos

Red Vs. Black

The Red Western

Refried Boogie

Reo Speedwagon

Requiem

The Residents

The Resistables

Rex Morgan M.D. Trio

The Rhodora

Rick Bach

River Is To Train

RJ Myato

Xylen Roberts

Robin Vote

Rocket From the Tombs

Rocketsled

The Roger 6

The Rogers Sisters

Rollins Band

Rot Shit

Roulette Waves

Round Black Ghosts

Royal City

The Ruins

Run DMC

The Sablowskis

Sad Tropics

Salt Chuck Mary

Sam Goodwill

Samuel Locke Ward & The Boo Hoos

Santa Inferno

Satanic Bat

Satyr/Elfheim

Savage Lines

Says She

The SB

Scandal

Science is Dead

Scott Demian

Scott Fry

The Scratch n Sniffs

Scrawl

Seam

Seas We Fear To Sail

Season Finale

Sebadoh

Secret Paper Moon

The Seeing Eyeballs

The Semi-Supervillains

Senator Flux

Sewercide

The Sewing Machine War

SFX

Sheer Mag

Shitappa Oyabun

Shonen Knife

The Show is the Rainbow

Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous

Signifiers

Silbia Han

Silkworm

The Silver Eagle Band

Sissy Baby Boys

Skinless/Boneless

The Skirt Tasters

Slant 6

Slate Dump

Sleeping in Class

SleepyV

Slices

The Slow Reel

Sludgehammer

Smokey Bellows

The Smugglers

Sneaky Mike

Sodastream

Soft Sickle

Solarburn

Son of Bitch

Song of Zarathustra

Songs About Robots Sorry I'm Dead

Soul Excursion

Sounding Rockets

South Ken

South Sea Sneak

Sovron Court

Spacefish

Sparrow

Special Ed

The Speeds

Spidercake

Spoon

Sports Metaphors

Spudboys

Spynda, Pace and Kress

Star fk Radium

The Stars

Stars of the Dogon

Steady Matt

Stephen Foster and the Awesomes

Steve Boyle

Steve Malkmus

Steve Whitten

Sticky Pink Chew

Stone Temple Pilots

Jim Storch

Stuck in Standby

Styles For Modern Living

Styx

Subdevil

Sugar Daddy

The Suicide Dolls

Summer Erickson

Summer Lungs

Super Fun Time Awesome Party Band

Superchunk

Supersystem

The Surface Dwellers

Sweet Icing

Sweet Nothing

Take No Damage

TBA

Tecumseh EQs

Ted Leo + Pharmacists

Telecorps

Telefonics

Telesys

The Telethons

Television

Terror, Inc.

Testament

The Test Patterns

Thee 50's High Teens

Thee Speaking Canaries

They Might Be Jerks

Thin Sketch

Things That Aren't There Anymore

Third Class

.38 Special

This Present Expression

Three Day Stubble

The Thunder Chickens

Thee Starry Eyes

Tianna and the Cliffhangers

TigerHorseSheepPigCow

Tilt

The Tinklers

Tonks and the Aurors

Torus

Treeline Freeline

The Tree Three

Triggers

Tron Ate My Baby

Truckasaurus

True Love Always

Truxon

TsuShiMamiRie

Tub Ring

Tulpa

Tusklord

TV John

2020K

Uke and Tuba

Ukebox

Ukiah

Ukulady Liz

Ultimate VAG

Ume

Uni Sami

Universal Congress Of

Unlikely Japan

The Upholsterers

Upskirts

Vale and Year

Vampire Nation

Vampire Weekend at Bernies

Vehicle Flips

Vel

The Velcats

Velvet Monkeys

Vequinox

Videohippos

Viewers Like You

Village of Dead Roads

The Viragos

The Visitations

The Vivians

Von Ludendork

Vox Robotica

Wake

Wallace's Fallen Obelisk Kidz

The Wasps Nest and Valerie Kuehne

The Waxwings

WE are the Asteroid

We are the Dead

We Came From Space

The Weasels

Weird Al Yankovic

Werewolves

Wesley Willis

Western Pennsylvania

The Whipped Cream Explosion

The White Stripes

Will Simmons & Turdburglar

William Wesley and the Tiny Sockets

Wimp Factor 14

The Winterbrief

The Wire Riots

The Working Poor

Workshop

Wyld Stalyns

The Wynkataug Monks

X.13

The X Brothers

Asher Yatzar

The Youngstown Tramps

Your Favorite Assassin

Yung Ka

Z-Man

Za Dharsh

The Zambonis

Zigtebra

Zelazowa

The Zou

Zubat and the Bees' Knees

The Zvills

[elvisgirl71]

Elvis Presley and Racism In April 1957, Sepia magazine, a white-owned sensationalist monthly for black readers, took up a discussion, 'How Negroes Feel About Elvis', as controversial then as it is today: the case of a white kid - Elvis Presley - who adopted black music and became the most successful artist of his time. The headline: 'How Negroes Feel About Elvis' It begins: ... 'As one of the most-debated subjects in the land, Elvis Presley arouses white-heat discussion everywhere. But among Negroes, the controversy over Elvis is even more explosive than among whites. Colored opinion about the hydromatic-hipped hillbilly from Mississippi runs the gamut from caustic condemnation to ardent admiration'. 'Some Negroes are unable to forget that Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, home town of the foremost Dixie race baiter, former Congressman Jon Rankin. Others believe a rumored crack by Elvis during a Boston appearance in which he is alleged to have said: 'The only thing Negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records'. And there it is. The first time ever that statement appeared in print, says Michael T. Bertrand, author of the book Race, Rock, and Elvis (2000, University of Illinois Press) and a Southern studies professor at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. 'Each time I teach a new class on popular music and Southern history, I still have African-American students come up after class and say, 'You know, I heard from my uncle what Elvis said'. 'So I eventually had to find where it came from'. 'All these years after Elvis' death, people still want to know how black people feel about Elvis Presley. Was he just another white Southern racist? Was he an impostor or worse, a thief? One simple lie, and those predisposed to believe it did. Some said he made the remark while in Boston. Elvis had never been to Boston. Others said they heard it on Edward R. Murrow's CBS TV show Person to Person. But after Elvis' manager Col. Tom Parker demanded an appearance fee, CBS balked and Elvis didn't go on the show. The true root of the 'Elvis Was a Racist' line of thinking is a distinctly modern rejection of integration, one of the ideals of the civil rights movement that we've chosen to blissfully ignore. There is a belief, among both blacks and whites, that black music is for blacks and any white man playing is guilty of some terrible misappropriation, and that this misappropriation is an outgrowth of the horrible sins committed against blacks by whites throughout our nation's history. There's no reason to 'debunk' this argument, because it is transparently foolish and absolutely racist, on both sides. For blacks to attempt to lock one side out of the racial dialogue is counterproductive and reactionary, and for whites to believe that only blacks should play 'black music' is a PC'd-up version of the Stepin Fetchit/minstrel mentality,plain and simple. Before we go further, lets make it clear, in the case of people saying Elvis was racist, we have no doubt that this is based on misunderstanding, by what they have been told, (as stated above) or because of jealousy. Now jealousy is understandable, through no fault of Elvis' he did benefit from the writing of black musicians, and his blending of different musical styles and the society of the times did stop a lot of African American artists prospering as they can do today. But that was not Elvis' fault, in fact it is to his credit (as many black musicians have stated and you can read below) that he was prepared to embrace a music forbidden by much of society, in fact often Elvis and other artists such as Carl Perkins where persecuted for singing the so called 'race' music and pressured by town authorities to not perform these songs, considered to be 'black music'. From a very early age growing up in a poor Southern community Elvis spent much of his early years absorbing the music of local impoverished black communities like Shake Rag in Tupelo and later on the Beale Street area of Memphis. This was not normal behavior, but then Elvis was not your average guy. Elvis, unlike most white teenagers would delight in attending the colored East Trigg Baptist Church where he would hear local black gospel music. Elvis was not guided by color but by what he liked and felt good with. Many black artists have spoken out to honor the singer. From bluesman B.B. King to rapper Chuck D, these influential musicians are helping to change perceptions of Elvis. Elvis couldn't do it himself. Soon after the Sepia rumor started, Elvis broke his media silence for an exclusive interview in Jet, another magazine targeted at black readers. Knowing the dubious reputation of Sepia, Louie Robinson, the black associate editor of the black-owned JET magazine, decided to investigate the authenticity of the alleged statement and report to his readers. 'Tracing the rumored racial slur to its source was like running a gopher to earth', Robinson later wrote. 'No matter what hole it dived back in, it popped out of another one'. Running down Elvis was easier. In the summer of 1957, Robinson interviewed the star in his Hollywood dressing room. The Jet article of 1957 further confirmed what friends and associates knew about Elvis all along: He truly loved and respected black musicians. In fact the rumor should have stopped then and there since, on the set of Jailhouse Rock, Elvis was directly challenged about the statement by reporter Louie Robinson from the prominent black newspaper 'Jet'. Elvis honestly replied, 'I never said anything like that, and people who know me know that I wouldn't have said it'. 'A lot of people seem to think I started this business', he told Jet. 'But rock n roll was here a long time before I came along'. 'Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people'. 'Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that'. Robinson then talked with some blacks who knew Elvis and included their remarks in his JET article. 'He faces everybody as a man', said Dudley Brooks, a Los Angeles piano player who worked on Elvis Presley's recording sessions. 'I never heard of the remark, but even so I can't imagine Presley saying that, not knowing him the way I do'. Back in Tupelo, Dr. W.A. Zuber told Robinson, 'I knew him when he was a kid. He used to play the guitar and go around with quartets and to Negro 'sanctified' meetings. He lived near the colored section, and people around here say he's one of the nicest boys they ever knew. He just doesn't impress me as the type of person who would say a thing like that. Indeed, in heavily segregated Memphis of that day, Presley was regularly seen at black-only events. In June 1956, a Memphis newspaper reported that Elvis had attended the Memphis Fairgrounds amusement park on a designated 'colored night'. The next month, he attended black radio station WDIA's charity event, featuring all-black talent, including Ray Charles, B.B. King, the Moonglows, and DJ Rufus Thomas.

[50thirdand3rd]

Moon Mullican - Cherokee Boogie

Moon Mullican – Cherokee Boogie

It’s Moon Mullican’s birthday (or the anniversary of Moon’s birth, if you prefer), so here’s a video of the piano-rocking Texan playing Cherokee Boogie (Eh-Oh-Aleena) on the Grand Ol�� Opry in a cowhide hat, I believe in the early 50s. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CadtHEJgFE%5B/embedyt%5D Known as the King of the Hillbilly Piano Players, Moon is credited as being one of the first to…

[maximumbob-universe]

Moon Mullican

Aubrey "Moon" Mullican had a legendary career in country music.  His abilities allowed him to bridge country, pop, blues, western swing and rock and roll into a seamless whole that delighted audiences and had a profound effect on everyone who came after him.  For all that, he is largely forgotten today, having never been elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Most of his great music that remains available are through import labels, or domestic budget labels that issue sketchy collections with poor sound quality.  Needless to say, he deserved and continues to deserve more recognition for his many contributions.  He was called "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players", an odd moniker since there were few front men in the genre that played piano.......still Moon dominated on the instrument for good reason. The great Ernest Tubb dubbed his producer and piano man Owen Bradley with the name "half moon Bradley", adding that he couldn't play "half as good as old Moon."  A heavy drinker, when asked once why he chose the piano, he responded. "because those cold glasses of beer kept sliding off my fiddle."  The first ten years of his career were spent in his native Texas, where he floated around, recording and performing with a number of western swing outfits.  He recorded for the first time with a group called The Blue Ridge Playboys, that also featured honky tonk legend Floyd Tillman.  He hooked up with fiddler Cliff Bruner, who had formed his own band, The Texas Wanderers  after the death of Milton Brown.  Moon played along side legendary steel man Bob Dunn in Bruner's band.  It was while working with Bruner that he made his first vocal records, including the first country song about Trucks on "Truck Driver's Blues" in 1938.   He gigged with Buddy Jones and Jimmie Davis, and fronted his own group, The Sunshine Boys, during the war.  During this period, he recorded  "The Pipeliner's Blues", a song he would pull out time and again throughout his career when he wanted to whip up a crowd.  In 1946, he was signed to Syd Nathan's King Records out of Cincinnati.  

By this time, he was recording a wide variety of material, making Moon and his Showboys one of country's most versatile performers.  He would record his best known song "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" in 1950, but would chart regularly during his stay at King......he also joined the Grand Ole Opry.  It was an open secret that he had co-written Hank Williams' "Jambalaya", but Hank needed cash at the time and Moon agreed to take an under the table payment for the song and give up his royalties.  He also recorded pop material such as Nat Cole's "Mona Lisa."  In a bold move, the label teamed him with R&B producer Henry Glover.  Glover set Moon up with R&B material, including some songs done with a full horn section.  Solid cuts such as  "Rocket to The Moon", "Rheumatism Boogie", Roy Brown's "Grandpa Stole My Baby" and Tiny Bradshaw's "Well Oh Well' brought Moon into a jump blues sound.  On each cut, Moon sounds completely at home and in control.  He continued to blend styles, recording cajun songs like "Hey Shah" along side such maudlin country weepers as "Sweeter Than the Flowers" and "Crippled For Life", which could usually be counted on to bring an Opry audience to tears.

In 1956, Glover paired Moon with Boyd Bennet's rock and roll group for a few legendary tracks.  "Seven Nights to Rock" and "Rock and Roll Mr. Bullfrog" were fun and full of energy, but a middle aged bald piano player had no chance to break into the rock market.  The records were great, but the audience faded away as rock and the Nashville sound buried Moon's records.  He left King for Decca, where one cut "Moon's Rock" would demonstrate his ability to cook on keyboards.  On one particularly interesting out take, he replaces the opening line "let 'er go, don't stop" with "blow dope, don't stop", laughing all the while.  His Decca sides were mostly subdued, Nashville sound affairs, he did much better when he signed with Texas indie Starday in the sixties.  There he scored his last hit in 1961 with "Ragged But Right."  As legendary for his partying as he was for music, Moon was slowed by a heart attack in the early sixties.  As a result, he gave up drinking but put on a lot of weight.  Another heart attack ended his life in 1967.  At his funeral, his wife Eunice commented "I got him to give up drinking and he ate himself to death."   His records have appeared in various forms down through the years, but a definitive collection has never been issued.  If you can track them down, however, you can get a lot of fun and musical kicks out of the "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players": Moon Mullican.