Bill Brandon born 7 November 1943

Bill Brandon (born October 7, 1943) is one of Southern Soul’s most criminally underrated and unsung heroes, who cut some of the genre’s finest singles for a host of labels in the late ’60s and early ’70s. His full-throttled, raw vocal makes all of them essential listening, especially considering that he recorded many of these gems in Muscle Shoals. 

He was born in Huntsville, Alabama and was raised in a very musical environment. Brandon started his career with Quin Ivy’s production company in 1967 and recorded a southern soul classic, "Self Preservation" that Percy Sledge covered. A second highly sought after single, "Rainbow Road", issued in 1968 was released as a one off by Tower Records It was written about and for Arthur Alexander (You Better Move On #24 Pop, 1962) who ended up recording it four years later but Brandon's recording remains the definitive version. The B side “You’ve Got That Something Wonderful” is a cracking 1960s dance track propelled by driving horns and intricate piano. 

                                  

After Quin Ivy stopped issuing records Brandon recorded five high quality singles for Clinton Moon’s Moonsong label in the then thriving soul city of Birmingham, Alabama, under the production of genius Sam Dees and Frederick “Witness” Knight.  Of these the gospel drenched I’m A Believer Now and his anguished version of the stalwart It’s All Wrong are probably the best.  

The rhythm track for the former was cut at MSS and the class shows. A brilliant one-off Tag Tag for the Nashville based Piedmont label followed in 1976. This lovely melodic ballad with it’s lovely Dees lyric and subtle arrangement was recorded as part of his Moonsong material and totally overshadows the rather overblown but considerably more famous “Streets Got My Lady”. 

Brandon then signed for producers Moses Dillard and Jesse Boyce who had a licence deal with Prelude.  They took Brandon back to Muscle Shoals to the Wishbone studios where he cut three 45s for the New York label and his only LP to date.  By this time, even the southern soul production values were much smoother and more fully orchestrated: in keeping with the times Brandon’s vocals are somewhat restrained and throttled back, however some good sides appeared, particularly “Can’t We Just Sit Down” (Prelude 71098) and “Special Occasion” (71105).  The album gives more than a nod to the disco scene but is well worth searching out.  The last Prelude single came out in 1978 and since then no further Brandon recordings have surfaced. 

He left the music business behind in 1987 and took up truck driving and like Rick Nelson's "Garden Party" with absolutely no regrets. Reports about him confirm that he is still singing for the congregation of a church in Harvest, Alabama to this day. 

( Edited from Sir Shambling & Discogs)

Pete Sayers born 6 November 1942

Pete Sayers (November 6, 1942 - February 11, 2005) was a UK country singer and musician. Not for want of trying, no English performers have become stars in American country music, but Pete Sayers got closer than most. He was an engaging performer, able to sing serious songs and indulge in comedy banter, as well as being a multi-talented musician who could play the guitar, banjo, fiddle, dobro and autoharp. 

He was born Peter Esmond Bernard Sayers in Bath, Somerset. His father taught music and his mother was a fine pianist. The musical humorist Gerard Hoffnung, a friend of his father, gave the young Sayers a small violin. When Sayers was seven, the family moved to Newmarket, where he became a chorister and an adept at playing hymns on a harmonica. He trained as a piano repairer but wanted to be a professional musician. 

As a teen he formed the Bluegrass Cut-Ups, possibly Britain's first bluegrass band, and by the age of 18 he was regularly playing with the U.S. singer Johnny Duncan and his Blue Grass Boys. In 1966, he hosted a country-music series on Tyne-Tees Television and released his first solo single on the Suffolk based label Ralph Tuck Promotions. He was given the mantle The Singing Cowboy, but the name was soon dropped when the single failed to make an impact. 

When he went to Nashville later that year for a holiday, he found employment as a warm-up artist on the Grand Ole Opry radio show. For an Englishman to play country music and bluegrass wasn’t rare; it was unheard of. He was the first British performer to ever play regularly at the Grand Ole Opry. Sayers worked for the Opry for three years and often performed on the show itself. Settling briefly in Atlanta, he performed with the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, appeared on the Porter Waggoner Show, the Flatt and Scruggs television program. He also hosted a US breakfast TV programme (1967-1971) and worked on tour with Kitty Wells and the bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs. 

             Here’s “Who You Mockin’Mockin’ Bird" from above LP

                                    

Sayers returned to the UK in 1971 and inaugurated the Grand Ole Opry England (1972-1982) which staged country shows in the Kingsway Cinema in Newmarket. It became very popular and was on the touring schedule for visiting Americans including Bill Monroe and Marvin Rainwater. His debut solo LP, Bye Bye Tennessee, followed on Pye Nashville International in 1973. Two years later, he returned with the Transatlantic label release Grand Ole Opry Road Show, followed in 1976 by Watermelon Summer. In addition to touring and recording, Sayers hosted no fewer than three BBC television series -- Pete Sayers Entertains, Electric Music Show, and Pete Sayers Sings Country -- and in 1979 he traveled to Bogalusa, LA, recording the album Bogalusa Gumbo with producer John D. Loudermilk. 

He appeared at the International Country Music Festival at Wembley and toured with George Hamilton IV. His opening act hardly gave him time to show the range of instruments he could play (guitar, banjo, dobro, autoharp, ukulele) and the variety of material he could perform: he could yodel as well as anyone. Around the time he completed his final studio LP, 1988's Midnight Special, Sayers partnered with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire presenter Christopher South, in the years to follow creating hundreds of comedic characters including the beloved yokel Dennis of Grunty Fen and rock & roller Ricky Storme, both of whom took on additional life during Sayers' concert appearances. 

Sayers’ last album was titled Old Mr. Crow (2002), co-produced by Sayers and BBC radio presenter Nick Barraclough – one-time member of Sayers’ Radio Cowboys band, based in the Cambridge area, who can be heard on their CD Riding the Airwaves (2004). After a long battle with cancer Pete Sayers died on February 11, 2005. 

(Edited from Spencer Leigh obit @ The Independent, East Anglican Music Archive, Early Country News @ Georgia, AllMusic & Flame Tree Pro)

 

Roy Rogers born 5 November 1911

Roy Rogers (November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and rodeo performer. He starred in some 90 motion pictures and over 100 episodes of a weekly television show from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. 

He was born Leonard Franklin Slye near Cincinnati, Ohio. His biggest early musical influence was his father, who played mandolin and guitar. He grew up working on his family’s farm and following high school became employed in a local shoe factory. In his teens he began singing and playing at local dances before moving west in 1930. After stints with such groups as The Rocky Mountaineers and The Hollywood Hillbillies, he formed his own band, The International Cowboys. Later—with the aid of Tim Spencer and Bob Nolan—he founded The Pioneer Trio, which changed its name to The Sons Of The Pioneers in 1934. 

A cowboy and western harmony group that enjoyed success with such western ballads as Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Cool Water and Way Out There. Rogers first recorded for Decca with The Sons Of The Pioneers, beginning in 1934, ten years before the first national country charts were launched. After splitting with the group in 1937, his first major solo release, Hi-Yo Silver was released in 1938. The 1940s found him on RCA Victor, where he inked his first chart entry with A Little White Cross On The Hill, which peaked at number seven in 1946. His biggest hit, My Chickashay Gal, came the following year. 

                                    

Always seeking other avenues for his talent, Leonard Slye began playing bit parts in films, first under the name of Dick Weston and then assuming the guise of Roy Rogers. He gained a starring role in Under Western Skies in 1938, and soon followed with Carson Cisco Kid, Robin Hood Of The Pecos, The Man From Music Mountain and Along The Navajo Trail. In 1944, Rogers teamed with actress-singer Dale Evans (born Frances Octavia Smith) in Cowboy And The Senorita. Evans became Rogers’ frequent co-star and wrote their theme song, Happy Trails To You. They were to marry in 1947 and went on to raise a large family, also adopting several children. Considered the most popular woman ever to appear in Western movies, Dale was the ‘Queen of the Cowgirls’ to Rogers, the ‘King of the Cowboys.’ 

She rode her horse, Buttermilk, beside him on his celebrated palomino, Trigger, who was to serve Roy for almost three decades and when it passed away in 1965 at the age of 33 it had 52 tricks in its grasp. Fondly remembered is the where he steals the gun from Roy’s holster. The horse had become a big celebrity and it seemed as if he had at least as many fans as Roy Rogers. Roy and Trigger were often augmented by another side-kick, Bullet the Wonderdog. 

When the B-Western movies faded in the early 1950s, Roy and Dale began their television career. The Roy Rogers Show ran from 1951 to 1957; later incarnations included The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show, in 1962, and Happy Trails Theatre, a show of repackaged Rogers and Evans movies on cable TV’s Nashville Network in the late 1980s. Dale and Roy recorded more than 400 songs together. Rogers’ business ventures included a chain of restaurants bearing his name and a radio show carried on more than five hundred stations on the Mutual network. 

He is the only performer twice elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame: as part of the Sons of the Pioneers in 1980 and as an individual in 1988. He received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music in 1986 and has garnered countless other accolades. In the later years of his life, Rogers enjoyed greeting visitors at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, which the couple established in 1965 in Victorville, California. One of the exhibits is Trigger, whom Rogers had stuffed when he died. In 1991 he came out of semi-retirement to participate in an RCA tribute album that spawned Hold On Partner, a duet hit with Clint Black. 

He recorded prolifically with the Sons Of The Pioneers during the 1930s, then once he had launched his own career, he started recording as a solo artist, initially for RCA, and later for Capitol, 20th Century and gospel label Word, making records right through to the early 1990s when he joined contemporary country acts like Clint Black, Randy Travis, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Kathy Mattea on a special tribute album that produced his last country hit, Hold On Partner. Estimated to be worth more than 100 million dollars, at the peak of his career Roy was earning more than a million dollars a year. 

Roy Rogers, the cowboy star who helped create global images of the American West and taught several generations of youngsters ‘the cowboy way,’ died July 6, 1998 at his home in Apple Valley, California. His wife and co-star Dale Evans passed away less than three years later on February 7, 2001.

(Edited from obit by Alan Cackett  & Wikipedia)

Billy Hancock born 4 November 1946

William C. Hancock Jr. (November 4, 1946 – January 22, 2018) was an American singer, guitarist, bassist and multi-instrumental recording artist. He has made numerous recordings, primarily in the rockabilly genre but also has a large body of recorded work in rock 'n' roll, blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, and country music. He performed live primarily in the Washington, D.C., area, but also played regularly at European roots music festivals. 

Billy Hancock was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, where he has lived most of his life. He attended George Washington High School in Alexandria, graduating in 1964. He came from a musical family. His maternal grandmother Katie sang with Minstrel shows in black face accompanying herself on piano and harmonica. Two of his aunts Eileen and Anita were a singing duo in the 1940s who sang at two or three Washington DC radios stations on a regular basis. His paternal grandfather Mitchell (Mitch) Hancock played mandolin from about 1897 until 1902. He often played on River Boats in New Orleans and recorded for the Edison Label. Billy's father worked for the Southern Railway and his mother worked for Waxie Maxie's, a local record store chain, and other record stores. The records his mother brought home from work, primarily rhythm and blues from the late 1940s, played a large and influential role in his musical development. 

Danny & The Fat Boys

Hancock began his career playing in bands around Washington, D.C., while still a teenager. After graduating from high school, he played with bands in Rhode Island and New York before returning to the Washington area. In 1968, he moved to Baltimore to attend the Peabody Conservatory, and continued to play in bands in the Baltimore area. In the early 1970s, Hancock began a collaboration with Danny Gatton and they formed Danny and the Fat Boys with Hancock (bass, vocals), Gatton (guitars), and Dave Elliott (drums, vocals). In 1975, the group released American Music on a label owned by Hancock and his brother. The album's title was taken from a rhythm and blues song Hancock had written. It was later re-issued on CD. 

                                    

In 1978, Hancock recorded four rockabilly songs under the name Billy Hancock and the Tennessee Rockets for Ripsaw Records, a small independent label. He continued to record rockabilly for Ripsaw under that name for two years. Ripsaw released four singles during that time and licensed those and other titles to larger labels both in the U.S. and France. It is these rockabilly recordings for which Hancock is known internationally. 

In 1983, Hancock recorded another rockabilly record, "Hey! Little Rock And Roller", that was released in France on the Big Beat Label. Later that year, he returned to Ripsaw to record various rock and roll songs, six of which Ripsaw released in 1985. All of the Ripsaw material was later released on CDs by Finnish Bluelight Records. Throughout his career, Hancock played in backing bands for prominent musicians, including Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, blues guitarist Roy Buchanan, rockabilly Charlie Feathers, the Clovers, Amos Milburn, and country musicians Dottie West and Jean Shepard. He co-produced and played guitar on Tex Rubinowitz's rockabilly song "Hot Rod Man." 

In 2002, Hancock and his brother the television director, Dale Hancock founded Turkey Mountain Records, an independent record label. The label was formed to find and promote talented artists of all genres who, for whatever reasons, have been ignored by other record labels. Their Archival Series re-released material on artists of the past whose works have been unavailable until now. Turkey Mountain Records' roster of artists included: Danny Gatton, The British Walkers (featuring Roy Buchanan), Bobbie (The Kid) Howard with Link Wray and The Ray Men, Charlie Feathers, The Fallen Angels, and Billy Hancock himself. 

In 2005, the Washington Area Music Association WAMA awarded Hancock a Special Recognition Award for his 40-plus years as a vocalist, musician, songwriter, producer, promoter, and label owner. In 2006, WAMA presented him with two "Wammie" awards for 2005 Roots Rock Vocalist and Roots Rock Recording. 

In 2010, Hancock was inducted into the Southern Legends Hall of Fame. He is already a member of three other International Halls of Fame. Hancock was also the television host for American Music in Arlington, Virginia, where he interviewed and showcased songwriters and a music historian. He was also a member of the resurrected art rock group from the sixties, The Fallen Angels and in 2012, WAMA presented Hancock as one of "The Fallen Angels" a special recognition award. Also that year on 4 November 2012 Hancock was inducted into The Northern Virginia Blues Society, Blues Hall of Fame in Manassas, Va. 

Billy Hancock died on January 22, 2018 in La Plata, Maryland after battling liver and kidney failure. He was 71. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Best Classic Bands.com) 

Rosemary June born 3 November 1928

Rosemary June (November 3, 1928 - November 4, 2016) was an American studio pop music singer and actress. 

Born Rose Marie Jun in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she studied Classical Voice at Coe College and University of Michigan, and opera in Rome on Fulbright for one year. She played the leading roles in the productions of “Cosi Fan Tutti” and the “Magic Flute” while on campus and in 1952 made her television debut as soloist on the coast-to-coast Fred Waring show. 

She began her recording career at MGM on April 6, 1954 as featured vocalist with Leroy Holmes. She was a member of the Ray Charles Singers in 1956 and the Cricketones, a group that specialized in Christmas music for children on the Pickwick label. 

She appeared on the 45 “Twas the Night Before Christmas”, backed with “Mixie Pixie”, in the mid-50s, and the LP Christmas is For Children, released on CD in 2007. 

The Ray Charles Singers were a mixed group used on the Perry Como TV Show. One Saturday night after completing a number with the singers, Como stepped back, took Rosemary by the hand and led her out to the front of the cameras. He introduced her to the millions of viewers across the nation and just left her there, all by herself to sing her latest hit record. It was the biggest thrill of her life.   

                                     

Working as a solo singer she released at least 12 singles in the 1950s and ’60s, under various names including Roseanne June and Rosemary June as wella s Rose Marie Jun, with ttles that include “Break Away”, “Love Me Again” and “I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time”, which reached No. 14 on the UK chart in 1959.She was also a hugely successful studio pop singer, working with America's legendary popular composers, such as Bert Bacharach as well as singing in many Broadway and off-Broadway shows. 

In 1959, she dubbed the singing voice for Judy Harriet in the film, Say One For Me. She sang on many TV commercial jingles including: Chiquita Banana ('don't put bananas in the refrigerator. No, no, no, no') and Clairol ('Is it true blondes have more fun?'). As an actress and composer she was known for Diary of a Nudist (1961) and Music of Williamsburg (1960) and Zelig (1983).  She also provided backing vocals for Frank Sinatra's boxed set, Trilogy, in the 1980s. 

There is not much detailed information regarding Rosemary June's work as a solo artist and session singer, but she has left a lasting impact on the music industry, particularly in the genres of pop and traditional music with her ability to adapt to various musical styles. She died November 4, 2016 in New York City, New York, USA. 

(Very scant information was edited from Discogs, IMDb, Legacy, Second Hand Songs & album liner notes)

 

Two week break

 Hello music lovers, It’s that time of year when I have to recharge the old batteries, so I’m off on a cruise  up North hopefully to see the Northern lights. Will be back in about two weeks time. Bye bye!

                                   

Laura Nyro born 18 October 1947

 

Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter and singer. She was praised for her emotive three-octave mezzo-soprano voice. 

Laura Nyro was born Laura Nigro in the Bronx section of New York City. Her father Louis Nigro was a jazz trumpet player who also tuned pianos, while her mother Gilda Nigro (born Gilda Mirsky) was a bookkeeper. By her own admission, Laura was not an especially happy child, and she retreated into music and poetry, teaching herself to play piano and soaking up the influences of her mother's favorite singers, among them Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Leontyne Price. By the time she was eight years old, Laura had started writing songs, and she would later attend the Manhattan High School of Music & Art, where developed a greater appreciation for folk and jazz styles. 

In 1966, Artie Mogull, a veteran A&R man and music publisher, hired Louis Nigro to tune the piano in his office, and Louis persuaded Artie to listen to his daughter sing her songs. The next day, Laura sang "Wedding Bell Blues," "And When I Die," and "Stoney End" for Mogull, and he quickly signed her to a publishing deal, while Mogull and his business partner Paul Barry became her managers. Laura had been using a variety of assumed names for her music at that point, and she settled on Laura Nyro as her professional handle once she turned professional. 

                                    

Nyro's new managers got her gigs at the famous San Francisco night club the Hungry i, as well as the groundbreaking 1969 Monterey Pop Festival, and that same year, she released her first album, More Than a New Discovery, on Verve-Folkways Records. Sales were modest, but Peter, Paul & Mary scored a hit with their version of "And When I Die," and Nyro's career began to take off.  David Geffen took over Nyro's management, successfully suing to void her previous contracts as they were signed when she was under 18. With Geffen's help, Nyro established her own publishing company and signed a new record deal with Columbia Records. 

Nyro's first album for the label, 1968's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, was a more personal and sophisticated effort than her debut, in both songs and arrangements, and it received enthusiastic reviews in the rock press. Sales were good, though not up to the level of her critical acclaim, and the same was true for 1969's New York Tendaberry. However, Nyro was increasingly well regarded as a songwriter. By 1970 she had sold her increasingly lucrative publishing company for $4.5 million, as more hits continued to flow from her pen; "Eli's Coming" was recorded by Three Dog Night to great success, and Barbra Streisand's album Stoney End featured three of Nyro's songs. 

In 1971, Nyro released Gonna Take a Miracle, in which she covered a handful of soul and R&B tunes she loved in her teenage years, with the vocal group Labelle helping her re-create the girl group harmonies of the originals. Later in the year, Nyro married and announced her retirement as she found herself at odds with her growing celebrity and embraced small town life. By 1976, Nyro had divorced, and she returned to the recording studio to cut the album Smile. While most of Nyro's live performances had found her accompanied only by her own piano, she assembled a band to tour in support of Smile, and the concerts produced her first live album, 1977's Seasons of Light. 

 The album was originally intended to be released as a two-LP set, but Columbia opted to edit it down to a single disc; the songs that were cut were later restored for a 2008 CD reissue. Nyro's next album, 1978's Nested, was recorded as she was expecting her first child, and while she played a few shows following its release, after she gave birth Nyro once again walked away from the spotlight to devote herself to her family.  It wasn't until 1984 that Nyro delivered another album, Mother's Spiritual, a lighter and more folk-oriented set that often reflected her views on feminism, the environment, and parenthood. 

Four years later, Columbia Records was eager for Nyro to record a new studio album, but she preferred to go out on tour with a band in tow. Columbia had no interest in releasing a live album from the tour, and 1989's Laura: Live at the Bottom Line, which included five new songs, was instead released by the A&M-distributed Cypress Records. From the late '80s onward, Nyro toured frequently, but it would be 1993 before she released another studio album, Walk the Dog & Light the Light (issued by Columbia), in which she added animal rights to the list of causes she supported in song. 

In late 1996, Nyro, like her mother, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After the diagnosis, Columbia Records, with Nyro's involvement, prepared a two-CD retrospective of material from her years at the label. She lived to see the release of Stoned Soul Picnic: The Best of Laura Nyro in 1997. She died of ovarian cancer in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 8, 1997, at 49, the same age at which her mother died. Her ashes were scattered beneath a maple tree on the grounds of her house in Danbury. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)