Pirkle Lee Moses, Jr. born October 4, 1937

 Pirkle Lee Moses, Jr.(October 4, 1937 - December 26, 2000) was a R&B singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer for 'The El Dorados'.

The El Dorados were an American doo-wop group, formed in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1952 whilst still students at Englewood High School: Pirkle Lee Moses Jr. on lead, Louis Bradley handling tenor, Jewel Jones covering second tenor and baritone, James Maddox alternating baritone and bass, and Robert Glasper supplying bass. Initially billed as the Five Stars, they attracted the interest of Johnny Moore, the school's custodian, who became their manager after recognizing their potential.

Shortly after graduation in 1954, Moses and Glasper enlisted via the Air Force's 90-day active-duty program. Moses returned to the group, yet Glasper stayed in service. Arthur Bassett stepped in temporarily on tenor for Moses, until his return, while Richard Nickens replaced Glasper on bass, expanding the Five Stars to six voices and prompting a name shift. Plans to adopt the Cardinals were abandoned amid a wave of car-model monikers; unable to use Cadillacs, they drew inspiration from the El Dorado, the luxury two-door variant of that marque. Although they practiced the songs of the Orioles, Dominoes, Clovers, Mills Brothers, and Ink Spots, they worked hard to develop their own style, often changing arrangements to fit their own voices. Local Chicago disc jockey Al Benson of WWCA noticed the El Dorados after they captured first prize at a talent contest held at the Club De Lisa. Impressed by their harmonic blend, Benson secured them an audition at Vee Jay's contest for amateur acts at the Park City Skating Rink, where they bested the label's own Spaniels and earned a recording contract.

                                    

Their debut single, the bluesy ballad "My Loving Baby," appeared in September 1954 and sold well regionally. The follow-up found the group supporting Hazel McCollum on "Annie's Answer," Vee Jay's entry in the "Annie" cycle launched by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. Bassett soon departed for the Air Force, reducing the sextet back to a quintet. Vee Jay issued "At My Front Door" in the third week of September 1955; it entered the Billboard R&B charts on September 24 and the Top 100 on October 15. Al Duricati's driving drum pattern and an energetic sax solo propelled the track, while Moses Jr.'s "baby talk" section near the close added further momentum. The line about the "crazy little mama" achieved lasting recognition comparable to the Annie saga, and by year's end the single stood at number 17 pop and number one R&B. Pat Boone's cover later reached number seven on the pop side.

December's second week brought the release of their next single, "I'll Be Forever Lovin' You". Though the track incorporated jazz, pop, and R&B flavours and reached number eight R&B in February 1956, it failed to register on pop listings. Nickens exited soon afterward, leaving the El Dorados as a quartet. Several subsequent singles enjoyed scattered local success without matching earlier peaks. "Tears on My Pillow," distinct from the Little Anthony and the Imperials hit, marked the final recording by the original members; shortly after its release, Pirkle Moses Jr. parted ways with the group over management differences. He promptly joined the Kool Gents, another Vee Jay act left without a frontman after Dee Clark launched a solo career. He combined with John McCall on tenor, Douglas Brown on second tenor, Teddy Long on second tenor and baritone, and Johnny Carter on bass to create the New El Dorados. Two 1958 Vee Jay singles failed to sell, leading to a financial dispute and eventual disbandment.

Meanwhile Jones, Bradley, and Maddox recruited Marvin Smith as their new lead. To sidestep Vee Jay legal issues, the act recorded 1958's "A Lonely Boy" for Academy Records of Chicago under the name Those Four El Dorados. The quartet later moved to the West Coast and aligned with former NBA player Don Barksdale's Rhythm Record Company in Oakland, adopting the Tempos moniker before returning to Chicago and splitting in 1961. Johnny Carter sought to sustain the El Dorados name by assembling another New El Dorados lineup in late 1959 with McCall, Danny Edwards, and Eugene Huff, formerly of the Valquins; that configuration lasted until 1965. Carter attempted a further revival in 1971 alongside Huff, Spence Goulsby Jr., and Lee Toussaint on lead for two Paula sides, yet the unit dissolved by the early 1980s.

The Squires

Moses Jr. cut "It's Time" with an unnamed group billed as the Squires on Boss in 1963 and later issued a solo track titled The Docks. In 1965 he united with Melvin Morrow and George Prager, both late of the Moroccos, to form the Major Minors. In 1969, Moses Jr resuscitated the group name with new members, at the same time as a former member of The Tempos, Johnny Carter, also toured with another set of El Dorados. The two competing groups merged in the late 1970s to make it somewhat less confusing for El Dorados' fans. But by 1979, Pirkle Lee was gone and John Carter's group consisted of Eugene Huff, Spencer Goulsby, Robert Goulsby (lead), and William Goulsby (second tenor) and subsequently continued to tour and record as The El Dorados.

By 1987 Moses got another group together to record a couple of sides: "Ease The Pain" and "Remember Sherrie". These were released, as by the "Fabulous Eldorados" (one word), on the Delano label. The other members were Norman Palm (tenor; of the Pastels on United), Larry Johnson (tenor; of the Moroccos), Eugene Huff (baritone), and original El Dorado Richard Nickens (baritone/bass).

In 1993, St. George Records released a CD called "The El Dorados: Chicago Street Corner Blues & Rhythm". The group consisted of Pirkle Lee Moses, Norman Palm, Larry Johnson, Clarence "Huffy" Wright and Rufus Hunter. Each of the members took turns leading the selections (which were all songs sung on Chicago street corners, even if not by Chicago artists). 

Sadly, Pirkle Lee Moses Jr passed away on December 26, 2000. After his death Norman Palm, a long-time member since the late 1970s, took over and renamed the group Pirkle Lee Moses Jr's El Dorados, in tribute to his long-time colleague and friend. As of 2008, Pirkle Lee Moses Jr's El Dorados actively tours the Midwest, and the East Coast from time to time. In 2013 The Lineup was, Norman Palm, Norman Palm Jr, Saalik Ziyad, and Clarence "Huffy" Wright.

(Edited from Coda Music, Wikipedia and Unca Marvy, especially for most of the photos)

Jim Brewer born October 3, 1920

James Brewer (October 3, 1920 – June 3, 1988), also known as Blind Jim Brewer was an American blues singer and guitarist.

Unless you were a blues collector in the 1960's and 70's it's a safe bet that you may never have heard of this superb bluesman who was under recorded during his lifetime, One of the last acoustic blues guitarists in Chicago, Jim Brewer was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi. The oldest of seven children (five boys and two girls), Brewer lost his sight at an early age.  Brewer chose the guitar early as a means of survival. His father wanted him to play blues as the most likely means of earning a living, while his mother demanded he play only religious music. 

As a street singer in Chicago, he shifted constantly between the demon and the saint, playing gospel when weary of the blues’ wild street craziness and playing blues in club and festival performances. While playing on the streets and in the stores of Brookhaven in the 1930s, he learned most of the religious songs that he continued to perform for the rest of his life. Brewer’s father, however, told him that people would pay more to hear the blues than to hear church music. As he grew older, Brewer started performing at play parties, playing blues he had learned from store records.

Although he was also known as Blind Jim Brewer, he did not like this additive, He was reported to have said "My mother didn't name me "Blind", she named me "Jim." Following the death of Jim’s mother, the family moved to Chicago; Jim followed a year later and began playing on 43rd and 47th streets near his family’s home. By the late 1940s he was playing on Maxwell Street. Originally an open-air market for Russian and Polish immigrants who came to Chicago at the turn of the century, by the 1930s Maxwell Street had become a showcase for blues and gospel singers on Chicago’s South Side. Except for a short period when he left the city, Brewer was a regular on Maxwell Street for nearly forty years.

                Here's "She Wants To Boogie" from above album.

                                   

In the early 1950s Jim Brewer decided to travel, and he lived in St. Louis for three years, where he played on streetcars, in taverns, and on the streets. During that time he also joined a washboard band for a while. By the mid-1950s he had returned to Chicago and was introduced by a mutual friend to Fannie, who became his wife. Brewer’s new mother-in-law bought him a good electric guitar and amplifier, the first decent equipment he ever owned. Returning to Maxwell Street, Brewer decided to devote himself exclusively to singing religious songs. He wanted to separate himself from the lifestyle of trouble that surrounded blues musicians there, and he realized that many people had a low opinion of the blues.

But in 1962, two white college students found him on Maxwell Street and asked him if he could sing the blues. He answered that he could and two weeks later he found himself scheduled to give a concert at North-western University. Before the concert, Brewer was taken to Chicago’s No Exit Café, and the manager, Joe Moore, asked him to audition. That successful debut resulted in a regular job at the No Exit coffeehouse that continued for three decades. In his later years Brewer  played at major festivals and clubs throughout the Midwest, the East, Canada and Europe.

Jim Brewer’s major influences included Big Bill Broonzy and Tommy Johnson. Other influences included Big Joe Williams, Big Maceo, Teddy Darby, Lonnie Johnson, and Tampa Red; musicians Brewer heard on records and radio in Chicago. Jim was a powerful singer and guitarist; his style clearly conveying his roots in the Mississippi Delta blues. He played an acoustic Martin six-string guitar, and in his later years he also played a Gretch electric guitar, autoharp and paino. His music and performance style gained an amount of polish over the years, and he seemed comfortable playing to audiences who frequented the club and festival circuit.

In addition to performing songs he learned from others over the years, Jim was also an accomplished songwriter known to make up songs on the spot concerning his mood, the events of the day, or his immediate surroundings. He was recorded by Swedish Radio in 1964, cut sides for the Heritage label, was recoded by Pete Welding who issued the sides on his Testament label was well as Milestone and Storyville, plus cut the full-length albums Jim Brewer (Philo, 1974) and Tough Luck (Earwig, 1983). Brewer was also captured on film performing with his wife on Maxwell Street in 1964 for the documentary And This Is Free. His manager from the late 1970s through his death was Michael Frank, CEO of Earwig Music Company. Various tracks of Jim’s also appeared on compilation albums issued during the 1960s through the 1980s.

He died at home of heart failure June 3, 1988. He was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. He had recently returned from his only European tour, and the promoter wanted him back, but Jim was afraid of flying and declined the offer. Brewer remained an in demand musician until the end, and as long time supporter Andy Cohen wrote: “He died with gigs on his calendar.”

(Edited from Earwig Music & Wikipedia) 

Pony Sherrell born circa 1924

Pony Sherrell (born circa 1924 - December 8, 1990) was an American lyricist, songwriter, singer, and performer best remembered for her work in mid-20th-century radio, film soundtracks, and Las Vegas musical reviews.

Doris & Grace Sherrell

Doris “Pony” Sherrell was one of thousands of performers that attempted the jump from screen to jukebox. Born as Doris Gislen, a first generation native New Yorker, she later adopted the stage name of Pony Sherrell. She was on stage at the age of three, and began performing with her sister Grace as the Sherrell Babes in the late 1920s. They appeared on the “Horn And Hardart Hour,” “Uncle Don’s Radio Show” and on the Loews and RKO circuits. The team eventually got its own radio show on WOR New York.

Doris in 1942

A chance encounter with “My Blue Heaven” crooner Gene Austin landed the sisters steady work, who flanked Austin throughout his early ’40s cowboy phase and eventually lead to Gene and Doris’s marriage on Thanksgiving Day 1942. By then, the thrice married Austin, his child bride, and her sister had decamped to Hollywood to pursue their celluloid dreams. The sisters spent the first half of World War II on stage, performing separate and together in various theatre troupes and nightclub acts. They got their first big break in 1944, when they starred as themselves in both Moon Over Las Vegas and Follow The Leader, alongside Austin. By 1947, the honeymoon was over. Her first marriage behind her, the lifelong brunette did something incredibly bold: She went blonde.

                                  

The following year, the pair of platinum sisters were out for the night at The Haig, a jazz club on South Kenmore in Hollywood. Appearing that evening was “English piano Wizard” Phil Moody, who’d recently migrated to the States from war-ravaged Britain. A rapport was immediately struck, but this time with Doris as the third wheel. Moody spent his evenings playing in any restaurant and lounge that would have him, and briefly he worked under the tutelage of Phil Moore at Discovery Records. But his real passion was writing and arranging music. It was his new wife Grace that suggested he partner with a lyricist, and she knew just the filly to help get him in the money.

A 1954 press kit describes how Doris Sherrell got her nickname: “She’s called ‘Pony’ for two reasons. Firstly, she’s only 5-2 and 115 pounds. Secondly, she won a beautiful legs contest and the emcee of the event said she ‘had the slender legs of a colt.’” The writing duo of Moody and Sherrell got going in earnest in 1950, and had close to 200 songs by the end of the year. An audition for Irving Mills’ American Recording Artists firm resulted in a publishing deal in 1953, and the two were immediately drafted to write music for the film So This Is Paris, starring Tony Curtis, followed by The Second Greatest Sex and Paris Follies of 1956.

In the middle of this long-delayed Hollywood fantasy, Pony set her eyes on a recording career all her own. After Jimmy Durante tracked his own version of the Moody/Sherrell original “Little People” in 1954, Coral Records paid for Pony to cut her own. Though the single failed to go anywhere, there was enough chum to attract publicity shark Tim Gayle, who issued Grace and Pony Sherrell’s “Can-Can Blues” on his Advance imprint in 1955, and would continue to rep the Moody/Sherrell/Moody tricycle well into the ’60s. A deal with Irving Gwirtz’s revived Diamond label bore two gorgeous, orchestral singles: September 1956’s “No News” b/w “Hey Angelino” and “Jungle, Ungle Um Bai” b/w “Don’t Put Off ‘Till Tomorrow.” The racy “Jungle, Ungle” never sniffed the charts, and would be the last record issued on Diamond. Dozens of other songs were composed over the next decade, including the playfully xenophobic “Tobago,” but with their sound drifting out of vogue there were few takers.

Grace & Pony Sherrell

Undeterred, Phil Moody and Pony Sherrell persisted. Under the management of club magnate Frank Sennes, the two wrote and performed steadily over the next decade at his Moulin Rouge and Desert Inn nightclubs. In 1967, with the backing of her new husband, Texas financier Jess Metcalf, Pony and Phil set up Pony Records in the Moody living room, issuing and reissuing their entire catalogue on 45 and LP over the next five years to a completely disinterested marketplace. 

Phil & Grace Moody

Phil and Grace Moody spent the bulk of the ’70s living in Las Vegas, where he performed regularly at the Stardust, Sahara, and Flamingo hotels. In 1980 the couple opened Moody’s Supper Club in Palm Springs, and Phil continued to perform off and into the late ’90s. Grace’s light went out in 2006, Phil followed in 2011. Pony Sherrell never did settle down, keeping homes in Beverly Hills, Connecticut, Palm Springs, and Manhattan. She closed out her days managing Metcalf’s vast financial empire. She died from a heart attack at her New York on December 8, 1990.

(Sourced from Bandcamp)(date of birth estimated from Sam Houston State University profile on Gene Austin)

Grady Chapman born October 1, 1929

Grady Chapman (October 1, 1929 – January 4, 2011) was best known as the American lead singer of doo wop group The Robins.

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Chapman joined The Robins in 1952, singing alongside Bobby Nunn, Billy Richards, Roy Richards, Ty Terrell, and later Carl Gardner. During that time, the Robins recorded for RCA where Grady is heard leading many of the groups' classic recordings, including "How Would You Know," "Oh Why," "My Heart's The Biggest Fool," and "Ten Days In Jail." Later they recorded for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's Los Angeles–based "Spark" label, where Grady also led the Robins on "Whadaya Want" and "I Love Paris." in October 1954 Grady issued a recording on the Money label backed by the Suedes, "Don't Blooper" and "I Need You So." 

                                   

When the Robins split in late 1955, Leiber and Stoller took members Nunn and Gardner east to form the Coasters. Grady stayed with the Robins, who then signed with Gene Norman's Whippet label.  Gene had his own TV show on Los Angeles' Channel 9 and named his record label Whippet after his dog, Boris. Grady's recording "Since I First Met You" from 1957 with The Robins is included in the films Pulp Fiction and American Strays. Around March of 1957, Grady Chapman's first solo effort was issued on Geordie Hormel's Zephyr label. Zephyr, located a few doors down Sunset Boulevard from Whippet, was distributed by GNP Records (“Gene Norman Presents,” Whippet's parent company). On both sides of the record (“My Love Will Never Die” and “The Smiling Gondolier”), Chapman is backed by a female group. Despite these solo efforts, Chapman still remained a member of the Robins. He wrote "Sweet Pea" for Bob and Earl.

In the summer of 1958 there was a Grady Chapman solo released on the Knight label: “Star Light, Star Bright” and “Say You Will Be Mine.” Once again, he's backed by a female chorus on the tunes which had been recorded on his previous single. After this release, Grady Chapman parted company with the Robins and was replaced by Bobby Sheen. The last known Grady Chapman solos were released on the Mercury label: “My Life Would Be Worth Living” (with the ubiquitous female group) and “Ambush.” These were issued in September 1960. Early the following year, there was “I'll Never Question Your Love” and “This, That, 'N The Other.”

Chapman sang with The Dominoes alongside Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson and would later become a member of one of the Coasters' many spin-off groups, The Coasters Mark II, which included Bobby Nunn, Bobby Sheen, and Billy Richards, Jr. In 1977, along with Billy Guy and Jerome Evans, he sang on "Paid The Price" on Michelle Phillips' album Victim Of Romance. Chapman would also substitute for Carl Gardner a few times in the 1990s and 2000s with The Coasters. 

He still performed as Grady Chapman & The Robins with various back-up musicians, until his death, from congestive heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital, on January 4, 2011.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Marv Goldberg & Academic) 

Willie Hightower born 30 September 1940

Willie Hightower (born 30 September 1940*) is an American rhythm and blues, soul and funk singer.

Willie Hightower was born in Gadsden, Alabama. At six years old, he began singing in the church. By the time he was in his teens, he had formed his own 'quartet-style' Gospel group, 'The Silver Stars', patterned after his idols The Soul Stirrers. Shortly after Sam Cooke left the group and 'crossed-over' in 1957, Willie decided to do the same, and began singing in local clubs in and around Birmingham. 

He was soon noticed by legendary civil rights activist and WENN dee-jay Shelley Stewart, who was so impressed by his voice that he sent out a tape to his friend Bobby Robinson, the founder of Fire and Fury records in New York. Like most record label owners at the time, Bobby had been on the lookout for 'the next Sam Cooke' since his tragic murder in late 1964, and offered to fly Hightower up to New York to record him.

                                   

Impressed, Robinson signed Hightower in 1965. Over the next four years, Hightower cut several sides with Robinson. The first of these, "What Am I Living For," appeared in 1965 on Enjoy, and two years later "If I Had a Hammer" became Hightower's first single distributed by Capitol Records. "Because I Love You," his first 45 recorded for Capitol and produced by Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein, appeared later in 1967, but it was 1968's "It's a Miracle" that brought Hightower into the Billboard R&B Top 40 for the first time; it peaked at 33. In the wake of its success, Capitol assembled the If I Had a Hammer album, pulling largely from previously released Enjoy, Fury, and Capitol sides. "Ooh Baby How I Love You," his last single for Capitol, also appeared on the LP.

Hightower split with Robinson after the If I Had a Hammer LP and Capitol switched the singer to FAME Records in 1970. "Time Has Brought a Change" was his first single for FAME but his second 45 for the imprint, "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," went to 27. One more single, "Back Road into Town," appeared in 1971 before Hightower decamped to Mercury in 1972. He released two singles for Mercury -- a cover of Freddie Hart's country hit "Easy Lovin'" and "Don't Blame Me" -- before severing ties with the label. Hightower released "Chicago, Send Her Home" on Sound Stage 7 in 1976 and that was his last release for nearly a decade. "Too Many Irons in the Fire," a single for the tiny Adventure One label, was his only released record in the 1980s, although he made some other recordings with Bill Cantrell and Quinton Claunch during that decade.

Hightower's '60s and '70s recordings were reissued in the 1990s and 2000s but it was the 2004 Honest Jon's/Astralwerks compilation Willie Hightower that revived interest in the singer. Music-wise the last three decades had been a lean period for Willie although he Hightower kept singing and toured with a new iteration of the Drifters for 10 years. “I wasn’t doing any recordings, just mostly personal appearances... and not so very often.”  He made his triumphant return on October the 2nd in 2015 in New Orleans at the Ponderosa Stomp festival.

It was Honest Jon's comp that started a long process that eventually culminated in Hightower reuniting with Claunch for the 2018 album Out of the Blue. Produced by Billy Lawson, an associate of Claunch, and recorded in Muscle Shoals, Out of the Blue appeared on Ace in 2018.

He later formed a family band with his five daughters, before eventually starting a real estate company. Today, he lives a quiet life at his Gadsden home.

(Edited from AllMusic, Soul Express & Rolling Stone) 

* (Some sources wrongly give 3rd September as his birthday)

Clarence Ashley born September 29, 1895

 Clarence "Tom" Ashley (September 29, 1895 – June 2, 1967) was an American musician and singer, who played the clawhammer banjo and the guitar. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands. 

G.B. Grayson & Ashley

Ashley was born Clarence Earl McCurry in Bristol, Tennessee, but when Clarence was very young, he was nicknamed “Tommy Tiddy Waddy” (after a nursery rhyme) by his grandfather Enoch, and thus became known to friends and acquaintances as ‘Tom’. As he was raised by the parents of his mother, the name “McCurry” was dropped in favour of “Ashley”. From infancy, Tom was acquainted with musicians. His grandfather bought him a banjo when he was eight years old, and his mother and aunts taught him to play traditional Appalachian folk songs and ballads. He learned a number of songs and techniques from itinerant lumberjacks and railroad workers lodging at his grandfather's boarding house. In 1911, Tom joined a medicine show that happened to be passing through Mountain City. He played banjo and guitar, and performed blackface comedy. Tom would play with medicine shows every summer until the early 1940s. During winters, he organized local concerts at rural schools. He would also play for money at coal camps and rayon mills, often accompanied by influential Johnson County fiddler G. B. Grayson.

Byrd Moore & His Hotshots

Tom made his first recordings for Gennett Records during February 1928 with the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers, which then consisted of Ashley on banjo or guitar, Garley Foster on harmonica, and Clarence Horton Greene on fiddle. With the help of Victor producer Ralph Peer, Ashley made several recordings with The Carolina Tar Heels, which consisted of Tom on guitar and vocals, his friend Dock Walsh on banjo, and Gwen or Garley Foster on harmonica. In 1929, Frank Walker of Columbia Records auditioned Ashley to make his first solo recordings, as well as to record with a trio called "Byrd Moore and His Hot Shots" at the Johnson City Sessions. He recorded several songs derived from English or Irish ballads that were passed down through generations in Appalachia, the best-known of which included "Coo Coo Bird" (which he learned from his mother), "House Carpenter", and "Rude and Rambling Man". Other recordings included the murder ballads "Naomi Wise", "Little Sadie", and "John Hardy", and the folk songs "Frankie Silvers" and "Greenback Dollar". An African-American influence can be heard on Ashley's renderings of "Dark Holler", "Haunted Road Blues", and "Corrina, Corrina".

                                 

During the early 1930s, Ashley again recorded with the Blue Ridge Entertainers, this time for the American Record Corporation. The final recordings from his early era were a series of duets with harmonica player Gwen Foster in 1933. The oldest known recording of the song, "House of the Rising Sun", under the title "Rising Sun Blues", was recorded  by Ashley and Foster on September 6, 1933, on the Vocalion label (02576), which he claimed he learned from his maternal grandfather. The effects of the Great Depression made money scarce throughout the early 1930s. Not only was Ashley no longer recruited to make records, it was virtually impossible to earn money playing at coal camps or on street corners. The Depression (along with government regulations) also greatly reduced the crowds that attended medicine shows. 

Ashley worked briefly as a coal miner in West Virginia, and did odd jobs back in Shouns to support his wife, Hettie, and their two children. In 1937, he established a trucking business in Mountain City that hauled furniture and crops to various cities around the region. Throughout the following decade, Ashley performed as a comedian with the Stanley Brothers. He formed a local string band, the Tennessee Merrymakers.

During the folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, urban ethnomusicologists rediscovered Ashley's music. By this time, Ashley was well known among folk music enthusiasts due in large part to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), which included some of Ashley's early recordings. In 1960, Ralph Rinzler met Ashley at the Old Time Fiddler's Convention in Union Grove, North Carolina. He eventually persuaded him to start playing banjo again and to record his repertoire of songs. Over the next few years Ashley and his friends Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price played at numerous urban folk festivals, including the Chicago Folk Festival in 1962 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

Ashley continued touring the folk circuit throughout the mid-1960s. He appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York and played at dozens of venues in California. In 1966, Ashley and Reidsville, North Carolina guitarist Tex Isley toured England. On October 7, 1966, Clarence “Tom” Ashley was a leading performer at ETSU’s first annual Folk Festival. A local article published by the Elizabethton Star described Ashley as “perhaps the best known artist to appear” at the festival. This performance was one of Ashley’s final significant regional performances. A second tour of England was planned for 1967, but Ashley grew ill and discovered he had cancer before he departed. He died June 2, 1967, at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Jim Diamond born 28 September 1951

Jim Diamond (28 September 1951 – 8 October 2015) was a Scottish singer-songwriter, best known for his three top 5 hits: "I Won't Let You Down" (1982), as the lead singer of PhD; and his solo performances "I Should Have Known Better", a United Kingdom No. 1 in 1984, and "Hi Ho Silver", the theme song from Boon, which reached No. 5 on the UK singles chart in 1986.

James Aaron Diamond was born in the Bridgeton area in the East End of Glasgow in 1951. He started his music career at the age of 15 with Tony Diver's band, The Method. When aged 16, he also fronted a Glasgow band called Jade. That line-up included bassist Chris Glen who went on to play with the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and Jim Lacey on lead guitar who later went on to join the Alan Bown Set. Jade played many pub, club and university gigs in London in 1969, playing at Brunel University, West London College in Cricklewood, The Pied Bull in Islington, West Hampstead Country Club, another college in Virginia Water and many more in 1969. They also supported The Move on their Scottish tour with The Stoics in the same year.

Alexis Korner then discovered Diamond, who spent the next couple of years as part of Korner's band. He provided additional and backing vocals on many of Korner's songs, most of which would appear on The Lost Album. Diamond left Korner in 1976, to form Bandit. The line-up included future AC/DC member Cliff Williams. They were soon signed up by Arista Records and released a début album, Bandit, which failed to reach the chart. But the record brought Diamond, who had written five of its songs in various styles, to wider attention and was enough to prompt the NME’s reviewer, Tony Stewart, to comment that he was “an inspired and remarkable vocalist who projects himself well, displaying not only a passion for the music but a staggering range, which he uses fully”. 

                                   

In 1979, Diamond was lead vocalist for a Japanese band called BACCO, whose debut album was Cha Cha Me. Word was spreading about Diamond and his powerfully expressive singing, and he was invited to fly to Los Angeles to form a band with the guitarist and David Bowie collaborator Earl Slick and the drummer Carmine Appice, who had been playing with Rod Stewart. The trio worked in the studio with the producer Eddie Kramer, who had collaborated with a who’s who of stars from Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin and Bowie. Before the project could come to fruition, Diamond was in demand again, returning to England to form PhD and embarking on the series of hits that sealed his reputation.

PhD

In 1981, Diamond formed PhD (Phillips, Hymas and Diamond), with pianist/keyboard player Tony Hymas and drummer Simon Phillips. They were signed by WEA Records and had a hit single with the multi-million selling "I Won't Let You Down". Then Diamond contracted hepatitis, which prevented him from touring and prompted PhD to split. In 1984, he decided to go solo and was signed to A&M Records. He had a number-one hit with "I Should Have Known Better", and was also number one in Latin America. The single, which was from his album Double Crossed (released in 1985), earned him a nomination for an Ivor Novello award. In the same year Diamond went to No 1 again with the celebrity ensemble The Crowd on You’ll Never Walk Alone, a charity record for families of the victims of the Bradford City stadium fire. In 1986 his second solo album, Desire For Freedom, delivered the No 5 hit Hi Ho Silver, a song commissioned for Boon, starring Michael Elphick, and featuring yet another of Diamond’s catchy choruses, this time set to a briskly pumping reggae beat.

In 1993 he released the album Jim Diamond, which reached No 16 on the UK charts, and went on tour performing acoustic versions of his catalogue of songs. In the late 90s he teamed up with the saxophonist Chris “Snake” Davis, renowned for his studio work with M People, George Michael, Paul McCartney and many more, and they performed as The Blue Shoes, but were later billed as Jim Diamond and Snake Davis. With the Hammond organist Paul Birchall, they also worked on Diamond’s 2005 album Souled and Healed. In 2009 he re-united with Tony Hymas to produce a third PhD album entitled Three. 

Jim Diamond's last album, City of Soul, released by Camino Records in 2011, featured among others Wet Wet Wet drummer Tommy Cunningham and Greg Kane of Hue and Cry. All proceeds from this album of soul music covers benefited the children's charity, Radio Clyde Cash for Kids.

Diamond married Christine Bailey in 1978. The couple had two children; their son Lawrence is the keyboard player of the UK indie pop group Citizens! and the former bass player of Official Secrets Act. Diamond died in his sleep on 8 October 2015, at the age of 64. According to his daughter Sara, the cause of death was a pulmonary edema.

(Edited from Wikipedia &The Guardian)