Bruce Belland born October 22nd, 1936

Bruce Belland (born October 22nd, 1936) is best known for being the lead singer and co-founder of the Four Preps who accumulated record sales in excess of 100 million, including 29 hit singles, 15 gold albums, and 13 Grammies.

Bruce Gerald Belland was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 22nd, 1936, the second son of Rev. Stanley G. Belland, a Fundamentalist minister and his wife Hertha, a Gospel radio singer. He sang his first solo in church at age four. It was greeted with enthusiastic “Amens” from the congregation and his proud parent’s praise. And with that, his dream was born. He wanted to be a singer. His dream drew closer when his father became minister of the West Hollywood Community Church just off the Sunset Strip and immediately adjacent to up-scale Beverly Hills. During his adolescent years, he developed his vocal skills singing at the countless funerals conducted by his father. As a starstruck 15-year-old, he delivered newspapers “across the tracks” in Beverly Hills and had one-on-one encounters with Oscar-winning stars and the A-list of old Hollywood’s entertainment community. He attended Emerson Junior High in West L.A. with a student body drawn from affluent Bel Air and Brentwood.

While he developed and refined his harmonic instincts inspired by another group he idolized – The Four Freshmen—his father had him composing personalized songs for church events. In 1952, Bruce enrolled at Hollywood High. It was here in 1954 that Bruce convinced Glen Larson, a friend since grammar school, to co-found a vocal group for that year’s student talent show. Bruce, Glen and two pals from the school choir, stole the show with the Crew Cuts’ “Sh-Boom.” Convinced they were on to something special, Bruce and Glen enlisted two classmates—Bruce’s friend 6’4” bass and high school football star Ed Cobb, and high tenor and former boy soprano in the famed Mitchell Boys Choir, Marv Ingram—to permanently fill the other two slots. And The Four Preps were born.

Bruce Belland sang lead tenor, Glen Larson, baritone, Marvin Inabnett (later changed to Ingram), high tenor, and Ed Cobb, bass. Their friend, Lincoln Mayorga, was an unofficial fifth Prep. The four original members were signed to a recording contract by Capitol Records, after one of Capitol's executives saw them at a talent show at the Hollywood High school in 1956. They had a minor chart hit that year with "Dreamy Eyes". Between 1956 and 1964, the Preps reached the Billboard pop charts with 13 different songs. In 1957 they appeared with Lindsay Crosby, Bing Crosby's son, in the television special The Edsel Show. Their biggest hit was "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)," which was written by Belland and Larson in 1957 and reached number two early the following year. The record sold over one million copies, earning a gold disc. Around this time, Ricky Nelson appeared with them at a Hamilton High School lunch hour assembly singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky".

                                   

Belland and Larson also wrote "Big Man", which reached number three in 1958. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, thus becoming the group's biggest hit there. The pair also composed new lyrics for the older tune "Down by the Station", which peaked at number 13 in 1960. Cobb wrote a handful of songs for the group, though not any of their chart hits; Cobb later became a noted writer and/or producer of hit material for other artists, especially The Standells' "Dirty Water", Brenda Holloway's "Every Little Bit Hurts" and Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love," later recorded by Soft Cell. Many Four Preps records were arranged by their high school friend and collaborative pianist Lincoln Mayorga who became known as the fifth Prep.

Don Clarke replaced Ingram in 1958 with the Album “The Things we did last summer,” and continued with them for over a year. In 1959, the group appeared as themselves in the film Gidget. Don was in a car accident on July 22, 1959 and was not able to continue with the Four Preps. Ingram finished college at UCLA, and rejoined the group in 1960. The group was known for its family-friendly comedic humour in live performances. In 1960, they recorded a parody single, "More Money for You and Me," which included single parody verses of several popular songs by The Fleetwoods, The Hollywood Argyles, The Platters, The Four Freshmen, The Kingston Trio and Dion and the Belmonts. In 1962, they released "The Big Draft", another novelty record in which they mockingly suggested that several American music groups be drafted into the military, parodying their songs to make the point.

The group last appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1964, when "A Letter to The Beatles" charted for a total of three weeks beginning March 21, peaking at number 85 before being pulled from sale. The arrival of The Beatles, along with the rest of the British Invasion, coincided with the decline of popularity of the Four Preps and most other folk revival groups. In 1966, David Somerville, formerly of The Diamonds, joined the group, replacing Cobb. In 1969, the group disbanded, as their type of music had become less popular. Belland and Somerville occasionally performed as a duo after the breakup.

Belland continued writing songs for other singers, as well as writing television show scripts, eventually becoming a network executive. He was also a producer on several game shows in the 1970s for Ralph Edwards Productions. Cobb became a record producer and sound engineer. Somerville went into television acting and providing voice-overs. Larson became a television producer/writer/director, creating Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider and variety television series.Clarke became a music teacher. In the 1980s, Belland, Cobb, Somerville, and Jim Pike (formerly of the Lettermen) eventually formed a new "Four Preps" group and went on to perform. Jim Yester, formerly of The Association, replaced Pike in 1993, and the group became the "New Four Preps".

In March 1999, Ingram died of a heart attack and Cobb died of leukemia in Honolulu, Hawaii later the same year. Yester, Belland and Somerville then recorded and toured for a short time as “Triple Gold – The Three Tenors of Pop” and then moved on to pursue individual opportunities. In 2004 PBS asked Bruce to put together a one shot version of the Four Preps for “Magic Moments”, a PBS Special saluting the hit makers of the 1950s. Bruce, Glen Larson, Jim Yester and David Somerville performed on that show as The Four Preps and the program has become one of public television's biggest fund raisers. That appearance resulted in a groundswell of demand for a Preps’ tour and in 2007 the group were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Bruce, the last original member still performing, formed a new version of the group and averaged 35 concerts a year until 2020 when the global health crisis put a halt to their touring. Sadly Somerville died on July 14, 2015.

Beyond his music career, Bruce has worked as a screenwriter, television executive, and author, releasing his memoir Icons, Idols and Idiots of Hollywood in 2023. He also continues to publish regular updates and newsletters for fans. Bruce, his wife Simone Alexander, a prominent fashion designer now on the faculty of Fashion Institute of Design in Los Angeles live in Woodland Hills, California.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Bruce Beland.com web site) 

Doctor Ross born October 21, 1925

Isaiah Ross (October 21, 1925 – May 28, 1993), known as Doctor Ross, was an American blues musician who usually performed as a one-man band, simultaneously singing and playing guitar, harmonica, and drums. Ross's primal style has been compared to John Lee Hooker, Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny Boy Williamson I.

Charles Isaiah Ross was born on October 21, 1925, in the Mississippi Delta town of Tunica, Mississippi, one of eleven children in a farming family of mixed African-American and Native American heritage. His first instrument was the harmonica, which he learned to play at age nine, then later drums. Ross served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1948 in the Pacific Theater, and again from 1950 to 1951. He married shortly after leaving the army. During his service, he was posted in the military hospital where he accrued a collection of army medical books which, along with his habit of carrying his harmonicas in a doctor's bag, earned him the nickname "Doctor Ross."

Ross made his professional debut in 1942 at the age of seventeen, broadcasting on the radio station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. Ross regularly played parties and appeared on WROX and WDIA after his army service. In late 1951, Ross recorded his first 78 RPM record, "Country Clown," produced by Sam Phillips in Memphis and issued on the nascent Chess label. Ross would issue two more singles recorded with Phillips, both on Phillips' own Sun Records label, in 1953 and 1954.

                       

In October 1954, Ross moved his family to Flint, Michigan, and began working at a General Motors factory. This employment, which Ross held for the rest of his life, afforded him a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. In 1958, Ross recorded "Industrial Boogie," a Flint-centric take on "Boogie Chillen'" by John Lee Hooker, released on his own DIR imprint. 

From 1960 to 1963, Detroit-based Fortune Records released four singles by Ross, including 1961's "Cat Squirrel," which later brought Ross to the attention of rock audiences when the song was covered on the debut albums of both Cream and Jethro Tull. Following his Fortune singles, which were recorded with accompanists, Ross began recording most of his songs solo, providing vocals, guitar, hi-hat and bass drum played with foot pedals, and harmonica with a neck rack. The left-handed Ross added to his colorful presentation by playing a right-handed guitar upside down, with the bass strings on the bottom.

Ross's first album, Call the Doctor, was recorded as a one-man band and issued in August 1965. The same year, he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival. In 1971, Fourtune issued his second album, Doctor Ross the Harmonica Boss, recorded with the Disciples. The same year, the Flamin' Groovies covered Ross's "Boogie Disease"—albeit uncredited—under the title "Doctor Boogie" on their album Teenage Head. Ross recorded live albums in Germany and Switzerland in 1972. Two years later, Ross played on the Big Bear Records package tour and album American Blues Legends '74.

In 1981, Ross won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording for his appearance on Rare Blues, a 1980 compilation album of blues artists recorded in Chicago from 1963 to 1965. In the latter part of his career, Ross was a frequent fixture at blues festivals in both the United States and Europe. His last album was recorded live in 1991 at the Burnley Blues Festival in England.

Ross died at the age of 67 on May 28, 1993, while working at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan. After his death, a music scholarship in his name was established at Mott Community College in Flint.

(Edited from Wikipedia) 

Stuart Hamblen born October 20, 1908

                 

Stuart Hamblen (October 20, 1908 – March 8, 1989) was an American entertainer who in 1926 became one of radio's first singing cowboys, going on to become a singer, actor, radio show host and songwriter.

Carl Stuart Hamblen was born in Kellyville, Texas, four miles west of Jefferson, the son of itinerant Methodist preacher Dr. J.H. Hamblen.  As a boy, he spent much of his time traveling with his father on his evangelical pursuits, eventually taking the young Stuart to Hamlin, Texas, out Abilene way.  There he encountered the lore of the western cowboy, and his songs, as well as that of black field hands.  He attended McMurry College with intentions to become a teacher, but instead was drawn to music.  In 1926, Stuart Hamblen began singing on KFYO in Abilene, by some accounts making him radio’s first singing cowboy.  Three years later, he won a talent contest in Dallas, and used the cash prize to secure passage northward to Camden, New Jersey, home of the Victor Talking Machine Company, where he aimed to make some records, following much in the footsteps of his antecedent Carl T. Sprague.

On June 6, 1929, Hamblen made his recording debut with four sides for Victor, singing and strumming his guitar to “The Boy in Blue”, “Drifting Back to Dixie”, “When the Moon Shines Down Upon the Mountain”, and “The Big Rock Candy Mountains, No. 2”.  Thereafter, the young man went west, to California, where he became “Cowboy Joe” on Los Angeles’ KFI.  Meanwhile, he made a further ten sides for Victor through 1931, culminating with his own popular compositions “My Brown-Eyed Texas Rose” and “My Mary”, both later popularly covered by the the Light Crust Doughboys and Milton Brown.  

By the middle of the 1930s, Hamblen had formed a western band called his “Covered Wagon Jubilee” (or simply his “Gang”), which at one point included guitarist Wesley Tuttle, and with whom he recorded again, first making a pair of unreleased sides for the American Record Corporation in 1934, before signing with Decca for another nine that year and the next, of which all but one were released. He became a top Western singer- songwriter with "My Brown-Eyed Texas Rose", "Out On The Texas Plains", "Golden River", "My Mary", etc. His Decca sides proved to be his last records for nearly a decade, none of which ever seemed to sell very well, and he focused primarily on his radio work.

                                   

In his early career as a singing cowboy Hamblen composed the song "Texas Plains". It was this song that Patsy Montana reworked into her million-seller hit "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" (1935).

From the late 1930s through the ’40s, Hamblen also appeared in several motion pictures, several of which starred Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and John Wayne.  In 1938, he ran for Congress in California, as a Democrat.  During World War II, he wrote and sang some patriotic songs, and recorded again for Russian spy Boris Morros’ American Recording Artists (ARA) label in 1944. 

At the height of his singing cowboy fame, Stuart Hamblen built up quite a reputation as a hard drinker, gambler, and all-around hellraiser.  He’d get drunk, shoot out streetlights, and get sent to jail, only to have his sponsors bail him out so he could be on the radio the next day.  But that changed when Billy Graham came to Los Angeles on his first Crusade in 1949.  Hamblen’s wife persuaded him to attend the revival, and the reverend turned his life around.  Hamblen experienced a religious awakening, and announced the very next day on his radio program that he was “hitting the sawdust trail.”

Hamblen's recording career began anew in 1949, this time on Columbia Records. During 1949-54 he scored four self- penned Top 10 country hits: - I Won't Go Huntin' With You Jake (But I'll Go Chasin' Women). (Remember Me) I'm The One Who Loves You. A # 2 hit in 1950. It Is No Secret (What God Can Do). This was a pop hit for both Jo Stafford (# 15) and Bill Kenny and the Song Spinners (# 18) in 1951. This Ole House. Hamblen's own version (on RCA) went to # 2 on the country charts and # 26 on the pop charts, but in the version of Rosemary Clooney it topped the hit parade in both the USA and the UK (1954).

From then on out, Hamblen dedicated his work to sacred music and recording far more prolifically—and successfully—than ever before, with sessions for Columbia, RCA Victor, and Coral.  "This Ole House" was inspired during a hunting trip in the High Sierras with John Wayne and guide Monte Wolfe. The two men came upon what looked like an abandoned shack, wherein they found the body of an elderly man, apparently dead of natural causes. Hamblen came up with the lyrics to the song while riding horseback down the mountain, and composed the melody within a week. In addition to being a No. 1 hit for Clooney, it was later recorded by Roberta Sherwood and The Statler Brothers, among many others.

He also prominently supported the temperance movement, and, after his radio show was cancelled because he refused to do advertise beer, he renewed his political ambitions in 1952 with a presidential run on the Prohibition Party ticket, garnering 72,949 votes.  He also remained associated with Billy Graham, who credited much of his success to Hamblen’s timely conversion. In 1955, Hamblen had a hit single with "Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)" (B-side "The Lord is Counting on You"), performed along with his family under the name "The Cowboy Church Sunday School." Hamblen was accompanied by wife Suzy, daughters Veeva Suzanne and Obee Jane (Lisa), and two of the girls' friends. The song was recorded at the phonograph speed of 33 RPM so that, played back at the normal 7-inch–single speed of 45 RPM, it sounds like children singing. The tune hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts in 1955.

Hamblen was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Received the ACM Pioneer Award (1972) and was honoured with “Stuart Hamblen Day” Los Angeles on February 13, 1976 and was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6419 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 19, 1976. He also received the Gene Autry Golden Boot Award (1988).  Following a battle with brain cancer, Stuart Hamblen died at the age of eighty on March 8, 1989 in Santa Monica, California. He was posthumously Inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (1994),the Western Music Hall of Fame (1999), and the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame (2001).

(Edited from Old Time Blues, Wikipedia & This Is My Story)

Peter Tosh born 19 October, 1944

 Peter Tosh OM GCOT (19 October, 1944 – 11 September 1987) was a Jamaican musician and reggae singer. He cut a swathe through Jamaican music, both as a founding member of the Wailers and as a solo artist. He helped reggae cross over to mainstream audiences in the late '70s, touring with the Rolling Stones and scoring an international hit with a duet with Mick Jagger.

Tosh was born Winston Hubert McIntosh in Westmoreland, the westernmost parish of Jamaica. He was abandoned by his parents and "shuffled among relatives". When McIntosh was 15, his aunt died and he moved to Trenchtown in Kingston, Jamaica. McIntosh was educated in Bluefields up to age 17, then moved to Kingston to live with another aunt. He began an apprenticeship as a welder. McIntosh first learned guitar after watching a man in the country play a song that captivated him. McIntosh watched the man play the same song for half a day, memorizing everything his fingers were doing. McIntosh then picked up the guitar and played the song back to the man. The man then asked McIntosh who had taught him to play; McIntosh told him that he had.

During the early 1960s, as an aspiring musician, McIntosh went to vocal teacher Joe Higgs, who gave free music lessons to young people. Through his contact with Higgs, McIntosh met Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) and Neville O'Reilly Livingston (Bunny Wailer). He then changed his name to Peter Tosh and the trio started singing together in 1962. Higgs taught the trio to harmonise and while developing their music, they would often play on the street corners of Trenchtown. By 1964, Tosh, Marley, and Bunny had formed the Wailing Wailers, with falsetto singer Junior Braithwaite, and backup singers Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith. Initially, Tosh was the only one in the group who could play musical instruments. According to Bunny Wailer, Tosh was critical to the band because he was a self-taught guitarist and keyboardist, and thus became an inspiration for the other band members to learn to play. The four, buttressed by backing vocalists Cherry Green and Beverley Kelso, initially joined forces as the Teenagers before eventually settling on the moniker the Wailers.

                                   

Their debut single, "Simmer Down," was an instant hit, and the band's career was off and running. Throughout the remainder of the decade, Tosh lent his nimble guitar playing, singing, and occasional song writing talents to different iterations of the Wailers, as the group evolved from ska into instrumental tracks and eventually took on more of a rocksteady sound. In 1971, Tosh began pursuing a solo career in conjunction with his work with the Wailers. His debut single, "Maga Dog," was cut with producer Joe Gibbs. The single was a major hit and became a DJ favourite, and a series of additional Gibbs-produced Tosh tracks followed. As the Wailers' international breakthrough started, Tosh had less and less time to devote to his solo career. At the end of the Wailers' 1973 touring cycle, amid high tensions with Marley, Tosh quit the Wailers. There would be several reunion concerts over the next few years, but by 1975 the band was effectively over.

Tosh's first post-Wailers solo single, "Brand New Secondhand," was a new version of a song initially recorded by the Wailers for Lee Perry. However, it was Tosh's follow-up, "Legalize It," that packed the greatest punch and swiftly becoming a ganja anthem even though the single was slapped with a radio ban. In 1975, Tosh signed to the Columbia label in the U.S., and began work on his first solo album. Sessions were held in Kingston, at Treasure Isle studio, Miami, and even in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The resulting album, Legalize It, arrived in 1976 to acclaim both at home and abroad. With interest running high, Tosh set off on tour, accompanied by a band comprised of the Sly & Robbie rhythm section, keyboardists Earl "Wire" Lindo and Errol "Tarzan" Nelson, and guitarists Donald Kinsey and American Al Anderson. Sony/Legacy's Live & Dangerous album captured one of the band's steaming shows in Boston during this tour.

Like Marley, Tosh was moving effortlessly into a hybrid style that paid homage to American rock, but was still shot through with strong Jamaican roots. However, Tosh's lyrical vision was much darker than his former bandmate's. Sophomore album Equal Rights was even more uncompromising. Recording began just a few months after its predecessor was completed, and again featured the deep dread rhythms of Sly & Robbie, Earl Lindo's atmospheric keyboards, and Anderson's funky rock guitar, among a host of other guest Jamaican session men. Bunny Livingston also joined his former bandmate on backing vocals; Tosh himself had guest starred on Livingston's own solo album, 1976's Blackheart Man. More focused than Legalize It, Equal Rights revolved around the themes of the plight of Black people around the world, and particularly in South Africa and Rhodesia. This would be Tosh's final album for Columbia.

He signed on with the Rolling Stones' label, and that summer toured the States opening for the band. Mick Jagger and Tosh joined forces on a cover of the Temptations "(You Gotta Walk And) Don't Look Back," a song Tosh had previously recorded with the Wailers. Next album, Bush Doctor, was co-produced with Robbie Shakespeare and featured the Tamlins on backing vocals along with some of Jamaica's top session men and Keith Richards playing guitar on two tracks. Mystic Man arrived in 1979, and again featured a lighter touch, although songs like "Rumours of War" and "Jah Seh No" were as tough as anything Tosh had offered up in the past. 

Tosh returned in 1981 with Wanted Dread & Alive, which shot into the lower reaches of the U.S. chart, and he toured both the U.S. and Europe. After all that activity, the artist took the next year off, returning in 1983 with a cover of "Johnny B. Goode" that landed in the U.S. Top 50. The single was a taster for his new album, Mama Africa, which also arrived that year. Tosh then disappeared from the musical map for the next three years, and it wasn't until 1987 that a new single, "In My Song," appeared. In September, it was joined by the album No Nuclear War.

Staying at Tosh's home during this time was an old friend of the Wailers, Dennis Lobban. He left in a fury, however, after an argument with Tosh's girlfriend, Marlene Brown, returning a few days later on September 11 with a gang of friends. Lobban later claimed he had merely intended to threaten the artist, and perhaps rob him, but panicked. The end result was that Tosh and all six of his friends who were hanging out in the room were shot in the head. Tosh was killed, as was radio DJ Jeff "Free I" Dixon, and a third friend. Marlene Brown, ex-Soul Syndicate drummer Carlton "Santa" Davis, and two other friends miraculously survived. Lobban was arrested and sentenced to death.

Jamaica had forever lost one of its most talented artists and eloquent spokesmen. Tosh's legacy, however, remains undiminished, and since his death a number of compilations have appeared to safeguard his memory. Tosh was posthumously awarded Jamaica's fourth highest honour, the Order of Merit and was a Grand Companion of the Order of Distinction. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Bross Tounsend born October 18, 1933

Bross Townsend (October 18, 1933 – May 12, 2003) was an American jazz and blues pianist known for his versatile work in hard bop, stride, blues, and jump jazz.

Bross Elvie Townsend Jr. was born in Princeton, Kentucky, the son of Jean Calvert and Bross Townsend Sr. The family lived on Cave Street in Princeton. Bross started to play the piano at the age of seven.  He moved to Cleveland in 1951 and attended the Cleveland Institute of Music. 

He accompanied local singers such as Little Jimmy Scott and Wynonie Harris and played freelance from 1953 with Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Memphis Slim, and Jimmy Reed. He also played for singers such as Diana Ross, Big Maybelle, and Dinah Washington.

                      Here's "Summertime" from above album

                                   

Townsend contributed key work to multi-instrumentalist Warren Smith’s Composer’s Workshop Ensemble and played instruments including piano, organ, and harpsichord on Melvin Van Peebles' landmark production/soundtrack Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).

He made several tours of Europe as a solo performer. He was also a member of The 3B's, with Bob Cunningham and Bernard Purdie. They recorded two albums of jazz and blues standards in the mid-1990s, both of which featured, among other sidemen, Houston Person on tenor saxophone and Fred Smith on trumpet. 

The three B's had previously recorded together in 1985 on Bob Cunningham's only album as leader, Walking Bass. Purdie, Carrie Smith, and Bross Townsend had previously performed together at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 100 Years of Jazz and Blues festival in 1992. Townsend went blind in the middle of the 1990s but continued to perform, including as an accompanist with Norman Mapp.

Townsend died in Jamaica, New York at the age of 69. His performances can be heard on a number of recordings, including the albums I Love Jump Jazz, I've Got Music On My Mind, Dakota Station's album Darling Please Save Your Love for Me, and The Dynamic 3B's After Hours.

(Scant information edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Johnny Tucker born October 17, 1945

Johnny Tucker (October 17, 1945 - July 8, 2025) was an American blues drummer, vocalist and songwriter.

John Franklin Tucker was born in Fresno, California. He was the son of a Texas sharecropper and his wife, the tenth of nineteen children and the first born after the family’s move to California. His interest in music began on the family’s porch, listening to his father playing the guitar for his mother. He was first influenced by Lowell Fulson’s “Black Nights” and the music of James Brown, learning the music by singing along and playing to the rhythmic drum beats on cans.

 Although Tucker and his siblings spent their fair share of time picking cotton, his father’s encouragement and love of music enabled teenage Johnny to start work as a musician. “My daddy said, ‘You all play in a band and play down at the club. Y’all gonna make about $12 a night. You make $12, and y’all don’t have to go pick no cotton."

                                   

By 1964, he went to Los Angeles and took a job with Phillip Walker as a featured singer in a James Brown act. He later became Walker’s drummer and toured internationally with his band for 34 years.  Throughout his career, Tucker performed with top artists including Floyd Dixon, Robert Cray, Johnny Otis, The Five Royales, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Lowell Folson and Johnny Copeland. He travelled and performed extensively in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe.

His discography  includes five albums: Stranded, an album with James “Broadway” Thomas (1997); Why You Lookin' At Me? (2006, HighJohn Records); Seven Day Blues (2018, HighJohn Records), and 75 and Alive featuring Kid Ramos and The Allstars (2020, HighJohn Records). Having reached a milestone birthday on October 17, 2020, this also happened to be the day the album was recorded in partnership with Blue Heart Records. Bob Auerbach selected Kid Ramos to produce this collection of twelve originals. Ramos assembled The Allstars band, featuring Carl Sonny Leyland, John Bazz, Jason Lozano, Bob Corritore and Ron Dziubla. 

Kid Ramos and Johnny Tucker

Tucker met Ramos in 2006 at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix, when both musicians were part of Floyd Dixon’s historic last performance, which has been preserved and is available in a deluxe audio/video set entitled Time Brings About A Change. Seven Day Blues earned a Silver Medal in the Global Music Awards and Johnny was named Comeback Artist of the Year in the 29th Annual Living Blues Awards (2022).

On July 8, 2025 Johnny Tucker died due to complications from dementia. Thee world lost a gifted musician and one of the last of a generation of bluesmen who personally experienced the lifestyle and truly felt the traditional blues he performed for more than sixty years.  His rare commodity was as an electrifying vocalist & his song writing technique was even more unusual as he would he puts together lyrics in the studio, while listening to the band and singing words to fit the grooves.

(Edited from Blues. Gr & Discogs) 

Bob Newman born October 16, 1915

Bob Newman (October 16, 1915 - October 8, 1979) was a US country and boogie singer, song-writer and member of The Georgia Crackers. The Newman brothers hailed out of Cochran, Bleckley County, Georgia, the hamlet of Carey to be specific. Described as a hybrid between Jimmie Rodgers and the Sons of the Pioneers, the Georgia Crackers were one of the best of a myriad of country and western groups which toured the honky tonks, barn dance halls and hay rides of the South and the Mid-West during the 1930s and 1940s.

The oldest son of Walter L. and Mary F. Newman, Henry J. “Hank” Newman, was born in 1905. Marion Alonzo “Slim” Newman and Robert “Bob” Newman came along in five year intervals. Times were tough and the family moved to Hawkinsville in hopes of just  getting by. The boys loved the sound of the guitar and saved their woeful wages earned from cropping tobacco and mail ordered one. A coin toss decided who would play first. Hank won and became the lead guitar of “The Newman Boys.” Short in stature but tall in his vocal ability, Hank became the group leader and soloist. Slim, described as the “matinee idol of the trio,”  played second guitar. Bob chose the bass fiddle. At six feet two inches tall, Bob was as tall as his instrument. As the group clown, Bob entertained audiences with his “dead pan” humour and comedic songs.

Hank was the first to play as a professional. After stints at WCOC in Meridian, Mississippi and at KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana, Hank joined Slim at WRDW in Augusta, Georgia. In 1930, Hank and Slim made the momentous choice to move north to Ohio. The duet enjoyed successful engagements at WTAM in Cleveland before making Columbus their permanent home in 1931. The boys spent short periods playing on radio shows in Atlanta, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., Wheeling, W. Va. and in Reading and Lancaster in Pennsylvania. As “Hank & Slim,” the boy’s recording came in 1934 when they cut eight songs for the Vocalian label.

                                  

Bob joined the group at the age of twenty. By the end of the 1930s, the group changed their name to the “Georgia Crackers.” Touring through hundreds of Midwestern cities and towns, the group acquired a strong following. Within ten years, the Newman boys became the senior group of the cadre of musical groups on WHKC, the Mutual Radio affiliate in Columbus and were often compared to the “Sons of the Pioneers,” the definitive group of the country western ilk. The top country and western band in Ohio hired Winnie Waters as a novelty violinist and Hal Snyder as a guitarist.

Then came 1941 and World War II, and the group was forced to disband. As the war was ending, the Newmans reunited and added Allan Myers on lead guitar and Johnnie Spies on accordion. The late 1940s saw the acceleration of one of the most popular movie genres, the “singing cowboy pictures.” Columbia pictures hired the “Georgia Crackers” to sing and to act in its series of Durango Kid movies. Charles Starrett starred as “The Durango Kid” in three movies with the Newmans. The boys first picture came in 1946 in “The Fighting Frontiersmen.” The following year, the trio appeared in “South of the Chisolm Trail.”  In their final screen appearance, the Crackers appeared in “Desert Vigilante” in 1949. The Durango Kid movies resurrected the musical careers of the Crackers.

The boys had a regular radio show on KXLA in Pasadena, California. Slim ventured into a solo career. After two years of studio recording sessions, the group released twelve new songs. The boys returned to Columbus, where they appeared daily on WHKC and across the country on the Mutual Radio Network. The Crackers remained in Ohio and had their last recording session with the Sage label, until 1958 when Bob’s declining health and new music styles caused the demise of the group. Bob was experiencing serious health problems (he had a nerve crossed in his brain), but surgery put things to right. Bob, who was the songwriter of the group, was the last and perhaps the most successful Newman in his solo career. He recorded more than two dozen songs. One of his biggest hits was “Lonesome Truck Driver’s Blues.” Perhaps his most famous song came to popularity in the late 1960s. Bob also penned “The Leaf of Love,” which became a hit for Gene Autry.

After recovering from his surgery, Bob tried his luck in the Phoenix area, forming the Arizona Night Riders, with Red Embry and Billy Grammar. For a time things worked out well but no recordings are known by this formation. In the same year, Bob found work as a D.J. at KHAT, the top Country radio station in Phoenix. He called himself The Old Hilligan and had a popular Hillbilly show. But despite his popularity, Bob left KHAT after a dispute with management and fell on hard times. In 1970, he returned to Ohio for a brief reunion with Hank and Slim for a few shows, but he wound up broke and back in Phoenix, managing the trailer park in which he lived. He talked about making a new start in the music business, but nothing seemed to work. Hank died in 1978, Bob died from a heart attack a week shy of his 64th birthday, on October 8th, 1979 and the remaining Georgia Cracker, Slim died in 1984.

(Edited from an article by Scott B. Thompson Sr. @ Pieces of Our Past blog & Bear Family notes)