Charlie Phillips born 2 July 1937

Charlie Phillips (born July 2, 1937) is an American country music singer and songwriter. With his 4-octave range, he is one of the most soulful and accomplished singers to emerge from West Texas. 

A longtime figure on the Texas country music scene, Charlie Phillips hailed from the West Texas community of Farwell, not far from the Texas/New Mexico border. Phillips grew up in a farm family, but developed a keen interest in music as a boy, and was known to sing songs he'd written while plowing the fields. As a teenager, he developed enough confidence in his work to travel to Clovis, NM and play some of his tunes for producer Norman Petty, who had recorded hits for Buddy Holly and Buddy Knox. 

Petty was impressed with Phillips, and arranged for him to record some of his material; Buddy Holly played guitar and sang backup on some of Phillips' first sessions in Clovis, including a tune called "Sugartime." Petty brokered a record deal for Phillips with Coral Records, and "Sugartime" was the B-side of his debut single, "One Faded Rose," released in 1957. The record fared well on the country charts, and Coral placed the song "Sugartime" with another one of their acts, the McGuire Sisters, whose cover became a major pop hit and helped turn "Sugartime" into an oft-recorded standard. 

                                     

While Phillips' next single for Coral, "Be My Bride," enjoyed a successful run on the country charts, his next several releases, recorded in New York City, attracted little notice, and after his contract ran out with the label, he returned to Clovis and cut more sessions with Norman Petty. Columbia Records signed Phillips, and his first single for his new label, "I Guess I'll Never Learn," returned him to the upper reaches of the country charts. Phillips' next few sessions for Columbia were recorded in Nashville and fared well, though he grew dissatisfied with the quality of material his A&R men assigned to him; Phillips sang on the original publishing demo of "Welcome to My World," but Columbia felt it was a poor match for him and wouldn't allow him to record it for release, while Jim Reeves' later version became a smash. 

After leaving Columbia, Phillips cut a single for the Texas-based Longhorn Records label, "The Big Ball Is in Cowtown," which became a major regional hit; the record's success attracted the attention of producer Jimmy Bowen, who signed Phillips to a deal with Reprise Records. Phillips' Reprise debut, "Souvenirs of Sorrow," was climbing the charts when Reprise decided to get out of the country field, apparently on the orders of label founder Frank Sinatra, and they promptly dropped Phillips and deleted the record from their catalog. 

By this time, Phillips was enjoying a profitable sideline as a country radio DJ and owner of several radio stations, and rather than deal with the frustrations of the record game, he eased back on performing and put his emphasis on his radio career. 

In the '80s, Phillips teamed up with Norman Petty to record a new album, but Petty's death in 1984 halted the project before it could be completed, though the final Petty sessions eventually surfaced on an album called Full Circle. Phillips continued to perform in Texas in his spare time with a Western Swing band called Charlie Phillips & the Sugartimers. 

In 2011, the prestigious German reissue label Bear Family Records issued Sugartime, a collection of Phillips' singles of the '50s and ‘60s. 

(Edited from bio by Mark Deming @ AllMusic & Amarillo Globe News)

Stu Davis born 1 July 1921

Stu Davis (July 1, 1921 – March 25, 2007) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, storyteller and musician. Davis was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993. 

Stu Davis was born David Alexander Stewart in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, the son of Scottish immigrant parents. As a youth he was a collector of cowboy songs and ballads. After completing his education, Davis worked in an optical factory but in his spare time played guitar and wrote songs. He began his radio career at 17, when his winning a talent contest earned him a regular program. He and his brother Fred sang as the Harmony Boys on CKCK in Regina. It was at this time he adopted the stage-name Stu Davis. As his fame grew, he would also come to be known as 'Canada's Cowboy Troubadour'. His early career was interrupted by service in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during World War II; he resumed it in late 1942, following an Honourable Medical Discharge. 

He developed an early following in the United States from his Sonora and RCA Victor recordings (1940s) and several appearances on such American radio shows as Chicago's 'National Barn Dance', Minneapolis' 'Sunset Valley Barn Dance', New York's ‘Prairie Pals’ ‘Town Hall' and also the 'Grand Ole Opry' in Nashville. He had more than 300 songs that were published and were recorded by numerous singers, including Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, Wilf Carter, Ray Price, Julie Lynn, Slim Whitman, Jack Kingston, and Dale Warren (Sons of the Pioneers). His most successful was “What a Fool I Was (To Ever Let You Go)”, made a hit by Eddy Arnold and second only to Arnold's “Anytime” as the biggest selling country recording of 1948. 

Throughout the 50s, he maintained an hectic radio and touring schedule but he also became one of Canada’s first country pioneers of television. Several of his shows, including Rope Around The Sun, 'Rope Around the Sun', ‘Swing Your Partner’, 'Red River Jamboree', and 'Trail Riding Troubadour' and radio's ‘Prairie Trails’ and ‘Red River Barndance’ were watched by large audiences, while The Stu Davis Show ran for seven years on the CBC television network. One of the original songs most meaningful to him was written in 1959. That year, Davis was commissioned by the CBC to compose and perform a special western song of welcome to Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of the Royal Visit to the Calgary Stampede. 

                                    

In a career that spanned three decades, Davis recorded dozens of singles and more than twenty albums for Sonora, RCA Victor, Aragon, London, Dominion and various other labels. Some of his later albums were released under the Richmond label in the U.S. and his most recent collections were retrospectives.  In addition to his work with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Davis hosted programs for several private radio stations and regional networks across western Canada. At various times in the late 1940s and through the 1950s these broadcasts originated in the studios of CKCK and CKRM in Regina, Saskatchewan; CJCA, CFRN, and CKUA in Edmonton, Alberta; CKXL, CFCN, and CFAC in Calgary, Alberta; CKY and CKRC in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Through the years he shared stages with contemporary artists such as Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, Wilf Carter, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, and Elton Britt. Always appreciative of mentorship he had received early in his career from Wilf Carter and Hank Snow, Davis himself was very encouraging to younger performers; he was especially supportive of The Mercey Brothers, Jim Pirie, and Alfie Myhre, artists with whom he worked in the 1950s and '60s. 

Davis spent the latter part of his career performing from the radio and television studios of CBC Edmonton. In 1964, he began appearing on a weekly-televised network show with his sons Duane (b. 1944) and Derry (b. 1950). In 1967, he and Duane appeared in a Centennial Project, which celebrated Canada’s 100th year of confederation. They starred in Trail Riding Troubadour, the first colour televised series produced in Western Canada. The series was filmed at historic sites and told the story of Canada’s first century in story and song. 

In 1969 he returned to the recording scene briefly, releasing new material under the pseudonym, “Johnny Canuck”. His last television special was produced in 1970. On that program his closing with a popular song of the time seems to have foreshadowed his plans to retire from the music scene: ‘When the Snow is on the Roses’. 

Davis retired from performing shortly after his last television special, turning his attention to his cattle ranch, the Lazy SD, and to the management of various real estate holdings in Alberta. He died on March 25, 2007, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 

(Edited from Wikipedia,AllMusic & Merritt’s Walk Of Stars)