Pat Martino born 25 August 1944

Pat Martino (August 25, 1944 – November 1, 2021) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. He has been cited as one of the greatest guitarists in jazz. 

Martino who was born Patrick Carmen Azzara, spent his childhood in South Philadelphia, his father was a singer and sometime guitarist who performed in local nightspots. Inspired by Montgomery and Les Paul, Martino began playing guitar at the age of 12, eventually studying with the revered teacher Dennis Sandole, whose students included such future jazz giants as John Coltrane. In his early teens he played with friends like the saxophonist-turned organist Charles Earland and then-drummer, later-pop-idol Bobby Rydell. 

Determined to meet his jazz idols, Martino set out for Harlem at the young age of 15 and quickly settled into a busy schedule playing with masters of the Hammond B-3 organ. Traces of those soul-jazz origins can still be heard on the guitarist's 1967 debut for Prestige, El Hombre, featuring Philly organist Trudy Pitts. The album's unique lineup finds Martino already pushing into new terrain however, with a guitar/flute out front and a percussion-heavy rhythm section supplying powerful propulsion for the leader's quicksilver lines. 

By the following year he was stretching further into new inspirations, as evidenced by the exploratory Baiyina (The Clear Evidence). The album incorporated instruments and sounds from Indian classical music as Martino forged a kind of impassioned transcendentalism, merging his fervent soloing and muscular swing with meditative drones. 

By the mid-'70s, rock and jazz had collided with the birth of fusion — Miles Davis was breaking new ground with his heady electric bands, and groups like Return To Forever and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra were finding success far beyond jazz audiences. Martino delved into the scene with "Starbright" and the landmark "Joyous Lake," bolstering his trademark sound with serrated distortion and cosmic synths, placing his meticulous fury in an appropriately electrifying setting. 

                                   

In 1980, Martino suffered a hemorrhaged arteriovenous malformation that caused a "near-fatal seizure". The resulting surgery, which removed part of his brain, left him with amnesia and no recollection or knowledge of his career or how to play the instrument that made him successful. He said he came out of surgery with complete forgetfulness, and had to learn to focus on the present rather than the past or the possible future.  Martino spent several years relearning the instrument, listening back to his own recordings and struggling with depression and the grueling process of recovering his skills. He reemerged in 1987 with The Return, which showcased a miraculous virtuosity seemingly undiminished by his brush with death and amnesia. 

Martino continued to tour and record for the next three decades, often playing in hard bop or organ combo settings that harkened back to his early career, while displaying a tasteful mastery reflecting his blissful, in-the-moment outlook. Having recaptured a number of memories in the intervening years, in 2011 he released his autobiography, Here and Now! His last release was the straight-ahead Formidable in 2017. 

Martino often spoke in aphorisms, responding to direct questions with a wandering curiosity that would circuitously wind its way to something resembling an answer. While he rejected any particular philosophy or spiritual practice, he viewed his music and life from a holistic perspective that refused to divorce art from existence. 

"I'm never not working," he insisted in 2008. "To me, work is play. Creative productivity is the most playful, childish state of mind that I reside within on a constant basis. I can't relate to vacations, because I have nothing to vacate. I'm alive and I'm happy. And thank god, I'm less occupied with thoughts about the future, which doesn't exist, or memories that are weighty." 

Martino was married to Ayako Asahi Martino; they met in Tokyo, Japan in 1995. He died on November 1, 2021, at the age of 77. The guitarist had been suffering from a chronic respiratory disorder since 2018, breathing with oxygen support and unable to play since a tour of Italy that November. Jazz music educator Wolf Marshall said Martino was "a legend, a national treasure, and an inspiration to musicians and music lovers of all stripes". 

(Edited from National Public Radio obit by Shaun Brady & Wikipedia)

Bobby Sisco born 24 August 1932

Bobby Sisco (24 August, 1932 - 17 July 2005) was an American rockabilly singer and composer.

Born Robert W. Sisco in Bolivar, Tennessee, he attended Central High School in Bolivar and graduated alongside his close friend Ramsey Kearney, the singer who cut "Rock the Bop" on Jaxon and co-wrote "Emotions" for Brenda Lee. The family, including two sisters, listened to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights and Sisco's mother taught him how to play guitar.

In 1948, Sisco the Singing Farmboy hustled up his own sponsors for two slots on radio WTJS in Jackson, Tennessee, By 1949 he was playing in Jackson's rawest honky-tonks with Carl Perkins and his brothers. Shows on the more powerful WDXI increased Sisco's exposure but when his father quit the farm Sisco followed his parents to Calumet, Michigan and found the atmospheric "Sin City" nightclub scene to his liking. Uncle John Ellis, the premier DJ on WJOB in Hammond, Indiana, introduced Sisco to Mar-Vel Records owner, Harry Glenn, and in 1955 Sisco cut "Honky Tonkin' Rhythm" at Chicago's Universal Studios. It was Bill McCall of 4-Star helped finance the session in return for the publishing rights. The record did well in the mid-West and Sisco made personal appearances with Johnny Cash, George Jones and Little Jimmy Dickens.

Sisco made contact with Leonard Chess in 1956. "Rockabilly had started coming in strong and I was gonna get in on the trend like everybody else. I set up an interview with Chess and they were all enthused. They wanted to make another Bill Haley out of me. They had big plans. I only had 'Tall, Dark and Handsome Man' and they told me ' Well go home and write three more songs and we'll do our first session.' I had kinda got baffled and didn't come up with anything I really liked except 'Go, Go, Go' which I liked real well. So I wrote that and they said ' Well come on down. We need to get something out.' They set up the studio time at Universal and they furnished the musicians except Johnny Hammers who was my lead guitar player. He was working with me on my road tours and my nightclub shows. He knew my material and fitted in with that twangy rock guitar so they let him play on my session. I worked harder on that session that any session I've ever been in. I worked until I was completely exhausted. And we got two sides cut."

                                    

Leonard Chess signed Sisco to a one-year contract with a one-year option, but his tenure at Chess was very short-lived. According to Sisco, someone told him that Chess had given his song ("Tall, Dark and Handsome Man") to Chuck Berry. "I didn't pay attention and thought for sure they'd let him have my song and hadn't released mine. I got very upset and we had a very serious argument. They finally released my record but they nullified my contract." Harry Glenn tried to rectify matters but Leonard Chess said he wouldn't lift a finger to help Sisco who had cussed him out and called him a lot of bad names. "I thought they'd stolen my song" said Sisco whose informant had confused "Tall, Dark and Handsome Man" with Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man". "Anyway", added Sisco, "I shouldn't have done what I done."

Following his disassociation from Chess, Sisco pitched a couple of Nashville-recorded masters to Vee-Jay Records. The band on "Are You the Type" included Floyd Cramer, Grady Martin and Buddy Harman. He also recorded several fine C&W songs for Harry Glenn's Glenn label during the same period and, in the mid-1960s, he fetched up on Brave, a company owned by Marvin Rainwater and Bill Guess. Sisco helped to write "The Old Gang's Gone" recorded by Marvin Rainwater and Lefty Frizzell.

During the 1970's Sisco headed his own company, Wesco, and made a slew of singles for that imprint. He promoted "Long Shaggy Hair" on a show with Buford Pusser whose life story, "Walking Tall", was filmed among the clubs and bars in Jackson where Sisco had played as a teenager. From there his trail goes cold until his death on 17 July 2005, Munster, Lake County, Indiana. His ashes were cattered at his favorite fishing spot in the state of Tennessee. 

(Edited from This Is My Story)

Jim Ford born 23 August 1941

James Henry Ford (August 23, 1941 – November 18, 2007)was an American singer-songwriter originally from Johnson County, Kentucky. 

Originally from New Orleans, Jim Ford lost interest in his academic pursuits and, in 1966, drifted out to California. He was passing through L.A. on his way to the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco when he met two session musicians, Pat and Lolly Vegas. The Native American rockers  (who later formed the commercially successful Redbone)  had worked on the Shindig television show at the time, and had already recorded their Pat and Lolly Vegas at the Haunted House album for Mercury. 

After hearing his songwriting talent firsthand, the Vegas brothers brought Ford to the attention of Del-Fi Records honcho Bob Keane, known around the L.A. music scene for his "open-door policy." Keane released a couple of Ford's singles on Del-Fi's Mustang label, both of which sank without a trace. Del-Fi/Bronco recording artist Viola Wills also recorded one of his songs. Along with Pat and Lolly Vegas, Ford wrote the P.J. Proby hit "Niki Hoeky" (it peaked at number 23 on Billboard's pop charts in January 1967), which Ford's former girlfriend Bobbie Gentry also sang on one of her later albums. 

                                   

In 1969, Ford got the opportunity to record his debut album. Harlan County (released on the Sundown label, a small subsidiary of White Whale) featured funky, midtempo country and R&B-flavored rockers with a driving Muscle Shoals-style rhythm section, with backing and arrangements by the Vegas brothers and Gene Page. Most of Ford's original songs had a lyrical narrative recalling the hardship of growing up in the coal-mining country of Harlan County, Kentucky. Among the various highlights are his fuzz-drenched cover version of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," his take on Delaney & Bonnie's hip-shake boogie "Long Road Ahead," and a remake of the swampy classic "I'm Gonna Make Her Love Me ('Til the Cows Come Home)." 

The UK singer Sylvia McNeill recorded "Ugly Man" in 1970, the only known version, as Ford's could not be found in his archives. Nick Lowe has cited Jim Ford as his biggest musical influence, and Sly Stone once called him "the baddest white man on the planet."   In 1971, Ford's manager, Si Waronker (founder of Liberty Records), flew his artist to London, where he was booked into Olympic Studios to record a follow-up album. This time he was backed by pub rockers Brinsley Schwartz (they later recorded "Niki Hoeky" and Ford's "Ju Ju Man"; Nick Lowe also recorded Ford's "36 Inches High" for his Jesus of Cool album). After three days of sessions, the band failed to keep up to the challenge of backing Ford, so Waronker brought in Joe Cocker's Grease Band, but they too didn't work out. As the project never did quite meet up to everyone's expectations, it was eventually shelved. The tapes for these sessions have reportedly disappeared. 

Ford returned to the U.S. and his career never really took off as expected. He wrote songs for Bobby Womack in 1972 (including the wonderful "Harry Hippie"), and later worked with friend Sly Stone (he even moved into Stone's Holmby Hills home for a while), but after the early '70s, Ford slipped out of sight. Harlan County was reissued on the British Edsel label in 1997 but it took a full decade for a true Jim Ford revival to materialize. After beating a cocaine addiction in 2004, Ford found Jesus and started recording again. He was a recluse at that time, but L-P Anderson of Sweden's Sonic Magazine managed to track him down in his California trailer home in April 2006. 

In 2007, Bear Family reissued Harlan County and various unreleased songs and singles as the acclaimed The Sounds of Our Time compilation. It was enough of a success to spur rumors of Ford coming out of seclusion for a genuine comeback in 2008, but on November 18, 2007 he was found dead in his trailer home in Fort Bragg, California. 

Bear Family's second collection, Point of No Return, was in production at the time of his death, and this collection of rarities, singles, demos, and unreleased cuts appeared in the spring of 2008. The following year, Bear Family repurposed these two compilations as Big Mouth USA: The Unissued Paramount Album and The Unissued Capitol Album. In 2011, Bear Family released Demolition Expert, a collection of unheard acoustic demos. Five years later, Bear Family once again dipped into Ford's unheard numbers for Allergic to Love, a collection of songs he recorded in the '80s. 

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

Rolf Billberg born 22 August 1930

Rolf Billberg (22 August 1930 – 17 August 1966) was a Swedish alto saxophone player active during the 1950s and 1960s. 

Rolf Billberg was born in the southern Swedish city of Lund. He grew up on the west coast, living in Gothenburg with his mother and went to school there. At the age of 17 he began on clarinet with the Uddevalla millitary band and remained for four years. He went over to tenor saxophone and worked in Visby, Borås and Gothenburg before coming to Stockholm in 1954 to join the Simon Brehm orchestra. During 1954-1955 Billberg worked with baritone saxist Lars Gullin and also made recordings together with him. 

He worked in Copenhagen at the National Scala first with Lasse Wanderyd's orchestra (1955), and later with the Ib Glindemann orchestra (1956). All this time Billberg was playing tenor saxophone. However, he appeared at American clubs in Germany and France with a quintet led by an Austrian vibraphonist, Vera Auer (1956-1957) and during this period changed to alto saxophone. 

                      Here’s “Moonlight In Vermont” from above LP

                                   

In September 1957 he joined the Carl-Henrik Norin orchestra at 'Nalen' in Stockholm. He continued to work frequently in Copenhagen with, amongst others, the Jazz Quintet 60 and the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. In Sweden he appeared with Lars Gullin in a variety of groups and also worked a great deal with trumpeter Jan Allan. 

It's interesting to note how four extremely important personalities put their mark on Billberg's music. From Charlie Parker he learned the whole foundation of modern jazz and self-confidence; Stan Getz showed him the importance of knowing the horn inside out; Lee Konitz gave him the airy, almost vibratoless sound and a further insight into the superimposition of chords, and Lars Gullin contributed with his deep love and feeling for Swedish folk-lore. 

During the 1960s, Billberg appeared on several recordings with Lars Gullin and Nils Lindberg, and led a quintet together with trumpeter Jan Allan. During the spring of 1966 after settling in Malmö, he was featured soloist and section leader for the saxophones of the Danish Radio Jazz Group, led by Ib Glindemann. That summer he spent, as he had spent others, helping out at his mother's holliday hotel on the island of Käringön in the Gothenburg archipaelago. Billberg became suddenly and seriously ill, and died on the way to hospital in Uddevalla, Sweden on August 17th. 1966 just short of his thirty sixth birthday. 

The liner notes to the CD Rare Danish Recordings 1956-1957 states that: According to the most credible jazz witnesses in Denmark and Sweden...Billberg was an extroverted artist with a gluttonous appetite for life and all it has to offer – including intoxicants, which came to affect both his emotional and physical health - but never stopped his love of playing in all tempos and keys. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Carl-Erik Lindgren quote & Discogs)

 

Kenny Rogers born 21 August 1938

Kenny Rogers ( August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences, but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.  His fame and career spanned multiple genres - jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time. 

Kenneth Donald Rogers grew up poor in a Houston housing project. In 1956, while in high school, he started his first band, the Scholars. He performed “That Crazy Feeling,” his first solo single (1957), on the hugely popular music television show American Bandstand. His talent was recognized immediately, and he was signed to a small local label, Carlton Records, in 1958. In 1966 he joined the New Christy Minstrels, a folk group started by Randy Sparks in 1961. After a year Rogers and a few other Minstrels left to form their own ensemble, the First Edition. Rogers found his way into the spotlight, and the band was soon referred to as Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. 

The band played a mix of country, pop, and psychedelic music and had a few hits, including “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (written by Mel Tillis), “Reuben James,” and “Something’s Burning.” The band also hosted Rollin’ on the River (1971–73), a variety show that took place on a Mississippi riverboat set and featured guests such as musicians Kris Kristofferson, B.B. King, and Al Green; actor Jason Robards; and comedians Cheech and Chong. 

                                   

In the late 1970s Rogers hit his stride. Going solo again, he had his first major hit with the ballad “Lucille,” which won him a Grammy Award for best male country vocal performance (1977). “Lucille” was named song of the year and single of the year by the Academy of Country Music and single of the year by the Country Music Association and also made its way up the pop music charts, proving that Rogers had enormous crossover appeal. In 1978 he released his album The Gambler, the title song of which won him another Grammy for best male country vocal performance. As many of his number-one hits did in the 1970s, “The Gambler” appeared on the pop music charts as well as on the country music charts. “The Gambler” told such a vivid story that it was turned into a made-for-television movie (1980) starring Rogers, who played an expert gambler teaching a young protégé the tricks of the trade. The movie led to four sequels, all of which featured Rogers. 

He collaborated with a number of other country singers, notably Dottie West on “Every Time Two Fools Collide” (1978), “All I Ever Need Is You” (1979), and “What Are We Doin’ in Love” (1981) and Dolly Parton on the number-one crossover hit “Islands in the Stream” (1983). He teamed up with Parton again for a duet of the title song on his 2013 album You Can’t Make Old Friends. He also recorded songs with pop musicians Kim Carnes (“Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” [1980]) and Sheena Easton (“We’ve Got Tonight” [1983]). His collaboration with Ronnie Milsap on “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine” (1987) topped the country music charts. 

Rogers’s string of hits tapered off in the 1990s, though he continued to record and release albums regularly, almost yearly. In 1998 he started his own record label, Dreamcatcher Entertainment, which released his albums of the next decade. In 2011 Rogers branched out and recorded a gospel album, The Love of God (rereleased in 2012 as Amazing Grace). 

In addition to writing and performing a vast collection of music over several decades, in 1978 Rogers coauthored a self-help book, Making It with Music: Kenny Rogers’ Guide to the Music Business, with Len Epand. He also published an autobiography, Luck or Something Like It—A Memoir (2012). Among his numerous awards, Rogers received the 2013 Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Music Association, and he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame the same year. Rogers embarked on a farewell world tour in 2016 that he intended to conclude with a final concert in August 2018, but poor health forced him to cut the tour short in April of that year. 

Rogers's seven-decade career wound down in 2017, as he encountered health problems that included a diagnosis of bladder cancer. On March 20, 2020, Rogers died March 20, 2020, at the age of 81, while under hospice care at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He was interred in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. 

(Edited from Britannica & Wikipedia) 

 

Freddie Hughes born 20 August 1943

Freddie Hughes (August 20, 1943 – January 18, 2022) was an American gospel, soul, and R&B singer, perhaps best known for his 1968 song, "Send My Baby Back". 

Fred Willie Hughes Jr. was born in Berkeley, California. His parents came to the Bay Area from Dallas/Fort Worth Texas. His father Fred W Hughes Senior worked as a longshoreman and his mother Lola Mae Anderson was a singer and missionary at the Church of God In Christ in Oakland. It was in this church where Freddie's qualities as a singer were noticed for the first time when he was only five years old. At the age of 12, Fred sang in a choir, that included Betty Watson and Edwin Hawkins. It took him a few more years, though, to have his first hit single. 

The Four Rivers (Freddie top right)

In his early years Freddie played in quite a few outfits including the Holidays, Five Disciples, The Markeets, Casanova Two, Music City Soul Brothers and The Four Rivers. Subsequently he played with quite a lot of musicians (including Lonnie Hewitt, Wylie Trass, Johnny Talbot to name a few) and recorded several songs with them. Some of these were released as singles/albums and some never found a release. Freddie started to play on Oakland's club circuit around 1955 and in 1958 he released his first 45 with the Markeets with whom he released five more 45s and three albums on Melatone Records.

                                   

In 1968 he recorded his first hit single "Send My Baby Back" which was released nationally by San Francisco's Wee Records and internationally by Scepter-Wand Records. It was written by Lonnie Hewitt and Ernest Marbray, and issued as a single with "Where's My Baby" on the B-side. The single appeared on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart, peaking at No. 20 that year. It also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at No. 94.As a matter of fact many people still attribute “Send My Baby Back”  with the name of Fred Hughes who is a singer from L.A. and recorded the hit "Oo Wee Baby, I Love You" for the famous Vee-Jay label. 

The mix-up between Freddie Hughes and Fred Hughes is quite a problem if you want to find out which songs were really recorded by Freddie Hughes as many online discographies/biographies are a total mess because they cannot distinguish beween Freddie Hughes and Fred Hughes. Releases such as the bootleg CD "Fred Hughes And His Groups" only help to contribute to this confusion as both artist are mixed-up again. Nevertheless the CD includes tracks Freddie recorded with several bands mentioned above, e.g. the Four Rivers' "I Confess," four selections from his stint with the Music City Soul Brothers, and "We Got to Keep On" by Casanova Two. Solo tracks include "Send My Baby Back," "My Baby Came Back," and "Where's My Baby". 

In addition Freddie Hughes has been working with such greats as Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Etta James, Ike & Tina Turner and the Bobby Murray Band (band leader & guitarist for Etta James) and has performed in venues, from the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area to New York as well as London, France, Italy, Switzerland and Holland. 

In 1997 Freddie Hughes released the album "The Soul of Freddie Hughes" which was produced by Marlin Hunter and Chris Burns. The CD contains songs co-written by Hughes, together with Burns and Hunter. “The Soul Of Freddie Hughes” was recorded at the House of Hughes in Atlanta Ga. and released on the IFGABM Label. 

The International Alpha Band

Jeanne Doan, who is a lyricst and published poet, and Freddie Hughes formed The International Alpha Band in November 1999 for the main purpose to book Freddie in public performances and keep his singing career alive.  2002 saw the release of the album "The Future Is Now," a marvelous soul album that shows Freddie at his best. On this CD Freddie is joined by his son Derrick Hughes singing “The Woman I Want” co-written by Hughes and Burns. Other songs include “Trying To Be A Better Man” which was written by Freddie for his son; "Freedom" and "Baby I Believe In You" where the marvelous Mz. Dee joins Freddie on vocals and many more outstanding soul tunes. 

In 2009 Freddie was inducted into the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame. He remained active and performed in numerous clubs right until his death.  In early January 2022, Hughes was hospitalized with pneumonia and COVID-19. He died on January 18, 2022, at age 78, from leukemia and COVID-19 complications at Kaiser Oakland Medical Center in Oakland, California. 

(Edited from Bay Area Bands, Wikipedia & Soulwalking)

Al Ferrier born 19 August 1935

Al Ferrier, Sr. (born August 19, 1935 in Olla, Louisiana; died January 6, 2015 in Natchitoches, Louisiana) was an American Rockabilly, country and gospel singer and guitarist, hailed as "King of Louisiana Rockabilly". 

Born Alfous Glenn Ferrier in Montgomery, Louisiana into a large musical family (seven brothers, three sisters), Ferrier grew up listening to country music. Jimmie Rodgers and Grandpa Jones were among his favourites, and later especially Hank Williams, whose influence is audible in Al's very intense singing. At 13, he quit school to work in a logging camp with his brothers. By then, he had already been playing guitar for five years. Two older brothers, Brian and Warren, were both musicians. Brian was an exceptionally talented guitarist, who had played briefly with Hank Thompson's band. 

Eddie Schuler

As soon as Al was old enough, the three Ferriers formed a country trio, Al Ferrier & the Boppin' Billies, with Al on Vocals and rhythm guitar, Brian on electric lead guitar and Warren on fiddle and double bass. They played dances around South Louisiana. Local Cajun star Jimmy Newman introduced the Ferriers to Eddie Shuler, a TV repair man who had built a primitive recording studio to the rear of his repair shop in Lake Charles. It was here that Ferrier made his first recordings for the Goldband label, in March 1955. Shuler gave them Clarence Garlow's recently recorded "No No Baby" for their first record. The R&B song was transformed to raw swampy rockabilly with a wonderful chugging rhythm from Al and Brian's guitars. For reasons best known to himself, Eddie Shuler waited a full year before releasing "No No Baby", coupled with "I'll Never Do Any Wrong", a straight country song.

                                    

"No No Baby" sold well locally and was followed by a second single in mid- 1956, "My Baby Done Gone Away”, again coupling a rockabilly number with a more traditional hillbilly song. This time there weren't too many takers and Shuler did not release any further Al Ferrier singles in the 1950s, though he had some great tracks in the can, like "Let's Go Boppin' Tonight", which is now considered a rockabilly classic. Disappointed by Shuler's lack of promotion, Ferrier jumped at the chance to record for J.D. (Jay) Miller, at his better equipped studio in Crowley. "Let's Go Boppin' Tonight" was rerecorded in a more polished version, which came out on Excello 2105 in early 1957 under the title "Hey Baby". Some of the lyrics had been changed and Miller's name replaced Shuler's as the co-writer (with Al). 

By this time Warren Ferrier had left the band to follow religious pursuits, but Brian and Al both play guitar on the Excello single, together with Miller's usual studio crew, including Katie Webster on piano and Warren Storm on percussion. The flip of "Hey Baby", "I'm the Man" displayed an obvious Johnny Cash influence. Ferrier stayed with Jay Miller for the remainder of the 1950s, with further recordings being released on Miller's own labels (Rocko, Zynn), in a more main- stream rock n roll style. 

After many years of gigging, including four appearances on the Louisiana Hayride, Al retired professionally in the early 1960s, but still played in a family setting. But not long thereafter Eddie Shuler, realizing that his back catalogue had become very collectible, began dipping into his unreleased masters, with the result that quite a few "new" Goldband singles by Al hit the market, including the original "Let's Go Boppin' Tonight". In many cases, these 1950s recordings had been overdubbed with an electric bass and a piano. After Shuler had succeeded in tracking Al down, he resigned Ferrier to a Goldband contract and brought him back into the studio for new recordings, which were mixed with unissued 1950s tracks for release on many singles and two LP's. 

The European rockabilly revival of the 1970s also inspired J.D. Miller to call on Al and in October 1975, he recorded him and his "New Boppin' Billies" at his studio for the LP "From 1955 to 1975 - The Back Sound Of Rockabilly" (Showtime LP 1000), which included previously unissued 1950s material as well. Miller also signed a licensing deal with the British Flyright label, resulting in two LP releases of 1950s recordings. Unfortunately, Brian Ferrier, to whose talent Al was heavily indebted, died in October 1981, aged only 49. 

From 1980 onwards, Al has performed many times at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. His European popularity brought him to Holland in 1987, where he performed at the Rockhouse Rock 'n' Roll Meeting in Zwolle and cut a new album for Rockhouse Records, called "Dixie". This was soon followed by an LP for Floyd Soileau's Jin label. In 1996 Al decided to turn his back on secular music and started performing and recording gospel music, still for Goldband, with the album Help Me Keep the Faith. In 2012 Al was inducted in the Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame’ 

Al died January 6 2015 in Natchitoches, Louisiana at the age of 79 years. Although commercial success continued to elude Ferrier, his recorded legacy is authentic and important. 

(Edited from This Is My story)