Sunday, October 21, 2007
Halloween,Tazmen, Fay Simmons
Next week is my annual Halloween show on KVMR FM. I usually go beyond the call of just Halloween, and play a few very odd records, as well as some of the usual holiday 45's. Of course, I play many out of the ordinary songs, too. Every year I add a few more to my collection, in spite of the statement in last weeks blog about the discs becoming more expensive.
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Who are the Tazmen? I found a nice instrumental called "The Chicken" on the Taz label. It appears to have also been issued on ABC, and there are a couple of additional Taz releases. I see a reference about Joe Rumoro on guitar, but that's it. The Taz label was out of Chicago.
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I see a new CD of Fay Simmons has been issued. No info on her is known, or at least made known to me yet. I have not even been able to find a picture of her. The CD says R&B Mystery woman, and I couldn't agree more.
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I finally have another radio show on Rockit Radio. I just don't get them produced as often as I would like. When I do, I send two shows, and it is usually a couple of months before the next shows are posted. Rockit Radio now has an agreement with a radio station in Belleville, Illinois (Metro East), where the shows will be re-broadcast. That should be interesting. And, to have an AM radio station playing some fairly obscure tracks, is a step in the right direction for the medium. We hope to also get some exposure for Rockit in the Metro East area.
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Who are the Tazmen? I found a nice instrumental called "The Chicken" on the Taz label. It appears to have also been issued on ABC, and there are a couple of additional Taz releases. I see a reference about Joe Rumoro on guitar, but that's it. The Taz label was out of Chicago.
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I see a new CD of Fay Simmons has been issued. No info on her is known, or at least made known to me yet. I have not even been able to find a picture of her. The CD says R&B Mystery woman, and I couldn't agree more.
.
I finally have another radio show on Rockit Radio. I just don't get them produced as often as I would like. When I do, I send two shows, and it is usually a couple of months before the next shows are posted. Rockit Radio now has an agreement with a radio station in Belleville, Illinois (Metro East), where the shows will be re-broadcast. That should be interesting. And, to have an AM radio station playing some fairly obscure tracks, is a step in the right direction for the medium. We hope to also get some exposure for Rockit in the Metro East area.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Ruth Elliot, Jimmy Smith, Red Foley
I had a chance to talk with Ruth Elliot this last week. Ruth was one member of the trio that backed up Ted Newman on Plaything. She is a staple of the music scene in Phoenix, Arizona, and currently has a big band that she she is in charge of and plays piano for. A wealth of information, she accidentally ran into Ted Newman at his 50th high school reunion. I have updated my Ted Newman page with some interesting information she provided.
Another week without too many additions to my record collection. I did find an early Jimmy Smith instrumental. It was released on the Power label (112), and may be the first issue on the label. It was part of the Bruce label, and the releases before and after it, are Bruce label records. I would then date it from 1954. It pre-dates the Blue Note issues of Smith, but I can't confirm if it was his first record as a single artist shown on the label. I only have a few Power releases in my collection, which includes the Royal Teens and the Shytones. The latter is not related to the doo wop group, and is an instrumental.
The Firebirds, a group from the UK, sent me another CD of their material. Previously, they sent Doo Wop volume 1, which is a really great CD, and mostly uptempo - just the way I like it. This CD is a mixture of several styles, and is called Dance Girl Dance. The last track, Crazy Little Guitar Man, is shown on the booklet as unknown. I associate it with Red Foley, though I'm sure others have recorded it. I saw a great vintage clip of it on Youtube, and even though it's Red Foley, known for classic C+W, the record flat rocks!
So I am a Halloween record collector. Well, I thought I was. The records are getting so expensive to buy, that it may be pricing me out of that collector category. The only way to buy them now is to try and find them buried in 45 RPM lists on the internet. Ebay has just too many collectors willing to fork over a ton of dough. So, it's time to get creative!
Another week without too many additions to my record collection. I did find an early Jimmy Smith instrumental. It was released on the Power label (112), and may be the first issue on the label. It was part of the Bruce label, and the releases before and after it, are Bruce label records. I would then date it from 1954. It pre-dates the Blue Note issues of Smith, but I can't confirm if it was his first record as a single artist shown on the label. I only have a few Power releases in my collection, which includes the Royal Teens and the Shytones. The latter is not related to the doo wop group, and is an instrumental.
The Firebirds, a group from the UK, sent me another CD of their material. Previously, they sent Doo Wop volume 1, which is a really great CD, and mostly uptempo - just the way I like it. This CD is a mixture of several styles, and is called Dance Girl Dance. The last track, Crazy Little Guitar Man, is shown on the booklet as unknown. I associate it with Red Foley, though I'm sure others have recorded it. I saw a great vintage clip of it on Youtube, and even though it's Red Foley, known for classic C+W, the record flat rocks!
So I am a Halloween record collector. Well, I thought I was. The records are getting so expensive to buy, that it may be pricing me out of that collector category. The only way to buy them now is to try and find them buried in 45 RPM lists on the internet. Ebay has just too many collectors willing to fork over a ton of dough. So, it's time to get creative!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
G Clefs, Yed Newman, Jenny Wolfe And The Pack
This week, just a couple of uploads to the color radio pages. The G Clefs second and final release on the Regina label, Angel Listen To Me / Nobody But Betty, from 1964, is on my G Clefs page. It is nothing like their original hits for Pilgrim, but the G Clefs evolved as time went on, and continued to try and make music that was current with the times. Their last recordings were done in 1966.
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Also added was the 1980's LP that Ted Newman recorded on the Continent label called I've Been To Town. You can hear some of Ted's current work on CDBaby. He is another artist that has evolved in a completely different direction than what he started out playing. His current folk/cowboy/country recordings are quite good, and deserve a wider audience.
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Speaking of new music, I had a CD given to me at the radio station that is amazing. It's a new group that is singing some old songs, along with a few new ones. It's basically a rock and roll album, but is quite good. When I read the liner notes and found out they were all 13- 16 years old, I was amazed! The female lead is on the lower end of the age scale, and belts out the best female led version of Shakin All Over, that I have ever heard. The name of the group is called Jenny Wolfe And The Pack. You can hear clips of a few songs at their website. Check out room 51, too. That is a band that needs some exposure.
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By now you probably saw the report concerning the woman that was found guilty of illegal downloads. She was using kazaa, the file sharing program, and got popped for 220K. One of the reports I read mentioned she could have settled out of court for around 5K, but refused. I doubt this really puts a damper on the illegal downloads, but It might make people think a little harder about using some of the file sharing programs to do it. Here is one of many articles that have covered the event.
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Also added was the 1980's LP that Ted Newman recorded on the Continent label called I've Been To Town. You can hear some of Ted's current work on CDBaby. He is another artist that has evolved in a completely different direction than what he started out playing. His current folk/cowboy/country recordings are quite good, and deserve a wider audience.
.
Speaking of new music, I had a CD given to me at the radio station that is amazing. It's a new group that is singing some old songs, along with a few new ones. It's basically a rock and roll album, but is quite good. When I read the liner notes and found out they were all 13- 16 years old, I was amazed! The female lead is on the lower end of the age scale, and belts out the best female led version of Shakin All Over, that I have ever heard. The name of the group is called Jenny Wolfe And The Pack. You can hear clips of a few songs at their website. Check out room 51, too. That is a band that needs some exposure.
.
By now you probably saw the report concerning the woman that was found guilty of illegal downloads. She was using kazaa, the file sharing program, and got popped for 220K. One of the reports I read mentioned she could have settled out of court for around 5K, but refused. I doubt this really puts a damper on the illegal downloads, but It might make people think a little harder about using some of the file sharing programs to do it. Here is one of many articles that have covered the event.
