Make plans to attend this month’s meeting and enjoy the music, food and fellowship that we experience at each meeting. Our annual show is just 1 week away and we need YOUR help. Let’s all pitch in and be a part in the southeast’s largest record/cd show. Help is still needed at the entrance, the kitchen and the service counter.

Our guest at this months meeting will be Tim Hollis. Tim has written many books and will be bringing 2 of them to discuss. They are MOUSE TRACKS, a history of the Disneyland Recording Company and BIRMINGHAM BROADCASTING, a history of TV and radio in Birmingham. With Tim will be Ben McKinnon. Ben started working at WSGN in 1955 and was general manager for many years. I’m sure he will have some interesting stories to share with us. There may be a “mystery guest” but there is no confirmation from him at this time. Don’t miss it. Tim will also have some of his books at the meeting in case you would like to purchase one or two.

Scheduled at our cd/record show this year will be the release of a cd of soul music which has Birmingham roots. Here’s an article from BRC member John Ciba, the producer of the cd, explaining the background.
Birmingham Sound: the Soul of Neal Hemphill Vol. 1 focuses on Birmingham's rich soul music history during the 60s and 70s. The material is culled from the archives of studio owner Neal Hemphill who founded and operated the original Sound of Birmingham and Hemphill Studios in Midfield, AL. The compilation features 23 amazing songs and features the performances of Roscoe Robinson, Ralph ‘Soul’ Jackson, David Sea, Eddie Steele, Frederick Knight, Bill Flippo, Pat Peterman, Sam Dees, Lois Barber, and more, recorded with Hemphill.

Simply stated, Neal Hemphill was a blue-collar worker with a deep passion for music. But peeling away the layers of his history reveals so much more. In a time when other studios focused solely on country, gospel or jingles, the Sound of Birmingham was the only with an open door policy, willing to record any type of music by anybody who happened to stop by.

Some called Neal an innovator – a man in constant search of a sound or "the sound", experimenting heavily with strange microphone placements, homemade echo chambers, and unique instrumentation like vacuum cleaners and 2x4"s. The downbeat on the gold record ‘I've Been Lonely for So Long’ was a 2x4" being hit on a drum stool.

Some simply knew him as a man with a heart and mind as open as the doors of his studio, which he built in the basement of his plumbing shop on Bessemer Super Highway in the working-class suburb of Midfield in the mid-60s. Neal was often more excited about the songs coming in than those who created them and worked as hard if not harder to get them cut while constantly pushing the writers to produce new material. Neal welcomed the demo sessions of young songwriters such as Frederick Knight, Roger Hallmark, Daniel Peterman, Jerry Weaver, Sam Dees, and Robert Dobyne, assembling a solid, staffed rhythm section modeled after those in Muscle Shoals and Memphis to back them up. This group also featured some great young talent like Glen Wood, Randy Carmichael, Ed Massey, Don Tinsley, Wayne Perkins (who later worked with Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Rolling Stones and Bob Marley), Ray Reach, and many more. Sessions were engineered by Neal himself, studio design prodigy Gaston Nichols, Tommy Thompson, Don Moseley, or even Frederick Knight and Jerry Weaver.

If Neal was happy with a production he would most likely release it on one of his many imprints: Sound of Birmingham, Crown LTD, or Hemphill Records, work the single to regional radio, and send copies to contacts at Atlantic, Bell, and the Lowery Group for consideration. By 1970, the Sound of Birmingham was a studio where the music was paramount, the staff was talented, and an open-door policy still reigned. And it was gaining quite a reputation.

The relationships Neal created with regional DJs like Hal Hodgens, Shelley Stewart, and Ed Mendell brought in more talent and interest. Neal partnered with WVOK DJ Hal Hodgens and Hal became the promotions director to build the studio’s profile throughout the South. Roscoe Robinson, Ralph 'Soul' Jackson, Cortez Greer, Chuck Strong, and others began frequenting the basement of Hemphill Plumbing. In 1972, recording began on Frederick Knight’s debut LP ‘I’ve Been Lonely for So Long’. The single reached number eight on Billboard’s R&B chart, number twenty-seven on the pop chart, and a Stax gold record was awarded to all involved. This success couldn’t have come at a better time for the Sound of Birmingham, when, with Bill Lowery expressing interest in investing in the studio, Neal wanted to build a new, larger recording facility next door to the shop. The new studio was equipped with the 24-track API board from Electric Lady Land and saw steady sessions working toward a follow-up gold record. When Neal suffered a heart attack in 1975 the fate of the studio was uncertain. One year later, unsure if he would return to the recording business, Neal sold the studio to engineer Don Moseley. Don ran the Sound of Birmingham at the Midfield location for a year until moving it to the south side of Birmingham where it is still a functioning studio.
By 1976, Neal had fully recovered and was eager to not only continue the plumbing business, but to fill the empty studio space in the lot next door. Hemphill Studios opened that same year under the same set of principles as the Sound of Birmingham, and many writers and artists like Roger Hallmark, Ralph Jackson, and Sam Frazier returned. Neal continued working with the catalog from his past studio as well as taking on new clients like West Coast producer Cleo Page and the World Famous Coasters. He also wanted to create a signature sound and the B’ham Rhythm Section, led by A.D. Cummins, was formed. A genre-bending LP by the group was slated for release in the late 1970s. The first single, a remake of Frederick Knight’s ‘I’ve Been Lonely for So Long’, was released on Neal’s new Black Kat imprint. Black Kat Records was distributed by the elusive Chicago distribution company Track Down who did very little to help push the releases. In the meantime, Neal licensed the B’ham Rhythm Section single to Sound Stage Seven who destroyed the plan to release the album on Black Kat/Track Down, as well as the already pressed LPs to maximize the promotion of the SS7 version of the single. Over the next few years, many sessions and singles were cut. The Crown LTD. imprint was resurrected and Roscoe Robinson produced 45s on David Sea and Roger Hallmark. One of the last things Neal worked on was a proto hip-hop 45 on an artist, June Bug, in 1984 with the help of Daniel Peterman.

Neal Hemphill Sr. passed away in 1985, leaving a rich legacy of Southern music. Frederick Knight later wrote the disco anthem ‘Ring my Bell’, Sam Dees penned ‘One in a Million You’ recorded by Larry Graham, David Sea currently tours with the Dennis Edward’s Temptations Review, and most studios in the city are run by somebody that worked with Neal at some point in their careers. From that studio in a basement on Bessemer Super Highway, Neal Hemphill built not only influence in the world of Southern music, but respect. If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in Birmingham, in the company of seasoned musicians, just mention Neal’s name and watch the smiles emerge and the heads nod. The words, “never a nicer man in the music industry,” are sure to be uttered, and sincerely meant.

-John Ciba, July 2006.
The Rabbit Factory, Inc.

As we wind up our trip back in time checking out some of the historical dates and facts that was rock & roll, we look at 1958. With many rock hits to his credit, Little Richard began attending classes on January 28 at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. Elvis enters the U. S. Army. Elvis’ mother passes away. Billboard debuts its Hot 100 singles chart. The first #1 song on the first chart was Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool”. RCA introduces its first stereo LP. As far as the music, it still rocked. Buddy Holly and the Crickets released their Chirping Crickets LP, Jerry Lee Lewis released “Breathless” & “Great Balls Of Fire”, there was Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock”, Chuck Berry gave us “Johnny B. Goode”, Eddie Cochran released “Summertime Blues”, and more songs from artists such as The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, The Champs, The Royal Teens, Danny & The Juniors and even Christmas rocked with Brenda Lee’s “Rocking’ Around The Christmas Tree”. Some future stars began performing in 1958. The Bee Gees, Marvin Gaye and Phil Spector were some of them. Also, Otis Williams & The Distants began performing. Three members of this group would join with two members of the Primes to form The Temptations.

We will end our trip looking at the events of 1959. Jimi Hendrix buys his first electric guitar. The Coaters song, “Charlie Brown”, is banned for a short period of time by the BBC for the use of the word “spitball”. Bill Haley & The Comets leave Decca Records and sign with Warner Brothers. Barry Gordy, Jr. purchases the property for Hitsville USA and incorporates Tamla Records. The First Grammy’s are awarded. The only artists that we would consider from the rock & roll genre that would win are The Champs. Their song “Tequila” won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance. Artists that had hit songs were Bobby Darin, The Everly Brothers, Duane Eddy, Wilbert Harrison, Bobby Rydell, The Fleetwoods, Connie Francis, Lloyd Price, Ray Charles and Brenda Lee. Some say that rock & roll as we knew it will be changing soon. We will have beach music, girl groups, psych, heavy metal, teen idols, or as some people say the Bobby’s music, the British Invasion and teeners. Maybe February 3, 1959 was the day the music died. The death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper would be an event of 1959 that would shock fans everywhere. During January of 1959, Buddy Holly made some acoustic recordings in his New York apartment. Those would be his last. These songs included “Peggy Sue Got Married," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," "Learning the Game," "What to Do," "That's What They Say" and "That Makes it Tough."

I would like to end this journey by sharing a story that gives a definition to early rock & roll. When inventory is taken where I work, we close down and everyone brings cd’s that are played all day long. Most of these cd’s have music that are from the early rock & roll time. A young man, probably 19-20, was helping us 2 years ago and “had “ to listen to all our music. I asked him one day what he thought about the music we played. He said, “There sure were a lot of songs about love.” He’s right. We were in love with cars, motorcycles, skateboards, dancing, school, summer, the beach, friends, movies, TV, radio, clothes and our sweethearts. The music a generation grows up with is usually the “best” ever. I’m glad I had the chance to grow up listening to a genre of music that was about love and was fun.

See ya,
Charlie