Our Monthly Club Meeting will be this Sunday,April 5th at the Homewood Public Library. 2:00 PM. WE WILL BE MEETING IN OUR OLD MEETING ROOM. ROOM 110.

*****Next club meeting will be May 3rd, 2009, the FIRST Sunday******
!!!!SPECIAL GUEST, JERRY “BOGGIE” MCCAIN WILL BE AT THE MAY MEETING!!!!

A big thanks to Paul Ozburn for leading our program last month. With the library providing one piece of equipment and Paul using his laptop, we were able to see a few of the many interesting websites that provide music, music information and help in researching musical information.

AT THIS MONTH’S MEETING
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT RECORDINGS IN ALABAMA MUSICAL HISTORY
When you begin researching the rich musical history of Alabama you come across people and recordings that you had no idea had an Alabama connection. Country, rock, garage, pop, soul, R & B, rockabilly, classical, gospel, we had and still have it all. Names that are synonymous with Alabama include Hank Williams, Alabama, Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, Bobby Goldsboro, Emmylou Harris, Arthur Alexander, Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Muscle Shoals Horns, Blind Boys of Alabama, Clarence Carter, Percy Sledge, W C Handy, Sonny James, Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Buffett and Sam Phillips. But there are so many others, such as Tammy Wynette, Hank Ballard, The Temptations, The Drifters, Louvin Brothers, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Hughes and Dinah Washington. Yes, I know I left out one of your favorites but I’ve got to move on.

How do you choose, define or nominate a single recording as the most significant? Not your favorite, but significant. It all depends on each individual’s criteria. Club member Andy Millard recently wrote an article for a UAB publication in which he selects his top 5 recordings. He has graciously allowed me to print his choices in our newsletter for your reading. Remember, he’s not saying the others have no significance, just that these are his top 5. Thanks, Andy for being so brave.

Five Significant Recordings in Alabama Musical History. From UAB article by BRC member Andy Millard

1) Hank Williams, Honky Tonkin’ (MGM) 1947.

This was a big hit for Hank and got him onto the Louisiana Hayride radio show. It highlights the intensity of his voice and some brilliant electric guitar playing from Zeke Turner, but mainly it’s the words; nobody wrote about drinking and carousing like Hank, and when he wrote “we’re goin to the city, to the city fair/if you go to the city, baby, you will find me there,” he was telling the history of Birmingham. (The Complete Hank Williams Box Set has a nifty live radio version, with Hank having fun and drawing out the words—perhaps he had something to drink that night...)

2) Maddox Brothers and Rose, New Muleskinner’s Blues, (4 Star) 1948.

The Maddox Brothers (and sister Rose) came from Boaz, Alabama but tore up the West Coast in the late 1940s with some wild country music and even wilder cowboy outfits. This track should dispel any misgivings about country music being at the heart of rock’n’roll—the song comes from Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country music, but the Maddox Bros start off at a fast shuffle that quickly turns into a stampede as they rock this song out, with some incisive guitar leads from Jimmy Winkle and Bud Duncan over a turbo charged rhythm section. The thing about the Maddox Brothers is that they always seemed to be having so much fun playing their music and this recording is no exception. (Bear records from Germany have issued the definitive boxed set of this group.)

3) Baker Knight, Bring My Cadillac Back (Kit-Decca) 1958.

The little record that almost made a rock star out of local boy Baker Knight and moved the epicenter of rock to Birmingham. Inspired by the playing of B.B. King, Baker Knight formed one of the first rock’n’roll bands in Birmingham, maybe the first, and this song was recorded downtown in Homer Milan’s studio with only one microphone.. There is an infectious, pounding beat provided by drummer Bill Weinstein, Shuler Brown on bass and the piano of A.D. Derby. Glenn Lane and Nat Toderice provide the obligatory honking saxophones that characterized early rock. It moves along at a rapid pace and has a catchy chorus. Birmingham-based Kit records loved it and sold the master to the major Decca label who moved 40,000 copies of “Bring My Cadillac back” in two weeks. But the big radio stations up North did not like to give Cadillac free advertising and stopped playing it. This might have been the end of the story for Baker, but he moved to Los Angeles and enjoyed a long and successful career as a songwriter. He wrote the beautiful “Lonesome Town” for Ricky Nelson.

4) The Premiers, Are You Alright (Big Top) 1962

The Premiers were the among the most popular rock bands of the sixties in Birmingham. They were formed in 1956 by Dale Karrh and Howard Tennyson, and were later joined by Pat Thornton and Bo Reynolds. All came from high schools from the west of town: Fairfield, Bessemer and Ensley. Their name came from a popular brand of drums. This historic live recording was made at one of the armory shows that brought rock music to kids in Birmingham, but this night was special and nobody who was there has ever forgotten it. It was hosted by Duke Rumore—the leading DJ in town and master of ceremonies that night. The point of the song was that you were supposed to answer “well, yeah” when the band asked if you were alright, but the fun was to yell out “Hell, yeah!” and this was what hundreds of kids did that night. Rock’n’roll was pretty innocent in those days………
(Both the Baker Knight and the Premiers’ songs are available on a CD produced by the Birmingham Record Collectors club called “Birmingham Rocks,” a great introduction to all the good music coming out of Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s).

5) The Drive-By Truckers, 18 Wheels of Love (Second Heaven) 2000.

An impressive piece of story telling by one of the most important, and critically acclaimed, bands to come out of Alabama in the last fifty years. The essence of Southern rock is authenticity, making it real, and it don’t come no realer than this. Patterson Hood tells it like it is and there is something in his music that strikes me as particularly Southern. At once traditional, but also clearly influenced by the indie spirit, this song shows why the Drive-By Truckers have been acclaimed in New York and London, but for the longest time the only place that would give them a gig in Birmingham was The Nick—and only on Monday nights! (This track comes from the wonderfully titled Alabama Ass Whupin’ album, also highly recommended is their Southern Rock Opera—an homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd and a time in our musical history “when it was okay to turn your three guitars up to 10.” Way to go, Patterson.)

So, do you have one that is better or one you feel has been left out? Come to this month’s club meeting and give your choice and defend it. I’ve got my list ready. See you there.

COMING TO THE MAY MEETING. JERRY “BOGGIE” MCCAIN WILL BE OUR GUEST ON MAY 3RD. COME AND HEAR FROM ONE OF THE WORLD’S RENOWNED BLUES HARMONICA PLAYERS.

JERRY WILL HAVE PICTURES TO AUTOGRAPH AND WILL HAVE A 2 CD SET OF 30 OF HIS HITS.

DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY. BRING A FRIEND.

See ya,

Charlie