The Sons Of The Purple Sage was a Southern California western/cowboy act which had several permutations and a rather murky history. There was one version of the group which came about when western music star Foy Willing started up a band called the Riders Of The Purple Sage during World War Two, but had to settle differences with a guy named Buck Page, who had used the same name for his own band a decade earlier while playing on the East Coast. Both musicians gravitated towards Los Angeles to work in the TV and film industries, and Page renamed his group "The Sons Of The Purple Sage" while Willing retained use of the original name until he passed away in 1978. It looks like the Sons band passed into the budget-label demimonde, one of those situations where various fly-by-night labels used the band's name to record a number of albums, either because they won it through a business contract, or because no one was able to enforce the ownership of the name. (I welcome input from anyone with more concrete information...) At any rate, there were about a half-dozen albums on labels such as Golden Tone, Tops and Somerset, all released under the Sons Of The Purple Sage, with musicians such as Tex Fletcher and Bob Wheeler, as well cowgal singer Linna Shane. Here are the ones I know about...
The Sons Of The Purple Sage & Tex Fletcher "On The Trail" (FDR/Waldorf Music Hall, 1957-?) (LP)
Linna Shane & The Sons Of The Purple Sage "Western Favorites" (Tops Records, 1958-?) (LP)
Singer Linna Shane was actually the nom-de-twang of Linna Biatress Schames (1929-1988) a Southern California cowgal who recorded with at least one edition of the Sons Of The Purple Sage, a western/cowboy act which had several permutations. Apparently, Shane's husband also plays on this album, and she may have been the "girl" singer on some of their other albums... Her career remains a bit mysterious, but this album is fairly easy to track down.
The Sons Of The Purple Sage "At Western Campfires" (Somerset, 1959-?) (MP3)
This album also featured female vocals on some songs -- possibly also Linna Shane?
The Sons Of The Purple Sage "Cowboy Favorites" (Golden Tone, 1962-?) (LP)
This appears to be a reissue of the Tops album above, with two tracks deleted, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds " and "Rose Of San Antone."
