Clifford Gilpin Snyder, aka Cliffie Stone (1917-1998) was a towering figure on the West Coast country scene, working as a sideman, producer, music publisher, show host, label executive and a highly influential A&R man over his multi-decade career. Born in Stockton, Stone made his way down to Los Angeles, where he first worked as big-band pop and jazz bass player, notably with Capitol Records star Freddie Slack. Turns out bass playing is a highly transferrable skill, and Stone soon switched teams to become a key figure in California's postwar twang boom. Stone played on countless recording sessions, worked in radio and TV -- notably on the popular Hollywood Barn Dance and as host of his own TV show, Hometown Jamboree -- and was responsible for signing and supporting major Capitol Records stars such as Tennessee Ernie Ford (who he also managed) and western swing honkytonker Hank Thompson. In later years Stone and his son Steve started their own label, Granite Records, and worked as independent producers, recording singles and albums for numerous lesser-known private-press artists. Steve Stone took an unusual path from the sound booth into the Top Forty charts: after over a decade working as a producer and engineer, he co-founded the "young country" band Highway 101, which scored several number one hits in the late 1980s.
Given his central role in the growth and professionalization of the West Coast country scene, it may be surprising to discover how un-twangy many of Cliffie Stone's own records actually were. His early singles included some fun hillbilly hits, but his later albums coincided with the "Nashville Sound" era, when commercial country artists pursued a pop-oriented pathway, and Stone either did his own version of a pop-country crossover, or specialized in un-hip sub-genres such as dance instrumentals or square dance music. Here's a quick look at his work...
Discography -- Albums
Cliffie Stone & His Barn Dance Orchestra "Waltzes" (Capitol Records, 1949) (78rpm) (EP)
Most of Cliffie Stone's professional career was spent with Capitol Records... The label was founded in 1942, and Stone worked as a sideman with one of their earliest stars, big band pianist Freddie Slack before becoming Capitol's West Coast country A&R guru in 1946. Along the way he cut some records of his own, though much of his solo output was either novelty material, or fusty instrumentals, as on this early album, which originally came out as a set of four 78rpm discs, and a few years later was reissued on 45s. Waltzes, anyone? Stone's early singles were better, but few have been collected onto compilation sets.
Cliffie Stone "The Party's On Me" (Capitol Records, 1958) (LP)
After cornering the market on pop-orchestral waltzes a decade earlier, Cliffie Stone went all in on dopey, poppy, dance music, with this goofy set of novelty numbers that seem largely pitched at little kids, or maybe, the label execs hoped, at the lucrative teen market. The big-band tinged tunes include material like "The Bunny Hop," "The Hokey Pokey," "Everybody Cha-Cha-Cha," and "Sugar Rock 'N Roll" (with adjacent singles such as "Jump Rope Boogie" also in the aether at the time...) The album features arrangements by producer Stone's longtime collaborator Billy Liebert, who released a few similar records of his own in the years to come. It's hopelessly kitschy and square, though there are surprising instrumental flourishes among the corny, overly perky vocal choruses -- could that guitar solo have been someone like Jimmy Bryant? We may never know. But generally speaking, twangfans can avoid this like the plague. It ain't country.
Cliffie Stone "Cool Cowboy" (Capitol Records, 1959) (LP)
(Produced by Ken Nelson)
The idea was, one assumes, projecting an image of cosmopolitan country cool, a hillbilly, perhaps, but with Sinatraesque pop-jazz cool. Or, well, maybe more of Billy May thing... but applied to the ridin'-the-range Sons Of The Pioneers western canon. Anyway, I get the concept, but the results ain't great. Maybe a little more twang? A little less of the perky, goofball Mitch Miller-style chorus? Less giddy, less trite arrangements? Or just a different concept altogether? I mean, I'm sure Cliffie Stone knew what he was doing, and he knew what would sell... Plus he had all those great in-house Capitol session players at his command, unnamed in the liner notes, but oh-so-familiar to your ears. It's just... well, kind of a shame that he never went back to his country roots and instead chose to make such ephemeral, glib kitsch. I'm sure this has its adherents, and I want to like this album, but it just doesn't hold up. Alas.
Cliffie Stone "Square Dance Promenade" (Capitol Records, 1960) (LP)
(Produced by Ken Nelson)
I have to confess, despite my sarcastic comments above, I find myself slightly more interested in Cliffie Stone's shift towards specializing in square dance records. It's a weird country sub-genre that seems wildly under-documented and (perhaps) unfairly dismissed by most country fans, even moreso than southern gospel. I mean, I personally am not into square dancing, and know very little about the genre, but it is instructive to discover how many real, serious country musicians pursued a sideline in square dance music, either as callers or fiddlers, and how many even made it into their full-time gig. It's a huge, legitimate subsection of country music history that is almost entirely overlooked by most people who aren't participating in the hobby themselves. So are any of Cliffie Stone's square dance albums any good? Geez, I dunno. You tell me!
Cliffie Stone "The Original Country Sing-A-Long" (Capitol Records, 1961) (LP)
I've seen this listed as a compilation album, notably on Discogs, though I think it was really just a regular Cliffie Stone album. The tracks are long singalong medleys of several dozen popular songs, very much in the Mitch Miller mode.
Cliffie Stone "Its Fun To Square Dance" (Capitol Records, 196--?) (LP)
Another collaboration with arranger Billy Liebert, also featuring calling by a fella named Dave Rumbaugh, who must have been a popular caller to land this gig, although I haven't found much information about his career.
Cliffie Stone "A 21-Gun Salute" (Showdown Records, 1999)
(Produced by Cliffie Stone & Steve Stone)
Discography -- Best-Ofs
Cliffie Stone "The Star Of The Hometown Jamboree" (Cowgirlboy Records, 1991-?) (LP)
This economically-packaged vinyl-only release was another feather in the cap for German country uber-collector Dagmar Binge, whose various reissue labels rescued countless classic country records from oblivion. This disc was the precursor to her Cattle Records CD (below) though there's no overlap between the two. Sixteen classic tracks, featuring contributions from the likes of Ernie Ford, Ferlin Husky, Eddie Kirk, Merle Travis, superpicker Speedy West, and even Stan Freberg(!) Eventually the rest of the world caught up to Cattle Records, and much of this material is spread out among the later best-of sets below.
Cliffie Stone/Various Artists "Radio Transcriptions: 1945-49" (Country Routes, 1996)
Of course, Cliffie Stone did a lot of live, on-air work including on his own long-running LA radio show. Here he is on old airshots, broadcasting with folks like Tex Atchison, Harold Hensley, Red Murrell, Jimmy Wakely and, of course, Tennessee Ernie Ford, whose career Stone managed early on, after he discovered him and brought him on board over at Capitol Records... It's all very scrappy and West Coast, and features a few dimly-remembered hillbilly stars of the late 'Forties... Nice stuff if you're into that time period!
Cliffie Stone "The Versatile Country Performer" (Cattle Records, 2003)
Sadly, ya gotta dig pretty hard to track down Cliffie Stone's actual, hillbilly-era country stuff... I mean, sure, he pops up on a bunch of other people's back-in-the-day recording sessions, but he kinda laid low when it came to cutting country stuff himself. This disc gathers twenty of his older Capitol tracks and has some legit twang on it, with some of the label's top pickers working inside of the immaculate Capitol studio house style. One thing you can say about Cliffie Stone, though, the guy sure had a soft spot for novelty material, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing back in the early 'Fifties, but it has its limits. Anyway, if you want to find some of Stone's actually fun stuff, this disc is about as good as you can get. And there are definitely some gems -- although sounding pretty polished, hillbilly oldies like "Don't Do It Darlin'," "T-N-Teasin' Me" and "Red,White And Blue (Over You)" are certainly better than later drek like "The Bunny Hop." Other highlights include an all-star session on "Philosophy" (a talking blues vocal jam, featuring Ernie Ford, Eddie Kirk and Merle Travis) and gal actor Judy Hayden giving it her all on a hyper-hick but awful slick "He's A Real Gone Oakie," (A regular on Cliffie Stone's show, she also cut a 78 guitarist Merle Travis, who she married in 1948.) Also instructive to see a bunch of late 1940s tunes with Billy Liebert backing Stone on accordion -- those guys really went back a long ways. This isn't a comprehensive collection, but it's still pretty cool.
Cliffie Stone "Cliffie Stone Sings The Grunt Song" (Jasmine Records, 2003)
A lot of overlap between this UK collector's set and the Bear Family and Cattle Records compilations... Kind of a six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other kinda situation. In terms of audio quality, my ears prefer Cattle Records first, Bear Family second, and Jasmine third... But they're all good options.
Cliffie Stone "Barracuda" (Bear Family Records, 2021)
Cattle Records might have gotten the jump on Bear Family with regards to Cliffie Stone's old stuff, but Bear Family made up for it in the end... This generously-programmed, 31-song set includes a hefty dose of hte tracks collected above, concentrating on Stone's earlier, more vigorous material, with plenty of uptempo hillbilly bop and boogie, along with some fun faux-rock send-ups such as "Barracuda" and the like. A pity June Hayden's performance on "He's A Real Gone Oakie" didn't make the grade, but I guess they had to drawn the line somewhere.
Cliffie Stone "The Legendary Capitol Records Double Bassist And More!" (Atomicat Records, 2021)
As mentioned above, Cliffie Stone worked as a sideman, bandleader and arranger on a lot of Capitol sessions, backing numerous other artists. This collection is fun because it collects a bunch of his more vigorous work backing other artists, of course including stars he was closely associated with such as Hank Thompson and Merle Travis, but also hillbilly firebrands like Jimmie Dolan, The Farmer Boys and Skeets McDonald, as well as some zippy instrumental sessions with superpicker Speedy West, and even a few tracks backing pop/big band singers like Jeanne Gayle and Helen O'Connell.
Cliffie Stone "Hollywood Hillbilly: The Singles Collection, 1945-55" (Acrobat Records, 2023)
Buyer beware on this one. The UK-based Acrobat label took full advantage of European copyright laws and rushed a ton of bargain-priced reissues onto the market when all that stuff from the 1940s and 'Fifties fell into the public domain, but while this 2-CD set promises a lot of bang for your buck, Acrobat's track record on sound quality isn't always that good. Just sayin.
Links
Hick Music Index
