Mike Auldridge - see artist discography

Don Barnes & The Countrymen "And For Our Next Request..." (Strings Records, 1974) (LP)
Another one of those singing lawmen that we know and love... Don C. Barnes was the Sheriff of Frederick County, Maryland for nearly a decade, from 1974-1982. During the same period, he led a twang band called The Countrymen, playing legion halls and county fair gigs, also cutting several albums, at least two of which featured his wife, Debbie Williams. The band on this disc included steel player Junior Blank, along with Ron Free, Ralph Gann, Steve McCoy and Freddy Spielman...

Don Barnes & The Countrymen "Country Cookin' " (J.R.B. Sound Studios, 197--?) (LP)
(Produced by John Barr)

Don Barnes & Debbie Williams "Nashville 709" (Strings Records, 1977-?) (LP)
(Produced by Jack Solomon)
Don Barnes was the sheriff of Frederick, Maryland, and also apparently a decent country musician, moonlighting as the leader of the house band of the local Silver Dollar Lounge, with singer Debbie Williams fronting his band The Countrymen. One of my honky-tonk heroes, Melba Montgomery, championed this Maryland-based duo, and got her husband Jack Solomon to produce their album. The record was sponsored by radio station WWEB...

Don Barnes & Debbie Williams "Yesterday And Today" (Strings Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Billy Troy)

Bird Dog & The Road Kings "Momma Where Am I" (Hat Records, 1980-?) (LP)
(Produced by Bird Dog Wheeler)
Indie twang from Maryland's Eastern Shore... Lead singer and principal songwriter Henry Byrd Wheeler grew up in Easton, and started the group in 1974, meeting lead guitar player Billy West the following year, in '75, eventually leading to the lineup on this album. Along with Wheeler and West, the Road Kings included Rick Hester on bass and Gary Parker on drums. This was probably the apex of their career, though Wheeler headed for Nashville a few years later, and plugged away in Music City from 1984-88 while keeping some version of the band alive. He returned to Maryland and got a job as a sales manager for a regional beer distribution company, where he worked for over thirty years while also running the band for fun.

Jeanie C & The Country Caravan "First Time" (Lark Records, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by John Major)
According to the liner notes, this group from Frederick County, Maryland was led by singer Jeanie Class and first formed in 1975. They performed steadily throughout the region, with perhaps the band's high point being its selection to represent the county during Maryland's inaugural ceremonies for President Jimmy Carter. At the time this album came out they were holding down a gig at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Annapolis and like many local bands, seem to have had a shifting lineup over the years. The group recording on this album included Keith Carter on drums, Juggy Donovan (piano), Dale Higgs (bass), Dennis Jackson (drums), Buck Lighthorn (lead guitar), Bill Shanholzer (steel guitar), Bobby Weddle (vocals) and Buddy Weddle on rhythm guitar. Their repertoire included popular hits such as "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body" and Gene Watson's "Farewell Party," as well as oldies like "Crazy," "Statue Of A Fool" and "Sea Cruise," as well as relatively obscure tunes such as Delbert McClinton's "Two More Bottles Of Wine," which I presume they picked up from Emmylou Harris. Not sure how long Ms. Class stayed with the band, but this disc is a fine legacy; a different lineup, still featuring Buddy Weddle, recorded an album as Country Caravan a few years later, in 1985.

Frank Campbell "...And The Country Blues" (RMT Studios, 19--?) (LP)
Acoustic twang, harkening back to the Depression-era style of Jimmie Rodgers. Dunno much about Frank Campbell, though my attention was caught by the presence of Tracy Schwartz of the New Lost City Rambler on fiddle. He joins Mr. Campbell, along with Jimmy Campbell (bass), Leroy Campbell (flattop guitar), Tom Neal (banjo), and Dick Staber on mandolin in a bluegrass-y/old timey set, recorded at RMT Studios, in Baltimore, Maryland. This was a pretty no-frills production, with just the front cover photo and a plain white back.

Catoctin Mountain Boys "Rock The Mountain" (Stonehouse Records, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by Rick Hannon)
An album of all-original material from an indie twangband out of Smithsburg, Maryland... The group included bassist Bob Brown, Joe Brown on rhythm guitar, Gordon Connor (drums), Shane Swope (mandolin), and Dave Lingg playing lead guitar... Lingg was the bands primary songwriter, penning all the songs on Side One, while Side Two has a mix of composers including Joe Brown and others, and seems to be all original material as well. Songs include tunes like "Cowboys Never Cry," "Rock The Mountain" and "One Heartbreak Short Of Love" -- a lot of songs about love and heartbreak, actually, doubtless capturing the songwriters at a certain stage in life... Not a ton of info about these guys online, though the band seems to have kept together over the years and was doing local shows in the 2010's, with basically the same lineup along with a new member or two. This appears to be their only album, but ya never know, right?

The Cold Cash Band "The Cold Cash Band" (19--?) (LP)
This was the lone album by an East Coast twangband, led by Mrs. June L. Naylor (1930-2018) and her husband Marvin Naylor, of Havre de Grace, Maryland. According to her obituary, Mrs. Naylor had sung in local bands at American Legion and VFW halls for several years before forming her first country group, The Time Piece Band, which apparently also recorded an album, on a trip to Nashville. Local newspaper plugs show the Cold Cash Band playing small local shows in the early 1980s, and it's possible that a band in the 2000s with the same name was a continuation of this group. Though this was definitely a country band, Mrs. Naylor switched gears to become a gospel singer in 1987, and recorded a CD-era album under her own name, titled Songs Of Praise.

The Country Caravan "Proud To Be An American" (Major Recording Studio, 1985) (LP)
(Produced by Buddy Weddle)
A fairly subpar country road show from Frederick, Maryland... Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want to sound mean or anything, and I will say that the musicians in the band were pretty solid... It's really the two main vocalists, Ralph Gann and Lana Gladhill, who I find a little difficult. They're both kinda showboaters, and this causes problems... On duets they either try to one-up one another -- which leads to embarrassing excess -- or they harmonize really poorly... Then on their solo numbers there's a similar lack of restraint, with each of them over-emoting like nobody's business. The height of these horrors is their dueling vocals on a horrendous rendition of "House Of The Rising Sun," which pop-culture mockers on the interwebs will want to check out, and the closing version of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" is also pretty terrible, but it's a pretty terrible song, so that's not totally their fault. Several tracks seem to be originals , including "Leave My Man Alone (Devil Woman)" which is basically a remake of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," as well as "Our Forbidden Love" and "The Love You Gave To Me." This last one is an old-school country song featuring lead vocals by another guy in the band, producer Buddy Weddle, who sounds maybe a bit older than the other musicians, and is a much more enjoyable singer. Bassist Dave Durkovic sings a tune called "It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometime," which is actually an okay song as well. Mostly, though, this is a record you can safely skip, unless you're into the whole ironic-hipster schadenfreude thing.

The Countrymen "And For Our Next Request..." (Strings Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Don Barnes & Junior Blank)
One of several bands called The Countrymen, this outfit was from the great state of Maryland and was tied to singer/sheriff Don Barnes (see above). A whole bunch of cover tunes here, crowd pleasers all, I'm sure. Stuff by Tom T. Hall, Marty Robbins, Mel Tillis, yet one more version of "Orange Blossom Special," a medley of old rock'n'roll hits and, perhaps most intriguing, a cover of the Steeler's Wheel rock song, "Stuck In The Middle."

The Countrymen "In Concert" (Strings Records, 1980) (LP)
(Producer not listed)
This group featured Don Barnes on lead vocals, Junior Blank (pedal steel), Ron Free (guitar), Ralph Gann (also guitar), Dave Michael (drums), and Steve McCoy (bass) playing a very straightforward, rollicking, thumpy bar-band style. They open with a cover of the Mel Tillis/Webb Pierce oldie, "I Ain't Never," then move onto "Ramblin' Man" and standards such as "You Gave Me A Mountain" and "Statue Of A Fool." The inclusion of Billy Crash Craddock's "Rub It In" and Joe Stampley's chart-topping "Roll On Big Mama" place this undated disc most likely in the vicinity of 1975-76 or thereabouts. The otherwise-uninformative liner notes tell us that this was their third album, though I have no information about the first two... yet. Good stuff! Pure, unpretentious bar-band/county fair cover-song country.

Crystal Blue "Changing Seasons" (Crystal Blue Records, 1977) (LP)
(Produced by Shelley Abbott & Paul Birch)
This Maryland twangband was a showcase for songwriter Shelley Abbott, who penned all but three of the tracks, the exceptions being instrumentals composed by her steel player Darcy Harding. Abbott had cut a couple of singles before going all out and recording this album, and had built up a strong regional following that kept her doing live shows well into the 21st century. (Note: the songs from her first single, back in 1975, are not included on this set, so don't forget them when you do the reissue!) The lineup here includes Shelley Abbott (rhythm guitar), Pete Collins (drums) Frank Hughes (bass), Darcy Harding (steel guitar), Dean McNew on lead guitar. Harding was a highly regarded picker on the East Coast scene, and apparently later led a band called Cherokee; I'm not sure if Dean McNew was the same guy that led a band called Country Gold in Des Moines Iowa. Shelley Abbott was a popular performer who kept plugging away for years, doing gigs in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. A profile in a local newspaper mentioned several other albums following this one, but I haven't been able to track any others down yet.

The Crystalaires "First Edition" (Major Recording Studios/Lark Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by John Major)
A covers band from Annapolis, Maryland, featuring Bobby Bales on lead guitar, Billy Barber (drums), Oden Cullender (lead vocals), Earl Lutz (saxophone), John Oldfather (bass), and Olen Whisman playing rhythm guitar. They were mostly into country classics like "Four Walls," "Statue Of A Fool" and "Rocky Top" along with rock'n'roll oldies such as "Pretty Woman," "Runaround Sue" and "Wipeout," as well as yet another version of "Proud Mary." Given the retrodelic set list, you'd thing this was an early 'Seventies offering, though it actually came out in 1980.

Danny Denver "Recorded Live At The Stardust Inn" (Go-Go Records, 19--?) (LP)
(Produced by Sam Ghoers)
A native of Hartville, South Carolina and one-time '50s rockabilly rebel, as a young man Danny Denver (1937-2003) spent some time in New York working as a demo musician and also moved to Maryland to pursue a career as a live performer in the Washington, DC area. Here he assembled a band that most notably included hotshot guitarist Roy Buchanan, who later became one of the top urban blues artists of the 1970s and '80s. Buchanan is part of the compact backing band on this private album, along with Link Wray's former bassist Shorty Horton (1921-1974) and drummer Dicky Maughn, who are called the "Three Sound Masters" on the back cover. The disc was pressed as a souvenir of the Danny Denver Band's gig at a place called the Stardust Inn, a venue in Waldorf, Maryland, and showcases Denver doing a mix of country and pop material presented in two album side-length tracks. Denver's act at the time seems to have relied heavily on show biz impersonations: instead of song titles, the albums sides are broken up by the names of celebrities being imitated: Johnny Cash, Webb Pierce, Buddy Holly, Dean Martin, Otis Redding, etc., with "Danny Denver" forlornly listed at the very end. There's no date on the album, but judging from the source material, it probably came out well before the 1972 album below; some sources say this lineup of Denver's band was playing in the DC area sometime in the mid-1960s.

Danny Denver "The Best Of Denver With Roy Buchanan" (Wrayco Records, 1972) (LP)
(Produced by Lewis Chitty)
Although this album seems to have come out in 1972, a few of the tracks may have recorded earlier, with some also issued as singles on the Wrayco label, though I'd guess these came out around the same time as the LP. The liner notes by Maryland deejay Tom Reder make it sound like this was recorded as a cohesive country album, rather than as a hodge-podge of older stuff; this is supported by the inclusion of newer tunes such as a cover of Kris Kristofferson's "For The Good Times" and Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again." By the time this disc came out, though, Roy Buchanan's solo career had finally taken off, and Denver probably saw it as a last chance to capitalize on Buchanan's presence on his band. Several country covers from the like of Ray Pennington, Mel Tillis and Hank Williams, as well as an original by Danny Denver called "Spring Is A Woman" and another called "Mother Nature," penned by William McCloud, that shared the same publishing company. Not sure what became of Denver as the 'Seventies rolled on -- this album seems to have been his swan song as far as recorded music goes.

Rob Dixon & The Lost Cowboy Band "Live At The Crystal Chandelier" (Texas Records, 1983) (LP)
(Produced by Rob Dixon)
Originally from Sharptown, Maryland, songwriter Rob Dixon recorded his first album when he was twenty, and established himself as a live act around DC, before making tracks for Nashville where he played guitar for David Houston, George Jones and others, while also starting his own solo career. In the early 1980s Dixon relocated to Dallas-Fort Worth, which became his center of operations well into the 21st century. This album is mostly cool cover songs, with a couple of originals by Ernie Rowell (who was apparently not in the band...) The group included David Griffin on steel guitar, Rob Landrum (bass), Tim Harris (harmonica), Jim Aspero (drums) and Steve Payne on piano.

Rob Dixon "Let Me Sing You A Song" (Texas Records, 1987) (LP)
(Produced by Walt Cunningham)

Rob Dixon "Through Her Eyes" (Texas Records, 2000) (CD)
(Produced by Rob Dixon)

Emerson's Old Timey Custard-Suckin' Band "Emerson's Old Timey Custard-Suckin' Band" (ESP Disk, 1970) (LP)
This Maryland-based quartet created a remarkably forward-thinking mix of avant folk and old-timey/bluegrass music, with off-kilter banjo and distinctive, plainspoken vocals that anticipate Peter Rowan's sound later in the decade... The band drifts into unusual, inventive rhythms as well as an intriguing mix of material. There's a sweet, sparse cover of Jesse Winchester's "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz," and they give the Johnny Cash classic "I Still Miss Someone" an amazing makeover, transforming it into a meandering folk-freak ballad; on "Daybreak Blues," they delve into experimental picking similar to Tony Trischka's early banjo outings. Not the drag-racing, high-lonesome style of classic bluegrass, but also not quite the breezy jazz stylings of the space grass pickers to come. They also aren't the arch, arty types you might expect, given the avant reputation of the ESP Disk label -- these guys were inventive, but also just being funky and playful, and having themselves some fun. The group included Howard Lamden (autoharp), Neil Ricklen (mandolin), Arnold Sell (banjo) and Alan Singer on guitar.

John Fahey - see artist discography

Fast Flying Vestibule "Union Station" (Rolling Donut Records, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Joe Bergman)
A cheerfully upbeat folkie stringband who appear to have been from Washington, DC. Named after a once-famous passenger train that ran from Ohio to New York, these guys had kind of a Red Clay Ramblers vibe, combining clattersome old-time stringband music (showing deep Celtic roots) along with sentimental country oldies, gospel and a bit of western swing. The group included Alan Oresky on fiddle and mandolin, Doug Pell (lead guitar), Joe Stork (bass), Jesse Winch (banjo, guitar and bodhran) and Terry Winch (banjo and accordion). Fans of the Ramblers, John McCutcheon, Norman and Nancy Blake, et.al., might dig these guys as well.

Foggy Bottom "Foggy Bottom" (Real Earth Records, 1979) (LP)
A progressive bluegrass band from the Washington, DC area, populated with folks who worked for NASA and the Library Of Congress. Notable in the band was banjo plunker Ray Hesson (1941-2016) who had some success in the pop world years earlier, playing lead guitar on a Kennedy-era instrumental called "Wheels," which rolled up into Billboard Top Ten back in 1961. The group covers pop and rock material such as "Blue Bayou," "Lay Down Sally" and "Songbird," as well as more traditional bluegrass fare.

Foggy Bottom "Old Flames" (Real Earth Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Ron Freeland & Norm Bowland)
A progressive bluegrass band from Clinton, Maryland, with a jaunty mix of originals and covers that show a definite affinity for Emmylou Harris and her crowd. They cover a couple of tunes that Emmylou did on her bluegrass album, "The Darkest Hour" and "Green Rolling Hills Of West Virginia," as well as Herb Pedersen's "Hey Boys" and Hugh Moffat's "Old Flames," which was a hit for Dolly Parton. Other covers include "I Could Sure Use The Feeling" (an actual Top Forty country hit for Earl Scruggs in 1979) along with tunes by by Loggins & Messina and The Louvin Brothers. Foggy Bottom lead singer Karen Belanger contributes one called "Louisiana Morn," while the band's guitarist Ray Schmidt penned "Baby It's Blue" -- probably the most interesting track on the album is banjo picker Ray Hesson's, "Nineteen Sixty-One," while ponders all the changes in the world since the comparatively innocent days of Kennedy's Camelot, and may tangentially reflect Hesson's biographical arc since the days when his guitar licks nearly topped the pop charts. Notable for fans of '80s and '90s bluegrass are the contributions of freshman flatpicker David Grier, who apparently wasn't an official member of the band (and gets a special "thank you" in the liner notes) but nonetheless plays lead guitar on about half the album.

Slim Goins "Sings" (Carris Records, 19--?) (LP)
Super-rough country gospel with a delightfully amateurish edge. Carris Lee Goins (1909-2000) was, as far as I can tell, born in South Carolina but settled down around Baltimore, Maryland for most of his life. He started writing music decades ago, with copyrights going back at least as far as 1945, with some songs on this album written around 1971. His earlier work, including some songs that got recorded, was at least partly secular material, though this is all gospel. Although the record label bears his first name, Goins performed under the nickname "Slim," while song credits and later song publishing were usually as "C. L. Goins." As mentioned earlier, he was really on the rough side, a clunky but compelling guitarist and ukulele strummer, and an equally unusual-sounding vocalist. There are strong hints of Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb in there, though with an alluring lack of finesse; you can start getting all into his timbre, but the phrasing gets a little odd. I mean that in a good way. Anyhoo, this is about as authentic a "real person" artist as you'll ever hear. Alas, there's little information about Goins and his career, much less his life outside of music, and this low-budget LP is about as barebones as possible, just the album title and song names on the front cover, and a blank white back cover. The inner labels offer little else, although some Carris singles provide an address on Baltimore, presumably Goins's home.

Dave Hardin "Dave Hardin" (Source Records, 1974) (CD)
(Produced by Ronnie Prophet & Dave Hardin)
An all-original set of country and country-pop songs written by Dave Hardin, who was originally from Huntington, West Virginia, but was living in Baltimore when he cut this album. The Nashville studio crew included Willie Rainsford on piano, along with folks like Jim Vest on pedal steel...

Doc McWilliams "With Feelings From Doc McWilliams With Zodiac" (Beau Jangles Records, 1976-?) (LP)
(Produced by Paul Birch)
A little bit of a mystery figure here... This may have been Dr. Donald R. McWilliams (1934-2003) an Air Force veteran who became a surgeon and general practitioner in Cambridge, Maryland, which was just a couple of miles away from the studio where this was recorded, in Secretary, MD. If so, he doesn't seem to have had a very big profile as a working musician: an obituary for keyboardist Robert O. Whitten mentions his band Zodiac playing with McWilliams, but I could find no mention online of live shows or other recordings, and Dr. McWilliams's own obit doesn't mention an interest in music, though otherwise the trail looks pretty clear. Most of the songs are covers of croony standards such as "Feelings," "For The Good Times," "Make The World Go Away," and "Indian Love Call." There are two McWilliams originals -- credited to Don McWilliams -- copyrighted 1975 and '76: "Our Love Is True" and "Save All Your Lovin'," which was the B-side of a single that also included a cover of "Release Me," mentioned as the "hit" on the LP's hype sticker. All but one of the tracks feature backing by a band called Zodiac, which formerly called the Country Casuals and was apparently was made up of members of Ronnie Dove's band; Dove also contributes liner notes to this album. My best guess is that this really was a vanity album and that Dr. McWilliams was pretty strictly an amateur musician, though he may have played some just-for-fun local gigs with these guys around the time this album came out. Any info is welcome!

The North Star Band "Tonight: The North Star Band" (Adelphi Records, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by Chuck Chellman & Bob Dawson)
The first album from this Maryland-based alt-country group, a band that really typified the "hippie country" sound of the era... They had a pretty big, accomplished sound, too. The "hit" on this one (at least from my days as a hardcore KFAT listener...) was the great singalong anthem, "Redneck Hippie," along with its companion piece, "Country Boy," about the collision of country and rock in longhaired culture. They dip into a little western swing and sing one Conway Twitty cover, although the rest of the record is all original material. Unfortunately they also sang a lot of ballads, and these slower songs don't hold up well, since none of the guys in the band really had the vocal chops to pull it off. The uptempo songs are fun, though, and the band's musicianship is uniformly solid, particularly pedal steel player Jay Jessup, who adds sweet licks throughout. One of the better records of the era, even if only a tune or two really hold up over time.

North Star Band "Live At Eskimo Nell's" (Eskimo Brand Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by The North Star Band & Mark Greenhouse)

Rodney's Glory "Rodney's Glory" (Tidesfall Records, 1973) (LP)
(Produced by George Messenburg)
A bluegrass-adjacent string-swing trio from Columbia, Maryland, made up of multi-instrumentalists Bill Snyder (guitar, mandolin and autoharp), David Earl-Clark (dobro, lead and slide guitar and mandolin) and Mark Evanko on bass and fiddle. This set is heavy on original material, all of it credited to Bill Snyder, including tunes like "Less Lonely," "One More Scene" and "Summer Of '21 (Hobart Smith Song)," along with a few cover songs such as "Stand By Your Man," and traditional tunes "Black Jack David" and "The Cuckoo." The group seems to have been short-lived: they did some college-circuit gigs in the Spring of '74 after this album came out, but Bill Snyder was performing solo by the end of the year. As far as I know, this was his only album.

Marion Rosette "Western Song Round-Up" (Fairyland Records, 19--?) (LP)
This album of western-themed kiddie songs is possibly a little off-brand, but hey, everybody's gotta start somewhere. Back in the 1950s and '60s, cowboy movies and TV westerns were enduringly popular with American kids, and running parallel to the grown-up world of hardcore honkytonk and lofty Nashville pop was an undercurrent of cowboy music made for small children, mostly drawing on folk-oriented material. This set is strictly made up of public domain-ish oldies, chestnuts like "Oh, Suzannah," "Home On The Range," "I've Been Working On The Railroad," "Red River Valley" and the like... But That's even more interesting since the artist, pianist Marion Savage Rosette (1900-1991) was well known as a composer of original material. Classically trained, Mrs. Rosette was a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, though that was actually a side gig: her real work lay as a pioneering creator of children's music, which she did on the record label she started with her husband George, as well as work for hire done for numerous other labels, as well as educational groups and radio and television shows, most notably for the Captain Kangaroo program, where she wrote songs such as "City Mouse And Country Mouse" and "Katie The Kangaroo." So why not put a little twang in the mix, too? This appears to be her only set of cowpoke tunes, though some tracks off this album also came out as singles.

Wes St. John "Oilfield Cowboy" (Star-Key Records, 1982) (LP)
(Produced by Gene Lawson & Wes St. John)
Oh, yeah. There's a story behind this one. Ten songs all about working the oil fields, all written by Mr. Wes St. John, who was a native of Tilghman, Maryland. "Oilfield Cowboy," "Oilfield Trucker," "Oilfield Trash And Proud Of It!," and perhaps most delightfully, " The Story Of The Derrick Man, Toolpusher, Roustabout, Driller And The Company Man." You detect a pattern here? Amazingly, Mr. St. John was not actually an oil worker; he just got into the topic when he was down in Louisiana hanging out at and performing in roughneck bars, and decided to write a bunch of "oilfield" songs because he saw a gap that needed to be filled. (Apparently he wasn't familiar with Alex Zanetis's similar efforts from a couple of decades earlier...) It turns out he wasn't a complete monomaniac, though: Mr. St. John also released a single that had no thematic links to the petroleum industry -- "The Ballad Of E.T."/"I've Got A Friend" -- although years later he returned to petro-twang, and recorded three more oilfield albums in the digital era. Although he gives a home address in Tilghman, Maryland, St. John went to Nashville to record these sessions, with backing by studio pros such as Vic Jordan, Benny Kennerson, Bruce Watkins and Gene O'Neal on steel guitar, and a modest horn section to boot.

Second Hand "Used Music" (Flatlands Records, 1982) (LP)
(Produced by Wally Cleaver)
A bluegrass'n'country band from the Flatlands Jubilee variety show in Bowie, Maryland -- the group included attorney-by-day, singer-by-night, Sammy Knight, Herb Currie on guitar and mandolin), Emma Currie plucking the bass, Dan Rawlings (lead guitar) Roy Tolliver (fiddle and banjo) and Mike Valadez (accordion). Plus, Peter Bonta sits in on steel guitar! They cover country oldies like "Born To Lose" "One Has My Name (The Other My Heart)" and "I Saw The Light" as well as some original material. And of course, they also cover "Orange Blossom Special" and "Green Green Grass Of Home."

Smith & Roberts "Buffalo Run" (Raintree Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Jerry Miller)
An excellent set of melodic, whimsical hippiedelic folk-twang. The duo of Keith Roberts and Rob Smith were from the tiny rural hamlet of Grantsville, Maryland, where they frequently performed at a bar called The Blue Moon Saloon. Smith was a Maryland native, while Roberts moved there in the early '70 to live on his grandparent's farm... they mostly worked together as a duo, though on this lovely album they are joined a bunch of pals, including Bob Shank (on banjo and dulcimer), Joe Black (pedal steel), Jeff Bussard (bass) and various and sundry others. The record really is quite nice, and though it's more folkie than most of the stuff I like, there is some twang in there as well, with two or three explicitly "country" songs in the mix. The material dates back to 1974, and overall seems pretty reflective of the decade's early hippie vibe. But in a good way. Several songs celebrate their local, rural roots, notably "Garrett County Time," in which they pooh-pooh depressing politics, but wind up making a plea to preserve the natural beauty of their home. Similarly, "Papa's Bones" is a protest song about a family farm being taken by eminent domain so that a new highway can be built, in sort of a musical midway point between John Prine's "Paradise" and the Farm Aid concerts of the '80s. This is a nice record, very listenable, very soulful and definitely worth tracking down.

The Swing Ryders "Volume One" (Wry Records) (LP)
(Produced by Bob Yesbek)
An early '70s country cover band from Kensington, Maryland, with a repertoire including "Me And You & A Dog Named Boo," "Snowbird," "Take Me Home Country Road," "Joy To The World," as well as a version of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man." The group featured steel guitar player Clyde Bloodworth and lead guitar Gill Machen, with vocals by Buck Gordon and twin sisters Carla and Martha McCartney. All the songs on here were covers.

The Thunderbirds "Hold Back The Tears" (Bay Country Records, 197-?)
(Produced by Paul Birch, Bill Handley, Leslie Myers & Steve Woolston)
A bunch of dudes from the Delmarva Peninsula in eastern Maryland playing straight-up honkytonk and twang, including a bunch of their own originals. The group included Jim Conley (bass), Roger Hubbard (lead guitar), Wayne Jones (drums), Tommy Kaufman (fiddle, guitar and pedal steel), Len Reed (dobro) and Thom Slaughter on lead vocals and piano. Slaughter provides four original songs -- "Hold Back The Tears," Honky Tonk Fever," "I Can't Help The Way That I Feel" and "I'm Ashamed To Be Here" -- while the rest of the repertoire includes classics by Bob McDill, Buck Owens, Webb Pierce and others. Not a lot of info about these guys, though it seems likely that Len Reed is the same Leonard Reed who played steel guitar on the Jon & Jodi Two Sides Of Jon & Jodi outsider folk album back in 1971.

The West Maryland Highballers "Original And Traditional Country Music" (Biograph Records, 19--?) (LP)
Rollicking jugband music by a quartet that included uber-collector 78rpm specialist Joe Bussard, along with Bob Coltman (banjo), Jerry Marcum, and Oscar Myers, who all recorded on Bussard's quixotic Fonotone label. The group recorded a string of singles in the early 1960s, using the name the Georgia Jokers -- several tracks on this album seem to be reissues of that material, while other recordings made as "Jolly Joe And His Jug Band" were released separately on another label; there were also numerous permutations and iterations of this group on various Fonotone discs. This album includes their 1964 recording of "The Death Of John Kennedy," an homage to the recently fallen American President.

Nancy Wiles "Nashville Jukebox" (Austin Records, 1983) (LP)
(Produced by Billy Troy, Frank Evans & Rob Rankin)
A slick but reasonably twangy collection of tunes, with a heavy debt to 'Seventies cowgals like Emmylou Harris and even moreso to Linda Ronstadt -- Wiles sounds quite a bit like Ronstadt and covers hits such as "I'm Leavin' It All Up To You" and "Tell It Like It Is," as well as Rodney Crowell's "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" and Harlan Howard's "Heartaches By The Number." Ms. Wiles was from Maryland: she thanks local bandleaders Don Barnes and Debbie Williams for steering her towards producer Billy Troy, and may have been part of their stage show before cutting this disc. She led her own group through much of the '80s and early 1990s, and frequently performed at the same venues as Barnes and Williams. This seems to have been a Nashville songwriter's demo set, and unfortunately the backing band are a little too low-key to really propel her forward. Wiles really puts her all into "One Last Chance," a would-be pop-country hit penned by Billy Troy that might actually have worked for her, but falls just shy of radio playability in this version. A pity, really: she had a nice voice and would have benefited from stronger, punchier production.

Hick Music Index