The 3Ds "Mormon Folk Ballads" (DAVC-BYU, 196--?) (LP)
Regional folk. Not all the songs have religious themes, in fact, most don't. Some are songs about pioneering, some about horse, some about trains, though also some about Jesus. The "Ds" were three guys who (presumably) attended Brigham Young University in the 'Sixties: Denis grew up in Ogden, while Dick and Duane were from a small town in the center of the state. This album as also released under the longer title, The Iron Horse: Mormon Folk Ballads, though the material is the same.

Bittercreek "All The Good Times" (Meteor Sound, 1979) (LP)
(Produced by Lou Johnson)
This Ogden, Utah bluegrass band featured fiddler Jim Shupe and bassist Ted Shupe, members of the Shupe Family Fiddlers band, which later spawned the Top Forty career of Ted's son, Ryan. The Shupes are joined on this disc they are joined by Paul Cannon, Edward Cannon (mandolin), Curtis Cannon (banjo), and Don Baker on guitar. The Shupes came from a long line of traditionally-oriented musicians, and made sure they passed the torch to their kids... In the early '80s, Ted Shupe organized the Pee Wee Pickers band, which featured his then- ten-year old son Ryan on fiddle, along with a pre-teen Matt Flinner on banjo, and much later in life Mr. Shupe and his wife Sandy organized the Utah-based Wallsburg Music Festival, which they founded in 2014.

Carole Christensen "God Made A Country Girl" (Luv Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Ron Simpson)
A housewife from Taylorsville, Utah, Carole Christensen self-released this album, which like many vanity albums had a pretty small run, somewhere in the hundreds of copies...

Cold Blue Steel "Cold Blue Steel" (Mr. Lucky Records, 1976) (LP)

The Coors Cowboy Band "...Play And Sing Wesern Cowboy Songs" (Srooc Records, 1983) (LP)
(Produced by Jerry Mahler & Richard Markowitz)
A decent though hardly electrifying set of western tunes and sentimental oldies, recorded by the Walunas family, of Parowan, Utah. Presumably they were hired by the folks at Coors beer to play at local picnics, parades and whatnot -- the album gives a corporate address in Amarillo, Texas, so this may have been a Lone Star-centric project. The Walunases certainly had an interesting history: accordionist Art Walunas was originally a polka bandleader from Detroit who was famous for translating "In Heaven There Is No Beer" into English. At some point he pulled up stakes and moved out to Utah, and may have set up shop playing in some kind of dude ranch arrangement. His kids, Ed Walunas and Mary Ann Walunas made a go of things as a country duo called Wrangler & Jean, and recorded an album together in 1980, with backing from Loretta Lynn's road band. They're all on this album, along with Joe Walunas on bass, Benny Garcia on guitar and twin fiddles by Benny Garcia and Frank McWhorter. This album is immaculately produced though a bit sedate, and definitely in the same tradition as the many dude ranch albums of the 1970s and early '80s. Along with standards such as "Nobody's Darlin'," "Red River Valley" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" are a couple of originals by Ed Walunas, "It's Cold In North Dakota" and "Song Of Montie Montana," sung in honor of actor and rodeo rider Owen Harlen Mickel (aka Montie Montana) whose son, Montie Junior, led a band called The Wranglers and recorded an album back in the 'Sixties. (Was Ed Walunas possibly in that band as well? I dunno, but if so, he was pretty young...) Anyway, this album is pleasant if unsurprising, one of those humble private press cowboy albums that will grow on you, if you let it... Amazingly it was also reissued in the digital era, with "Ed Montana" listed as the lead artist. Dunno what happened to Mary Ann, though a larger version of this same band, with Ed and Mary Ann, also recorded earlier on western swing leader Hurshul Clothier's 1982 album, Jam Session album.)

Big Jim Crawford "...Sings Big Mama" (Cottonwood Records, 196-?) (LP)
Not a lot of info from this Utah honkytonker, whose private label sported an address in Salt Lake City. This set from the late 'Sixties showcases mostly original material, including one song, "Think It Over," written by Crawford. Most of the other tracks -- six of 'em -- were composed by Joe Van Seters, a SLC real estate agent and aspiring songwriter who also contributed the liner notes; these are sadly somewhat uninformative, basically telling us that Crawford liked to sing, though doesn't give any specifics about his career. One supposes this is because he didn't really do that many gigs, and perhaps this is because opportunities for hard-drinkin' honkytonk country dudes were limited in Utah at the time. The bigger story seems to be that of Mr. Van Seters, who owned the Cottonwood label and used it as an outlet for his music hobby... He also got into herbalism (due to a troubling back injury) and wrote a book on herbal cures, as well as a long-running column for a local newspaper in St. George, where he retired. So... here's the verdict: Crawford is an okay singer, and he's certainly game to try selling these tunes to we the fans... and he's got an odd mix of Jim Reeves suave and Hank Thompson-ish bounce. The songs themselves? Well, they start out okay, but tend to be a little amorphous and open-ended... which is just another way of saying they tend to have sort of a stream-of-consciousness quality and, well ramble on a bit. Mostly, though, a nice, unpretentious set, with a decidedly local feel.

The Four Rs "Try Me On For Sighs" (Meteor Productions, 197--?) (LP)
(Produced by Richard Diamond & Lou Johnson)
A barbershoppy vocal group from Roy, Utah which gets its name from the four men pictured on the back -- Richard, Roger, Roland and Ronald -- whose full names were Richard Penrod, Roger Arnold, Roland Hadley and Ronald Schultz. (I feel oddly protective of Mr. Hadley's wife, Murna, who is also pictured on the cover and sings with the guys, but apparently was not officially in the band...) Anyway, these guys performed together for several years and made some other records, with less of a country vibe. This disc includes several canonically country tunes, such as the Jim Reeves oldie, "Four Walls," John Denver's "Country Roads," "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," "Green, Green Grass Of Home" and "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife," though they are performed in a pretty square, pop style -- square even for country music of this era. They're backed by a band called Big Blue Country, which included Alton Cook on lead guitar, Lamar Cook (rhythm guitar), Dick Cox (bass) and Dennis Owens on drums. As far as I can tell Big Blue Country didn't make any records on their own, though some of the same guys also recorded with the Four Rs on later albums.

Jay Gardner & The Wranglers "Some Favorites Of Mine" (Sierra Records, 1964-?) (LP)
A Utah local, Jay Gardner was the program director for country stations KSOP, in Salt Lake City, and led a band which was apparently made up of some other station members. Here, he's playing country standards such as "Cheating Heart," "Jambalaya," "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette," Johnny Horton's "Honky Tonk Man" and "All For The Love Of A Girl," with musical backing that includes a little bit of flashy, note-happy guitar playing (by Mr. Gardner?) along with pretty primitive rhythmic backing on bass and drums. The choice of an Ernest Tubb tune is pretty apt, since Gardner had a rather simple vocal style as well... There's no artwork on the back cover, and not much info on the disc, either. All the songs are country standards, though there is one tune, "Looking Glass" without any songwriter credit that might be an original... And there's no release date, either, of course, though I'm gonna say 1963 or '64, since that's when the band was mentioned in a few local newspapers, playing gigs like cattlemen conventions and whatnot. Not really a great record, but certainly authentic and raw, and charming if you're into the whole digging-amateur-musicians aesthetic.

The Hatch Brothers "Shady Grove" (Little Richie Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by J. Lynn Hatch & Loren Ashcroft)

Les Merrill "Lonesome Trail" (Accent Records, 1974) (LP)
(Produced by Buddy Merrill)
A latter-day recording by Les Merrill, father of guitar whiz Buddy Merrill, who was (among other things) known for his decades-long tenure on The Lawrence Welk Show. The elder Mr. Merrill had his own country band, the Fremont River Rangers, which played regionally in Utah and the mountain states way back in the 1940s. The band was Buddy Merrill's introduction to show business and this album is kind of a love letter to those good old days. It's also a nice showcase for Les Merrill as a songwriter: he wrote all the songs on the album, including "I'd Like To Tell You," "Have I Come Back Too Late" and "Thy Will Be Done," and the title track, "Lonesome Trail." And of course, there's some nice picking on here as well!

Shirl Milete "Shirl Milete" (Poppy Records, 1969) (LP)
(Produced by Lamar Fike & Jim Molloy)
A good ole boy with a good ole gal's name, songwriter Shirl Milete (1933-2006) had a brief fling in the spotlight, doing some session work as a guitarist for RCA in the mid-1960s before recording his lone solo album and a brief string of singles which petered out around 1973. He was a prolific composer, though, and his main claim to fame is that Elvis Presley recorded several of his songs, including "It's Your Baby, You Rock It," "My Little Friend," and the super-pretentious cosmic gospel-meets-countrypolitan ballad, "Life," which Presley lodged in the pop and easy listening charts for several weeks in 1971. Milete's version is included here along with various topical musings and off-kilter romantic explorations. He seems to have been aiming for the same sort of stilted, roots-poet profundity that folks like Roger Miller and Tom T. Hall were exploring around the time -- one could say it's an acquired taste, though fans of the style may want to track this disc down. Biographical info about Mr. Milete remains elusive, and like many amateur music sleuths I found myself mostly stumped, though I think I may have moved the ball a couple of yards down the field by tumbling onto the obituary of his younger brother, Kent, who was born in Rockville, Utah back in 1934, one year after Shirl; the same obituary also notes that their sister was married and living in Salt Lake City. This helps place Shirl Milete as (most likely) being from Utah, but also informs us that the family name was originally spelled "Millett," and was changed as one of many show-biz affectations in Milete's career. After cementing himself in the Elvis machine and taking a fling at a solo career, Shirl Milete seems to have set himself up as a publishing house and recording studio mover-and-shaker, appearing at the margins of a slew of indie country releases over the years. He and his wife Kaye settled down in Hendersonville, Tennessee when he passed away. Apparently he had some continued success as a songwriter even after he quit making records himself: among others, Bobby Bare, Dolly Parton, Vern Gosdin, and Hank Williams, Jr. recorded some of his stuff later in the '70s, and perhaps most notably Loretta Lynn had a Top Ten hit with "We've Come a Long Way Baby," in 1978.

The Peewee Pickers "Gettin' Goin' " (Peewee Pickers, 1982) (LP)
Aw, gosh, little bluegrass pickers can be so darn cute! And sometimes they grow up and get all famous: this underage quintet from Ogden, Utah included pre-teen banjo picker Matt Flinner (later known for collaborations with folks like David Grier and Tony Trischka, for his own solo albums, and briefly as a member of the jam band Leftover Salmon...) There's also ten-year old fiddler Ryan Shupe who, along with his Rubber Band, had a brief fling in the world of Top Forty country when he had a minor hit in 2005, with the song "Dream Big," and later continued on as a popular regional band. And here they are playing together in their first group, which was organized by Shupe's dad, Ted Shupe, who booked them at various festivals and TV appearances. Oh, I almost forgot: they were really good! Flinner, in particular, is a real whizbang banjo plunker, even though he later switched to mandolin. Take that, Nickel Creek!

Posse "Posse" (AMC Records, 1980)
(Produced by Jeff Young)
Apparently this was a mellow-sounding country-rock band from Provo, Utah, recording in Menlo Park, California and in Provo... I'm fairly sure that the Jeff Young who produced this set (and wrote some of the songs) is the same Jeff Young from the Pacific Northwest who recorded an album of his own (and recorded on the AMC label as well) Young, who worked on several other albums in the late '70s and early '80s, was a talent to be reckoned with -- his vocals here were pretty rugged even though this band was aiming for a sweet, harmony-oriented sound. He sings most of the lead, although Kay Frances Young (his wife?) sings harmony and lead as well... She's a little too warbly for my tastes, and her showcase number, a cover of "Talking In Your Sleep" ends the album on a low note. The rest of it's pretty good, though: an unassuming, just-plain-folks band playing some pretty solid songs. Young contributes four originals, with two more coming from a guy named Chris Blake (who was not in the band) and some tasty covers of "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Margaritaville," and Willie Nelson's "Night Life." All in all, a solid indie-billy set. Anyone out there know more about these folks, and about Young's career, in particular?

Willis Pounds "Will You Still Love Me Come Spring?" (Skaggs Telecommunication Services, 1981-?) (LP)
(Produced by Dave Bonham)
As the hand-painted portrait on the front cover implies, this is kind of a sensitive-guy set, following in the footsteps set by country crooners such as Bill Anderson, Hank Locklin, and Don Williams. And honestly, I kinda dig this album. On the back cover, Willis Pounds appears as a lanky-lookin', weather-beaten old-timer, the very epitome of a "real people" country artist, an impression confirmed by this low-key, no-fuss set of sincere country ballads. Quite nice, if you ask me. The album includes four original songs credited to Mr. Pounds: "Letting Loneliness Drive Me From My Mind," "Searching For Dreams," "When My Last Teardrop Falls" as well as the title track, "Will You Still Love Me Come Spring," which he copyrighted in 1978, and may have released earlier as a single. Willis appears to have been Willy Edward Pounds Sr. (1932-1997) born in rural small-town Missouri, just west of Saint Louis, though he moved out to Utah and married a local gal in the early 'Sixties, though he and his wife later moved back east and retired in Joplin, MO. The backing band are presumably all Utah locals, including Dave Bonham (piano), Mike Divencio (bass), John Drain (rhythm guitar), Harry Fullmer (steel guitar), Mike Johnson (dobro), Danny Peabody (acoustic lead guitar), Cliff Tipton (lead guitar) and Gene Young on drums -- they provide simple, effective and sincere accompaniment, perfectly suited to Mr. Pounds equally understated vocals. A quiet gem, if you ask me.

Jack Quist "Where Does Love Go" (Grudge Records, 1989)
(Produced by Earl Richards)
Hailing from Utah, singer Jack Quist has tried his hand at a wide range of country styles, including a stint in Branson working as a Johnny Cash impersonator. This is his best and most focussed album, with the strongest commercial feel. It's a decently produced, laid-back album with a strong stylistic debt to mid-'80s Merle Haggard... All the songs are originals and they're all pretty good. He's backed by a talented Nashville studio crew including Harold Bradley, Ray Edenton and Pete Wade -- they don't completely knock it out of the park, but they don't overdo it, either. If you're a Merle fan, this is definitely worth checking out.

Jack Quist "Dear Mom" (Grudge Records, 1996)

Jack Quist "Texas Bound" (Vintage Records, 2011)
This appears to be a collection of his early work, including the single "Surfin' Hermosa Beach," a bar-band song with a raucous, garage rock sound than might fit more in the alt-country or hippiebilly categories... Some good, pure honky-tonk stuff, too... I guess this guy was a real jack of all trades, and must have been in a few rock bands, too, in his younger days.

The Rollin' Country Rock Band "Rollin' Country" (Atomic Records, 1980) (LP)
These longhairs from Salt Lake City, Utah cover some roots and rock stuff, such as "Hello Mary Lou," "Redneck Roots" "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones.

Gil Sandoval "Long Road To Nashville" (Westbend Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Gil Sandoval & John Bonham)
From Salt Lake City, Utah... and that's a long way from Nashville, my friends!

Ryan Shupe & The Rubber Band "Dream Big" (Capitol Nashville, 2005)
(Produced by Jason Deere)
Cheerful, gimmicky, lightweight and likeable pop-country material that seems destined to be quite popular. The opening track, "Banjo Boy," is a hip-hoppish novelty song that picks up where Big & Rich's "Save A Horse" left off, with a hint of Bela Fleck in there as well. The next couple of tracks, particularly "Dream Big," are kind of like a less-pretentious version of Emerson Drive-style boy-band country, and then there's dorky bluegrass-ish pop that is kind of like the later stuff by Newgrass Revival, back when they were trying to leave behind the bluegrass ghetto and make it on the charts. This doesn't really do that much for me, but I think it's really catchy, and I'll be amazed if Shupe and his crew don't do really well... They've got just the right balance of roots and yuppie pop, and none of the overblown tough-guy/sensitive stud baggage that drags so many other Nashville dudes down... Keep your eyes on these guys... They're gonna be really big. Huge, I tell you!!

Wrangler & Jean "... Sing Rodeo Man" (Wrangler & Jean Record Company, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Art Walunas & Robin Freeman)
An all-original set with high ambitions. This sheepskin-and-fringe clad duo was actually Ed Walunas and Mary Ann Walunas of Parowan, Utah... aka "Wrangler & Jean." (Oh man, jeez, I'm only just now getting the joke...) I'm not sure if the album's producer, Art Walunas, is the same guy as the 1960's polka accordionist from Detroit who famously translated "In Heaven There Is No Beer" into English; but it does seem likely, since all the song publishing for this album is on "Squeeze Box Music-BMI." Ed's brother maybe? Had some show business connections? Anyway, maybe they weren't really the greatest country singers ever, but W&J did really gave it their all, and they got a crackerjack band to provide a big, full sound. Whose band? Loretta Lynn's band, actually -- the same guys who appeared in the movie Coal Miner's Daughter as "The Coal Miner's Band." In addition to lead guitarist/arranger/engineer Dave Thornhill, the musicians include Zeke Dawson on fiddle, Gene Dunlap (piano), Durwood Edwards (banjo and harmonica), Chuck Flynn (bass), Lonnie Godfrey (drums), and Bob Hempker on steel guitar... These guys were Tennessee pickers, though the liner notes say the album was recorded in Las Vegas -- maybe they were playing some lounge gigs at the time? Anyway, it was a for-real studio band and they made the most of it... The title track, which opens the album, is a serious shot at commercial country, though the musical focus gets a little shakier after that. This disc has a few shaky moments, but it's definitely worth a spin!

Hick Music Index