Randy's Record Shop....does anyone remember?

[Indiana jazz aficiando]

In the l950s I used to listen to Randys Record Shop from Gallatin, Tenn. They played all the southern blues artists like Lonnie Johnson, Wynonie Harris, etc., plus early Ellington, Basie, etc.

His trademark sound was a Tarzan call when he loved a record, like Ellington's Creole Love Call. Does anyone remember this late nite profram?

[BeBop]

No, in response to the original question, I don't remember, but I'm happy to be delighted now. If nothing else, it gives me some context. Two cities where I spend a lot of time have "Randy's Record Shops". I'd thought it was just coincidence.

[rostasi]

uhh...what's an "aficiando"?

[Chuck Nessa]

I do remember the broadcasts. Just one (of a few) while searching the dial in the late '50s and early '60s. Late night radio was an adventure in those days.

[ghost of miles]

In the l950s I used to listen to Randys Record Shop from Gallatin, Tenn. They played all the southern blues artists like Lonnie Johnson, Wynonie Harris, etc., plus early Ellington, Basie, etc.

His trademark sound was a Tarzan call when he loved a record, like Ellington's Creole Love Call. Does anyone remember this late nite profram?

David Baker has mentioned this program to me--I think he was listening to it in 1940s Indianapolis, partly because no radio station in Indy at the time was playing anything close to the music that you describe above. (If you're interested, IJA, I wrote a piece about Indpls jazz several years ago in which Baker mentions Randy's Record Shop.)

[Indiana jazz aficiando]

In the l950s I used to listen to Randys Record Shop from Gallatin, Tenn. They played all the southern blues artists like Lonnie Johnson, Wynonie Harris, etc., plus early Ellington, Basie, etc.

His trademark sound was a Tarzan call when he loved a record, like Ellington's Creole Love Call. Does anyone remember this late nite profram?

David Baker has mentioned this program to me--I think he was listening to it in 1940s Indianapolis, partly because no radio station in Indy at the time was playing anything close to the music that you describe above. (If you're interested, IJA, I wrote a piece about Indpls jazz several years ago in which Baker mentions Randy's Record Shop.)

I went to school with David and have known him since he played trombone (originally) - - and that radio station, WLAC, was, I think, one of those 50,000 watt signals. The music the jock

played was excellent and was wide ranging actually. These 78s were called, unfortunately, race records - -but in my little town the record dept of the local 5 & 10 had a "special" section

with all those artists. Blues, jazz were all mixed in together.

[JSngry]

too young and too far south to have heard it myself, but "Randy" was Randy Wood, wasn't he?

[jlhoots]

We could pick it up at night in Milwaukee.

Introduced me to a lot of great music.

[doneth]

too young and too far south to have heard it myself, but "Randy" was Randy Wood, wasn't he?

Yes, and he actually had a record shop I think, and started selling records through the mail, and then started the Dot label and discovered Pat Boone.

I used to listen to Randy Blake's Suppertime Frolic, where I first heard Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, and the only place I ever heard the Chuck Wagon Gang. The only thing I've been able to find out about Randy Blake is that he used to broadcast on Border radio, that Mexican 100,000 watt station, and sold boxes of baby chicks over the air. Could I have been listening to that Mexican station in Wisconsin in the mid-1950s? I suppose so...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

too young and too far south to have heard it myself, but "Randy" was Randy Wood, wasn't he?

Yes - He ran Randy's Record shop, out of Galatin, TN and started Dot Records in 1950. Initially Dot was an R&B/C&W/Gospel label. He sponsored a programme on WLAC Nashville and did very big business with mail orders. His big rival was Ernie Young, of Ernie's Record Mart, Nashville, which also sponsored mail order programmes over WLAC. Young started Nashboro Records in 1951 - Gospel/Blues/C&W.

The DJ team on WLAC was Bill "Hoss" Allen, Gene Nobles and John Richbourg. Randy Wood started to sponsor Nobles' programme in 1947. He was the guy with the Tarzan yell - though it wasn't him, actually. Nobles was handicapped by polio as a child and had a guy, who was called "cohort" who actually played the records and he was the one who let out the Tarzan yell. Other than that, he never said a word.

Ernie Young always thought that Nobles worked harder for Randy than he did for him. So he eventually focussed on John Richbourg. Randy must have thought so too, because he gave him a ten percent stake in Dot Records. In 1957, Wood sold Dot to Paramount Pictures, but continued to run the firm. Eventually he quit and went back to Galatin, starting a new label, Randy's Spiritual Records.

There's some explanation about WLAC's coverage from an interview with Hoss Allen, in John Broven's book "Record makers and breakers".

We had 50,000 watts, but we were directional. Now by "directional" I mean we protected two other stations on 1510, our place on the dial, one in Boston and one in Seattle. So we had what we call a sky wave. For our transmitters, we had five towers rather than one tower. We'd pull our signal back from the northeast and the northwest after six o'clock at night, and [it was] almost like throwing 100,000 watts southeast and southwest, and directly north and south.

I mean, we used to send from Canal Street to the Loop, from New Orleans to Chicago, just like a local station; everything up from Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, in astraight line like that. We'd go up to anout Richmond [Virginia] without any interference. You can get it in St Louis, then it goes south of Missouri into Oklahoma and down into Texas. It's just like a giant saucer. Then it goes out into the Bahamas, Jamaica and places like that.

I've also heard (years ago) that either Randy's or Ernie's even got orders from West Africa!

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

Just got myself the 8-CD box "A Shot In The Dark - Nashville Jumps /Blues and Rhythm on Nashville's Independent Labels 1945-55" on Bear Family. The HUGE book (not booklet, really....) has lots of info on Randy Wood's Record Shop and later Dot venture.

Also check out this (got my copy yesterday too):

http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Dark-Records-Na...4803&sr=8-1

Same title, same author as in the case of the Bear Family box set book but in fact not that much duplication so a great addition, not only for the info on Randy's Shop (and Show) but also on the music scene at large.

Judging by both books, Tennesseeans of those times would also have been able to pick up the R&B show on WLAC by DJ Gene Nobles (who had at least two tribute songs dedicated to him so he must have been sumpin').

Just music-wise, must have been a fascinating moment in history when Nashville still was well away from overproduced mainstream.

Edit:

Ha, MG beat me to it. Seems like you got farther ahead in reading "Record Makers and Breakers" than I did yet.

Will go and spin the Gene Nobles tribute "Nobles Suffle" by Jimmy Milner now.

Edited October 23, 2009 by Big Beat Steve

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

See also this 2 CD set, issued by the Country Music Hall of Fame - "Night Train To Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970"

http://store.countrymusichalloffame.com/st...4&cat_id=73

Here's a pdf of the sleeve notes - can't find the site where I downloaded them a few months ago.

Music_City_R_B_1945_1970_notes.pdf

Only nineteen record companies started up in Tennessee in the period from 1934-1954. But eight of them were really quite significant players in the business - a very high proportion of significant firms among the hundreds of indies starting and failing in this period.

1946 Bullet (C&W, R&B, pop, gos)

1948 Tennessee (C&W, R&B, gos, pop)

1950 Dot (mainly R&B, gos, pop, jazz, C&W)

1950 Sun (R&B, pop, C&W, gos)

1951 Nashboro (Gos, R&B, C&W)

1952 Duke (R&B)

1952 Meteor (C&W, R&B, gos)

1954 Hickory (C&W, pop, R&B, sacred)

Because blues, R&B, C&W and Gospel were all important locally - and because of WLAC.

MG

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks for the liner notes, MG. Ground well-covered by the BF box (and previous Krazy Kat vinyl) but nice to have for comparison.

But are you sure about the Duke label? I understand they were from Houston. And Martin Hawkins does not list any Duke label in his two works.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks for the liner notes, MG. Ground well-covered by the BF box (and previous Krazy Kat vinyl) but nice to have for comparison.

But are you sure about the Duke label? I understand they were from Houston. And Martin Hawkins does not list any Duke label in his two works.

Duke was set up by two Memphis DJs - Bill Fitzgerald & James Mattis - in 1952. They recorded Johnny Ace, Rosco Gordon, Bobby Bland and Earl Forrest. But they ran into cashflow problems within ten months when their distributors sat on the invoices for Ace's "Our song". Bill Fitzgerald took a runout powder and Don Robey bought the firm from Mattis in 1953. But in that short a time, they made some terrific records with future giants.

MG

[RJ Spangler]

Just got myself the 8-CD box "A Shot In The Dark - Nashville Jumps /Blues and Rhythm on Nashville's Independent Labels 1945-55" on Bear Family. The HUGE book (not booklet, really....) has lots of info on Randy Wood's Record Shop and later Dot venture.

Also check out this (got my copy yesterday too):

http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Dark-Records-Na...4803&sr=8-1

Same title, same author as in the case of the Bear Family box set book but in fact not that much duplication so a great addition, not only for the info on Randy's Shop (and Show) but also on the music scene at large.

Judging by both books, Tennesseeans of those times would also have been able to pick up the R&B show on WLAC by DJ Gene Nobles (who had at least two tribute songs dedicated to him so he must have been sumpin').

Just music-wise, must have been a fascinating moment in history when Nashville still was well away from overproduced mainstream.

Edit:

Ha, MG beat me to it. Seems like you got farther ahead in reading "Record Makers and Breakers" than I did yet.

Will go and spin the Gene Nobles tribute "Nobles Suffle" by Jimmy Milner now.

I am hip to that box set -- I have the two CD set with a similar name and content. Johnnie Bassett, a great Detroit blues guitar master has mentioned Randy's Record Shop, but it was the sponsor of an R&B show he'd listen to on the radio -- right now the name of the DJ escapes me. Was there also a radio program named after his record shop? Johnnie told me that he often sent away for records from Randy.

[RJ Spangler]

See also this 2 CD set, issued by the Country Music Hall of Fame - "Night Train To Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970"

http://store.countrymusichalloffame.com/st...4&cat_id=73

Here's a pdf of the sleeve notes - can't find the site where I downloaded them a few months ago.

Music_City_R_B_1945_1970_notes.pdf

Only nineteen record companies started up in Tennessee in the period from 1934-1954. But eight of them were really quite significant players in the business - a very high proportion of significant firms among the hundreds of indies starting and failing in this period.

1946 Bullet (C&W, R&B, pop, gos)

1948 Tennessee (C&W, R&B, gos, pop)

1950 Dot (mainly R&B, gos, pop, jazz, C&W)

1950 Sun (R&B, pop, C&W, gos)

1951 Nashboro (Gos, R&B, C&W)

1952 Duke (R&B)

1952 Meteor (C&W, R&B, gos)

1954 Hickory (C&W, pop, R&B, sacred)

Because blues, R&B, C&W and Gospel were all important locally - and because of WLAC.

MG

MG

Yeah, that is set I have -- I'd like to get the one on Bear Fam. I have their Louis Jordan box and their Buddy Johnson box -- both must have's!

[RJ Spangler]

Gene Nobles was the DJ that Johnnie Bassett often mentioned -- thanks!

[RJ Spangler]

Thanks for the liner notes, MG. Ground well-covered by the BF box (and previous Krazy Kat vinyl) but nice to have for comparison.

But are you sure about the Duke label? I understand they were from Houston. And Martin Hawkins does not list any Duke label in his two works.

Duke was set up by two Memphis DJs - Bill Fitzgerald & James Mattis - in 1952. They recorded Johnny Ace, Rosco Gordon, Bobby Bland and Earl Forrest. But they ran into cashflow problems within ten months when their distributors sat on the invoices for Ace's "Our song". Bill Fitzgerald took a runout powder and Don Robey bought the firm from Mattis in 1953. But in that short a time, they made some terrific records with future giants.

MG

That is right! For more, read "The Late Great Johnny Ace: the transistion from r&b to rock 'n' roll"" by James M. Salem (University of Illinois Press).

Edited October 27, 2009 by RJ Spangler