DC Larson's JUKEBOX JURY

Back in the Day, 1982

Various artists

Rarest Rockabilly & Hillbilly Boogie

(Ace)

In 1971, at 12 years old, I spent a weekend with a paternal uncle and his family. They lived in one of Iowa's tiny rural towns.

I was from a city. So for me, country life was a different reality. Sunday meant all-day fundamentalist church, punctuated at noon by a houseful gathering. A table was loaded down with hot dogs, cold meats, breads, pop and potato salad. A spirited throng gathered, still dressed in church-going finery.

Roaming the rooms, I found a black-and-white 8x10 stashed on a bookshelf. It was a posed publicity shot that depicted a Country Western-type combo complete with stand up bass, acoustic, electric and steel guitars. They sported de rigueur cowboy attire: big hats, neckerchiefs, boots.

I didn't know the photo's vintage, nor did I recognize anyone featured. (Some distant family members, perhaps -- ones who'd once dreamed vainly of celebrity - or regional somebodies long forgotten?)

In future years, I came to understand that real Country and Rock'n'Roll sprang from the same real-folks well.

Names of men whose rustic rollickings are here anthologized may be similarly unfamiliar, but their contributions to then-emergent Rockabilly were full of skedaddle. They came down from hills, left country whistle-stops, and rose from bustling burgs to 'sing into a can.' Billboard charts and big-city radio paid them no mind. But so what? The shit-kickin' romps they committed to vinyl not only fired up future crops of leg-shakers, but will shout simple joys into slickered-up perpetuity.

Recommended: "Nuthin' but a Nuthin'" (Jimmy Stewart and his Night Hawks), "Baby Doll" (Jimmy Dale), "Don't Sweep That Dirt On Me" (Buddy Shaw), "Henpecked Daddy" (Ralph Johnson and the Hillbilly Show Boys), "Stoney Mountain Boogie" (Stoney Mountain Playboys), "My Blackbirds Are Bluebirds Now," (Sleepy Jeffers & the Davis Twins), "No More" (Buddy Shaw), "Big Black Cat" (RD Hendon & the Western Jamboree Cowboys), "It's Saturday Night" (Bill Mack)

Videos: "Nuthin' but a Nuthin'" (Jimmy Stewart and his Nighthawks) "Don't Sweep That Dirt On Me" (Buddy Shaw) "Stoney Mountain Boogie" (Stoney Mountain Playboys) "It's Saturday Night" (Bill Mack)