Artist: Meri Ellen and Her Cohorts feat. Don Elliott
Song: "Back Home In Indiana"
[ listen ]
After finally arriving in California and (literally) getting lost in the Redwood forest as darkness (and rain) began to fall, I abandoned my camping plans and booked a room at the Town House Motel in beautiful Crescent City.
I got an early start the next morning and headed down the California coast on Highway 101, passing through the quaint seaside town of Eureka, where I got a cup of coffee and stumbled into The Works:
The Works didn't have a listening station for vinyl, but the nice gal working there that morning played tracks from a bunch of records for me on the store's record player. I ended up buying several LPs, including this neat 1957 release by Meri Ellen and Her Cohorts, featuring Don Elliott and some spectacular hi-fi antics. The LP liner notes are included below, along with Design Records' technical guarantee in blue. (I don't know about you, but I won't buy an LP from the 1950s unless the RIAA crossover is at least 500 CPs and Rolloff is 13.75 DB at 10 KC.) There's not a lot of info on Meri Ellen or her Cohorts on the web, but I did come across a neat ad for a Meri Ellen show at the Twin Coaches in the Monday, December 7, 1959 edition of the Pittsburgh Press, as well as an article about Meri Ellen's upcoming supper club performance (a show that's "hardly in the family line") at the Ankara from a paper dated Wednesday, January 22, 1964.
Thanks for the comment of my Flickr shot of this album. I downloaded both tunes, because I never got around to listening to the LP. I'm pulling it down off the shelf tonight.
ReplyDeletegreat! It's definitely worth listening to; their version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is probably the best I've heard.
ReplyDeleteWow, I was surprised to see my fathers album on your blog.
ReplyDeleteHis picture is on the right side of the album. His name is Frank and he played lead accordion (no really).
You can still get copies of the album on ebay. This is from an era when groups like this were Entertainers. Music, skits and jokes. Fast paced and fun.
Rob
Cool! Thanks, Rob. It's really a terrific album.
ReplyDelete