Big Maybelle

Artist: Big Maybelle

LP: The Amazing Big Maybelle

Song: "I Will Never Turn My Back On You"
[ listen ]

Birmingham, Alabama is one of the neatest cities I visited on my Southern Road Trip back in April. Founded after the Civil War as a new center of industry, the city grew in leaps and bounds during its first few decades, earning the nickname "The Magic City" for its almost instant emergence as one of the biggest and most important cities of the South. Birmingham reached a peak population of 340,887 in 1960, but has been dropping in population since then as the steel industry declined and people moved to the suburbs. The city's population was just 212,237 in 2010, but efforts are underway to revitalize the downtown core in order to lure residents back so that the city will begin growing magically once again. You can read more about Birmingham, its history, economy, earthquakes (!), and the role the city played in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s on Wikipedia here. Birmingham also features some neat old statues perched atop buildings and hillsides, like this one and this one, paying tribute to the city's glorious industrial past.

I visited two record stores in Birmingham, both located in the artsy 5 Points South neighborhood. The first, Renaissance Records, is a classy and slightly cluttery place with decent prices and a very friendly lady working there on the evening I stopped by. This terrific LP by Mabel Louise Smith (aka. Big Maybelle) is one of the things I found. I'm guessing "I Will Never Turn My Back On You" was likely recorded in the 1950s, since that's when Maybelle was at the peak of her popularity, but according to this online Big Maybelle biography and discography, this "Amazing Big Maybelle" LP was released in 1973. Born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1924, Maybelle made it to the big-time in the early 1950s with hits like "Gabbin' Blues," "Candy," and "My Country Man." The hits stopped flowing by the end of the '50s and Maybelle died in Cleveland, Ohio in January of 1972 after slipping into a diabetic coma. You can read more about this amazing woman's life and career here and here. 

 [ Big Maybelle: May 1, 1924 — January 23, 1972 ]

[ Renaissance Records — Birmingham, Alabama ]

Bobby Womack [1944-2014]

Artist: Bobby Womack

LP: BW Goes C&W

Song: "Don't Make This the Last Date"
[ listen ]

Song: "I Take It on Home"
[ listen ]

I'm interrupting my ongoing and seemingly endless marathon of postings of stuff I found on my Southern Road Trip to remember talented singer, writer, and musician Bobby Womack; he passed away last Friday at age 70. Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1944 to Friendly and Naomi Womack (he was a musical minister at the local Baptist church; she played the organ), Bobby first made music with his brothers in a group called, appropriately, The Womack Brothers. Bobby mastered the guitar and went on to play with other musicians (he's featured on Aretha Franklin's "Lady Soul" LP) releasing his first solo record, "Fly Me to the Moon," in 1968. Bobby was making regular appearances on the pop and R&B singles charts in the early-to-mid 1970s, finally going Country & Western with the album featured here, released in 1976. (Unfortunately, none of Bobby's C&W songs were hits.) While battling drug addiction and numerous health problems in the decades that followed, Bobby continued making glorious music—his latest, to be released sometime later this year, is titled "The Best Is Yet to Come." You can read all about Bobby Womack's life, career and his complicated personal life (ask him about the time his wife shot him after catching him in bed with her teenage daughter) on Wikipedia here. You can find his full discography here and there's a moving obituary for Mr. Womack on the Rolling Stone website here.

Bobby Womack

[ March 4, 1944 — June 27, 2014 ]

We will miss you, Bobby.

Hi Rhythm

Artist: Hi Rhythm

LP: On the Loose

Song: "Superstar"
[ listen ]

After leaving Huntsville on Wednesday afternoon, I headed south toward the little Alabama town of Arab, where there's a record store Ashley and Andy at Vertical House Records had told me about. Arab is a cute little place with a funny name that provides some humorous signage that makes it seem like the town segregates Middle Easterners, who have to use separate recreational facilities from everyone else. 

The Arab record store, called The Spinning Groove, would have been more aptly named The Scratchy Groove. Quite a few of the records I was excited to find there were so scratched up or moldy that I ended up putting them back in the bins for someone else to buy. Also, a water leak in the ceiling above the R-Z portion of the Soul/R&B section had pretty much completely ruined all those records. I tried to browse through them anyway, but the record covers were all moldy and stuck together and when I tried to pull them apart they would rip. Still, I found a few neat records starting with A-Q, including this 1976 LP by Hi Rhythm, also known as the Hi Rhythm Section at Hi Records in Memphis. 

Willie Mitchell, who ran the label in the 1970s, employed the Hi Rhythm Section for backing on releases by Al Green, Ann Peebles and others who recorded on the label. Hi Rhythm was comprised of three Hodges brothers—Charles, Leroy, and Mabon—along with Howard Grimes on drums and Mitchell's stepson, Archie Turner, on keyboards. Though Charles Hodges went on to become an ordained minister, the group does still get together from time to time. In fact, Archie Turner and Howard Grimes stopped by The End of All Music in Oxford, Mississippi two months ago—just a few weeks after I was there on April 7th! They were in Oxford with their new group, The Bo-Keys, who are also going to be playing in Portland, Oregon on July 4th! You can read more about Hi Rhythm on Wikipedia here and go here to read about Hi Records. Individual photos of the Hi Rhythm guys from the back of their LP are included below, but I'm not sure who's who, aside from Howard Grimes. If anyone out there can clear this up, it would be appreciated.

PS. I was bummed to hear just now on NPR that Mabon "Teenie" Hodges passed away in Dallas, Texas this past Sunday, the day after I posted this LP. RIP Teenie Hodges, and condolences to all those who knew and loved him.

[ Hi Rhythm, relatively recently ]

L to R:

Leroy Hodges, Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Archie Turner, Charles Hodges, Howard Grimes 

w/ Willie Mitchell (seated)

[ The Spinning Groove — Arab, Alabama ]

Vinicio Franco

Artist: Vinicio Franco y su Conjunto Tipico Cibaeño

LP: Merengues — El Principe del Merengue

Song: "Tocame La Campana, Maria"
[ listen ]

Song: "La Chiva Blanca"
[ listen ]

Huntsville, Alabama is one of the friendliest cities in the South! I found Vertical House Records online while researching stores to visit on my trip. It looked amazing (it's located in part of the old Lowe Mill building), but to my chagrin, the store is only open Wednesday through Saturday, and I was going to be driving through northern Alabama on Monday and Tuesday. About a week before leaving Seattle, I called and left a message on the store's answering machine to let them know of my predicament and to see if there was any way I could browse through Vertical House Records on a day they're usually closed. I wasn't really expecting a reply, but thought it was worth a shot. I figured that if I did hear from anyone, it would probably be along the lines of: "Sorry to hear we'll miss you. Hope you'll come back through our neck of the woods sometime when we're open. We'd love to meet you!" Instead, within an hour I received a text message from the store's owners, Andy and Ashley. They were currently on vacation on Italy! They said they would be returning to Huntsville on the Monday during my trip and would be happy to meet me at their store on Tuesday afternoon! 

I arrived in Huntsville at about 6pm on that Tuesday, and Andy and Ashley were both there at Vertical House Records to meet me. Andy gave me a quick tour of the place, then let me dig through the bins while they were hanging out with a friend at the front of the store, drinking beer and listening to music. I joked with them about how awful it would be if, after everything, I browsed for two hours and then sauntered out the door saying, "Thanks, but I didn't really see anything here that caught my eye." But anyone who knows me will know that there wasn't any danger of that happening. In fact, I was only able to browse through the "International" section as well as the A—G part of the "General" section before hunger overtook me (and before I began to worry that I was going to keep Andy and Ashley there until midnight). Though I definitely feel the need to return to Vertical House to browse through H—Z, I found lots of wonderful stuff in the time I was there—like this merengue album by Vinicio Franco.

Born in September of 1933 in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, Vinicio first began singing in nightclubs to entertain tourists in the mid-to-late 1950s; his first recording was made in 1957, titled either "Shut Me Sail" or "Shut Me Off the Candle," depending on which language translation tool you use. In a career spanning 60 years and counting, Vinicio Franco has performed in places like New York City and Miami in the USA, as well as throughout South America and Europe. Vinicio's "Merengue" LP, his first, was released in 1960. My copy, though not sealed, is in mint condition and was still in shrink-wrap, with a purple "Dominican Republic" ink stamp on the back! I especially like "La Chiva Blanca" ["The White Goat"], where Vinicio makes animal sounds. You can read more about Vinicio "El Principe del Merengue" Franco in Spanish here and here, and you'll find English-ish translation of the Wikipedia page here. There's a relatively recent video clip of Vinicio Franco performing here:

Vinicio Franco on YouTube:

[ "Los Algodones" ] 

 [ Vinicio Franco ]

[ Vertical House Records — Huntsville, Alabama ]

The Cardinals

Artist: The Cardinals

LP: The Best of The Cardinals - Vol. 1

Song: "The Wheel of Fortune"
[ listen ]

Song: "Choo Choo"
[ listen ]

I hadn't initially planned to visit Oxford, Mississippi on my trip through the South, but when I searched online for record stores in Tupelo, I discovered that the nearest one was fifty miles away—in Oxford. The store, called The End of All Music, closes at 6pm on Mondays, so I had to hightail it northward across the state, with no freeway, all the way from Meridian. I'd left Meridian in the afternoon and made it to the Oxford record store at about 5:15pm. I was thrilled to have 45 minutes to dig through the place, but a little bummed that I didn't have 245 minutes available. It was one of the best record stores on my trip! Though it doesn't look like much from the outside, the inside is well-lit, well-decorated, and well-organized with several different rooms, each featuring a different group of genres. There's even a small walk-in closet full of singles, including three bins of Motown and three bins of Stax singles that I didn't have time to look through. I found lots of neat stuff at The End of All Music (gospel, soul, jazz organ, calypso, folk) so it was hard to decide what to post. I've settled on this collection by The Cardinals (yet another one of the "bird groups"), since it features a neat train song. Everyone knows I love train songs. I don't usually collect "Best Of" albums, but since The Cardinals evidently only released singles throughout the 1950s, and no LPs, this vintage collection seems like a good thing to have. Formed in Baltimore in the mid 1940s, The Cardinals recorded their first single in New York in 1950. The group went through a few lineup changes over the years, landing quite a few hits on the R&B singles charts before calling it quits in the early 1960s. "The Wheel of Fortune" was a top ten hit for The Cardinals in 1951; "Choo Choo" was actually the b-side of their 1956 single called "Off Shore." You can read more about The Cardinals here and here and then read even more here, where you'll also find their complete discography.

 [ The Cardinals: Donald Jack Johnson, Meridith Brothers, Ernie Lee Warren, 

Leon "Tree Top" Hardy, Jack Sam Aydelotte ]

 [ The End of All Music — Oxford, Mississippi ]

Shelley Fabares

Artist: Shelley Fabares

LP: The Things We Did Last Summer

Song: "Johnny Loves Me"
[ listen ]

The records at Meridian Underground Music are tucked into the back corner of the place (CDs, DVDs and posters are also sold at the store along with a wide variety of incense, as you can see here...

...and they also sell guitars and drums and other musical stuff). The owners of the store are super friendly and gave me lots of free stickers and other things with the store's logo on them. Unfortunately, several of their heavy bins full of vinyl are stored overhead, and I couldn't think of any way to retrieve them without breaking either my spine or—even worse—most of the records in the bins! I went ahead and dug through some of the lower bins though, and I found this terrific 1962 summer-themed LP by Shelley Fabares. Popular at a young age (her first single, "Johnny Angel," went to #1 when she was just 18 years old), Shelley is also an actress, appearing in no less than three films with Elvis Presley (GIRL HAPPY, SPINOUT, and CLAMBAKE), which is more than any other actress can claim! "Johnny Loves Me," released the same year as "Johnny Angel," went to #21 on the charts. You can read more about Shelley Fabares on Wikipedia here and I've included notes and pictures from the front and back of the album below.

 [ Meridian Underground Music — Meridian, Mississippi ]

Adam Hebert

Artist: Adam Hebert

LP: The Best of the Cajun Hits

Song: "I'd Like to Know"
[ listen ]

Artist: Adam Hebert and Country Playboys

LP: Cajun Hits - Volume 2

Song: "North Side Door"
[ listen ]

After crossing the Mississippi state line and spending the night in Natchez next to the Mississippi River, I drove along the Natchez Trace Parkway, headed toward Jackson. A few miles southwest of Jackson is the little town of Raymond, where there's a legendary record store called Little Big Store. I'd already had it on my list, but Tess at Lagniappe Records in Baton Rouge also mentioned it, saying the store, located in an old train depot, is filled with records! It reminded me of scenes from AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD where Klaus Kinski talks about trying to find El Dorado, the mythical city of gold somewhere in the South American jungle. Fortunately, unlike Mr. Kinski, I had a good map and I didn't get shot with arrows, so I arrived at Little Big Store on time and unharmed. With multiple rooms stacked to the brim with well-organized records (and seemingly almost entirely unpicked-over by tourists and hipsters), the place really is a delightful oasis of vinyl gold in the middle of small-town Mississippi. And they ship records to anywhere in the world! You can watch a short video with photos of the store on their website here. Betty and Merwin, who were working there the Sunday afternoon when I stopped by, are both really friendly and played samples from the records I was interested in on the store's player. Among other things, I picked up these wonderful first two volumes of greatest Cajun hits by various artists on Swallow Records, a southern Louisiana label, from the late 1950s. There's not much info on Adam Hebert on the web, but you'll find a little here and general notes from the backs of both LPs are included below. If you'd like to read about the history of Cajun music, go here.

 [ Uncredited Cajun band from cover of "Cajun Hits - Volume 2" ]

[ Adam Hebert and Country Playboys ]

 [ Adam Hebert receives award in 2007. I love that he wears a clip-on tie. ] 

[ I love it in an adoring, non-condescending way. ]

[ Adam Hebert: 1923—2010 ]

 [ Betty and Merwin at Little Big Store—Raymond, Mississippi ]