The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
|
|
|
|
|
|
Staff Photo by Morris Stephenson:
The bright pink sign outside the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum on the Ferrum College campus announces BRIs newest exhibit, Virginia Rocks-A History of Rockabilly in the Commonwealth, which features the states rockabilly stars of the 1950s and 1960s. |
Friday, July 3, 2009
By MORRIS STEPHENSON - Staff Writer
The hits just keep on coming at the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum on the Ferrum College campus.
This time, BRI Director Roddy Moore and staff have delved into the musical history of the area and state.
"Virginia Rocks-A History of Rockabilly in the Commonwealth" is the latest BRI exhibit and opened to the public last month.
The exhibit traces the roles Virginia singers and bands played in the new style of music that rocked the nation from the 1950s into the mid-1960s.
An attention-getting bright pink sign on Route 40 West in front of the BRI features a Virginia singer in a typical Elvis Presley pose with legs spread wide and a microphone in his hand, hinting at what's inside the building.
Moore recalls the idea was first implanted in his mind in 1988.
"I was in London browsing around in a record shop full of old LPs (33 1/3 long-playing) and 45 (rpm) single records," Moore said.
"In a stack of LPs was this album that caught my attention. The title was 'Virginia Rock-a-Billy and Country.' I looked and discovered the album was produced in Holland. And I was amazed that it was produced from master tapes recorded by Ted Prillaman in Collinsville," he continued.
Moore said he started looking at the list of singers and bands featured on the album and found the names of musicians he knew about including The Martin Brothers, Hender Saul and Bill Foley, Moon Mullins and Micky Hawks, Leon and Carlos, and Randy Spangler.
"There are 12 selections on the LP," Moore pointed out.
"Here I was, from Ferrum at a record store in London looking at an old LP album produced in Holland.
All of the songs featured rockabilly stars from Virginia. I was pleasantly surprised," he added.
Now some 21 years later, Moore went to the BRI archives last week and pulled out the LP he had purchased that day in London.
"This collection is an outstanding piece of work, both in the information it contains and the wide variety of music from old remastered 45 selections from that day," Moore said of the LP he discovered.
Moore said that singer Janice Martin probably best described the birth of rockabilly:
"What happened was, back in the late '40s, you only had big band music, Rosemary Clooney and Patti Page and then you had hillbilly music on the country side, Hank Snow, Hank Williams.Then you had the black artists on a label called Atlantic.
"So really, how rockabilly came about, was country music singers that discovered the black rhythm and blues music and they incorporated it into hillbilly music and rocked it up to rockabilly!"
Once a visitor passes the near blinding pink highway sign outside the BRI, a walk through the front door is a trip back into the musical days of the era.
All exhibit walls have been painted pink. The first thing inside the door is the "Pink and Black" room. It features one of the two widescreen television sets.
The TVs, in separate rooms, are continuously playing only old black and white film clips from the musicians who made the rockabilly era a part of the nation's musical history.
Some of the clips are from movies featuring well known stars of the time including Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis in his early years.
Other established stars of the day taking the widescreen spotlight are Patsy Cline, brothers Jerry and Wayne Newton of Roanoke, Roy Clark, Mac Wiseman, The Dazzlers, and another Virginia favorite, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps.
Many of the nationally known artists crossed over from the country to the rockabilly side, at least for a while.
The exhibit features many old photographs of the individuals and bands, along with a brief history of each.
Guitars and stage costumes worn by the stars also have been attracting a lot of interest from visitors, according to Moore.
The museum has one item for sale that is a "must buy" for a visitor who is really into the history of rockabilly music and its stars of the time period, he said.
It is a two-CD collection of Virginia born artists that includes a 34-page booklet, plus cover.
Its short histories of more than 60 performers and bands of the state's rockabilly scene also include many photographs.
One of the CDs contains 31 selections, while the other adds an additional 30 songs to the collection.
The book also explains how the music got started.
"The whole thing began with the arrival of Elvis Presley," Moore said.
The collection sells for $25. Also on sale at the museum are selections of songs by individual stars of the day. These sell for $7.50 and $10.
Don Harrison and Brent Hosier wrote the information for the book, based on field work and an essay written for the BRI.
Moore noted that part of the funding for the project came from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
Perhaps the Virginian who reached international stardom but did not reach the ranks of super star was Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, according to the CD's booklet.
Vincent, a native of Portsmouth, moved at early age with his parents to Virginia Beach.
The family later moved to Norfolk, where he quit school and joined the Navy. After a motorcycle accident nearly ended his life, he rebounded
Winning a talent show on WCMS Radio, Columbia Records signed him as its answer to Elvis. In 1964 in Nashville, Gene Vincent and the band recorded their big hit, "Be-Bop-a-Lula." It was the B side of "Woman Love," which some said had naughty lyrics.
"Be-Bop-a-Lula" sold 200,000 copies the first month and broke into to Billboard Magazine's top 100 at 78. The song also was featured in a movie, "The Girl Can't Help It."
In 2004, a Rolling Stones magazine poll placed the song on the all-time greatest hits list at 102.
Another of the more popular area rockabilly stars was Moon Mullins and his "Night Riders."
After Mullins retired from a life "on the road" he returned to his native state of North Carolina and opened a dance hall that is still in existence just across the state line from Ridgeway.
One of the group's recordings, "Bip Bop Boom," reached number 10 on Chicago's radio play charts.
In addition to Mullins, on saxophone and guitar, the band rode the keyboard and voice of Mickey Hawks, who could sing just about any favorite song of the day. The band "crystallized rhythm and blues, country and rock 'n roll into their most danceable elements," the booklet says.
There is an individual story told with almost all of the individual stars and groups featured in the exhibit.
Moore noted the short career of young Janice Martin, a Halifax County native who made it big through the Danville radio station WDVA's weekly Virginia Barn Dance.
The youngster was a developed vocalist at age 8 and performed with Jim Eanes and his Shenandoah Valley Boys on Martinsville's WHEE Radio.
At 13, she opened for Ernest Tubb at the 1953 Virginia Tobacco Festival.
She recorded a song with RCA in 1956. Side B of the 45 rpm release song was "Drug Store Rock 'n Roll," one she wrote in 10 minutes.
Moore said Martin got married at the age of 17. RCA dropped her and the artist almost disappeared from the scene.
Years later, Martin resurfaced on the musical scene in Europe and enjoyed almost instant success there.
"To come to the exhibit and take it all in and then read the book contained in the two-CD collection will give a fan of that era a lot of refreshed memories," Moore said.
He said it was a period in time when everyone was dancing. Area television stations, including Roanoke, were featuring their own dance studio programs where the young couples would come in an be on the program dancing.
"Of course, the big TV program was Dick Clark's national 'Bandstand,'" Moore said.
"I'd say just about every town in the state had its favorite local band back in those days. Everyone was listening and jitter-bugging to the music.
"Elvis changed everything. All of the guys with a guitar playing country style music were switching over to the new style of music that was sweeping the nation," Moore added.
He also said there were little recording companies springing up all over the state. "I bet there are 60 to 100 (record) labels out there," he said, adding that Martinsville, Salem and Danville were the "hot beds" of recording the music.
"A lot of these artists got their start at radio stations' barn dance programs that were broadcast on Saturday nights," he said.
In addition to the CD package for sale, the museum also has two posters it has reproduced to represent the period of time.
There is one of Patsy Cline's live appearance at her hometown drive-in theater in Winchester. Her top hit at that time was "I Fall to Pieces."
The other is of the Safari Grill in Herndon that featured rock n' roll on Friday nights and country music on Saturday nights.
Moore said the exhibit has been well received to date and has proven to be very popular with the visitors.
"Anyone coming to the exhibit is taken back to a time in history when the country was dancing and singing to a totally different kind of music," Moore said.
The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Saturday's hours are from 10-5, while Sunday it is open from 1-5 p.m. |
| |
|
|
