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Topic: Did Merle Travis Record w/ Spade Cooley? |
Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 4 Mar 2002 2:33 am |
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I have been listening to my old Spade Cooley recordings. When the guitar player takes a break on some of the songs it sounds like Merle. Can anyone confirm this?
Roger |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 4 Mar 2002 10:58 am
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| What particular recordings are you referring to? |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064
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Posted 4 Mar 2002 11:31 am
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I believe the late 50's "Fidoodlin'" album has some Travis-style picking on it, and it sounds like Roy Lanham to me. I could be mistaken about Roy, but I know it's not Travis.
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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 4 Mar 2002 12:13 pm
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from the liner notes, the guitar players on the "fidoodlin" LP are:
diane jewett, rhythm
roy lanham, rhythm
jimmy luttrell, take-off
i haven't waded through all the cooley CDs that have been reissued in the last decade, but i suppose it is possible that travis made some sort of a guest shot on one of spade's live shows. can't place it though. |
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 4 Mar 2002 5:40 pm
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Mitch, yeah that's Jimmy Luttrell alright, he still gigs around ...mainly as a jazz player.
I don't think Travis was involved in Cooley sessions, but I couldn't say for sure.
Merle did play on some Hank Penny material, and of course it goes without saying in regards to Hank Thompson. |
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Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 5 Mar 2002 1:11 am
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Thanks guys. Fidoodlin' is the album I had in mind. I copied the Spade Cooley songs onto a cassette so I could listen to them in my car. Some of the songs come from other albums. The songs I was referring to had Joaquin on them also. I guess this would mean they were recorded between 1941 to 1947.?? I believe this is about the length of time that Joaquin played for Spade.
I really had no idea anyone else played like Merle in that time period.
Roger
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Herb Steiner
From:
Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064
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Posted 5 Mar 2002 6:32 am
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The "Fidoodlin'" album is from the mid-to-late 50's. Joaquin returned to Spade's band after he left Smoky Rogers' grouping of the Caravan, based at the Bostonia Ballroom in San Diego, and moved back to LA to work Spade's TV show. Murph was around 32-34 years of age at this time.
Jimmy Luttrell was the name I was thinking of, but it slipped my mind's tongue. 
Spade also had an all-girl orchestra sometime during the 50's that had Marian Hall on steel. I might call Marian and find out the details and the time frame.
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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association
[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 05 March 2002 at 06:32 AM.] |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 5 Mar 2002 7:42 pm
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I remember the old Spade Cooley TV Show on KTLA Channel 5 which featured Joaquin Murphy and Jimmy Luttrel. In addition to some of the hottest flat pickin' around Jimmy could do the Travis thing very well using a flat pick and his middle and ring fingers like Joe Maphis used to do. Jimmy was only about 17 years old in those days so he'd be around 61 or 62 by now. He and Murph used to be the competition for Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant.
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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney tuning.
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 6 Mar 2002 7:42 am
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Jerry, love the new signature.
As far as I know the earliest the Fidoodlin' album came out was in 1959, although it was issued on a different label in 1961 and possibly again not long after on another label again!
When Murph split to rejoin Cooley after working with Smokey at the Bostonia, well I reckon it would have been in 1954. That's pretty much when Boggs split Cooley's employ to work with Jimmy Wakely (his on again off again gig into the 1970s), plus Murph is the steel player on Spade's 1955 Dance-O-Rama LP according to Bobbe Seymour and others on thre forum. The Dance-O-Rama LP was cut for Decca in 1954, so it stands to reason that it's about that time that Murph would have joined Spade.
Herb, I've never been able to pin it down, but I think the Cooley-girl band heyday was about 1956-1957.
As a side note, Jimmy Luttrell was secretly playing for Lawrence Welk in 1959, he was moonlighting until Lawrence found out that Jimmy L. was in the employ of Cooley and gave him his notice, I guess he didn't want to be seen pinching any of Spade's pickers at that point.
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 6 Mar 2002 11:10 am
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| Quote: |
| Marian Hall on steel. I might call Marian and find out the details and the time frame. |
I would love to know more about her and what was it like for her playing in that time frame.[This message was edited by chas smith on 06 March 2002 at 11:13 AM.] |
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Gene Jones
From:
Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)
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Posted 6 Mar 2002 11:41 am
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| I've looked everywhere for my old Longhorn catalogues to no avail.....guess they disappeared during one of my periodic "housecleanings" of accumulated stuff! www.genejones.com |
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