Chloe

Sister Grace Capellas

Chloe

According to Sister Grace Capellas once the soloist of The Singing Sisters :

There is a unique connection between the artist and the Divine. When we look at the life of St. Francis of Assisi, he was a troubadour. Francis used his musical gifts to serve the Lord. Like him, if there is a need and you have the talents, you must use them. Sometimes gifts can get suppressed, but we must not hide them as in the parable of the steward who buried the talents given him. In the same vein, from the very beginning my mother told me, “When you sing, you must always offer it up to God.” Performance is prayer.

When I was in Syracuse in New York, I was the soloist of the Singing Sisters of Syracuse. We did albums and even cut a gold record. I remember always getting these beautiful floral bouquets after performances and taking them to my room. One day, one of the sisters said to me, “Don’t you want to put your flowers in chapel?” Having already offered up my work to God, I quipped, “No, God gets the singing; I get the flowers.”

"Chloe" was originally released on a Century Custom album in 1965 (#20991).  Track here is from the CD "The Annoying Music Show"

B-B-B Baby

El Rojo

Redd-E Records #5003

1958

El Rojo, whose real name and/or biography is unknown to me, is described in the Billboard magazine dated 8 Oct. 1958 as the Edmundo Ros of Bermuda.  A second single on Redd-E 5006 featured "Play Ball You All"  a rock vocal runthrough on a baseball theme, co-authored some years back by New York Yankees' annoncer, Mel Allen.

B-B-B Baby

Redd Evans opened his own label in New York, Redd-E Records,in February 1954.

Redd Evans (1912-72) composer, author, publisher, musician, singer and record executive, was most famous as a lyricist, whose hits included “Rosie the Riveter,” “There! I’ve Said It Again.” “Let Me Off Uptown,” “No Moon at All,” “Don’t Go to Strangers,” “American Beauty Rose,” “The Frim Fram Sauce,” and “If Love Is Good to Me.”  He was also a singer and he may have been a better-than-competent ocarina player, at one time a member of the Horace Heidt dance orchestra. 

The most popular number of his was "Rosie the Riveter," co-written with John Jacob Loeb.  "Rosie" captured the nation's imagination; and during the war pictorial versions of her at work, notably one by Norman Rockwell, graced bulletin boards and magazines throughout the nation.  The song was usually played so that between the words "Rosie" and riveter", there was a pause during which a rapid drum roll approimated an air hammer flattening a rivet.

Jazz singer Anita O'Day, at the age of fifteen, met Redd Evans. She credited him later with introducing her to the existence of riffs, which she defined as a "repeated musical phrase.".

Little Bit Of Blues

Slim Harper

Wil-Row WR-203/WR-204

1957

Newark, New Jersey

Slim Harper and his brother Rocky as kids back in Virginia used to listen to the Blue Sky Boys and The Bailes Brothers on the radio out of WBT in Charlotte, N.C.,

“Every day at noon they’d come on and we’d listen to ’em. That’s what got us started really,” Rocky Harper recalled. “We started playing trying to imitate those guys. I played the mandolin and Slim played the guitar.”

In 1952, Slim Harper, formerly with WXGI, Richmond, Va., joined WLVA, Lynchburg, Va.,  replacing Curley Garner,.  In 1957 he was running the “Midnight Jamboree” over WVNJ-Newark,  In 1958, the Slim Harper Show featuring Billy Sage and the Virginia Playboys had been booked by Smokey Warren to hold forth indefinitely each Friday and Sturday night at the Scandia Club on Route 28, Garwood, New Jersey.

While in New Jersey, Slim Harper also recorded  for Anchor Records and Wagon Records. (1957-1958)

Slim moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona in the sixties where he recorded for the Goldrose label

Little Bit Of Blues


Blues On Parade