McNairy County's Trail of Music Legends
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Stanton Littlejohn

Musician, Music Preservationist & Amateur Sound Engineer
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As read by Shawn Pitts, Arts in McNairy Founder
June 8, 2013
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Born and raised in Eastview Tennessee, Stanton Littlejohn probably didn’t show much early promise as a music industry professional or future Hall of Famer. It is true that he came from a musical family. Sister Eunice Littlejohn-Smith was a talented pianist and accordion player. Cousin Arlis Littlejohn was known as one of the area’s best banjo players in the claw-hammer style. Uncle Lee Littlejohn—actually another cousin—was born before the civil war and preserved in his memory a few antebellum fiddle tunes which certainly would have influenced the young Stanton’s musical tastes.
 
When it came to the fiddle, Stanton was no slouch, himself. He mastered the instrument early and a family group, the Littlejohn String Band, was known to play a few events around south McNairy County in the 1930s and 40s—Stanton’s young bride, Minnie Bell, throwing in on the mandolin. The truth is, Mr. Littlejohn could play just about anything with a string on it and his door was always open to likeminded individuals. Making music with others was both pastime and passion for the Littlejohn family. Their home was the site of countless musical jams and informal picking sessions over the years. The musical gene was fortunately passed along to Stanton and Minnie Bell Littlejohn’s only daughter, Marjorie, who is herself a talented multi-instrumentalist and a lover of traditional music styles.
 
This abiding interest and lifelong involvement in local music might be enough to honor Stanton Littlejohn with this induction but it is only the foundation for Littlejohn’s most significant contribution to McNairy County’s musical heritage. Sometime around 1947, Littlejohn acquired a device which allowed him to make single source recordings from his Eastview home. Always something of a technophile and tinkerer by nature, the acetate disc recorder piqued his interest on two levels. First, it was a new gadget which appealed to his sense of curiosity and gave him something to play with, as boys will do. Second, and more importantly, it allowed him to record the music he so loved. And record it he did.
 
He certainly had a rich resource from which to draw. Beginning with the family and close friends from the area, Littlejohn recorded everything from vocal performances, to instrumentalists, to neighborhood kids doing recitations and telling what they wanted for Christmas. Word soon got out and the floodgates opened. The recording technology he provided was uncommon in rural communities, and certainly new to this area. It didn’t take long for strings bands, gospel groups, individual musicians and vocalists to find their way to Stanton Littlejohn’s door. In fact, they virtually beat a path to Eastview Tennessee for many years just to see what they sounded like on a real record.
 
Always a gracious host, Mrs. Minne Bell would have something cold to drink and perhaps a few sweets for the artists while Stanton made sure everyone was comfortable and ready to play. Some of the recording sessions were intentional and sometimes he just flipped the microphone on when a good jam was already underway. There are even a few interviews conducted by Littlejohn with the recordings artists which are a dream come true for those of us who have worked on documenting these recordings. His engineering skills also improved the more he fiddled with the recorder, and it is a testament to his ear and his ingenuity that he got such a decent sound out of such crude recording technology. He didn’t have much to work with, but boy did he make the most of it.
 
Littlejohn reportedly charged nothing for his services but he had one rule: you had to make at least two recordings. The artists were free to keep the recording of their choice but Mr. Littlejohn kept the second disc for his own archive. We are exceedingly fortunate that the bulk of that collection remained in the capable hands, first of Minnie Bell Littlejohn and after her passing, Marjorie and Don Rayburn Richard, who have preserved them to the best of their abilities. Similarly, several of the artists and their families held on to their Littlejohn recordings over the years providing yet another resource for recovering this material. We are truly indebted to men like David Killingsworth and Billy Wagoner who were among the first, outside of the Littlejohn-Richard family, to recognize the significance of Stanton Littlejohn’s work. Their passion for the preservation of local music is infections and, apparently, I did not receive the appropriate vaccinations to prevent catching a pretty bad case of it myself. That said, it has been the privilege of a lifetime to have the opportunity to work on the preservation of this incredible material.
 
Littlejohn continued recording on the acetate discs through the mid to late 1950s until magnetic tape became more convenient and affordable. He made reel to reel and later cassette recordings for many more years but it is the older acetates that provide a snap shot of a unique moment in time when music of the postwar era, was beginning to experience the effects of a seismic cultural shift. Consider this: The terms Bluegrass and Rockabilly didn’t exist when Stanton Littlejohn first started recording. Country was still called Hillbilly Music by most people and nobody had yet heard of Rock and Roll. Yet the roots of all these later forms of music are clearly in evidence on the recordings Littlejohn made. I suspect if you had asked him, “Stanton, what kind of music are you recording down there at Eastview?” his reply might have been something like, “Well…good music mostly.”
 
And it was good—very good. Some of the area’s finest musicians and vocalists are captured on the Littlejohn sessions. Influential fiddlers such as Waldo Davis, Elvis Black, Ernest Whitten, Con Crotts, Arnold English and many others are all there. Other names familiar to local music enthusiasts are instantly recognizable: George E. Knight, Rob Richard, Tom McCormick, Paul Taylor, Charlie Cox, Peck and Troy Boggs, Virgil Murray and the boys, Milton Banks, Ray Presley, Everett Walker, Clyde Sargent and Ocie Humphries, among others. Gospel groups like, The Doc Whittaker Quarter, The Hometown Quartet, The Harmony Four and The Eastview Quartet are also represented. Of course, Stanton, Minnie Bell, Marjorie, Eunice, Arlis and Uncle Lee Littlejohn also make frequent appearances.
 
A couple of particularly poignant tracks from 1948 involve Uncle Lee Littlejohn. On the one he discusses his fiddle playing and laments how it has declined from neglect and lack of use over the years. On the other, he plays a rousing version of “Wolves a Howlin.” You can clearly hear him stomping out the rhythm with his right foot as if he can just see the dancers in his minds eye. He is 88 years old at the time of the recording. Maybe he was right in saying that his musical skills had declined with age, but you can’t prove it by that track. It makes you wonder how good he really was in his prime.
 
It was long rumored that even the legendary Carl Perkins recorded with Mr. Littlejohn. I can confirm for you that the first group of recordings we were able to transfer to digital media contain three tracks dating back as early as 1951 which have been authenticated as the young Carl Perkins. A fourth song—an instrumental—very likely has Perkins sitting in on guitar. He would have been just 19 years old at the time. Let me remind you that this would have been three full years before he recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis. Almost certainly, Stanton Littlejohn was the first to capture the future King of Rockabilly on record just as he was finding his own authentic musical voice. Indeed, two of Littlejohn tracks could easily be mistaken for something Perkins recorded at the height of his musical powers. They lend indisputable credibility to Perkins claim that his sound was developed on the music circuit of southwest Tennessee long before he ever went to Sun Records in search of a contract.
 
From the standpoint of documenting local culture these recordings are precious beyond description. The presence of an international figure such as Carl Perkins lends them yet another dimension of cultural significance. They are a gift to our generation, given to us by Stanton Littlejohn, his family, and the talented men and women participating in those impromptu recording sessions. To date almost two hundred tracks of music have been recovered with more on the way—a gift that keeps on giving. Contained herein are the voices and songs of a bygone but—thanks to Littlejohn—not forgotten, era. This little archive has become the envy of other communities who value their local culture. Many of them would give anything to have such a rare opportunity to preserve their musical heritage. We can only humbly say thank you to Mr. Littlejohn.
 
Just how important are these recordings? They are important enough that the Arts in McNairy has spent almost four years compiling, preserving and researching the remaining materials. They are important enough to have attracted the attention of the Tennessee Arts Commission who was willing to invest heavily in their preservation. They are important enough that an overworked and backlogged, Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University was willing to lend technical assistance just be involved in the project. They are important enough that the Library of Congress jumped on the opportunity to add the entire archive to their collection on the strength of just a few samples.
 
And so, I am proud to report that later this year copies of the entire Stanton Littlejohn collection will become part of the Folklife Collection at the Library of Congress where they will be preserved in perpetuity for future generations of Americans to study and enjoy. They are just that important.
 
Earlier I speculated what Mr. Littlejohn might say if you asked him what kind of music he was recording. In fact, we know what he thought about a few of the tracks because he sometimes made editorial notes on the labels. Usually they had the simple notation, “good” or “no good” as the case might be. He had a great ear and I suspect he knew he was engaged in something important but I also believe he was too humble to ever dream just how important his work really was. I often wonder what he would think if he knew we were here tonight still talking about something he started in 1947 and preparing to place it all in the Library of Congress. I like to think he would be thrilled, proud, maybe a little anxious or even a bit shocked. One thing I know for sure, we owe Stanton Littlejohn a debt of gratitude that can never be fully repaid.
 
It is with grateful acknowledgment of that debt that I induct Stanton Littlejohn, in the inaugural class of 2013, to the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame.

Sandy Carroll

Artist, Songwriter, Singer & Pianist
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As read by Janet Rail, Independent Appeal Publisher
June 8, 2013


Sandy Carroll was born in Corinth, Mississippi and learned to sing and play around the age of 5 at her home in Stantonville, Tennessee. First her Mother, Miss Bessie, and then her sister, Pat, and finally her mentor, Mrs. Laura Jane Thompson taught Sandy to play piano. And play it, she did. Mr. John D. Wyatt from Selmer helped add tap dance and vocals to her repertoire at age 7 and so she was off on a musical journey that would lead, who knew where?
 
West Shiloh Baptist was fertile ground for learning and playing music and Sandy has always believed that the soul in her music comes from the lifelong love of gospel which first inspired her in the church. She says the rhythms and melodies that go “for the heart,” still mold her music today.
 
At the tender age of 15 Sandy formed her first professional group, the Avengers. A group of McNairy County boys: George Donaldson from Selmer; Joe Distretti, Don Seaton, Joe Nichols and Jack Fullwood of Adamsville; made up the rest of the band.
 
Sandy attended Union University on a piano scholarship and a partial scholarship from the Stephen Foster Music Club of Selmer. On a side note, her good looks and talent didn’t hurt her in other pursuits. Sandy was Miss McNairy and Miss Madison County. Sandy left Union to attend Memphis State University where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History—earning her way through school singing with various bands, recording jingles for radio and accompanying vocalists on piano.
 
Moving to Tallahassee, Sandy attended Florida State where she was accepted in the graduate School of Music in Music Therapy. From there she went on the road for several years touring and playing all over the US.
 
Returning to Memphis in 1983 with her own unique bluesy sound, carefully crafted and yet born of her roots and varied musical experiences, Sandy spent a year headlining at Lafayette’s Corner on historic Beale Street, where the Memphis blues were born. She would become a Beale Street regular and a highly regarded fixture on the Memphis music scene for years to come.
 
Writing and recording the singles, “If You Got It” and “Memphis In May” in 1984, Sandy partnered with Jim Dickinson, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Memphis Chapter) seven-time producer of the year. “Memphis in May” became a regional hit and was adop0ted as the unofficial theme song for the annual Memphis in May festivities for several years. Sandy performed at Memphis in May with the Memphis Horns (and special guest Rufus Thomas) and also at the first Beale Street Music Festival. She sang the national anthem at Memphis in May and in front of 30,000 people at the Memphis Showboats football game.
 
A year later, she left for San Francisco to write and record. After three years on the west coast and a short stay in the Midwest, Sandy returned to her beloved Memphis and West Tennessee roots.
1n 1989, the legendary bluesman, Albert King, recorded Sandy’s, “If You Got It” which appeared on his final studio album, “Red House.” Her reputation as a first rate writer was growing.
 
With these honors under her belt and a fully matured blues sound all her own, Sandy began writing for her full-length debut album, “Southern Woman,” which was released in 1993. The album got great reviews and Sandy was invited on a month long tour of the United Kingdom.
 
Back in the States, Sandy continued promoting “Southern Woman,” performing at various festivals in the South, including Arts in the Park, Eureka Springs Blues Festival and the Southern Heritage Festival. She maintained a heavy schedule on Beale Street playing some of the city’s best music clubs including Rum Boogie, Blues City, Black Diamond, Joyce Cobb’s, Kings Palace and Blues Hall.
 
One of Sandy’s more unique gigs was writing the Memphis Mad Dog football team’s official theme song, “Mad Dog Boogie” recorded by Southern-fried soul and blues musician Preston Shannon.
 
In 1997, the great Luther Allison recorded Sandy’s “Just As I Am” and “It’s a Blues Thing” on his final album, “Reckless,” which was nominated for a Grammy. That same year, Sandy recorded her second solo release, “Memphis Rain” which was honored by the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Music Commission. She went on to receive a nomination by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for songwriter of the year.
 
Sandy wrapped up the 1990s with performances and regular appearances at many venues throughout the South, most notably the Center for Southern Folklore, Elvis Presley’s on Beale Street, and headlining WEVL’s Blues on the Bluff. She also appeared on the Home Shopping Network as the pianist for Becc Lester with whom she had co-written the song “Paint the Rain,” for a her CD, “Circles of Angels.”
 
The new millennium began with concerts, club and festival performances at Muscle Shoals Songwriters, Beale St. Caravan National Radio Show, B.B. Kings, The W.C. Handy Festival as well as the (invitation only) International Songwriters Festival in Orange Beach, Alabama where she opened for Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham.
In 2001, Sandy’s song, “Just as I Am,” was released by Inside Sounds on the compilation CD “Goin’ Down South.” She also recorded for the McCarty-Hite, “Weekend in Memphis” CD and several other Memphis area projects.
 
Also in 2001, Sandy was filmed by Memphis’ PBS station WKNO, along with great songwriters Keith Sykes, Teenie Hodges, Nancy Apple, Duane Jarvis and Delta Joe Sanders as a part of the “In Their Own Voices” concert production. The show premiered in 2001 and the concert footage and interviews have been syndicated on PBS affiliates nationwide.
 
In 2002 Inside Sounds released a CD entitled “Memphis Belles: Past, Present & Future” featuring Sandy along with Ruby Wilson, Cybill Shepard, Carla Thomas and other legendary female artists from the Memphis music scene. Two years later, Sandy performed live with her Memphis Belle pals to a sold out crowd at the Cannon Performing Arts Center in Memphis.
 
Following that a new rendition of Sandy popular song, “Memphis Rain” appeared on 2005 Inside Sounds CD “In the Mood for Memphis: Vol. 2.”
 
Revered as much for her song writing as for her vocal and instrumental abilities, Sandy has written for or with Ellis Hooks, Don McMinn, Ana Popovic, Reba Russell, Barbara Blue, Nancy Apple, William Lee Ellis, Rocky Athas, Daddy Mac Blues Band and many, many, others.
In January 2006, Sandy’s “Delta Techno” was released on Ringo Records. Sandy and her husband, Jim Gaines wrote and recorded the critically acclaimed album which featured musicians James Solberg, Rocky Athas and co-writers William Lee Ellis and Jim Dickinson. Did we mention that Jim was himself, a Grammy award winning producer?
In 2007, Sandy released an EP “Rhythm of the Rivers” with 5 previously unpublished songs and a reprise of her song “Bound for Glory.” The regional release featured “The Pickwick Song” popularized in Sandy’s home community. Something of a departure from her previous work, Rhythm of the Rivers demonstrated yet another layer of Sandy’s formidable writing skills, many of the songs reflecting her love for home—both her Bluff City musical heritage and her childhood and present day home in the rural, Tennessee River, country.
 
In 2008, Sandy joined the elite company of those who have been awarded their own “Brass Note” on Memphis’ historic Beale Street. Sandy’s Note, just outside the Hard Rock Café, commemorates her countless musical achievements and it is among the highest honors awarded to only the most influential industry professionals on the Memphis music scene. Not to shabby for a Stantonville girl.
 
In 2011 Sandy’s debut CD with Catfood Records “Just as I Am” was released. Full of new original material, it was the realization of 5 years of writing, recording and performing. It may be her most poignant and musically mature release to date, and that’s saying something. This fall her second CD with Catfood Records “Unnaturally Blonde” will be released. Make sure to pick up a copy. You will not be disappointed.
Equally at ease in solo or full band settings, Sandy says “the intimacy of a solo show is a quiet, nurturing, moment and the groove of a band is a rockin’ feast. But the studio is where the ingredients all mix together.” She should know, she’s been mixing it up right for a long time now.
 
In a county which has turned out some of the finest musical talent West Tennessee has ever produced, Sandy Carroll is a standout artist. Here talents as a singer, songwriter, musician and performer are rarely found in one individual. She has the professional accolades, credits and awards to prove it, and yet, she has never lost that small town touch. There is no doubt that Sandy Carroll is in a class by herself and just as importantly, she is one class act.
 
It is my distinct privilege and a great honor to induct Sandy Carroll, in the inaugural class of 2013, to the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame.

Brian Tull

Music Heritage Advocate, Painter & Muralist
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As read by Russell Ingle, Former Director of Chamber Programs, McNairy Regional Alliance
June 8, 2013


It might seem odd to some that a painter should be admitted to a music hall of fame, but not to those in the know. Brian Tull’s professional resume is certainly impressive enough. As an artist of some renown, his work has been featured in prestigious shows, represented by top-notch galleries and won coveted awards. His work has been critically acclaimed and sought after by collectors, winning him a steady stream of commissions. The level of success he had achieved is rare in the art world, especially considering his age. That is not to say it has been easy. Like many artists, he has been guided, throughout his career, by a specific vision which has not always been appreciated or understood. It is difficult beyond imaging to remain relevant in an ever-changing art market while maintaining the integrity of your artistic vision, but Brian has managed to do just that.
What does all this have to do with music? Well, that is a story within a story. It goes like this.
 
Brian Tull’s stock was on the rise in 2008. He already had a successful career as an artist and designer in Nashville when he approached Arts in McNairy wanting to do something for his hometown. The county had recently experienced a string of horrific tragedies and if he could use his talent to improve things, that’s what he wanted to do it. That’s just the kind of guy he is.
 
Around the same time, AiM had been involved in a cultural assessment and preservation initiative which culminated in the naming of Highway 45 South “Rockabilly Highway.” A number of important details about the County’s rich musical heritage had emerged which added up to—among other things—an incredible connection to the history and development of Rockabilly music. The organization had already identified the property at the corner of Court Ave. and 2nd Street in Downtown Selmer as the potential site of a mural to commemorate that musical heritage and coincide with the naming of Rockabilly Highway. You can call it serendipity or you can call it Divine providence but it’s a fact that Brian Tull emerged at that very moment with some sort of public art project on his mind.
 
To cut through all of the boring details of public art administration, suffice it to say that through the hard work and generosity of AiM, the Tennessee Arts Commission, McNairy Regional Alliance, Selmer Business Alliance, the City of Selmer and a number of community volunteers, planning for a mural quickly began to take shape. Brian was given complete creative control over the project with only one, very loose, guideline: the mural had to have a musical heritage theme.
 
It was our good fortune that Brian’s style and fascination with mid-century design suited the project perfectly. Through the winter of 2008-09 he researched, experimented with compositions, took photos, manipulated images, immersed himself in Rockabilly music, and generally tried to work out the logistics of painting on a 20 x 120 ft. canvas. He had never painted on that scale before and working out of doors for several months presented some unique challenges. But by early spring, he had a plan. Local curiosity rose with every stroke of the brush. Is that guitar? Is the bass player a woman or a man? What’s the other half going to look like? Is he going to keep that background color or change it? Who are those people? Where are their heads? By late May of 2009 it was clear that the mural was going to be spectacular and planning was underway for a dedication ceremony.
 
Arts in McNairy and McNairy Regional Alliance spun off an independent committee to plan the event and the group favored something that would match the mural in scale and quality. Thus was born the Rockabilly Highway Revival. Brian put the finishing touches on the mural in the midst of a thunderstorm and within a few hours, another kind of thunder rolled into town on four wheels. The car show, music festival, and various other activities associated with the annual Rockabilly Highway Revival are now among the most anticipated events on the local calendar.
 
Always ready to pitch in and help out, Brian—even while neck-deep in the complications of painting a mural—designed the event’s official logo (for free I might add) and suggested the name Rockabilly Highway Revival. Everybody has a festival of some kind; we were going to have a revival! He was even instrumental in booking the music. Along the way, Brian had befriended the visual inspiration for the mural, Phil Hummer and the White Falcons, and they were anxious to support the efforts by playing for the mural’s coming out party. Hummer has, by now, become a local favorite and staple of the event playing four out of five annual Revivals. He returns the affection, saying of Selmer and McNairy County, “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore!”
 
Tull was by no means done. In 2012 he was commissioned to do a second mural at the newly developed Rockabilly Park and farmer’s market. If RHM 1 was spectacular, RHM 2 is nothing short of a masterpiece. Keeping to the musical heritage theme, and with the full confidence of one successful mural under his belt, Tull incorporated more complicated elements and techniques in the second mural which more closely resembles the style of his gallery paintings. I have no reservations in saying that it is one of the finest pieces of public art in the country and I am not alone in that assessment. Of the four Tennessee murals listed in the international art registry, Mural Locator, Selmer has two: RHM 1 and RHM 2 by Brian Tull.
 
If you still wonder how all of this connects to a music hall of fame, consider this. Brian’s desire to put his talent to use, for the purposes of healing in his hometown, has resulted in a great deal of local pride and awareness about the richness of our shared music heritage. Where once, some people found little reason to brag on McNairy County, they now enthusiastically tell about the fantastic murals in their community and can recite a few of the fascinating historical facts that inspired them. They have a high quality annual event to attend which pays homage to that same musical heritage and tomorrow they will be out in droves, spending time in their own community instead making deposits in cash registers somewhere else. None of this would have been possible without the artistic talent and vision of Brian Tull.
 
Just as importantly, RHM 1 and 2 have quickly become iconic images associated with McNairy County outside our borders. They have been featured on the front cover of local, regional and state tourism literature; appeared in magazines, newspapers and online publications; and listed as points of interest for cultural tourists as far away a Germany. They have attracted visitors, both domestic and international, and it is now common to see out of town cars circling the block to get a closer look or musicians having their publicity photos taken in front of the murals. Through these channels and others, too numerous to mention, these murals have now been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Every one of them comes away with an improved impression of our community and the depths of our musical heritage. We are known, far and wide, as a community who respects, appreciates and preserves what is best in our local culture largely because of the narrative qualities of these murals. In other words, Brian has managed to convey, through images, what could not be said in a thousand words. His murals have become our billboard to the world as well as a kind of postcard to home. Recognizing him tonight is our way of showing that we honor his affection for this community and his immeasurable contribution to our musical heritage, and ultimately, our understanding of ourselves.
 
It is my distinct honor to induct Brian Tull into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2013.

Dewey Phillips

Legendary Broadcaster & Rock 'n' Roll's First DeeJay
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As read by David Leckner, City Mayor, Adamsville, Tennessee
June 7, 2013


Imagine that you are a member of the typical McNairy County family heading out West on a family vacation. It’s the summer of 1950. Think American Graffiti, but Tennessee style. Mom and Dad are in the front seat and the kids are in back, fidgeting and already asking, “are we there yet,” even though you are just rolling into Memphis on the first leg of your journey, a mere two hours from home. Dad turns up the volume on the car radio and begins scanning the dial for something—anything—to keep the kids occupied. Pretty soon he lands on WHBQ where a smoking guitar lick practically vibrates the flimsy car speakers to shreds. B.B. King wails out a questionable lyric, “Waaaaaoooooo, it’s three o’clock in the morning baby…” Suddenly the kids are quite. A nervous Dad checks the rearview mirror only to see heads slowly bobbing in rhythm with the music. Apparently the kids love it. The music is infectious and even mom’s toe starts tapping on the front floorboard. Glad to have a little peace for a change, but a little unsure what to make out of the whole scene, dad leans over and whispers, under his breath, “Are you sure we should let the kids listen to this…this…race music? I didn’t know WHBQ played that sort of thing.”
 
In fact, WHBQ had only recently begun programming, “that sort of thing.” Determined to emulate the success of WDIA, who first began attracting Memphis’ black audiences with African-American Deejays and solid R&B programming, WHBQ was straddling a fine line. The airwaves were not yet integrated but they wanted the best of both worlds. How could they draw in the African-American listeners without alienating their white audiences and advertisers? It was a dicey business in the, still segregated, South. At first WHBQ hired a baritone-voiced radio announcer cut from the same mold as all the other squeaky-clean, generic, radio voices of the day. He might just as well have been announcing for the Lawrence Welk hour. They programmed it just like any other radio show and played a few rhythm and blues records when WDIA went off the air at sundown. It was a flop of epic proportions. Nobody was listening, so they went back to the drawing board. The solution they stumbled across would forever change the history of broadcasting and the music industry.
 
Then it happens! Before B.B. can finish “Three O’clock Blues,” a manic, hillbilly, deejay breaks in over the top of the music. “Deegaw!” he shouts. He tells a crude joke, which couldn’t possibly be less offensive than whatever B.B. had in mind at three o’clock in the morning. His rapid-fire delivery, with a deep-fried Southern drawl, is hysterical, as he improvises his way through a Falstaff Beer commercial concluding with, “If you can’t drink it, freeze it and eat it! And don’t forget to tell ‘em Phillips sent ya!” The kids are rolling with laughter and mom is gapping at the dashboard as if she’s just seen a ghost. “Good heavens,” she shouts, “That’s Dewey! I sat next to that clown in English class!” Dad instinctively reaches for the radio dial but the kids groan, “Awwww, Pop! Don’t turn it! We want to hear Daddy-O-Dewey!” Mom and dad aren’t sure what to think, but they know two things for certain: 1) Dewey Phillips has come a long way from Adamsville High School; 2) They’ve never heard anything quite like him before. Nobody had.
 
While the scene just described is imaginary, it is based in fact, and many families across the Midsouth experienced something very much like it. Daddy-O Dewey Phillips, of Adamsville, Tennessee, was the voice of a pivotal postwar American generation and it is not stretching the point to say, the world has never been quite the same since he first appeared on the scene.
 
In 1948, after a brief stint in the military, Dewey Phillips moved from his McNairy County home to Memphis looking for a job—any job that would have him in the music industry. As close as he could come, without any professional experience, was selling records at Grant’s Department Store on Main Street in downtown. Undeterred by such a humble beginning point, Phillips talked the store manager into letting him put loud speakers on the street to play his favorite records. As a music fan, he had a keen ear for the best tracks from the very beginning and it wasn’t long before he had a microphone patched into the system, doing his routine for passersby while hawking the latest releases—mostly what was then called, “race music.” Record sales soared and crowds began gathering outside Grant’s just to hear Dewey do his thing. He was a hit.
 
Meanwhile WHBQ was in a quandary about how to manage their floundering experiment with R&B radio programming. They decided to take a chance on Dewey. They worried about his lack of polish as an announcer. They worried about his unapologetic irreverence in front of the microphone. They worried about how his white boy, corn-pone, persona would play with black listeners. They worried about offending white audiences and advertisers. They worried that words like “Deegaw” might be subversive or worse yet, dirty. To be sure, all these worries were well founded, but the listeners loved Dewey, immediately.
 
To everyone’s surprise, except Dewey, the ratings of his Red, Hot, and Blue program skyrocketed. It went from a fifteen minute show to an hour-long show in a matter of months—then it was two hours, then three. The audiences just couldn’t get enough of Daddy-O-Dewey, as he came to be known.
 
The popularity of the show and its eccentric host were enough to quite the fears of most advertisers. Dewey had a golden touch. The station appointed “baby sitters” to help curb some of Dewey’s more sensational on-air antics and Red, Hot and Blue was a runaway success beyond the management’s wildest dreams. They had one of the hottest shows in radio history on their hands but there was something else going on—something they couldn’t have anticipated.
 
While it was geared towards African-American audiences, the station quickly became aware that Red, Hot and Blue was attracting a younger demographic. Kids, both black and white, were tuning in to hear Daddy-O-Dewey Phillips. They loved the music and they loved his show. The records Phillips played became bestsellers all around the Midsouth and the catch phrases he used on the air, could be heard everywhere around town. Suddenly white kids were openly buying “race music” at the record stores and black kids were quoting a hillbilly Deejay from McNairy County. The social landscape was shifting underfoot and Dewey Phillips was at the center of a small cultural revolution which was quickly gaining momentum.
 
Prior to the civil rights movement, not everyone thought all of this was a good sign but Dewey really didn’t care. He was, by then, a regular at many of the Beale Street clubs where he was welcomed by black artists and audiences alike as a champion of the integrated airwaves. Beale was incredibly fertile ground and Dewey befriended and played the records of many of the artists he met there. He had an incredible ear for talent and gave equal air time to any record that made the cut. There were only two kinds of music with Dewey: the kind worth listening to and the other kind. On any given show you might hear an eclectic mix of Hank Williams, B.B. King, Les Paul& Mary Ford, Howlin’ Wolf, Hank Snow, Muddy Waters, Patti Page and Fats Domino. Dewey didn’t see people or music in terms of race and the favor was usually returned. Perhaps, legendary Memphis entertainer, Rufus Thomas, said it best when he observed, “Dewey had no color.”
 
Another of Dewey’s fans and friends was a little known Union Avenue record producer named Sam Phillips. Though they were not blood-kin, they were unquestionably kindred spirits. Sam had also been known to frequent Beale Street clubs looking for recording prospects and he happily used Dewey as a sounding board and welcomed the exposure he gave black artists on Red, Hot and Blue. One hot evening in July 1954, Dewey stopped by Sam’s studio for a visit. Sam had just cut a track with a nineteen year old, Memphis, truck driver and he wanted Dewey to hear it. Dewey was uncharacteristically quiet and contemplative as he listened to the record, but definitely wanted two copies to play on the show. The next day, he dropped the needle on Elvis Presley’s “That’s Alright Mama” and the Phillips boys stepped into history. Dewey had just introduced the world to the music of Elvis Presley and later that same day, introduced Elvis Presley to the world through his first on air interview. In the course of the discussion he slyly asked Elvis to provide some biographical information. When the unsuspecting young artists revealed that he had attended Humes High, an all white school, it was the dawn of a new era in popular music. You see, most of the listening audience assumed that Elvis was a black artist. If the social landscape had been slowly shifting under Dewey Phillip’s influence, this was an earthquake. You know the rest of the story.
 
Phillips went on to debut the recordings of other Sun artists such as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. He interviewed, broadcasted and molded the careers of countless others, both black and white. The list reads like a who’s who of mid twentieth century popular music, making him one of the most influential figures in the history of American broadcasting. While Cleveland deejay, Alan Freed was still playing classical music on the radio, Dewey Phillips was broadcasting R&B tunes to a largely segregated society across the Midsouth. Before Dick Clark and American Bandstand, Dewey Phillips was the first to introduce television audiences to R&B and Rock and Roll, through his groundbreaking WHBQ show, Pop Shop. Perhaps the most famous radio personality in history, Wolfman Jack, was eleven years old when Dewey first went on the air. All of these owe a great debt to the groundbreaking efforts of Dewey Phillip. To say he was a pioneer would be a gross understatement. In the ten years between 1950 and 1960, Dewey Phillips virtually invented what it meant to be an American broadcast personality.
 
As if all this were not enough, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical, Memphis, is based on the career of none other than Dewey Phillips. Though the musical may take some artistic license with Phillips’ personal life, it is spot-on when it comes to his attitudes about the power of music to elevate people and transcend hatred. Phillips believed that music was a great equalizer. He thought a good song—and for that matter, the artist who made it—should be judged on its own merits instead of preconceived notions of race or social order. This simple conviction was maintained under considerable social pressure and often at great personal expense, but he always stuck to his guns. Because of it, Dewey Phillips helped change hearts and minds and in so doing, the very course of American music and culture. With his popularity and influence he paved the way for tremendous social change and many have wondered out loud just how important was his role in laying a foundation for the civil rights movement. Maybe there is no way to adequately answer the question but it remains a fact that by making no race distinctions when it came to music, Dewey Phillips was able to bridge a social gap which lead to better understanding, respect and appreciation.
 
It’s probably true that Dewey never thought too much about all of this. He was just being Dewey. But in the end, being Dewey was enough.
 
It is my great honor to induct Dewey Phillips into the McNairy County Music Hall of Fame, in the inaugural class of 2013.

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