Artist History "Money Can't Buy It"I guess it all started seven miles north of Brandon, Mississippi on Hwy 471 in the small countrycommunity known as Langford, Mississippi. The dirt road led to a lot of walking and cottonfields with neighbors scattered here and there, party line phones, radio, fireplace, hard work, andlots of music. My mother, Leota Long Swilley, played piano at Oakdale Baptist Church for fiftyyears. I was the youngest of six children and would sit on the piano bench with her or on the firstpew behind her, still within her reach. I was too young to read but knew and could sing everysong. And sang in key, even sang harmony parts but didn't know what it was. I would beat onpots and pans and tin tops at home with kitchen knives. Drove my mother crazy. She finallymoved me to the back porch. It didn't take me long to figure out the larger the pan, the deeperthe sound. I also played the comb .... wrap paper around the comb and hum into it. The sameapplies, the larger the comb, the deeper the sound.I guess that tells you something about our financial situation, but I didn't know any better andwas very content playing my home-made instruments. That's when I developed my love forplaying drums. I would play pots and pans and mother would play the piano. She played thepiano almost everyday when I was a child. We listened to the Grand Ole Opry at night on theradio. I could almost see the singers and musicians and listened to every note. We were cottonfarmers so I worked with our Black neighbors in the fields and would pass the black church(Truevine Baptist Church) on our way to Oakdale Church. I would sneak out and walk to theBlack Church and listen to the music outside. We had good singing at our church, but this wasreally different, and I liked it. And I learned it. I spent many nights and Sunday afternoons at thatChurch. So, finally, they invited me in. I sat in the Amen Corner and became a regular therewithout my family ever knowing. I knew all of them and they knew me and they knew I lovedthat sound. I was very comfortable there. I loved that gospel, rhythm, harmony, and emotion inthat music. Probably this blend of white gospel, black gospel, blues, country, hillbilly, cotton fields,harmony influenced me to form my rockabilly music. I continued singing in church and playeddrums in the Brandon High School Band, directed by Byars Killion. Mr. Killon taught me thebasics of reading music and allowed me to ad lib anytime. What a very nice man. He encouragedme to continue in music. He gave me my first drum and I accumulated them one at a time, alldifferent colors but all were Slingerland. I had a snare, stand-mounted tom tom, bass drum, hi-hat, and one 14" ride cymbal. I was ready to play. My first band was Tina and the Tides withColbert Irby (piano), Tommy Pittman (guitar, and Tina Ranaldo (singer). In 1963 we formed aband called The Starfires with Don Pittman, Tommy Pittman (cousins), Clyde Coley, and myselfand played all around Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi and up and down the MississippiRiver to include Louisiana and Arkansas. We sure learned some music from some of those river towns. That's where we developed our"Fight Song". Yes, Fight Song. Every band who played those clubs had to have a fight songbecause the club owners would insist you play fast and loud when a fight would break out. Ourfight song was "The Wildwood Flower" and we played it often and loud and fast. I can still seethe guitar player hiding behind the juke box, the piano player ducked behind the piano, the bassman against the wall and me sitting behind the drums as low as possible. We never missed alick. We cut our first record in 1963 at Delta Recording Studio with Jimmy Ammons. Jimmywas a promoter and built a studio in a single garage with egg cartons or something like it on thewalls to hold the sound. He was a good friend to all the local musicians and a good man. We cut"Dream Lover" and "It must Be The Wine". We cut both songs in one take, live, no headsets, noover-dubs, no nothing, just play it. That's how you recorded, just play it. Every piece ofequipment we had would fit in the trunk and back seat of the car including us. Our PA system was state of the art: Two 12" speakers that locked together for transporting andfifty feet of speaker wire that wound around the back so we could hang them up in the clubs weplayed. It also came with a 20 watt amp and we could plug in four microphones. Man, compactand high tech. We were something! We even had band coats. We were sharp. I arranged to buyanother tom tom from a friend and now had four drums that didn't match. No problem, Mr. VonBaker, a painter and great guy lived down the road from me and he helped me paint them allchartreuse and we sprinkled glitter on the paint before it dried. Man, now I'm a Real Cat.Matching drums and a band coat. I left glitter on every band stand we played for at least amonth. Man, life was good, playing music and making $15.00 to $20.00 per night. We lovedevery minute of it and our music was pure rockabilly. All that melt of cotton fields, church, rock'n' roll, Mississippi River and blues. We didn't know it was rockabilly, but we loved playing it.As we grew in our music, so did our equipment. We even had echo, then reverb, roundmicrophones, goosenecks and worked 3 to 5 nights a week. Man, we were hot. We began towork around the Jackson, Mississippi area. Jackson was loaded with great musicians. Clubs allover town but mostly in the outskirts in the county. Some of the clubs I remember are theSatellite, Embers, Wagon Wheel, Hat and Cane, Peppermint Lounge, Arena Club, Silver Spur,Rotissiere, Whitehouse, Hilltop, Red Lantern, Mr. Rays to name a few. This was a realawakening for us. The musicians working in Jackson were good, real good. They scared us todeath and man, could they play. In fact, having traveled all over the country working and playingand listening to music, there was no place you could hear this overall quality of musicians.Jackson just drew the best of music and musicians I, personally, ever heard.They were truly great talents and they absolutely deserve mentioning and remembering: BuckyBarrett, Richard Thames, Bill Guthke, Jerry Puckett, Key Traylor, Jay Stricker, Alton Lott,James Bailey, Buddy Rogers, Woody Coats, Wray Hixson, Murray Kellum, Howard "BB"Boone, Peggy Paxton, Joe McGuffie, and many more. There was no liquor by the drink so all theclubs were brown-bag supper clubs. Then, there were the County Line Clubs all over the South,especially, Mississippi. Some counties, Mississippi has 82, were dry and others were wet, beeronly. So, you simply drove across the nearest county line and fouund a club, we were there.Those were the county line clubs. Most were located out in the country and the wooden chairs,tables, and floors would fill up on Friday and Saturday nights. Man, where did all those peoplecome from. Don't forget the fight song. I worked those clubs with Howard and Robert Roland(Howard, Robert, and Bobby Joe). What a name! We played pure rockabilly, played it loud, andfilled up the clubs around Canton, Hwy 16, Carthage, Kosciusko, up and down the NatchezTrace in Mississippi. Don Pittman, Alton Lott, and myself and sometimes Margo Hollidayplayed around Jackson for a few years. We had a good band, played small clubs, but we playedthat same ole rockabilly and played it good.Alton decided to move to Kansas City. This left a tremendous void in our band. He was such avital part of the sound, guitar, vocals, comedy. He would be hard to replace as a musician and afriend. So, we formed the bobby J Trio with Don Pittman, James Bailey, and myself and playedlocal clubs, then signed with The Ralph Gibbs Agency. Ralph was a great musician (Ralph andLois) and booked us all over the State of Mississippi. We played a lot of conventions from theGulf Coast to Memphis. Again, we played that same ole rockabilly. Then, I spent a couple ofyears with Dewey and Leon Miller, One Way Street, (If You're Looking For A Fool). Dewey andLeon are brothers and have some of the best harmony I've ever heard. Great musicians. I nowlive in Fayetteville, North Carolina and still play music, but not on a regular basis. I play withBob Jones and the Bobcats. In September, 1998, I was honored to have recorded with Alton andJimmy back in the original Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. We cut "Rockin' in the Shadow of Sun".This song was released in January, 1999 on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame CD Vol. #2. Man, whata kick that was. This combination and blend of music is very special. And the musicians whoplayed it are equally special. Without a word spoken, these pickers can give you a look, or smile,or some form of communication, that says it all.... "Man, I dig your music". Having worked withand associated with this quality group of musicians has had a profound effect on me and mymusic. I'm not sure this music will ever be duplicated. It comes from within the person, the core, thebackground, the mix of country, rock, hillbilly, blues, gospel. I just don't hear it anymore. I amblessed to have grown up like I did with these tremendous influences and sincerely hope peopleall over the world can be exposed to this music, the heritage and roots of what it really is, andlearn to truly appreciate the music and the musician because they won't hear it anywhere else.

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