From:   "Dik de Heer"  
Date:  Wed Mar 5, 2003  4:07 pm
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Billy Adams
 
BILLY ADAMS (By Tony Wilkinson)

Born 6th March 1940, Redbush, Kentucky

One of fourteen children, Billy Adams came into the world on 6th March 1940 in
Redbush, Kentucky, a mid-sized community on the Appalachian side of the
Bluegrass state. The Adams family couldn't even afford a guitar, let alone a
piano, so the youngster started out musically speaking on a bucket lid when he
was about seven years old: It was a memorable occasion when Billy did his first
radio show on WCMI in Ashland, Kentucky in 1952, he performed a rousing version
of an old Ray Price tune called 'I'll Be There If You Want Me By Your Side' to
a studio full of entertainers in a jamboree-type setting. Two or three years
later when he encountered a certain Sun recording artist coming across the
airwaves, he felt a definite empathy as to what he was trying to achieve: He
and brother Charles left school after the eighth grade, picked up their
diplomas and shortly afterwards went on the road. Ironically the key incentive
was a financial one because their father had come down with 'black lung' from
his time working at the coal mine. Fortunately by now, Billy had progressed
from the lard bucket lid, thanks to an understanding neighbour who had appeared
at the door one day and bequeathed him an old Harmony Monterey guitar. Like so
many artists, Billy got his feet wet in the bars and clubs. It was during these
time that Billy wrote 'Rock Pretty Mama' which the outfit featured in their
shows. 

The circuit bought the brothers to the attention of a character named Luke
Gordon, who owned the Quincy label named after his (Gordon's) home town. He had
heard the boys sing 'Rock Pretty Mama' on stage and insisted that the guys go
to the Rite Studio, Cincinnati and record it. It was a split session with Luke,
he agreed to pay for the session if we would back him on the song "Don't Cramp
My Style". This was credited to Luke Gordon with "The Rock & Roll Boys" whilst
"Rock Pretty Mama" had Billy Adams and The Rock & Roll Boys on the label. 

Four or five takes of "Rock Pretty Mama" were laid down at the session, an
important fact as the track of this title included on MCA and Collector
reissues in the eighties and nineties is an alternative take. The record was
released as Quincy 932 in 1957 with only around 500 copies made. 'Rock Pretty
Mama' has today achieved cult status as a rockabilly classic and listening to
it, one fully realises why. Startlingly sparse and basic but filled with
emotion from all concerned, it moves along like an express train roaring
through the countryside. This recording really builds and is one supreme
example of southern rockin'.

Next in 1956 came the link up with Glen McKinney who was the owner and engineer
at the Mack Recording Company based at 1527 Sixth Avenue, West Portsmouth, Ohio
in an area that was named after the Nau Voo Indian tribe. McKinney, originally
from Florida, had set up Nau-Voo Records to encourage and record talent who
were having no success in gaining a recording contract with the major or
leading independents. Having recorded them, Glen would either place the
finished product with a bigger record company or issue it on his own Nau-Voo
label. Billy recalls that the studio was very small and that the echo chamber
was a tiny outside empty fuel tank. Despite these limitations, many rockin'
gems came about as a result of the enterprising Mr. McKinney

Frank Porter, like Glen McKinney, was another one of those recording mavericks
without whom our enjoyment of rock and roll today would be sadly limited. He
was a school friend of McKinney and subsequently relocated to Phoenix, Arizona
where he established his own Porter Records together with a somewhat basic
recording studio. McKinney and Porter had a reciprocal, but irregular
arrangement, in which masters produced by McKinney were issued on Porter
Records and vice versa in which Porter masters saw the light of day on
McKinney's Nau-Voo label. 

Billy and his band entered into the Nau-Voo studio and laid down the superb
'You Heard Me Knocking' and 'True Love Will Come Your Way'. The biting lead
guitar work on the topside piece of sublime bluesy rockabilly is from Billy's
brother Charles with Glen McKinney playing some of the lower guitar sounds. It
is reasonably clear that these two sides were going to be issued on Porter
Records in October 1957 but this did not happen. The reason was as a result of
Frank Porter's contacts with Randy Wood of Dot Records. The latter was
sufficiently impressed by the quality and excitement of the finished recordings
that he released them as Dot 15689 in January 1958.

Billy and The Rock-A-Teers were building up such a considerable reputation that
Glen carried on recording the band between 1958 and 1959 with three resultant
releases on the Nau-Voo label. These were 'You Gotta Have A Duck Tail', a fine
rocker coupled with the tasty teen beat ballad "Walking Star". This saw release
in November 1958 and was followed in February 1959 by "The Return Of The All
American Boy/That's My Baby". The last mentioned disc made some genuine noise
and received Billboard Magazine Spotlight Winners of the Week Pick in March
1959. The topside is an answer version to the Bobby Bare/Bill Parsons smash hit
'All American Boy' whilst the flip is a splendid piece of mid tempo rockabilly
with oodles of slapping bass. The final release for Nau-Voo was some seventeen
months later in July 1960 with "Blue Eyed Ella", a tremendous blusey work out,
and "The Fun House", a novelty piece of rockabilly. 

The Rock-A-Teers broke up in 1959 as most of the original members were getting
married and settling down into a domestic existence. Brother Charles was not to
record with Billy again until 1963, and he then stayed with Billy until his
(Charles) demise in the eighties. However shortly after the final release for
Nau Voo Billy signed with Fern Records as a solo artist. Bill Burchett owned
the label, which was based in Ashland, Kentucky.

Billy had four releases on the label, the first of which was in October 1960
with 'Tender Years' and 'Darling' Take My Hand'. This was quickly followed the
next month with 'Tattle Tale' and "Born To Be A Loser". On the last mentioned,
and with the next Fern release ["Rip Van Winkle/Sleep, Baby, Sleep"] in March
1961, the names on the label were shown as Billy Adams with Georgia & The
Teens. The final issue on Fern was the next month, in April 1961, with 'Comic
Strip' and 'Call Me' with yet another name change to Billy Adams and The
Paramounts. The last mentioned were in reality the regular session musicians
for Fern Records. The label closed its doors in the mid-sixties and Bill
Burchett went on to found the Bur-K label. 

There was not a further record release by Billy until 1963 when there were two
issues on the Spider label, ["You Satisfy/Holdin' Hands" and "Are You Mad At
Me/Silly Feeling"]. This time the name that appeared on the label was simply
The Breakouts. This was Billy's own label. The recordings for Spider were the
last rock 'n' roll recordings by Billy for some 36 years when he eventually got
to the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis.

In 1964, Billy decided upon a career swerve and decided to revert to his
country roots with singles releases on the Nashville based Jo Mar records,
Double Shot Records out of Los Angeles and Bur K Records from Ashland,
Kentucky. However all recordings were made locally, none being cut in
Nashville. But on live performances, Billy still rocked belting out his own
rockabilly songs. As he says, it was in his blood and came natural.

However Billy received his call to the ministry in 1966 and mainly concentrated
his considerable talents on spreading the word of the Lord but maintained the
odd tasty country record release. Billy firmly believed in music and used it to
help him create his successful ministry. During the course of the next nineteen
years, he recorded in excess of 100 gospel songs and saw many releases, both
singles and albums. Billy also wrote the song "I Saw The Man (That Crucified
The Lord)" which was recorded by The Happy Goodman Family. This song reached #6
on the Gospel Music Charts in "Singing News Magazine" in 1974 and remained in
these charts for 10 months. 

It was in the fall of 1997 when the rejuvenation of Billy Adams as a rockabilly
singer began. The long and short of it was that after forty-plus years, Billy
finally ended up at the Sun Studio. Billy recalls: "I was touring in 1957 and
stopped at a pay phone in Springfield, Missouri and called Sun Records in
Memphis, Tennessee. After introducing myself as Billy Adams from Kentucky, a
sixteen old boy with a record and that I wanted to come down and talk to them.
I believe it was Jack Clement who was in charge at the time and he told me to
come on down. But I ended up not going because my old '49 Ford broke down in
Springfield, Missouri on route to Tucson, Arizona, so we never got there. We
ended up having to sell the car for $50 to get back home. However it was not
until 1998 that I entered the Sun studio and announced I am Billy Adams from
Kentucky and although it too me 41 years to get here, here I am! I was intent
on making my best rockabilly record to date and arrived with enough original
rockabilly tunes to cut an album". Backed up by James Lott on lead guitar, Pete
Scully on drums, Scott Bomar on upright bass and featuring Billy himself on
driving rhythm guitar he laid down nineteen quality rockabilly recordings

Encouraged by his family of singing daughters, Billy took the next step and
assembled a new line-up of the Rock-A-Teers to handle stage performances. He
soon discovered he had a whole raft of fans after playing prestige shows in Las
Vegas Nevada, Jackson Tennessee, Green Bay Wisconsin and Hemsby, England. His
resurgence continues and he is playing key dates and festivals in the USA and
hopes to return to Europe as soon as possible. He was and remains a great
singer and performer.

Recommended Listening:

Compact Discs 

(USA) Anvil Rock Records 2130 'The Legendary Sound Of A Rockabilly Legend'
(1998)

(USA) Screen Door Records 0200-2 'Legacy' (2000)

(UK) Castle CMROD581 'Rockin' Thru The Years 1955 - 2002' (Oct. 2002)

Vinyl : (UK) Castle Records CMNO7581 Rock, Pretty Mama (Quincy cut)/Hot Dog,
I'm A Real Cool Cat (Oct. 2002)