From: Flippar Date: Thu Jan 3, 2002 5:03 am Subject: Born To Be With You - Carl McVoy CARL McVOY Carl Everett Glasscott McVoy, born on January 3rd 1931 in Epps, Louisiana died January 3rd 1992 Cousin of Jerry Lee, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. Young Carl went to New York with his minister father and heard boogie woogie for the first time. He was an early influence on his cousins, especially the Killer. Lewis would go and stay with his older cousin in Arkansas and studied his older cousin`s boogie piano stylings. Frankie Jean Lewis claims Carl was the most talented family member in the early days. They all eagerly gathered round the piano whenever Carl would come to Ferriday. Carl was working in the construction industry when his little cousin became a superstar. In 1957 Carl cut a session for the new Hi label after meeting Ray Harris but the new label couldn` t handle the demand for You Are My Sunshine so the rights were sold to Sam Phillips who released it on Phillips International (full story below). He recorded at least 14 titles for Sun in 6 sessionsbut nothing was issued and several of these sides are now on cd thanks to Charly and Bear Family. In fact several other Sun artists had releases on sides cut first by Carl! He remained in the construction business but dabbled again in the music scene in the early 60s, working at Hi (tracks on Hi Records-The Early Years vol 1) and playing piano/organ for the Bill Black Combo(though Joe Louis Hall from the Willie Mitchell band played on their first hit,Smokie). Carl penned (and played on) Do It - Rat Now for the Combo and it reached 51 in the pop charts. He cut a nice solo version of Slim Harpo`s Raining In My Heart but further success eluded him. He died in 1992 aged 61. Recommended listening Hi The Early Years vol 1 (originally 2lp, now on cd) Bear Family -That`ll Flat Git It Vol 17 Charly Unissued Sun Masters Charly Essential Sun Rockabillies Vol 3 discography -Rockin` Country Style web site Here`s an extract from a Colin Escott interview with Ray Harris "I knew Carl McVoy. He was Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin and he was working construction with me. He played some dances with my group and he'd worked up a rock & roll arrangement of the old Jimmie Davis song You Are My Sunshine. So, I took McVoy to this old lady's house down on Poplar Avenue. She had an upright piano and a tape recorder. I gave her $3.50 and we cut You Are My Sunshine and Tootsie. I had two partners, Bill Cantrell and Quinton Claunch. We said, 'Well, we got the know how but who's got the money?' We went down to Poplar Tunes which was owned by Joe Cuoghi and he remembered me on account of Greenback Dollar. The four of us came to art agreement and formed a little company, went to Nashville with the money we'd raised and re-cut those two tunes by McVoy with Chet Atkins and all the Nashville studio men'.With their first release on the horizon Harris and his partners needed a name for their new record labeL It was Joe Cuoghi who hit upon the name 'Hi Records.' He thought it would conjure up images of a record high on the charts. McVoy's debut hit the streets to a good response but Hi did not have a distribution system in place, so the partners sold the masters to Sam Philips for $2600 and used the influx of capital to rent the old Royal Theater on S. Lauderdale St and buy an Ampex single track recorder, six microphones and two Altec boards. Bill Cantrell strung the primitive equipment together. The Hi Records studio was born.