From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Sat Jan 18, 2003 7:14 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Johnny Bragg (Prisonaires) JOHNNY BRAGG Born 18 January 1926, Nashville, Tennessee; died 1 September 2004, Madison, TN Johnny Bragg came to the music business by a stranger route than most other artists. Born blind, he "inexplicably began to see" at age seven and by the time he was a young teen, he was enduring minor run-ins with the law. When he formed his first group and began to write songs, he was doing serious time in a Tennessee prison. Falsely accused of rape at the age of 16 and convicted at 17, Bragg had started serving a sentence of 99 years when he began singing. The Prisonaires were formed at the Tennessee State Penitentiary in 1940 by Ed Thurman. They were encouraged by Warden James E. Edwards. By 1943, when Johnny Bragg was incarcerated, the quintet consisted of Bragg on lead, John Drue as first tenor, Ed Thurman as second tenor, William Stewart singing baritone and playing guitar, and Marcell Sanders rounding out the group on bass. They were influenced by a cross-section of performers from Louis Jordan and Muddy Waters to The Ink Spots and Perry Como. Their repertoire included blues, hillbilly, spiritual and pop songs. Warden Edwards arranged for the group to perform at various civic functions (under armed guard) as part of the state's rehabilitation program. During the long hours of incarceration with little to do, Bragg would sing in his cell and write songs incessantly. One song was titled "Just Walkin' In The Rain", which he collaborated on with inmate Robert Riley. After the group had come to the notice of Sam Phillips, Warden Edwards and Governor Frank Clement agreed to let the group record for Sun Records and authorized the trip to Memphis on June 1, 1953. "Just Walkin' In The Rain", with only a soft and simple guitar accompaniment, was issued on Sun 186 in July, and reportedly sold over a quarter of a million copies. In 1956, Johnnie Ray would take the song to # 2 on the pop charts. The success of "Just Walkin' in the Rain" played a small, yet significant role in the history of rock and roll as the song that put Sun Records on the map. According to Peter Guralnick, "Just Walkin' in the Rain" likely was the record that captured the attention of a young Elvis as he read about the studio, the record label, and Sam Phillips and decided that this was the man he ought to go and see. Many evenings, Bragg and his fellow bandmates left the prison walls behind to perform at schools, radio stations, other prisons, on TV shows (in suits and ties) and even at the Governor's mansion. Their armed guard contingent was soon reduced to one since the inmates never tried any kind of escape. The Prisonaires had four singles released on Sun, 1953-54. After the third single, several members of the group were paroled, so Bragg formed a new group, The Sunbeams, who became The Marigolds in 1955 and had a # 8 R&B hit with their first single for Excello, "Rollin' Stone". Three more singles failed to chart and Bragg was released in 1956, ending the Prisonaires/Marigolds story. Bragg recorded a few R&B singles for Decca in 1959-60 and then was unjustly reincarcerated for parole violations when he was arrested for being in the back seat of a car with a white girl, who happened to be his wife. He spent six and a half years in prison on that charge. In 1967 Bragg was again free and recorded two singles for ElBe-Jay. In the 1970s he worked at a cemetery. BMI acknowledged Bragg with honours in 1988 when the number of times "Just Walkin' in the Rain" had been played on the radio topped a million. Johnny is still alive. He appeared in the television special, "Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock'n'Roll", which aired June 18, 2000. Book: Jay Warner, Just Walkin' in the Rain : The True Story of a Convict Quintet, A Liberal Governor, and How They Changed Southern History Through Rhythm and Blues. Los Angeles : Renaissance Books, 2001. CD : The Johnny Bragg Story : Just Walkin' In The Rain (Relentless, 2001). 22 original masters, 14 with The Prisonaires recorded at Sun studios, 4 x The Marigolds (Excello masters) & 4 x solo masters. More info: http://archives.nashvillescene.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?story=Back_Issues:200 Updated 23 April 2005