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JOHNNY HORTON "LIVE FROM THE LOUISIANA HAYRIDE"
Release date April 6th
Liner notes By Paul Kingsbury
In most histories of country music, he gets short shrift, remembered chiefly as the singer of folkish, historical saga songs like "When It’s Springtime in Alaska," "Johnny Reb," "Sink the Bismarck," and the biggest hit of them all, "The Battle of New Orleans," a million seller that topped both the pop and country charts in 1959. Some fans may remember that he married Hank Williams’ beautiful widow, Billie Jean. And a few remember that he died at age 35 in 1960, as his star was still ascending.
Johnny Horton scored just 11 country hits (6 on the pop charts) before his death, and the fad for historical saga songs pretty much died with him. Consequently, Horton hasn’t made much of an impact in books about country music’s history. On paper he can seem just an offbeat footnote.
But history is one thing, and music is another. As this collection reveals, Johnny Horton was a firecracker of a live performer, capable of energizing a folkie tune like "Battle of New Orleans" with a rockabilly’s raw vocal intensity. This CD of radio performances from the Louisiana Hayride is the first-ever live collection of Horton’s music, and it testifies to the assured vocal command and good-natured exuberance that made Johnny Horton one of the best-loved country stars of his day.
He was a particular favorite at the Louisiana Hayride during his tenure there from 1952 until his death. The Hayride was a fixture in the homes of countless country fans across the Mid-South and Southwest, beamed out every Saturday night at 50,000 watts from Shreveport’s KWKH. Every third Saturday, the Hayride went out nationally over the CBS radio network. In addition to its vast audience at home, the Hayride had a studio audience of some 3,800 who flocked each Saturday night to downtown Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium to see the variety show’s star-studded lineup of regulars and guests. Popular though it was, however, the program was the number-two showcase in country music, behind Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. During the fifties, one Louisiana Hayride star after another left Shreveport for the Opry—Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Jim Reeves, Faron Young, Johnny Cash and others. But Johnny Horton stayed, and the Hayride fans loved him for it. "He was a genuinely nice guy too," remembers Hayride announcer Frank Page. "Never had any problems with him whatsoever. The only times I ever worried about Johnny was when he didn’t show up because he’d been fishing."
Horton was an almost fanatical outdoorsman who liked nothing better than to spend his offstage hours duck hunting and especially fishing, which led to the apt nickname "The Singing Fisherman." Says Page, "Johnny would go fishing whenever he didn’t have a show date—if the weather was good and Billie Jean wasn’t on his butt."
For his part, Horton felt loyal to the Hayride for giving him a solid base in the music business, something that didn’t come to him immediately. Born in Los Angeles and raised in LA and around Tyler, Texas, Horton had recorded without much success for a string of labels that included Cormac, Abbott and Mercury during the early fifties. He made his first appearances at the Louisiana Hayride in May 1952, where he quickly became a cast member and a favorite.
But Horton’s career didn’t take off until he hooked up with Hayride musician Tillman Franks. Franks became not only Horton’s standup bass player, but also his manager, and shortly afterward Franks managed to get Horton signed to the powerful Columbia label. In addition, Franks helped Horton hone his material, often cowriting with Horton and finding him tailor-made songs from outside writers. Franks knew what he was doing. In Horton’s very first session for Columbia, in January 1956, Horton caught fire, recording his first two chart hits—and two bonafide classics: "Honky Tonk Man" (#9) and "I’m a One-Woman Man" (#7).
Typically Horton was backed on the road and at the Hayride by just two musicians, Tillman Franks on standup bass and Gerald "Tommy" Tomlinson on electric guitar. As these tracks make clear, with a singer of Horton’s presence and power that was usually enough. Occasionally, they were augmented at the Hayride by steel players Sonny Trammel or Felton Pruett and one of two regular Hayride vocal quartets—the Gays (two married couples) or the Four B’s (an all-male group).
Hayride MC and producer Horace Logan introduces the first three selections on this CD, all from 1956, the year Horton’s career caught fire. These radio cuts of "Honky Tonk Man" and "One-Woman Man" each predate the songs’ appearance on the charts and catch Horton on the cusp of national success. Interestingly, even though Horton performed the Leadbelly standard "Rock Island Line" often at the Hayride, it wouldn’t appear on a Horton record until 1965 in a posthumously overdubbed demo.
Leadbelly and Hank Williams appear to have been particular favorites of Horton’s; Leadbelly was also something of a local hero, having been born in nearby Mooringsport. In a December 1957 appearance, Horton returned to Leadbelly’s repertoire with the folksong "John Henry," while in two 1958 Hayride appearances Horton sang Hank’s "Jambalaya" and "My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It." Horton never recorded these three songs commercially, which marks these tracks as true rarities. (On "My Bucket," Horton gets a humorous introduction courtesy of country’s leading musical comedians, Homer & Jethro; Frank Page does the honors on the other three numbers from 1957-58.) Though it never became a hit single, "Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor" has long been a favorite of rockabilly collectors, and the performance captured here finds Horton, Franks and Tomlinson in fine rocking form.
The folk music revival took pop music by storm in 1958 with the success of the Kingston Trio’s "Tom Dooley." Johnny Horton and Tillman Franks hitched a ride on America’s penchant for historical sagas beginning in 1959 with the #1 hit "When It’s Springtime in Alaska," a Jack London-esque tale of romance and murder. Horton quickly followed that with the historical hits "Battle of New Orleans" (#1), "Johnny Reb" (#10) and "Sink the Bismarck" (#6), all of which appear on this collection in Hayride performances collected from 1959 and 1960.
The plaintive ballads "Whispering Pines" and "All for the Love of a Girl" had each been B-sides—the former was the flip of "Springtime in Alaska," the latter backed "Battle of New Orleans." Likewise, "Sal’s Got a Sugar Lip" (a #19 hit) and "Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me" (written by musical comedian Bill Carlisle) were B-sides of "Johnny Reb" and "Sink the Bismarck," respectively.
The final track here is Horton’s quickie ad for local Shreveport car dealer Wray Ford, sung to the tune of "Sink the Bismarck." This borrowing presented no legal problem for Horton or manager Tillman Franks, since they cowrote the tune.
Everything seemed to be going Johnny Horton’s way as 1960 was drawing to a close. But he had had premonitions that he would die at the hands of a drunken man, and on the night of November 5, 1960, driving back from a gig in Austin, Texas, a drunk driver collided with his car, killing him and cutting short a promising career.
In the years since his death, Johnny Horton’s fame may have diminished. But his songs have been revived by the likes of Dwight Yoakam, George Jones and Marty Stuart. And as these live recordings show, his music blazes on.
1 HONKY TONK MAN
recorded April 28, 1956 (J. Horton, T. Franks, H. Hausey)
2 ROCK ISLAND LINE
3 ONE WOMAN MAN
recorded July 14, 1956 (J. Horton, T. Franks)
4 JOHN HENRY
recorded December 7, 1957 (traditional)
5 HONKY TONK HARDWOOD FLOOR
recorded January 18, 1958 (E. Hazelwood, S. Harell, T. Atchison)
6 MY BUCKET’S GOT A HOLE IN IT
recorded May 31, 1958 (C. Williams)
7 JAMBALAYA
recorded June 28, 1958 (H. Williams)
8 ALL FOR THE LOVE OF A GIRL
recorded November 28, 1959 (J. Horton)
9 JOHNNY REB
recorded January 9, 1960 (M. Kilgore)
10 SAME OLD TALE THE CROW TOLD ME
recorded January 9, 1960 (B. Carlisle)
11 BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
recorded November 28, 1959 (J. Driftwood)
12 WHEN IT’S SPRINGTIME IN ALASKA
recorded December 5, 1959 (T. Franks, J. Horton)
13 SAL’S GOT A SUGAR LIP
recorded January 23, 1960 (J. Driftwood)
14 SINK THE BISMARCK
recorded January 23, 1960 (J. Horton, T. Franks)
15 WHISPERING PINES
recorded January 23, 1960 (H. Hausey)
bonus track JOHNNY HORTON FOR WRAY FORD
recorded April 16,1960 (J. Horton, T. Franks)
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