Rare Rock & Roll

Hound Howl #106 – 20260412

Originally aired April 12, 2026 on thehoundnyc.com. The Hound Howl is also available as a podcast on Amazon Music Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Google Play.

SET 1

  1. Johnny C. & the Blazes- Inferno (Chattahoochie)1
  2. Bob-Chords- High Voltage (Sioux)
  3. Orbit Rockers- Rock-It (Willamette)
  4. Harold & Bob- Jungle Beat (Delta)
  5. Rhythm Rockers- Count Down (Copper)2

ON MIC

SET 2

  1. Sonny Jones- Is Everything Alright (Specialty)
  2. Milton Beasley with Country Cowboys- Mississippi Boogie (Delta)
  3. The Clickettes- Jive Time Turkey (Dice)3
  4. Jay Richards- Gosh Dog Baby (Hollywood)
  5. John Lee Hooker- She’s Mine (Vee Jay)4

ON MIC

SET 3: Blues Hangover

  1. King Solomon- Yodeling This Morning (Magnum)
  2. Sunny Blair- 5 Foot 3 Blues (RPM
  3. John Brim & his Gary Kings- Go Away (Chess)
  4. K.C. Douglas Trio- Mercury Boogie (Down Town Recording)
  5. Lowell Fulson w/Leon Blue & his band- Stop and Think (Movin’)

ON MIC

SET 4

  1. Lil’ Ray & the Premiers- Soul & Stomp (Impact)5
  2. Down Beats vocal by Roy Nixon- Hard-Rockin’ Daddy (Dee-Cee)
  3. Rhythm Rockers- Lollipop Baby (Faro Productions)6
  4. Kid Tanner- Wino (Modern)
  5. Del Rays- You Know I Love You (Riff)
  6. Cal Green- The Search Is Over (Federal)7

ON MIC

SET 5

  1. Larry Dale- Poison Ivy (Ram)
  2. Johnnie Allen- Let’s Do It (Jin)
  3. Phil Flowers- (The Story Of) Johnny Bon Bonnie (Almanac)
  4. Little Freddie & the Gents- Betty (Showcase)
  5. Elton Anderson- Roll On Train (Vin)
  6. Andy Anderson- You Shake Me Up (Apollo)

ON MIC

SET 6

  1. The Crazy Girls & the Javelins- Hey Hey Ha! Ha! (Capitol)
  2. Jerry & Mel- Cannibal Stew (Boss-Sound)
  3. Lonnie Mack- I’ve Had It (Fraternity)
  4. Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton & Johnny Otis’ Band – Just Like A Dog (Peacock)8
  5. Dave Atkins & his Offbeats- Shake-Kum-Down (Big Beat)
  6. Eddie Alston- I Just Can’t Help It (Barry)

ON MIC

SET 7

  1. Leroy Washington- Hello Baby What Do You Know (Rocko)
  2. Jet-Tones- Henry (Pix)9
  3. Bobby Sanders- I’m On My Way (Kaybo)
  4. The Escorts, Roger Booth- vocal- I Wanna Do It (Fredo)
  5. Del Prados- Oh Baby (Lucky Four)
  6. Skee Brothers- That’s All She Wrote (Okeh)10
  7. Barbara Lynn- Sugar Coated Love (Copyright)

ON MIC

SET 8

  1. Big Will Stevens with Buddy T & his T-Men- Saturday Night (Corvet)
  2. Floyd Smith with the Montclairs- Grandpa’s Hully Gully Rock (Fortune)
  3. Colemanaires- This May Be The Last Time (Apollo)11

  1. Johnny C. & the Blazers, arranged by transplanted Okie Leon Russell, who is also heard on the organ, and produced by Kim Fowley is that fellow Okie JJ Cale on guitar? Nobody’s talking these days, but I’m pretty sure it is. On Chattahoochee, 1963. ↩︎
  2. Rhythm Rockers. Wonder how many groups called Rhythm Rockers. there has been?. These particular Rhythm Rockers were from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and cut two singles for the Copper label, this one was the first in 1962. ↩︎
  3. The Clickettes- aka The Click-ettes, from Harlem, the gals seem to have lost the hyphen that separated Click and Ettes after their first two Dice 45’s. Bronx based Dice was owned by Johnnie Richardson (of Johnnie & Joe fame) and her mom Zell Sanders (1922-1976), a woman so tough even scary gangsters named Moishe, Corky and Wassell gave her some wide slack. Zell also had J&S, Tuff, Zell’s, Scatt (!) and probably a few more labels under her belt. The original group is on “Jive Time Turkey”- lead singer Barbara English along with sisters Charlotte and Trudy McCartney and Sally Hammond. English would carry on the name with a different bunch of Clickettes in a year’s time. The new group also recorded as the Avalons for one 45- ‘You Broke Our Hearts’ (Dice) and then became the Fashions and finally Barbara English & the Fashions. Barbara English finally went solo and weathered on into the disco era. When I encountered her in the 80’s she was working as the receptionist for Aaron Schroeder Publishing in the Brill Building. ↩︎
  4. John Lee Hooker. That’s the alliterated Motown rhythm section of James Jamerson (bass) and Benny Benjamin (drums) playing ‘Tequilla’ behind Hooker. From Vee Jay, 1961. I’m guessing Ewart Abner produced this, and may have even been wearing his much discussed velour jumpsuit which was he was first spotted wearing around this time… ↩︎
  5. Lil Ray & the Premiers. Recorded live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1960. Ray Jimenez would join East L.A. legends Thee Midnighters (“Whittier Blvd”, “Love Special Delivery”) shortly after this. He quit. ‘em n ’64 (replaced by Little Willie G). When G. quit Thee Midnighters he and Lil Ray teamed up as God’s Children. In the 70’s Ray lived in New York City and worked for Seymour Stein, at Sire Records, even tried to sign Chain Reaction, the band that eventually morphed into Aerosmith. Last seen, circa 2012 Lil Ray was singing in Salvado Santana (Carlos’ son)’s band Starfire. The Premiers went on to have a hit with their version of Don & Dewey’s “Farmer John”, another live recording. ↩︎
  6. Rhythm Rockets. One of the few non-Pachuko groups on Faro Productions, this trio were white kids from Downey, sorta like the Carpenters, except great. ↩︎
  7. Cal Green (1935-2004)- Born in Dayton, Texas, the 17 year old Green replaced Alonzo Tucker as the guitarist with the Detroit’s first rock’n’roll stars- the Midnighters (later Hank Ballard & the Midnighters) when Tucker was drafted in 1955. In 1959 Green was busted in Texas for possession of marijuana and served 21 months in the penitentiary. Upon release he rejoined the Midnighters briefly, then moved to Los Angeles finding work with Lou Rawls and Brother Jack McDuff, and playing sessions, mostly jazz and later funk. This 45 is the only example of his singing voice. ↩︎
  8. Willie Mae Thornton- That’s Pete “Guitar” Lewis on… guess? The underrated and unheralded Lewis. Otis fired Lewis that year due to his chronic alcoholism and Lewis disappeared from music history. Otis said he last saw Lewis the night of the Watts uprising in 1966 when he spotted him laying on the street on skid row dead drunk. He was replaced by Jimmy “Chank” Nolen, who later got his playing style down to one chord as a key element of James Brown’s band. This was Thornton’s final disc for Peacock. ↩︎
  9. Jet-Tones aka the Jet Tones from Lorain County, Ohio cut both sides of this 45 twice, first for the Plaid (1959) and then Pix (1960) labels. The Jet Tones also backed Rocky Olsen on Jet Tone Boogie b/w Kansas City (Chess) in ’59. This is the first time I’ve played the Pix on the air, the Plaid I played a lot over the years… ↩︎
  10. Skee Brothers- From Pontiac Michigan, the brothers- real names Thomas Joseph and James Shedlowsky, aka TJ & Jim, were still at it as late as 2013 when they were documented doing the “Back Door Boogie” at the Roscommon Knights of Columbus by the Houghton Lake Resorter newspaper. This one was issued by Okeh in 1959. T.J. died in September 2025, Jim is still alive as far as I can tell… ↩︎
  11. Colemenaires. From Newark, NJ, were related to the gospel duo the Coleman Brothers. The female voice is Cynthia Coleman who soon changed her name to Ann Cole and is best remembered for the original version of “Got My Mojo Workin’” (Baton) in 1954 that Muddy Waters learned from whilst touring together, as well as “Easy Easy Baby” which Magic Sam cut for Cobra. My promo copy of this is stamped 1957 which means it was released after her Baton sides, but evidently it was recorded earlier, around ’53, probably at the same session as the Colemanaires sides for Timely (which was later acquired by Apollo). From the time of her secular Baton sides she toured widely, playing The Apollo in Harlem, the Howard in D.C., the Uptown in Philadelphia, et al. Her career took a down turn after a 1957 pot bust in Detroit. After that she was constantly harassed by the law, mostly in the Hartford, Ct. area where she had relocated— charges include writing bad checks, B&E, shoplifting, all fairly minor stuff still she was incarcerated at State Farm and Prison for Women at Niantic. There, she escaped several times. Her Roulette single, “Have Fun” was recorded during one of these AWOL periods. Eventually she was extradited from NYC back to the farm and served out her sentence. Shortly after being paroled she had a car wreck and spent her final days in a wheelchair, finally dying in 1986 at age 52. ↩︎