Search - Howard Crockett :: Out of Bounds - The Johnny Horton Connection

Yet Another Obscure Artist Resurrected By Bear Family

05/24/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Add Howard Crockett to the list of obscure Rockabilly artists whose music has been rescued from the deepest vaults of whichever among the Big Four - Sony BMG, EMI, Universal or Warner - owns the rights (see also Tibby Edwards as another example).



The official blurb above says Howard (born Howard Hausley in Minden, Louisiana on December 25, 1925) "... didn't have many hits as a singer ..." and in that they are correct. In fact, he had one, and a minor one at that as Last Will And Testament (Of A Drinking Man) stalled at # 53 Country in June 1973 for the Dot label, b/w The House Where Momma Loved. Unfortunately, neither side is included in this Bear Family release.



The blurb then goes on to say he "... wrote Honky Tonk Man, Ole Slew Foot, Whispering Pines, and All Grown Up ... All Johnny Horton hits." And there they are not 100% correct. He did write them and, according to the excellent liner notes co-written by Colin Escott, Claes Håken Olofsson and Bo Berglind, Crockett also claimed to have written I'm A One Woman Man, although that is disclaimed by Horton's manager, Tillman Franks, who says he wrote it in conjunction with Johnny.



In any event, while that was indeed a hit (# 7 Country in the fall of 1956 - and again in spring 1962 in a new version - # 11 Country/# 96 Billboard Pop Hot 100), as were Honky-Tonk Man (# 9 Country in summer 1956) and All Grown Up (# 8 Country in fall 1958 and # 26 Country in early 1963 in a re-release), neither Whispering Pines nor Ole Slew Foot were hits. The former was the uncharted B-side to When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below), while the later, written and recorded by Crockett as Slewfoot The Bear, was an unsuccessful single by Johnny as simply Slew Foot.



Thanks to the success of Honky Tonk Man, Howard wound up at The Big D Jamboree in Dallas, where he met the great Blue Grass singer, Mac Wiseman, who arranged a recording contract with Dot, at the same time convincing him to change his surname to Crockett, ostensibly to capitalize on the popularity of Davey Crockett. Then, for his first single release in 1957 (If You'll Let Me b/w You've Got Me Lyin') he was backed by no less than Floyd Cramer on piano and Chet Atkins on guitar, as well as Elvis Presley's back-up group, The Jordanaires - all to no avail insofar as a hit was concerned. Nor was he successful with the 1958 release Branded b/w Night Rider, although he and his new band, named The Night Riders, did appear several times on the famed Louisiana Hayride in that period.



After Dot chose not to renew his contract, he turned up at the small Manco label in Fort Worth where, in 1959, he cut Slewfoot The Bear, among others, before moving to the Mercury subsidiary, Smash, and then Mel-O-Dy Records, which served for a while as the Country outlet for Motown. All this is detailed in the extensive liner notes, including a fascinating tale about a botched opportunity to link up with the famed Hanna-Barbera cartoon empire. Crockett succumbed to cancer two days after his 69th birthday in 1994.



A very nice package covering yet another largely forgotten artist that will delight Rockabilly fans everywhere."