Who was/is Wayne Raney ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Wayne Raney
Wayne Raney, one of rock 'n' roll's ancestral cornerstones, was born on a farm near Wolf Bayou, Arkansas in 1920. Crippled in infancy, he learnt to play choke style harmonica during lessons from a one-armed busker in 1927. According to his autobiography, Raney recorded harmonica instrumentals for BLUEBIRD but the selections were never issued.
Raney spent the late '30s playing The Fox Chase and selling harmonicas over radio stations in Texas and Missouri. He eventually met Lonnie Glosson, the harmonica hero of his adolescence, and the pair formed an on-off partnership which endured for many years (Raney and Glosson shared the spotlight in BBC's Omnibus programme, The Friendly Invasion, in 1974).
In 1945 Raney joined the Delmore Brothers on KWFM in Memphis. They'd already recorded Hillbilly Boogie for KING but not yet released it. With Raney in tow, they cut Freight Train Boogie and Boogie Woogie Baby. Raney's own records, like Jack And Jill Boogie, often featured the Delmores. These best-selling records were the pivot on which blues, gospel and old-timey music were moulded into rockabilly. Raney built a ten room home in Concord, Arkansas and hired staff to mail out his songbooks. He followed up with two all-time classics in 1949: the Delmores' Blues Stay Away From Me (Raney played harmonica) and his own Why Don't You Haul Off And Love Me, #1 C&W for three weeks.
Shake Baby Shake was intended for KING and would have been recorded in Cincinnati, but Raney was annoyed when Syd Nathan flew off to New York without telling him. The song is a bowdlerized version of the Midnighters' Sexy Ways. Raney sings "purdy ways" to meet the sensibilities of a white audience.
In 1958 Raney formed POOR BOY RECORDS with Jimmie Zack. One of his own discs was entitled We Need A Lot More Of Jesus (And A Lot Less Rock And Roll), but the label issued exceptional rockabilly by the Van Brothers and Norman Witcher. In the '60s, Raney built a studio and manufacturing plant in Concord; he also founded another label, RIMROCK, and pressed up albums of his KING material and newly recorded gospel songs. Other records appeared on tiny labels like BLAKE, LAWSON, NEW AMERICAN and MEMORY.
Wayne Raney published his autobiography in 1990 and died of cancer on January 23, 1993.
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