Johnny Brown & the Plainsmen, El Paso

I've got a few stories sitting around I've been prepping off and on for some time now. And as my time goes to those, I've decided to just pull a post from the back pages of LoneStarStomp. Hopefully someone out there will be familiar with this Starday Custom out of El Paso that I originally Stomped way back in June, 2008.


JOHNNY BROWN AND THE PLAINSMEN W/ SAMMY - Shame (Big State 45-718-A)

One of the greatest labels of the 1950s was the Jack Starnes and Pappy Dailey creation Starday. As a record collector there are few greater feelings than turning up those yellow labels with the black script fonts. It's a label with killer side after killer side after killer side. Bill Mack, Sonny Fisher, Link Davis, Amos Como, Patsy Elshire, Bob Doss, Glenn Barber, George "Thumper" Jones, Fred Crawford, and on you go. Whether it swung, stomped, or bopped Starday had it covered. There's even a bit of doo wop in there. And one of Buddy Holly's tastiest bits o' guitar playing, too.

When Don Pierce made the move from California and 4 Star to Houston, Texas and Starday he brought with him the idea of a division that would offer up custom pressed records to any hopeful stars with a little bit of pocket $$$. In exchange said hopeful artist would receive a few hundred copies of a record on a yellow Starday label. For more information on this part of the Starday empire please take a look at Malcolm Chapman's excellent website on the Custom series. The proper Starday Custom label is-like the main series- full of amazing recordings. Lucky Wray (with Link on Guitar), Jimmy Johnson, Frank Evans, Arnold Parker, Truitt Forse, Lloyd McCulloch, Rocking Martin, and Hal Payne.

In some cases artists would send along a label name and the company would produce a label from one of a handful of basic designs. Such is the case of Big State label. There seem to have been a number of Big States scattered all over the place. There is a listing for a Big State release from Wichita Falls. There's the wild Roland Faulk Big State 45 from down on the Gulf Coast. There's also a couple of Big State releases by Johnny Payne out of Houston, but they are part of the 4 Star custom series.

In June of 1958- so sayeth the Chapman Custom site- Johnny Brown and the Plainsmen and vocalizer "Sammy" (Smith?") released their offering of "Shame" b/w "My Little Darling" on a Big State label with an El Paso address. We'll mention no more of "My Little Darling".

The A-side "Shame" bops along nicely. And it IS a bopper. A PRIMITIVE bopper. A primitive HILLBILLY bopper. The real deal. Not a tag thrown on some intranet auction to reel in bidders. While it may not be much of song- there's some words, but not many- it does move and chug along nicely with the steel player taking in a break after each verse/chorus. And what is that... three steel breaks? Certainly no shame there.

One other thing... this is one of just a handful of SCP's that was actually pressed up by Rite. And also just one of two Starday related 45s from El Paso that I'm aware of, the other being the 45 by the early El Paso favorites the Rock Kings.

In addition of the Starday Custom website Malcolm Chapman also runs a blog about the same subject... check it out HERE.