Jackie Johnson, Plainview

Recently enjoyed the company of J. Chronis and Gabe from the EXCELLENT Second Line Social blog for an evening of 45 spinnin' and tall tales about recording diggin'... both of 'em seemed to have enjoyed this little Panhandle oddity.

JACKIE JOHNSON & THE WHEELS - Yesterday's Misery (1123)

Plainview's Harry Bray worked really hard for that hit. If it wasn't going to be his own, then it was going to be by someone else. While he never had that hit for himself, he certainly did try with other artists on his Twixt-Teen and Satin labels. Bray's greatest obstacles seem to have been an odd 'tune' ear and poor production fidelity. Not too difficult to imagine when one considers that Bray's studios were located on the premises of the used car lot he ran. Down in a cellar.

Jackie Johnson was the odd man out on the Harry Bray roster. Aside from a couple of garagey teen recordings everything else I'm familiar with on Twixt-Tween and its followup Satin had a country feel. And except for Jackie, everyone else who recorded for the label was white. One would figure soul singers in Plainview, Texas to be a rare thing. Heck... homegrown soul singers from the Texas plains are rare regardless of the location.

Fellow West Texas collectro Robin Brown (check his site HERE... lots of information about Amarillo area artists) recalls a late 60s meeting with Twix-Tween / Satin label owner Harry Bray and Jackie Johnson and played them a song or two. Johnson, though, didn't have a release for Bray until recording Harry's own "Yesterday's Misery" on Satin. I'm not so sure that the "Wheels" on this particular release, at least in part, are not an early drum machine... the beat is sometimes a bit too strange and almost too odd to have been a person. The overall processed feel of the musical backing track could just be Bray's recording technique. According to Robin Brown the organ playing was done by Bray himself. Real drummer or machine, it's that quality that sends "Yesterday's Misery" in the direction of "outsider". Had Bray done it all by himself it might have gone there. It's soul, but it ain't Al Green nor is it "What's Going On".

The flip is a fairly non-descript country recording that is credited to Johnson, but is obviously not him. Robin Brown thinks the uncredited singer might have been a guy from out of state, but at this point it's probably one of those little things that shall continue to be lost to time.

Bray left this world and the used car business some time ago. Jackie Johnson was last seen in Plainview.

Thanks to Robin Brown for the information on Harry, Jackie, and the picture of Jackie above. 15 years back the Plainview Daily Herald did an article on an 'oldies' band Johnson was playing in, but no mention was made of his early recording effort(s).