Gene Evans, Lubbock

GENE EVANS- Tell Me b/w Big Time Ladies Man (Dart 132)

In the spring of 1960 Lubbock boy Gene Evans got his first of just a handful of record releases. Listening to "Big Time Ladies Man" there is little doubt about where Gene was drawing his influence. Something so outwardly braggadocious might have been a bit uncharacteristic for Buddy Holly himself ("Modern Don Juan" aside), but most of the other obvious trademarks are otherwise there. "Tell Me" is a fairly standard pop song for the time. Not horrible, but not terribly exciting either.

How a kid from Lubbock wound up on Pappy Daily's eclectic Dart label is a mystery. Mayhaps there is a connection with KLLL's Slim and Sky Corbin who have writering credits on both sides of this 45. Though it's a tenuous connection at best there is the chance dee jay Bill Mack of rival station KDAV might have been involved. KLLL's Waylon Jennings had a short songwriting partnership with Bill and and one of their songs, "John's Back In Town", saw release on a Mack 45 on Daily's D label. I can think of no other artists from Lubbock proper that were recording for Daily at this point (unless Jimmy Blakley had left Roswell).

It's also possible that producer Norman Petty shopped the record to Dailey on his own. Both Cliff and Jimmy Blakley had recorded records with Petty that were released on Starday (when Daily was still the 'day') and later again on the D label. Fred Crawford cut a solitary Starday side, "Mission Walls" with Buddy Holly on guitar, at Petty's studio. Amarillo hepster Lou Walker's custom Starday issues were cut in Clovis as well. Perhaps Daily had put out word that if Petty saw anything interesting he might keep D/Dart in mind.

Upon release the record did little damage anywhere and was not even reviewed in Billboard. A short time later Gene took part in Larry Holley-sponored Hollyhawks with one-time Cricket Niki Sullivan. Jubilee picked up just one 45 from the group.

For Gene there would at the very least be one last 45 on the Anchor label, one side being a remake of a song called "Slippin' & Slidin'" which had been written by a Richard Penniman.

Sorry for a lackluster sound... as clean as this disc looks it is either a crummy pressing or suffered a pass or four under the worst of styli or, more likely, needles.