Corpus Gold: February 2011

Being a rockabilly fan, I had heard of Alvis Wayne, Mike Buck played me his infamous " I Wanna Eat Your Puddin'" single on Rollin' Rock years ago. I knew nothing about him however, till my friend Tjarko Jeen turned me on to the fact that Mr. Wayne was actually from the Sparkling City. With information available from the excellent research of John Kennedy (Rocket magazine) and others I have compiled this short history of Alvis Wayne in Corpus. (http://www.rockabillyhall.com/AlvisWayne.html)

Alvis Wayne (Alvis Wayne Samford) was born in Paducah, Texas, located near the Panhandle in 1934. The Samfords moved often in the years following Alvis' arrival, work was scarce (it was the Depression of the 1930's) and his dad found himself taking many different jobs to keep the family afloat. The family settled down in Corpus Christi in 1953 where Alvis attended Sundeen High School.

Alvis became interested in music at an early age, listening to music on the family radio:

AW - "We kids slept in a small bunkhouse behind the main house and I had a small radio that I would listen to until the early hours of the morning. Jimmie Rodgers, the Mississippi Blue Yodler, Hank Snow, Eddy Arnold and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys were early influences. I was twelve years old when I got my first live radio show from KBOP in Pleasanton, Texas. I also listened to a station out of Del-Rio, Texas as well as an R & B station in Shreveport, Louisiana. On Saturday nights we listened to WSM and the Grand Ole Opry."

When he was ten years old he received his first guitar:

AW- "When I got up to be twelve and thirteen years old I started playing in the nightclubs and all that stuff. Friday was the busiest night of the week so there was a whole bunch of them who didn't take to kindly to it all. At that same time one of my aunts, who was supposed to be part of this thing, encouraged me along and that's the same aunt who bought me that guitar. Most of the big stars came to San Antonio; it was one of the swinginest towns in the state. I remember going; I guess when I was about ten years old. I got on the bandstand with Bob Wills in a little old town called Macdona, about thirty miles out of San Antonio. They all came, George Jones, Ray Price you name it and if they were in the business, they played in San Antonio."

While a student at Sundeen High School in Corpus, Alvis was playing gigs with various bands, when he was approached by a local musician, Tony Wayne Guion about going on the road with his band Tony Wayne & The Rythym Wranglers. (Tony recorded one record of his own for Westport). Although his parents were not happy about it, he left school and traveled with the band performing the country hits of the day and some Elvis and Jerry Lee numbers. The band made little money and decided to call it a day and return to Corpus. Shortly thereafter Alvis hooked with the locally popular AI Hardy and The Southernaires. AI Hardy owned his own club and had Alvis gigging seven nights a week. Tony Wayne was still in regular contact with Alvis however and approached him about doing some recording for a label in Kansas City, Missouri called Westport Records.

AW- "Tony... said 'hey I got us a recording contract with Westport records in Kansas City, Missouri, and they want some Rock'n'Roll records. He said I got five songs already written for you and all you gotta do is go in there and sing. As far as I know Tony never sung or performed those songs on stage, he wrote them just for me. I had to sit down and drum them into my brain and learn them. I think it was probably Tony who suggested that I change my name from Wayne Samford to Alvis Wayne because he said Elvis has already got this thing going and your name is Alvis and all that. I said OK whatever, you know more about this than I do so let's go for it."

Alvis went into to a Corpus studio, a converted machine shop, to record in 1956. Backed by AI Hardy's band; Chuck Harrison on guitar, Danny Walker on drums, Hank Evans on bass, Dusty Rhoades on steel, Wally Bright on piano and himself playing rhythm guitar, they recorded three tracks: Swing Bop Boogie/Sleep Rock-A-Roll Rock-A-Baby (Westport 132) and another track I Gottum. The record got frequent airplay on local radio but didn't go very far outside of Corpus.

AW- "I remember the day not long after we had recorded 'Swing Bop Boogie'. I was driving down the street in Corpus Christi listening to my radio and 'Swing Bop Boogie' started playing and I almost wrecked my car. I had goose bumps and I went through all different kinds of emotions because that was the first time I had heard it on the radio."

In 1957, Alvis and the band followed up with Don't Mean Maybe Baby with CASHBOX citing: "The Westport label could have a hit on its hands with this terrific rock and roller, that Alvis Wayne drives out in dynamic fashion. It has the sound that the kids in all markets should go wild for. Now heading for the charts"

Alvis had the number one record in South Texas for six weeks running , even knocking Elvis out of the number one slot! Although the success was mostly in South Texas, Alvis found steady work, playing one-nighters from Corpus to Port Arthur.

AW-"We backed several star names in the old Palladium because we were the opening act before the big names came on and did their thing. I knew Elvis; I worked with him on five separate shows and also on the Louisiana Hayride. I got to talk to him although not for very long because the girls would keep pushing you out of the way tryin to get a kiss or whatever. But during the times we did get to speak I thought he was a real good old boy and he seemed a real nice guy to me". I also worked with Bob Luman, Johnny Horton, Slim Whitman and all the old timers back then as well as all the package shows for the Hayride."

A local musician named James Bacon had a doo-wop vocal group in Corpus that covered tunes of the day, in 1957 he approached Alvis about a song he had written called Lay Your Head on My Shoulder. Bacon wondered if Alvis might be into recording it. Tony Wayne set up the session in Houston with James Bacon's singers in the backing group.

AW- "James Bacon had written 'Lay Your Head On My Shoulder', offered it to me and said he would back me up on the record and that's what he did. We made arrangements to go and there was a whole tribe of us maybe three or four cars and we drove over and did that session. Anyway, when I walked in there I sang this song for all these musicians I had never seen before in my life, but they were studio musicians and they knew what they were doing. I told them I wanna do this song and I want it to sound different. Then the drummer said wait a minute and he jumped up and went out the back door of the studio and there was a big pile of trash out there in the alley. He found an old bean pot and brought it back and sat on the stool and he started out beatin' on the bottom of that old bean pot and that's where that sound on the beginning of 'Lay Your Head On My Shoulder' came from."

Lay Your Head On My Shoulder'/'You're the One' (Westport 140) was released in early 1958 and was the final Alvis release on that label. Further success was slow to come and by 1960 Alvis had enlisted in the Air Force. Upon his release (in the mid-sixties) from the service and a return to South Texas, he began to perform again, this time on weekends. He hooked up with a San Antonio band led by Lee Harmon that gigged in the area. He released a a couple of honky tonk singles around this time on two different labels: Storm in my Heart'/'I Don't Believe I'll fall in love Today' (the same Harlan Howard tune cut by the great Warren Smith) on Kathy in 1966 and Sweet Tender Care'/A Million and Two' on Brozos in 1969.

In the seventies, he was rediscovered by rockabilly enthusiasts in Europe and recorded two LP's. Rockin' Ronnie Weiser of Hollywood's Rollin Rock label recorded him in 1974 along with other Texas rockabilly greats such as the late great Johnny Carroll, Ray Campi, Sid King and Mac Curtis. The results: I Wanna Eat Your Pudding'/'It's Your Last Chance To Dance' (Rollin' Rock' 032) and She Won't See Me Cry Anymore' from the comp Rollin' The Rock Volume One. (LP 009). Puddin' also found it's way into the Johnny Legend produced movie Teenage Cruiser (the first X-rated rock-n-roll movie). Also on the soundtrack: former X guitarist Billy Zoom, Mac Curtis, Jackie Lee Cochran, Ray Camp, Charlie Feathers, Chuck Higgins, Kid Thomas and more!

Alvis Wayne is still active and rockin''. He has toured Europe and performed in the states at the Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekenders and New Orlean's Ponderosa Stomp in recent years. His recordings are available on releases and re-releases on various labels. Read about his Proud of My Rockabilly Roots CD http://www.rockabilly.nl/reviews/rockabillyroots.htm
Rock on Alvis!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Belinda by Bobbie Gentry

ALVIS WAYNE!