[electra225]

Being the fan of old country music that I am, I recently came across a couple Jimmy Newman records.  "This Is Jimmy Newman", on MGM, mono, circa 1959 and "Jimmy Newman", on MGM, mono, circa 1962.  The main claim to fame of these particular two records is that they are my first and only Newman material and they are in unusually good condition for the typically noisy MGM label records.  Jimmy Newman was later known as Jimmy C. Newman, "C" standing for Cajun.  He specialized in cajun music and was an accomplished guitar picker.  He still performed up into his 80's.  He and Little Jimmy Dickens were regulars on the Grand Ole Opry until they passed.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_C._Newman


His style was unique enough that I feel no country music library would be complete without some of his material.  His material is hard to find in this neck of the woods.  I came across these records at an auction right across the street from our house.  Jimmy Newman was one of the few country artists whose career survived without his embracing the Nashville Sound.  You won't hear strings or French horns on Jimmy C. Newman records.


Another feature of the 1962 record I mentioned above is that is has "Sail On, Silv'ry Moon" on one side.  I didn't know words to that song existed.  I always figured it was an instrumental number made famous by the Billy Vaughn orchestra.

[Bill]

Greg,

You always come up with artists I have never heard of.  Thanks for sharing and I will see if I can find something from him to listen to.   As far as Sail on, silv'ry moon, you should have asked me, I knew it had words/lyrics.   It was one of the songs I leaned to play when I was taking lessons. 

Bill

[electra225]

I've also come across the words for "Ballin' The Jack" and "Begin the Beguine".  We played Ballin' The Jack in dance band.  Mr. Harris, the band director, played an instrument in the dance band.  Usually tenor sax.  We would play "Ballin'" with different instrument leads.  Almost any band instrument except drums could play the lead on that song, so it sounded different each time we played it.  The prim and proper church ladies on the school board did not like the name "Ballin' The Jack" as it sounded "risque".  We changed it to "Swingin' With Jack". 


Jimmy Newman rose to prominence about the same time as George Jones, George Hamilton IV, Faron Young, Ferlin Husky, Marty Robbins and that bunch.  In or around 1963 he got a recording contract with Decca records, which increased the quality of his recordings and most were recorded in stereo.  He never was a prolific recording artist.  He was pretty much done by the middle 1960's or so as far as radio play goes.  He stayed on as a popular personality on the Grand Ole Opry until he died.  He had a good band.  If you'd like some Jimmy Newman music, I could probably take care of that.   

[Bill]

Yup, both of those pieces of music had words/lyrics too.   I guess as I took lessons not only was I reading the notes, I also was readying the words. 

Bill