Kenny Parchman with obscure and rare rockin cuts from the fifties.
1.You call everybody darling 2.I feel like rockin' 3.Love crazy baby 4.Treat me right 5.Get it off your mind 6.Don't you know 7.Treat me right 8.Tenneessee zip 9.Love crazy baby 10.Sattelite hop 11.Get it off your mind 12.Honky tonk 13.I'm sorry I'm not sorry 14.Your cheating heart 15.In the mood 16.You call everybody darling 17.Always thinking 18.Treat me right 19.Don't you know 20.Love crazy baby 21.One night 22.Memphis Tennessee 23.Johnny B. Goode 24.When the saints go marching in 25.Brown eyed handsome man 26.Arkansas twist 27.Shake rattle and roll 28.I'm gonna be a wheel someday.
Kenny Parchman
Kenneth Parchman was born on 15th January 1932 near Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee into a rural community located area between the two later fulcrums of our music, namely Memphis and Nashville. Known as Kenny by his family, he listened to music over the airwaves from an early age and it was not long before his proud parents provided him with a small guitar. Indeed, his mum taught him his first guitar licks and soon he showed all the signs of developing into a competent picker. For sure, it was not an easy life out in the country, but the Parchman family handled it well, until tragedy struck shortly before Christmas 1944. Their little house in Five Points Community burnt down and Kenny's dad suffered severe injuries, so bad that he passed away soon after. The family was left without anything but family and friends in the local community launched an appeal through the Jackson Sun newspaper. The result that the sum of $1103.87 was raised for the family and, with the help of their neighbours, they soon occupied a newly built four-room house. It was here that Kenny grew up and received his education at the local school. At the last mentioned, he got together with a group of school chums and formed his first band that were soon playing all the local hops and dances. Before this aspect of his career could go too much further, Kenny Parchman received his call up papers for the US armed forces. He was drafted into the army and subsequently received a honourable discharge circa 1955. Back on Civvy Street, he held down a day job driving a Wells Fargo truck carrying monies and other valuables plus played music most nights in the local clubs. It was around then that Kenny came into contact with a young talented piano player by the name of Jerry Lee Smith. Smith recalls: 'Kenny was one of the first bands I worked for. I was about fourteen and a half years old at that time. Kenny heard me play and he came and asked my mother if she'd mind if I played piano for him. I was with Kenny for about six or eight months, then Carl Perkins heard me and asked me to play for him. But Carl came real big with the success of 'Blue Suede Shoes', and I had to go back playing with Kenny because my mother wouldn't let me go on the road with Carl - that's because my father was killed in a car accident. The next thing we knew, Carl was a hit and was driving around in a Cadillac, and we still had a Chevrolet. Mother said, 'Next time someone wants you to go, I'll let you go!' After that Kenny and I worked together for about a year and we cut some tapes at Sun'. At that time, Kenny's band employed various different musicians like George Sykes or R. W. Stevenson on bass, a guy called Elmo, Bobby Cash or Kenny's brother Ronnie Parchman on drums, Jerry Lee Smith on piano with Kenny adopting the lead guitar and vocal duties. Jerry Lee Smith is perhaps better known today as 'Smoochy' Smith and got this nickname from Kenny. The band was playing a date at a local movie theatre opening for the big film. The guys, apart from Smith, were up on the stage and after waiting a little while for him had to commence playing. Jerry was fully occupied with a cute little girl in the audience. When he finally scampered on to the stage, Kenny introduced him to the audience as 'Smoochy'. Ever since then, the name has stuck with Jerry. It is the dream of every musician to get a record released and then have a hit. Kenny Parchman and his band were no exception. The best-known label in the area was, of course, Sun Records and this was a magnet for attracting the talent in Memphis and surrounding region. Sun had changed its direction from recording blues into becoming the greatest exponent of rockabilly the recording world has ever known and already had numerous first rate releases under its belt. Contact was made with Sun's owner, Sam Phillips, as a result of the connection between Smoochy and Carl Perkins with the result that around August 1956 a contract was signed. Kenny and his band went into the tiny studio at 706 Union and rocked their socks off. Sam Phillips particularly appreciated 'Love Crazy Baby' and 'I Feel Like Rocking' and readied the record for release but at the eleventh hour decided not to issue the disc. The reasons for this have never been explained but when Kenny was asked years later about the circumstances, he replied: 'God, man, I don't know why Sam Phillips never released my record. My manager left town shortly before the record was to be released. Maybe Phillips didn't want to release a single if I didn't have a manager behind me. I felt for sure we were going to have a record out on SUN, though.' Maybe this is one of the odd occasions when Sam made an error of judgment as these two sides have later become cult classics, especially in Europe, and have been recorded by numerous revival bands. Kenny and the guys returned to the Sun Studio on 5th January 1957 for a second session. At this he laid down the first version of his self-penned 'Treat Me Right' and a second version of 'Love Crazy Baby', but history repeated itself in that there was no subsequent record release. Kenny Parchman returned to the Sun Studio on several occasions throughout 1957, either to cut new songs or rework earlier recordings. Most of the songs Kenny recorded at Sun were his own compositions..... From CD
Kenny Parchman with obscure and rare rockin cuts from the fifties.