JAMBOREE RECORDS 590

JAMBOREE RECORDS 590

Buffalo, KY

Sept 56  (Billboard review on 27th Apr 57)

CURLEY SANDERS

45-590-A - Why Did You Leave Me

(J R Sprawls / C Sanders)   (Starrite BMI)

45-590-B - Brand New Rock And Roll

(C Sanders)   (Starrite BMI)


Label states "A Product Of Sprawls Enterprises". Label was owned by Joel Ray Sprawls.
Curley Ray Sanders was born in 1935 in St John, KY. he was a DJ on WCTO (Campbellsville, KY) in 1956, and on WBRT (Bardstown, KY) in 1958. WBRT is where he recorded with Joe Brown on San Records, possibly paid for by Curley. He was a regular on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance (KY) in 1958.
I may not know much about Curley but I found quite a few records by him. He  shows up on my radar in about 1949/50 on Star Talent from Dallas, TX (#749 - Last on your list / Penny for your thoughts). There was a Curley Sanders (assuming it's him) appearing on the Saturday Night Shindig over WFAA (Dallas) in the early 50's. Then I find two discs on Imperial (#8197 - Love 'em country style / My heart is yours alone - Mid 53), (#8226 - Too much lovin' / I'm reaching for Heaven - Dec 53/Jan 54).
By 1956, Curley's obviously incorporated some "Cat Music" in his repertoire and he's found here hollering for all he's worth (well, not quite hollering, but there's an urgency in his vocals). The A side I've yet to hear. Neil Scott picked one up and then sold it on (dumb arse), so I never managed to hear the A side. Flip is a stop/start rocker with cool lyrics and some fine accomp. by his band (who I presume are the Santones.) I think there's an under recorded mandolin or something playing through the solos but the guitar is drowning it out. Anyhow, it's a fabulous track. Almost awesome!
Curley springs up on the Concept label twice after the issue here and records another disc on Jamboree (which isn't pressed by Starday). (Concept #897 - Dynamite / You're smiling (I'm crying) 1957 - Elizabethtown, KY), (Concept #898 - Walking blues / This time - 57/8), (Jamboree 1833 - Heartsick and blue / I'll obey my heart - 57/58 - still located in Buffalo, KY and featuring the Kentucky Rangers). After that ......I'll have to wait until somebody else tells me :-)
(MC / Dan DeClark / Terry Gordon / Neil Scott)


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Barney Koumis

27 Apr 57 Billboard Rev.

Barney Koumis

Curley Sanders - Buffalo Bop CD 55178

SAN RECORDS 589

SAN RECORDS 589

W.B.R.T, Bardstown, KY

Sept 56

JOE BROWN and the Black Mt. Boys with Curley Sanders and the Santones

45-589-A Midnight Rhythm

(Sanders / Shirley)   (Starrite BMI)

45-589-B Fishin' Fever

(Joe Brown)   (Starrite BMI)


Once again, nothing known about Joe Brown and his band. Curley Sanders will be covered next as he has his own release after this disc. Recorded at WBRT from Bardstown, KY so perhaps Joe was a DJ there.


"Midnight Rhythm" is a nice instrumental with fiddles and a nice guitar picker (Ody Martin??) doing a fine Chet Atkins impression. (Ody was name checked by Curley in a Billboard segment.) "Fishin' Fever" is the slightly better side with fine vocals and fine support from the Black Mt. Boys and the Santones.

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Al Turner

Al Turner

2 Aug 2020 - Email from Eric Mudd - 

Hi! My name is Eric Mudd, and I am from Cox's Creek, Kentucky, just a few miles to the north of Bardstown. Joe Brown was best friends with both of my parents' dads. I actually got to meet him twice around 1996, at my dad's brother's house, a year or two before he passed away. He was a real nice guy, giving me and my cousins peppermints he usually carried in his pocket.

The first time he came over, Joe decided to tell my dad and uncles about how he came about writing "Fishin' Fever". Joe went fishing one day (presumably summer 1956) at a holding pond on the property of the now-defunct T.W. Samuels Distillery, in Deatsville, Kentucky. He had just eaten his lunch, and while he was waiting for a fish to hit his line, he started humming a little melody, then some of the lyrics started coming about, and before he forgot them, he rushed to his truck, got a pen, and wrote the song on his lunch sack. Joe was a well-known fiddler in our area, and is the one playing fiddle on the recording of "Fishin' Fever". He is also one of the fiddlers on the A side of San 589, "Midnight Rhythm".

That is all I know about the record and the man, other than that he was a decades-long employee of Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. You'd think that living in the Bardstown, Ky. area that I would be able to find an original 45, but I haven't found a single one in my 12 years of collecting (maybe some day). Joe gave my dad's family a copy, but someone accidentally sat on it and well, you know...

I hope I have been able to have shed some light on San 589 for you, and can use the info. for future reference