JOHNNY SKILES with the Harmony Ranch Hands
Oct 57 (BMI Clearance on 27th December 1957.)
45-672-A - The Twinkle In Your Eye
(Johnny Skiles) (Starrite BMI)
45-672-B - Ghost Of My Lonely Past
(Johnny Skiles) (Starrite BMI)
CORVETTE RECORDS 672
12407 E Raymond, Portland, OR.
Johnny was originally from Monroe, LA and his Brother-In-Law was Jack Hammons. After failing to make much headway with his writing pact with Southern-Peer, Johnny headed up to Oregon where he worked for the Post office.
Forming or at least fronting a band - The Harmony Ranch hands (feat Bob Hill on guitar), he cut two sides and promptly sent them off for pressing. Both are pretty much country with a bit of a beat, although the flip has a haunting melody - probably helped by the amount of echo on the recordings. Johnny’s vocals are not that exciting and has a low pitched, southern (not surprisingly) nasal quality to his singing, but on this material it really doesn’t matter. Soon after this record he was back in the studio, this time at Portland’s Ace Studios, recording for Jim O’Neal’s Rural Rhythm record label. Despite the annoying girl chorus, both “Is My baby Coming Back” / “Come Paddle Footin’ Down” (RR# 518) are helped by a much better recording facility and are pretty damn good. After that, there’s a few more recordings played in his usual relaxed style (He even fronted the Echomores on “What-Cha-Do-In (Rocket 1044)). But by the mid sixties he seems to vanish off the face of the earth.
Source: Phillip J Tricker
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