Lonnie Lyons (vocal, piano); Nelson Mills (trumpet); Conrad Johnson (alto sax); Sam Williams (tenor sax); Goree Carter (guitar); Louis "Nunu" Pitts (bass); Allison Tucker (drums). Recorded and released in Houston, Texas, in early 1949.
Listen To "Flychick Bounce"
The real deal from El Enmascarado - a rare 78 rpm disc from the Freedom label of Houston. Pianist and singer Lonnie Lyons sounds a lot like fellow Texan Amos Milburn on both the slow "Far Away Blues" and the driving "Flychick Bounce."
Featured on these sides is the Conrad Johnson band, or "Conney's Combo" which recorded for Gold Star, Freedom and Eddie's Records in Houston in the late 1940s. They were very much the house band in the early days of Freedom, backing singer L.C. Williams, including the hit "Ethel Mae", and releasing sides under the names of band members Goree Carter ("Rock Awhile") and Lonnie Lyons as well as under Conrad Johnson's name. As for Lonnie, his own recording career spanned a mere two years from 1948 to 1950, from his first release on Gold Star, through half a dozen releases on Freedom, to his final disc on Sittin' In With.
Many thanks to El Enmascarado for these shellac rips. It's good to get way down in the alley now and again!
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5 comments:
This record was really beat up- to get it to this point was a labor of love. Check out the piano solo on Flychick Boogie(1:27)...I find myself imagining a youthful Jerry Lee Lewis sneaking out to an after-hours club on the other side of the tracks. He starts ogling the women of ill repute, and the band launches Flychick Boogie. Voila! The rest is history. I'd like to give a tip to would-be 78 scroungers out there. The most interesting records are often the ones you never heard of. I was out on a buy, and saw this. It had an artist I never heard of, a label I never heard of, and the title Flychick Boogie. Yup- that one goes in the Buy pile, no questions asked. Good times!- The Masked One
Catching tune, thanks!!!!!
Good memories flowing on all back. Thanks for this wonderful blog.
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Amazing to reflect that in October 1966 Mike Leadbitter and Kurt Mohr were writing about:
The Unknowns, No. 18: Lonnie Lyons (Blues Unlimited 37)
Of course I'm too young to have been a "Blues Unlimited" reader! However I do have a copy of the book "Nothing But The Blues" which is a compendium of articles from "Blues Unlimited" plus some previously unpublished material. There's a few things on the Houston scene including a short Mike Leadbitter interview with Conrad Johnson from September 1967.
The Krazy Kat LPs "Houston Jump", "Down In The Groovy" and "Howling On Dowling" have Conrad Johnson and Lonnie Lyons tracks on them. The JSP 4CD set "Boogie Uproar" has more than a CD's worth of Goree Carter including plenty of stuff recorded with Conrad Johnson.
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