Blues Friday New Page (Page 3 of 13)

In the late 60's, my bandmates and I discovered a radio station out of Nashville, Tennessee - WLAC-AM, which, during the night would play music such as this Etta James cover. This excellent version put me in mind of those nights, lying in bed with my transistor radio, one earphone plugged in, going to sleep with the blues and being sure that this was more important than that homework assignment which wasn't done.

I am including a snippet from Wikipedia about this famous radio station's history, and some of the dj's who carried me through many a night. Gov't Mule is a prime example of white boys who can play the blues! Excellent choice,. CG.

"In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, WLAC was legendary for its quartet of nighttime rhythm and blues shows hosted by Gene Nobles, "John R." (John Richbourg), Herman Grizzard, and Bill "Hossman" (or simply "Hoss") Allen. Thanks to the station's clear channel designation, the signal reached most of the Eastern and Midwestern United States. WLAC described itself as the nighttime station for half the nation with African-American listeners, especially in the Deep South as the intended audience of the programs.[5] Further, several foreign countries, particularly islands in the Caribbean and southern Canada, were within range of the station's nighttime signal; the music heard on WLAC played a notable role in the development of ska music as a result.[6] WLAC was also popular with some young white teenagers. Radio historians believe that the nightly "Rhythm and blues" WLAC shows, in part, laid the foundational audience for the rock and roll phenomenon that began in the late 1950s.

Nobles began the move, in 1946, to play what were considered at the time "race" records, a euphemism intended to deter supposedly respectable audiences. But he and the others reached large numbers of African-American listeners in places like the Mississippi Delta, the Carolina Lowcountry, Louisiana, Chicago, and Detroit, people whom practically no other radio stations were serving. Gradually phasing in artists like Amos Milburn, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino in the early 1950s to supplement the big-band artists of the era such as Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, the WLAC announcers presided over the development of what became "rhythm and blues" music. They did this mainly to attract advertisers who serviced the African-American community, such as hair-care products like Royal Crown Hair Pomade or chicken hatcheries, which packaged baby scrub roosters and other undesirable stock in large quantities for sale. The disc jockeys developed a reputation for colorfully pitching those products on-air; some product slogans lent themselves to sexually suggestive double entendres, which only increased the announcers' popularity among teen listeners. The deejays conducted the advertising sales on a "per inquiry", or commission, basis, meaning that the station did not rely on traditional ratings to gauge the programs' successes."

There are some cd's of the music featured on the station. One is called "Night Train To Nashville" and the other is "Night Train To Nashville 2". Available on Amazon, they're  considered essential tor folks who love rhythm 'n blues.

EDITED TO ADD: Another cd set featuring WLAC music is called "Ernie's Record Mart" - also available from Amazon. If you like rock 'n roll, then this is it - in its infancy.