Maddox Brothers & Rose - George`s Playhouse Boogie (1949)

4-star 1369
The Maddox Brothers and Rose, known as Americas Most Colorful Hillbilly Band from the 1930s to the 1950s, consisted of four brothers, Fred, Cal, Cliff and Don Maddox, along with their sister Rose. Cliff died in 1949 and was replaced by brother Henry The family hailed from Boaz, Alabama, but rode the rails and hitch hiked to California in 1933 when the band members were still children, following the failed efforts of their sharecropper parents during the early part of the Depression. They were a little in advance of the flood of Okies who were to flood the state in the 30s. They struggled to make a living as intinerant fruit and vegetable pickers following the harvest as far north as Washington state, and as far east as Arizona, as well as in the San Joaquin Valley. They often worked from dawn to dusk, sleeping and eating on the ground.[1] Having settled in Modesto, the family developed their musical ability and, in 1937 performed on the radio, sponsored by a local furniture store. From 1946-1951 the group recorded for 4 Star Records (Hollywood), then for Columbia Records. Some 4 Star masters were leased and released by US.-Decca Records at the beginning of the 1950s. The following quotes are from Rose Maddox. "We were called hillbilly singers - not country - then. No, none of this country music then. People just called us hillbilly... People tell me that I was one of the first women to sing what I sang - country boogie. I guess I was. There was no rock 'n' roll in those early days, before 1955. Only country boogie. My brothers also played that way. We called it country then."[2] The Maddox's material ranged from the country standards of Hank Williams and Merle Travis, cowboy songs, to the Western swing of Bob Wills, to old-time, folk, and church singing, to jazz, swing, boogie woogie and even a taste of early rock and roll.[3][4] Fred Maddox played upright bass using the "slap bass" technique as early as 1937.[2] This trademark backbeat, a slapping bass style, helped drive a broad change in popular music, sporting a faster, immediately discernible rhythm that came to be known as rockabilly.[4] Fred Maddox's bass is displayed at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. "They wanted his bass because they believe he might have hit the first note of rock 'n' roll on it."[5] The Mayfield Brothers of West Texas, including Smokey Mayfield, Edd Mayfield, and Herbert E. Mayfield, were among the warmup musicians employed by Maddox Brothers and Rose.

[@BigStar303]

I'm sure I've listened to this song hundreds of times since finding it in the early 1970s on one of the two Maddox & Rose compilations released on the Arhoolie label. It never fails to thrill me every single time. That "take-off" steel guitar solo near the end still gives me the chills each time I hear it. This is nothing short of brilliant, and anyone who thinks there was no such thing as rock 'n' roll until the mid-50s needs to be strapped down and made to listen to it.

[@MrmelodyUs]

some of the earliest Rock & Roll...

[@CiscoDuck]

"Think nothing of it ladies and gentlemen, it's just the great Roy Nichols on that electric standard guitar!" - Hag

[@dnlgberry]

I listen to this song all the time. I never knew they were based out of the Central Valley like me.

[@wiilamyoung9678]

When I was small my grandparents lived in San Pablo CA This must have been 1949 I was almost four years old. I remembered sitting on his shoulders watching Rose Maddox sing . I guess he had to go to the bathroom and I wandered off and got lost. It found out later the band was taking a break when someone brought me to Rose Maddox to console me while my grandfather panicked when Rose asked him if he lost something and that was me of course. I remember her as being kind but who wouldn't be to a lost 4 year old.Grandpa threatened me with death if I dropped a dime on him to my grandmother she wold have thrown a fit.

[@2200kozlov]

This is SOOOO good..thank you very much.

[@josephsardena3525]

There's a lot of Rockabilly in this !

[@sefkicken914]

You are right! I see this type of music as a pre-stage of the Rockabilly style, which came up around 1954.

[@marciasanguinetti3900]

Love it !!!

[@jacobzeier]

Great song! This is from 1949, which is a year I'd consider part of the 50s era along with 1960 to 1962 or even '63. This recording in particular sounds like it couldv'e been recorded in either 1949 (which it objectively is) or sometime within the 1950s decade or even the early to mid 1960s, but the earlier part of the 60s for sure. This song recording would essentially be early country rock. It sounds really awesome and fun!

[@michaelsnow5054]

How maddox and rose, and other "honkey tonk/country" artists of this era, and before were not considered rock and roll before it was coined as a term and genre is beyond me. This is an early rock and roll song, no doubt in my mind at all.

[@CiscoDuck]

Love how Roy Nichols incorporates so many of his guitar influences into this one guitar solo - he begins with a stunning nod to the great Bob Wills Texas Playboys guitarist Junior Barnard who was Roy's teenage hero and friend he chased all over the San Juaquin Valley - at about 0:40 he starts out with Junior's opening riffs and the 1st Barnard guitar solo fugue from 'Bob Wills Boogie' (1946). Then Roy launches into some Tiny Moore-esque electric mandolin bits in his solo borrowed from another Wills classic, then he runs thru some Porky Freeman inspired licks and ends his solo with a tip of the hat to the great Jimmy Wyble with his ascending octave walk up the guitar neck from the end of his great guitar solo on the 1945 Wills classic Roly Poly.

[@glenndoran7963]

That steel guitar solo......

[@frankdodgee]

great boogie music and fancy duds!

[@williamnathaniel1382]

Heaven. I got a crush on Rose.

[@frankdodgee]

@@williamnathaniel1382 :) yes, she was very pretty

[@MissHolleyKing]

I can't to play this on my radio show tomorrow! (thanks)

[@thebrazilianatlantis165]

"some of the earliest Rock & Roll..." Boogie with backbeat was around in the '30s.

[@oldie1946]

"that's friendly Henry the workin' girls friend" How did they get away with that in '49

[@victordavenport2626]

Just "discovered" them last nite on the Ken Burns documentary, "Country." Wow!!!

[@thierryrichard3153]

pure hillbillie la classe

[@mrhoolie]

Almost all their records are now available on the Arhoolie label!

[@misterpeppercorn3078]

Way back in the late 50's I used to watch Rose & The Maddox Brothers on The Black Jack Wayne TV Show. I was living in San Mateo at the time. I'm not sure where the show was broadcast from (San Francisco or San Jose)?

[@luizdeitos]

I'm definitely living in the wrong era.

[@ElvisThunders]

An awful lot of rock-n-roll in this song.