Excellent Side of Tennessee Flavored Calypso

• Listen to this song on youtube: Rollin’ Stone
• Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here  with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
• This song is available on Musical Episode #013: Singles Mixer v. 4

Today’s records roll back a little further in time than I usually venture on this blog but I absolutely fell in love with this Marigolds record after stumbling upon it a few months ago.  It was only in my reading that I found out that they were connected to the Sun group The Prisonaires whose excellent “Walkin’ In The Rain” 45 had recently been reissued.

The Prisonaires, as the name suggests, were a group of inmates led by Johnny Bragg, at the State Penitentiary in Tennessee who were in for a variety of reasons but, through their singing, were touted as evidence of the prison’s successful rehab program.  Sam Phillips took notice and brought the group to record at Sun where the group cut “Walking In The Rain” written by member Robert Riley and Johnny Bragg, which was a sizable hit even being covered by Johnny Ray.  The group was allowed day passes to tour, even becoming a favorite of the Governor while continuing to record during their imprisonment. 

With their success and good behavior in steady supply members of the Prisonaires had their sentences commuted (or were up for parole for lesser crimes), Bragg and Riley reformed the now-free Prisonaires under the name the Sunbeams before teaming up with Excello under the name The Marigolds to cut today’s excellent side “Rollin’ Stone.”

Being a group from Tennessee on a label that trades primarily in (a definitely unique) form of blues I’ve always found it curious the label reads “Calypso” and just assumed it was a by product of the “Banana Boat Song” craze, but that record didn’t come out until a year or so later and isn’t truly in the Calypso style, it’s more of a mento rhythm.  The not so cynical reality is that this gospel infused group of rural Tennesseeans who had made a name for themselves with an exceptional doo-wop record just cut a really superb Calypso (influenced) record on a small blues label subsidiary from Nashville.

After the Marigolds Bragg changed names again recording the Solotones and then under his own name before spending some additional time in prison for parole violations eventually hanging up his recording career though he continued to sing, as do many, in church.

I hope you enjoy today’s record it’s been a favorite as of late and embodies why I love records so much, it set me on a path of discovery and connection to lots of other great music!

-George / Snack Attack

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