Wednesday 6 January 2010

Bonus track: I Found My Love in Memphis

At our New Year's Day show at The Cove, we played precisely four covers: Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," Micky and Sylvia's "Love is Strange," a David Wills song called "Barrooms to Bedrooms" which The Country Rockers used to do a beautiful version of, and this oddity.

I described the song and my discovery of it, and also put the lyrics and chord progression in this earlier post on The Grundies, for whom this was something of a signature tune. The one detail I left out of that post was the name of the producer responsible for the cache of weird records I found along with "I Found My Love in Memphis," mainly because I couldn't remember. My friend Doug Easley, with whom I had the pleasure of spending time before the gig, reminded me that it was one Style Wooten, who had a studio on Park Avenue in Memphis, and whom Doug had once met. (Doug also reminded me that the flipside of this George Clappes single was a terrible song called "The Sound of Wedding Bells," and that Memphis blues standard-bearer Don McMinn is rumored to have played on some of Style Wooten's records.) It seems as though not a lot else is known about Style Wooten, or what happened to him. Jim Spake, who played some wonderful sax with us, and whose voice can be heard off-camera here at the end, said he found a similar cache of Style Wooten records somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas - maybe he retired there.

We played this in our truncated third set on New Year's Day (truncated because almost everyone had gone home), and I forgot at the time to dedicate it to our friends Jack and Amy, who say this is their song. In this video, I am showing everyone else how this very peculiar song goes, or at least the way the Grundies played it. We were never that sure from listening to the record because the bass player seemed to be playing it for the first time when they cut it. All very strange, but oddly appealing.


6 comments:

scorpionblacks10 said...

I was reading your blog about the mention of Style Wooten. It appears no one knows whatever happened to him. I reside in Indianapolis, IN. I'm very interested in history of this man and his studio at 3109 Park Ave., Memphis, TN. My uncle and my dad recorded a full album and some 45 records at his studio on one of Style's customed labels "Camaro Records" in 1974. No one else in my family recorded again until I did in 2001. 27 years went by. Would love to chat about Style Wooten. Your friend Doug Easley met him you say? That's awesome!
Lori Denny
Indy--

James Enck said...

Hi Lori,

I'd be happy to chat about it, though I know next to nothing. I'd be happy to put you in touch with Doug. Send me an email at james.enck@gmail.com and we can take it from there. Just out of curiosity, under what name were your dad and uncle's records released? I may have had one or two of them. Thanks for the comment.

Amy said...

Hey thanks for the belated dedication. Jack was the one that decided it was our song. Wish we could have been there, we would have stayed late for that one.
-Amy

the contenders1 said...

Hello My name is Gary Draffin and I worked for Style Wooten from around 1971 until the late 70,s.
I started as his studio bassist along with Gary Adair on Drums, Eddie Slusser on guitar & Pat Gibson on Keys.I helped Style put his first studio together and began engineering I heard that Style moved to Jackson Missippi and has passed on. I considered Style a very good friend

Gene Stewart said...

I recorded a song entitled "Rub IT In" on Camaro Records in 1972 (two years before Billy Crash Craddock cut it and sold a couple million copies). Flip side was a self penned song "I Feel the Need to Cry". I met Style Wooten at his office and we went to his studio with some country musicians and cut the 45 RPM and I still have several copies of this original record on Camaro.

James Enck said...

Thanks for stopping by, Gene, and thanks for adding your Style anecdote!