More Eydie (Like Lays Potato chips, I can't have just one)...Frenesi...my personal fave....

Eydie Gorme.......one of the most underappreciated voices, IMHO...

An Abe Lyman list.........

ABE LYMAN - THE EARLY YEARS

BY ATE VAN DELDEN

http://www.vjm.biz/articles8.htm

Abe Lyman was born Abraham Simon Lyman on 4 August 1897 in Chicago, Illinois. According to manager and booking agent Harrison Smith in Record Research magazine no. 16 (1958) his family name really was Lymon, but apparently both Abe and his brother Mike changed this to Lyman because it sounded better. Abe learned to play drums at a young age and by the age of fourteen had a job playing drums at the Colonial Cafe in Chicago. He also worked in the Chicago movie houses, but later he said he did this without pay, just to see the movies. Here he saw the early comic actors like Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle and film cowboy Tom Mix. His brother Mike had left Chicago for Los Angeles and this would prove to be an important factor in Abe's future career as well. How this may have happened was told more than fifty years later by British, but American-born, bandleader Roy Fox in his autobiography 'Hollywood, Mayfair and All That Jazz' (Leslie Frewin, London, 1975). Fox, born in Denver, Colorado in 1901, had already gained a few years of experience as a trumpeter in California when, one evening in 1918, he was approached by Mike Lyman and Mark Fisher, a dance band leader. Lyman told him he was going to open the "finest night club in the country" in Santa Monica, near Hollywood. The name would be The Sunset Inn and Mike's brother Abe was coming from Chicago to lead the band.

The precise details of the personnel of Lyman's first band is still a subject of research - research not only around the activities of the early Lyman band, but also those of Paul Whiteman and Art Hickman with whose groups there was considerable interchanging of personnel. We are very pleased to have received some additional information from Marilyn Fletcher daughter of Gus Mueller, the New Orleans clarinet player, who joined Lyman in 1920.

Probably holding the trombone chair in Lyman's first band was Albert 'Buster' Johnson. Before he joined Lyman in 1918 he had been a member of the Frisco Jass Band with Rudy Wiedoeft and pianist and future bandleader E. Arnold Johnson. With this group he made several excellent sides for Edison in 1917. He subsequently joined a five piece group that included Henry Busse on trumpet, Gus Mueller on clarinet and one Al Conklin on piano. However in September 1918, just before the war was over, Gus was drafted into the army. The next year, 1919, he was back in California and, with Busse, played in a band at the famous Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. On 20 December of that year Mueller, Busse and Johnson copyrighted the tune that was to become a great hit a little later, Wang Wang Blues.

Later that year, news had got around that a new band was coming to Los Angeles. This was Paul Whiteman's new band, which was opening at the Alexandria Hotel. Paul was following the trend started by another dance bandleader, Art Hickman, who was the first to incorporate a saxophone section into his band. Like Hickman,  Whiteman's band included two reed players, Leslie Canfield and Charles Dornberger. It also included Gus Mueller's buddies Henry Busse and Buster Johnson which made it attractive for Gus to join too, which he did in February 1920. A little later Whiteman accepted an offer from S.W. Straus, owner of the Alexandria, to take his band East to supply music at his new hotel in Atlantic City, The Ambassador. Johnson and Mueller left Whiteman after only half a year in the East. During that short period they participated in Paul Whiteman's first recordings, including the hits Japanese Sandman and Whispering, along with their own composition Wang Wang Blues.

In his book "Jazz" Paul Whiteman relates why Gus left: "he was wonderful on the clarinet and the saxophone, but he couldn't read a line of music. I tried to teach him, but he wouldn't try to learn …I couldn't understand why he was so lazy or stubborn … he said he was neither. "It's like this", he confided one day. "I knew a boy once down in N'Awleens that was a hot player, but he learned to read music and the he couldn't play jazz anymore. I don't want to be like that." In his book, Whiteman continues the story on Gus like this: "A little later, Gus came to say he was quitting. I was sorry and asked what was the matter. He stalled around a while and then burst out: "Nuh, Suh, I jes' can't play that "pretty music" that you all play. And you fellers can't never play blues worth a damn!"

Around September 1920 Gus was back in Los Angeles. It was probably about this time when he and Buster Johnson joined Abe Lyman. In L.A. he would also meet another old friend, trumpeter Ray Lopez. Gus and Ray had been members of the first jazz band to leave New Orleans, Brown's Band From Dixieland, who traveled North to Chicago in May1915 to play in Lamb's Cafe. Ray's story was told in detail by Dick Holbrook in Storyville magazine in 1976/1977. From 1917 onwards Lopez had been part of singer Blossom Seeley's act. He told Holbrook that Seeley never had time for any recording as long as Ray was in her group and she did not allow any recording activities on the side either. He recounted an occasion when Seeley was in New York on the Orpheum Circuit on the same bill as Vi Quinn, a dancer/entertainer who was backed by a group that would become famous as the Original Memphis Five. Their leader Phil Napoleon asked Ray to join them on a recording date, but Seeley would not permit him to do so.

In June 1920 Mike Lyman sent Ray a telegram with an invitation to join Abe's band, which was to open at the Sunset (or rather a re-open, unless Roy Fox was two years off in his memory). In the same telegram Mike asked Ray for a suggestion for a trombone player, the position probably being taken by Buster Johnson. Ray took the trumpet job and joined the band in the late autumn of 1920.

By this time Lyman's band was coming into shape. He now had a nine-piece group, probably consisting of Roy Fox and Ray Lopez, trumpets, Buster Johnson, trombone, Gus Mueller, reeds, Louis Garcia, violin, Henry Cohen, piano, Jake Garcia, bass, Charlie Pierce, banjo, and Abe himself on drums. Pianist Henry Cohen was to gain fame as the composer of Canadian Capers and was killed in 1933 when his car was struck by a train whilst he was playing at the Chicago World's Fair.

The Orpheum Circuit was based on the West Coast, and so it is no surprise that one day in 1921, Vi Quinn and her little jazz band came Los Angeles. A row developed among the bandsmen for reasons which have never clearly been substantiated which brought the act to an end, and one member of the jazz band decided to stay a while in sunny California. This was trombonist Miff Mole, who joined Abe Lyman's band when Roy, Ray and Gus were members. Talking about Ray Lopez, Roy Fox relates in his book that "he handled the jazz and I played "sweet", and "when he and Miff and Gussie "busked" a few choruses it was something I'll never forget". Miff soon tired of Los Angeles and stayed only for a short time, and was probably replaced by Vic Smith.

The Sunset was a success for both Lyman brothers. All the movie stars came to see and be seen. The stars that Abe Lyman had seen on screen in the Chicago movie theatres only a few years earlier were the nightly guests. People like Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Unfortunately for everybody, this came to a stop when the Fatty Arbuckle and Wallace Reid scandals broke and movie stars had to sign contracts with severe moral clauses which, temporarily at least, drove them away from the night spots. Consequently Mike Lyman had to close the Sunset Inn. Things looked dark for a while, but luck returned when Abe got a contract to play in the Cocoanut Grove in the beautiful Ambassador Hotel. One of the conditions was that he would add a saxophone and a violin player. They opened on 1 April 1922. Publicity had been effective; on the opening night there were an estimated 1500 guests in the Grove and 500 more outside. The Ambassador was a top location for a many year - it was here that kings and presidents would stay in the company of famous movie stars and other famous personalities. From Charles Lindbergh and John Barrymore to Nikita Kruschev and the Queen of the Netherlands, the Ambassador boasted an impressive guest list.

Shortly after Abe Lyman's band debuted at the Ambassador Hotel, they cut their first record. This was for a local record label by the name of Nordskog, which started issuing records in 1921, mainly of local talent. Abe Lyman's success at the Ambassador made him very attractive to Nordskog as a recording artist. So in the summer of 1922 the band went to the primitive studio and recorded two sides which were issued on Nordskog 3019. The tunes were Those Longing For You Blues and Are You Playing Fair? Abe Lyman's first record demonstrates what must have been his band's policy. One side features some of the hot soloists in his band while the reverse emphasizes fully arranged straight dance music. The jazz side is Those Longing For You Blues, a composition by Chicago pianist and bandleader Frank Westphal. From its first notes it is clear that Lyman's little band was positively influenced by its two New Orleans musicians, Ray Lopez and Gus Mueller. Lopez plays a strong lead, Mueller soars above him and together with the trombone player they manage to produce a pure, early New Orleans sound during the first half of the recording. Then Lopez and Mueller use the opportunity to prove their class during their solo spot: Lopez takes off for the first 12 bars with a derby as a mute, Mueller then places a 4 bar break perfectly before Lopez takes another muted 12 bar solo. As if to prove his point, during the final ensemble Lopez tears in with a fine break with some slurred notes. This was pure hot playing in the very best New Orleans tradition.

A year later Lyman moved from Nordskog, which never had a distribution beyond the immediate Los Angeles area, to Brunswick which at the time was working up to becoming one of the major players in the recording industry. In a 'No expenses spared' policy, backed with massive advertising, they lured away from cash-strapped Columbia Marion Harris, Ray Miller and the biggest name in American show business - Al Jolson. Abe Lyman quickly became one of their main attractions and recorded hundreds of titles for this company between 1923 and 1936, many of which also saw issue in Europe. On the strength of his Brunswick records reputation, he made a European tour in 1929, appearing at the Kit Cat Club and the Palladium in London, and at the Moulin Rouge and the Perroquet in Paris.

By 1930 he had started to make movies and from the mid - Thirties he was involved in radio shows. When he was around 50 years of age he left the music business and went into restaurant management. He died on the 23rd October 1957 in Beverly Hills, California, just 60 years old.

We thank Marilyn Fletcher, Gus Mueller's daughter, who was born in a room in the Ambassador Hotel (!), for her contributions to the above article.

Photo Credits. Abe Lyman portrait Mark Berresford Collection. All other photographs courtesy Ate Van Delden.

Copyright Ate Van Delden. Reproduction rights reserved.

www.redhotjazz.com

Drummer Abe Lyman, born Abraham Simon in Chicago, led an orchestra that was successful at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Records made in the 1920s for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company were very popular, and Lyman continued to make records into the 1940s. His ensemble recorded numbers that were tastefully arranged for dancing but it occasionally played "hot" arrangements, such as "Shake That Thing," which was cut as Brunswick 3069 on February 1, 1926.


He began his record career with Brunswick in July 1923, his dance orchestra being perhaps the first to make records on the West Coast. Page 66 of the December 1923 issue of Metronome states that when "the Brunswick Recording Expedition made its first trip to the coast to record..., the first stop in Los Angeles netted the record people sixteen numbers recorded by Abe Lyman's aggregation, and every one of the sixteen numbers recorded was pronounced perfect."

Recorded performances from 1923 include "Honey Babe" (2563), "California Blues" (2530), and "Bugle Call Rag" (2481). Orchestra members changed, but they included cornetist Ray Lopez (this New Orleans musician had played with early "jass" bands and was given some credit on sheet music for the popular "Livery Stable Blues"), violinist John Schonberger (he co-wrote the popular song "Whispering"), and pianist Gus Arnheim (in 1928 he formed his own orchestra). Violinist Charles Kaley provided nearly all vocals during record sessions until he left in mid-1926.

Page 111 of the September 1923 issue of Talking Machine World identifies Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Orchestra as "Los Angeles' most famous popular musical organization." It states, "The orchestra was recently signed up exclusively by the Brunswick organization, and immediately upon the consummation of the deal the Brunswick Co. established a temporary recording laboratory in Los Angeles for the sole purpose of recording newly acquired talent. The recording for Brunswick was done under the supervision of Sinker Darby [William Sinkler Darby], chief of the Brunswick Co.'s recording division, and Walter Hansehan [Haenschen, also known as Carl Fenton], head of the recording department. Both of these men...came all the way from New York and spent five weeks in preparing and recording the Ambassador Orchestra."

The article also discusses the orchestra's beginnings: "Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Orchestra has attained much popularity since the opening of the Cocoanut Grove Hotel in May, 1922...and before coming to this city the orchestra was well known in Chicago, having played in the Colonial and Arsonia Cafe in that city. Prior to this engagement the organization appeared in vaudeville with Gilda Gray, of 'Ziegfeld Follies.'"

Page 66 of the December 1923 issue of Metronome states, "A year ago, when Abe Frank, the well-known hotel man, was placed in charge of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he made every effort to secure the best possible music for the now famous Cocoanut Grove ballroom that is today the Mecca of all filmdom...Abe Lyman, then playing with a seven piece orchestra at the Ship Cafe in Los Angeles, was chosen, and, increasing his personnel to twelve men, he and his band have for eighteen months been making things hum there."

Around June 1925 Charlie Chaplin conducted the orchestra as it recorded "Sing A Song" and "With You, Dear, In Bombay," two songs composed by Chaplin with help from Lyman and Arnheim. Page 74 of the July 1925 issue of Talking Machine World reports, "The Brunswick recording staff was in Los Angeles recently when Mr. Chaplin was busy with his new production, 'The Gold Rush,' and arranged an interview with the star which resulted in the famous comedian's assumptions of a new role, that of recording director. He selected Abe Lyman's California Orchestra...to do the playing and he himself took the baton in hand before the horn to direct the recording of his own compositions....He also make his debut as a phonograph recording artist in the 'Bombay' selection, where he plays a violin solo in conjunction with the orchestra recording."

The orchestra toured widely. Page 64 of the August 1924 issue of Talking Machine World notes the orchestra's recent engagements in New York City and Atlantic City. Page 162 of the August 1925 issue of the trade journal states that the orchestra "recently started on a five-week tour of the vaudeville theatres in the West, playing the Orpheum circuit."

Lyman was also a composer. Songs which he co-wrote by 1923 include "Peggy Dear," "Apple Sauce," and "I Cried For You." For Brunswick in 1923 he recorded his own "Before You Go" (2504) and in 1926 his "Mary Lou" (3135). "Mandalay," written by Lyman with Earl Burtnett and Gus Arnheim, was popular in 1924, and Lyman was the first of many to record it, on May 28, 1924 (2631). "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry?" was written with Walter Donaldson and cut by Lyman's group in February 1926 (3069). "Did You Mean It?" was written with Phil Baker and Sid Silvers. Introduced by Marion Harris in the Broadway show A Night In Spain, it was recorded by Lyman in 1927 (3648).

His orchestra performed in the 1930 Warner Brothers film Hold Everything and later was in other films. Opening credits for a series of black- and-white Merrie Melodies cartoons released in the early 1930s state "with Abe Lyman's Brunswick Recording Orchestra." He moved from California to New York City by 1933 and led his orchestra in the radio network series Waltz Time. By 1937 he led it on the popular Your Hit Parade. He remained with Brunswick until 1936, then worked for Decca, and finally made Bluebird records for RCA Victor. He died in Beverly Hills, California.

On to some tunage!!


Those longing for you blues
Weary weazel
California blues 7-30-1923 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Bugle call rag 8-2-23 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Cocanut trot 7-11-1924 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Sally's got the blues 7-17-1924 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Mighty blue
Everybody stomp 10-14-1925 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Ace in the hole 6-22-1926 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Twelfth Street rag 1
New St. Louis blues 9-9-1926 or 5-12-1933 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Havin' lots of fun 9-9-1926 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Mississippi mud
Weary weazel 2
That's my weakness now 6-17-1928 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
A jazz holiday 11-28-1928 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Hullabaloo 9-4-1930 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Never swat a fly 1  9-17-1930 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Never swat a fly 2  9-17-1930 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Twelfth Street rag 2
Milenberg joys 5-2-1932 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Farewell blues
All alone am I 9-10-1924 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Amen 5-19-1942 (A.L. and his Californians)
High society 5-2-1932 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Heaven only knows 10-12-1933 v=Phil Neely (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Looking at the world through rose colored glasses 7-15-1926 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Nothing else to do 2-2-1926 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Shake that thing 2-1-1926 (A.L. and his California Orch.)
Twelfth Street rag 3
You will come back to me 4-1-1930  (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Dirty hands dirty face w/ Al Jolson
I want you back old pal w/ Billy Jones 7-16-1924 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Don't be like that w/ Phil Neely 11-26-1928 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
A new kind of man 7-9-1924 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Any way the wind blows
Havana 8-8-1923 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Jeannine
Just another day wasted away
Mary Lou 3-11-1926 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Queen of Egypt 8-6-1923 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Sweethearts on parade 11-2-1928 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Mandalay v-Charles Kaley 5-28-1924 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
I think of what you used to think of me v=Frank Sylvano 5-21-1928 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)
Sleepy baby v=Phil Neely 7-27-1928 (A.L /California Ambassador Hotel Orch.)


http://www.mediafire.com/?e5nygsmnvtfv28l

Jump back, Honey! It's Ella Mae Morse!!

Ella Mae Morse
Swingin' at the House of Blue Lights
by Don Charles Hampton


Four of America's greatest female vocalists were born with variations of the name Eleanor. The late Ella Fitzgerald is deservedly called the 20th century's First Lady Of Song; she cut definitive versions of many great Pop standards. The late Billie Holiday, nicknamed Lady Day, was born Eleanor Gough; her unique phrasing revolutionized Jazz singing, and has remained influential right up to the present time. In the 1960s, Eleanor Louise "Ellie" Greenwich was the voice that defined Girl Group Rock 'n' Roll; her songbird harmonies graced dozens of hit records. Then there was Ella Mae Morse, a dance music diva of the 1940s and early '50s. Relatively few people remember her today. Once you've heard one of her vintage performances on wax, though, it's impossible to forget her.

Without a doubt, she was the most dynamic girl singer of the Big Band Era, bar none. Vocally and stylisically, she was a near doppelganger of her mentor, songwriter Johnny Mercer; yet at the same time, she was totally original. The first White female solo act to cross over from Pop to R & B, Ella Mae was a harbinger of American music's future. She effortlessly blended Jazz, Blues, Country and Pop sensibilities every time she stepped up to a microphone. She may well have been the first Soul singer, preceding that musical genre in the marketplace by nearly 20 years.

She was born on September 12, 1924 in Mansfield, Texas. Her mother Ann was a native Texan, and her father George was a British immigrant. Both were musicians; Annie played piano, while George was an itinerant drummer. As a child, Ella Mae tagged along while her parents toured the southwest in dance orchestras; from the sidelines, she soaked in the sounds of Dixieland Jazz, Country/Western music and Pop. Touring came to an abrupt end when George and Annie divorced. However, in Paris, Texas, where she and her mother settled, Ella Mae met an African-American musician who would change her life; decades later, she'd fondly remember him as "Uncle Joe." On a trip to her neighborhood grocery store, she heard Joe singing and strumming his guitar out on the stoop. Spontaneously, she began singing along with him.

Their curbside duets went on for months, much to the amazement of passersby; in segregated, Depression-era Texas, it wasn't commonplace to see a Black man keeping company with a White child. Fortunately, Annie Morse had a progressive attitude about race mixing; with her blessing, Joe took her little girl under his wing and taught her how to sing the Blues. It was a genre of music she proved to have a natural affinity for. By the time Ella Mae reached her teens, the music bug had bitten her hard. When she and her mother moved to Dallas in 1936, she started auditioning for bandleaders and radio station music directors all over the city. Her "Black" delivery of Pop and Country material upset many a conservative sensibility. It was the late 1930s, and America's racial divisions were so rigid, they even extended to song styles. "Black music" was supposed to remain separate from "White music". Two decades later, a Metronome article would recall the kinds of incidents that typically transpired at La Morse's early auditions:

Ella Mae had a really tough time getting started. The radio stations would have none of her! One executive was especially vehement. He almost booted her out bodily and told her not to return until she had learned to sing "like a lady". Ella Mae, who took nothing from anybody in those days, told him what he could do with himself and his station, and with a "you'll be begging me to come back! Just wait and see!", stalked out of the building.

Undaunted, the fiery redhead kept auditioning. "It never occurred to me that I wasn't good," she'd later say. "My parents said, 'You're wonderful!' and I believed them!" Eventually, she landed a weekly fifteen minute singing spot on Dallas radio station WRR. Even so, she made it a point to audition for every touring band that came through town. Benny Goodman and Harry James turned her down, but late in 1938, the ambitious girl bagged a featured singer's job with Jimmy Dorsey's touring orchestra. Ella Mae thought she'd finally bought her ticket to the big time, but her initial taste of the limelight didn't last long. Within weeks, Dorsey discovered that she'd lied about her age (she was only fourteen) and fired her. She left the band in New York City, and was determined to stay on the East Coast; every time she heard about an opening for a singer, she went after it. A little thing like age wasn't about to derail her dreams of stardom! While she did impress several Big Apple bandleaders with her authentic Blues chops, among them Glenn Miller, none would hire her. Broke and dejected, she ended up taking a train back home.

Radio exposure notwithstanding, Annie Morse understood that opportunities for her daughter were limited in Dallas. She relocated the family to southern California, and within a very short time, the enterprising Miss Morse was entertaining patrons every night at San Diego's Ratliff Ballroom. Buddy Lovell, leader of the Ratliff's house band, took her on as his female vocalist. Her mother couldn't find a good job on the West Coast, though, and soon decided to return to Texas. Just fifteen years old, Ella Mae was obliged to go back with her, but she was desperate not to leave California. She eloped with Lovell's pianist Dick Showalter, which enabled her to stay behind and continue pursuing her career. The marriage would only last a few years, but it served its main purpose.

By early 1942, Lady Mae was appearing with a Jazz combo at a local nightclub called Eddie's. One night, she looked out into the crowd and spotted an old friend: Freddie Slack, the pianist from Jimmy Dorsey's band. He told her he'd quit Dorsey and was looking to start his own band. When he got it together, he promised, he'd come back and hire her as his girl singer. Slack was true to his word. She joined his outfit shortly after he'd landed a record deal with a brand new West Coast label. On May 21, 1942, Ella Mae Morse and the Freddie Slack Orchestra filed into Hollywood's McGregor Studios. Little did they know they were about to wax Capitol Records' first smash hit single!

Songwriter Johnny Mercer, co-founder of Capitol and the label's first head of A & R, produced the historic session. He immediately established a chemistry with Ella Mae; like her, he loved the Blues, and he shared her ability to sing in the earthy, syncopated style of Black Jazz vocalists. In the coming months, Mercer would serve as her unofficial vocal coach, but at this first meeting, he learned just how close her singing style was to his own. The song on the music stand was "Cow Cow Boogie," a novelty number taken from a Walter Lantz cartoon. Written by Jazz arranger Benny Carter with professional tunesmiths Gene DePaul and Don Raye, it was a tribute to Herb Jeffries, the Black cowboy star who'd recently starred in a series of low budget westerns. The lyrics praised a Swing half-breed (Jeffries was the product of an interracial marriage) who sauntereed across the plains singing a most peculiar cowboy song.

The number was tailormade for a Texas Blues singer like Ella Mae who also knew her way around a Country tune; she expertly merged the two song styles while Freddie Slack backed her up with a lazy Swing tempo. "It was a walk in the park, because I had been doing it a couple of months with the band," she'd later tell biographer Kevin Coffey. "Johnny Mercer (said) 'okay, let's run it through once,' and that's what we thought we were doing. And when we got through with it, he said, 'Wrap it up! That's it, that's a take!' And I burst into tears!" She begged for another take; she knew she could deliver a much better performance. However, to Mercer's ears, her spontaneous mix of Country and Blues phrasing struck a perfect balance that couldn't possibly be bettered. He couldn't get "Cow Cow Boogie" pressed up for 78 RPM release fast enough, and in retrospect, it's easy to understand why. The record was pure dynamite. It exploded right out of the box, zoomed up to #9 on the national hit parade, and established Capitol Records as a hot new contender on the wartime music scene.

Two months later, Ella Mae and Freddie returned to MacGregor Studios with two more Gene DePaul/Don Raye novelties: "Get On Board, Little Chillun," an infectious Pop treatment of the old Negro spiritual, and a fabulous Big Band dance number called "Mister Five By Five." Both became major best-sellers. The latter platter featured a cool cameo vocal from Mercer, and one of the jivin'est readings Lady Mae would ever put on wax; it sounded like it might've been cut live during a nightclub set in Harlem. A quintessential Swing record, "Mister Five By Five" blanketed Pop radio in the Fall of '42 and wasted no time muscling its way into Billboard's Top Ten listings.

Yet Ella Mae's recording career very nearly derailed at this time; the American Federation of Musicians instituted a nationwide recording ban right after her "Get On Board" session. A whole year passed before Capitol could legally bring Freddie Slack's orchestra back into the studio again. During this time, Johnny Mercer used Lady Mae as featured vocalist on his NBC radio show "Mercer's Music Shop", and she and Slack embarked on a series of personal appearance tours. She also appeared in the film musicals Reveille With Beverly, The Sky's The Limit and Stage Door Canteen. Keeping such a high profile paid off. The public's response to Ella Mae was so overwhelmingly positive, she decided to quit the Slack organization and go out on her own. When she finally returned to the studio in October of 1943, it was as a solo performer. Capitol Records co-owner Glen Wallichs took over as her producer, and bandleader Dave Matthews (to be sure, a different Dave from the Rock bandleader we know today) provided musical backing. Happily for all concerned, the hits kept coming.

That session, and one held eight days later, produced a clutch of solidly commercial sides; four of them would number among La Morse's most popular releases. The first to reach the public was Phil Moore's sexy GI sendoff, "Shoo-Shoo, Baby." The Andrews Sisters' version on Decca Records outsold Ella Mae's single, but Maxene, Patty and Laverne couldn't even get within shouting distance of her impeccable Blues phrasing and glacier-melting sensuality. This record convinced everybody who hadn't seen her publicity photos that Ella Mae Morse was a Black singer. "Shoo-Shoo, Baby" flew to the top of the "Race Music" charts, and the massive acceptance it found with Black audiences got her booked onto the "Jubilee" show, an Armed Forces Radio broadcast aimed at African-American servicemen. With considerable pride, Lady Mae would later talk about how she and Johnny Mercer "got plaques from a Negro college. They voted us the Black male and female singer of the year . . . I thought, 'isn't that terrific? And I haven't got the heart to let them know (the truth)!'"

The truth didn't hurt much, especially not after Black music legends like Louis Armstrong publicly embraced her. Mainstream Pop lovers responded with equal enthusiasm to "Shoo-Shoo, Baby", but they also flipped the record over. To their delight, they discovered a Jazzy midtempo ballad called "No Love, No Nothin'." Written for the 1943 movie musical The Gang's All Here, this Leo Robin warbler quickly become a standard; in subsequent years, it would rate cover versions by Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Petula Clark and many other artists. By January of 1944, Ella Mae's bluesy way with a lyric had won Top Ten chart placings for both sides. Capitol Records treated the public to another taste of sultry Morse balladry with "Tess's Torch Song," a great slow dance number by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Introduced by Dinah Shore in the wartime comedy Up In Arms, it missed the Top Ten by a hair's breadth that April. Her next two singles wouldn't miss; on the contrary, they'd establish 1944 as the most successful year of her entire career. The first one, a musical snapshot of American women during a time of national crisis, was destined to go down in history.

It was the height of World War II, and defense plants were humming all over America. With most able-bodied men serving in the armed forces, women were filling the quota of workers needed to staff assembly lines for munitions manufacture. It was the first time female labor had entered the US workforce in such large numbers. Popular media gave these patriotic ladies a generic nickname: "Rosie The Riveter". Rosie was hailed as a direct descendant of the American pioneer woman, a can-do girl next door willing to pin up her hair, roll up her sleeves, and dirty her hands cranking out equipment for enlisted men. Numerous songs were penned in her honor, but the most successful was Ella Mae Morse's October 1943 recording of "Milkman! Keep Those Bottles Quiet!" It was the fourth hit penned for her by Gene DePaul and Don Raye. Lady Mae portrayed a weary defense plant doll, rattled once too often out of her much-needed sleep by the sound of milkmen making their early morning rounds. (It hasn't been done for decades, but back in the '40s, dairy manufacturers still delivered their healthful product door-to-door in chilled glass bottles). While Dave Matthews' orchestra pounded the music out eight-to-the-bar, La Morse delivered Don Raye's hep cat lyrics in perfect Swing time: Been knockin' out a fat tank all day/Workin' on a bomber, okay/Boy, you blast my wig with those clinks!/And I gotta catch my forty winks/Bail out, buddy, with that milk barrage/It's unpatriotic . . . it's sabotage!

Topping out at #7 on Billboard's Hit Parade in the summer of 1944, "Milkman's" jumping bean rhythm no doubt had feet flying to the Lindy Hop anywhere a radio or jukebox was near. Ella Mae closed out her stellar year with an irresistible Pidgin English vocal on "Patty Cake Man." A droll tongue twister of a song concerning an amorous baker and his lovemaking technique, songwriter Roy Jordan had pitched it to her in New York City while she was on tour. Two versions exist of this cute but slightly risqué number; the first one, featuring Paul Weston's orchestra, was never issued. Surprisingly, it's a better recording than the second, which featured Billy May on trumpet and Mel Tormé playing drums. Nevertheless, that's the version that became a Top Ten hit upon its release in September.

Ella Mae went back to producer Johnny Mercer for her final hits of the 1940s. Most were waxed at the famous Radio Recorders studio where Elvis Presley later cut most of his West Coast sessions. "Captain Kidd", a sassy Swing number by Roy Alfred and Marvin Fisher, kept her in a novelty bag with a character-driven lyric similar to that of "Patty Cake Man" and "Mister Five By Five." It scaled the charts just as World War II began winding down. "Buzz Me" greeted returning soldiers in January of 1946. Rumors about the purity of Lady Mae's ethnic background were rife again after she cut this torrid Blues ballad, composed and introduced by pioneering R & B bandleader Louis Jordan. The title was clever double-entendre; in civilian lingo, it meant "call me on the telephone," but it was also military slang for an airplane flyover. Buzz, me, baby, La Morse cooed, with an aggressive come-hither attitude that must've had war veterans breaking out in a cold sweat. I'm equipped for television, walkie-talkie and Morse code, too! Backed by an excitable brass section led by Billy May, "Buzz Me" became her second (and, surprisingly, last) single to take Black radio stations by storm. Aside from "Cow Cow Boogie," it's probably the record she's most remembered for.

Big Band Swing was dying out, and piano-based boogie woogie was gaining popularity when Ella Mae cut her first session of 1946. Reunited with Freddie Slack and songwriters Gene DePaul and Don Raye, the boogie mood was dominant as she lay down tracks for "House Of Blue Lights." This was arguably the "blackest" sounding record she'd ever cut. Opening with some jivey patter between Lady Mae and Mister Raye (doing his best Johnny Mercer impression), the song amounts to a rockin' little ad jingle for a juke joint. This groovy pad serves up succulent barbecued ribs with tasty keyboard licks on the side. Ah, but the redheaded girl singer's righteous vocals are even tastier.

Music historians would later cite "House Of Blue Lights" as a seminal Rock 'n' Roll recording; however, at the time of its release in the summer of '46, it was just considered a great dance record. It rated a #8 berth on the Pop music express, and subsequent boogie woogie releases like "Pigfoot Pete", "Old Shank's Mare" and the phenomenally cool "Hoodleaddle" signaled a hip new direction for Capitol's flagship female star. Unfortunately, Ella Mae was about to turn off the road and head for home; the first phase of her amazing career would soon draw to a close.

She divorced Dave Showalter in 1946 and married Marvin Gerber, a Navy doctor, the following year. By the fall of '47, the couple had a son from Ella Mae's first marriage, had recently welcomed a newborn daughter, and was thinking seriously about having another child. Since remarrying, she had moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and was commuting to Hollywood for record dates. Irritated by her frequent absences, Gerber asked her to give up singing and become a full-time wife and mother (a request that would eventually put an end to their relationship). That December, La Morse informed Johnny Mercer of her intent to retire and devote herself to raising a family. Reluctantly, he released his talented protegée from her contract.

Three years later, though, he welcomed her back to the Capitol artist roster. Adjusting to life as a postwar hausfrau had been much harder for Ella Mae than she thought it would be; she missed performing terribly. "I love people," she told Downbeat reporter Ted Hallack, explaining why she'd reactivated her career. "I'd rather do club dates than anything else." Anything else except cutting records, that is. When she turned on the radio, the emerging mix of Pop, Country, Latin and R & B sounds she heard excited her. They made her want to get back in the studio in the worst way. Haddock quoted her as saying: "I'd like to get out of the 'boogie' rut and do a variety of things." His article revealed that the pretty blonde singer (her natural red hair color went on temporary hiatus in the early '50s) would be recording under a new A & R setup. Voyle Gilmore was now her designated producer, and her initial studio dates would feature charts by up-and-coming arranger Nelson Riddle.

However, Gilmore soon faded into the background, and his place was taken first by Ken Nelson, head of Capitol's Country music division, then by Lee Gillette, Nat "King" Cole's regular producer. Under Nelson's supervision, the bodacious blonde waxed a pair of Nashville-styled novelties that brought her back to the charts in a big way. "Blacksmith Blues" and "Oakie Boogie" were updates of the Western Swing style popularized by Bob Wills and Pee Wee King in the 1930s and '40s, a danceable blend of Country and Jazz that was right up her alley. Her lively syncopated readings, delivered in her spicy Texas drawl, fit this fusion material like a glove. With its kinetic ash tray percussion and seesawing beat, "Blacksmith Blues" hammered its way past the million-seller mark; breaking for an international smash in the opening months of 1952, it became the biggest hit of Ella Mae's career. Four months later, "Oakie Boogie" confirmed that her chart comeback was no fluke. Its rowdy hoedown rhythm, featuring Speedy West's stylish steel guitar accents, injected a shot of Grand Ole Opry revelry into the ballad-heavy early '50s Pop scene. Had this style of music continued to be commercial for her, La Morse would no doubt have delved further into nouveau Western Swing. Capitol steered her in another direction, though, after a down-home duet with Tennessee Ernie Ford ("I'm Hog-Tied Over You") failed to capture the public's fancy.

Producer Dave Dexter cut two very special songs with her at a New York session held in October of 1952. Released as the A and B-side of a single, neither tune became a hit, but both are absolutely essential waxings for Ella Mae Morse fans. Presented with a boogie woogie and a Rhythm & Blues number to write charts for, arranger Joe Lipman decided to fully exploit the orchestral possibilities of both tunes. The Blues selection was "Greyhound", of which there were already versions on the market by Wynonie Harris and the Buddy Morrow orchestra featuring Frankie Lester. The boogie selection was "Jump Back, Honey", based on an old African-American children's rhyme. Lipman and Dexter made an elabororate and highly visual production of the former number; vaguely Latin-sounding, its metronomic instrumentation was so evocative of spinning wheels, revving motors, honking car horms and changing traffic lights, it was almost uncanny. Ella Mae wailed like a madwoman on the track, and upon hearing the playback, flipped for it. She immediately took to recreating the record onstage. "I did ('Greyhound') in Las Vegas, and they loved it!', she'd later recall. "They did it with (flashing) lights and stuff."

The boogie woogie side had originally been recorded by its composer, Hadda Brooks, in her typically intimate piano Jazz style. Joe Lipman brought a forty megaton Big Band to bear on the unassuming ditty, and Dave Dexter bathed his arrangement in rippling reverb. The playback probably came close to blasting everybody out of WMGM Studios by sheer force of volume; judging by the aural impact of the finished master, Dexter's recording level indicators must've been 'way up in the red zone. Ella Mae stood her ground amidst the din, though, rising to the occasion with a cocky staccato vocal that calls to mind today's Rap music cadences. The result was her hippest and most exciting platter yet. Hearing La Morse frantically yell "jump, jump, jump!" while the song coda peters out like sputtering gasoline engine is a Pop music event all by itself.

Ella Mae's final hit for Capitol came in August of 1953. "Forty Cups Of Coffee," supervised by Lee Gillette, was a cover version of singer/songwriter Danny Overbea's R & B smash from earlier in the year. It featured Big Dave Cavanaugh's orchestra holding forth with a greasy grindhouse groove. For her part, Lady Mae served up a performance that was guttural, gutsy, and marvelously decadent. It's hard to understand how a total Blues tour-de-force like this could miss the R & B charts. Not only did Black radio ignore the single, it barely cracked Top Thirty on the Pop listings. Ella Mae Morse records were getting better and better, but it seemed nobody was listening anymore.

So her hits dried up at this point, even though she was clearly at the height of her vocal skills. For artistry's sake, Capitol kept Ella Mae busy in its Melrose and Vine Street recording studios for nearly four more years. Exceptionally good sides like "T'Ain't What'cha Do" (originally waxed by that other Ella), "Coffee Date" (a Starbucks theme song just waiting to be discovered), and the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross-styled Bebop number "I'm Gone" were left to gather dust in record store bins. In early 1955, Capitol released a long-playing Ella Mae Morse album called Barrelhouse, Boogie and The Blues. It featured covers of recent R & B hits like Billy Ward and The Dominoes' "Have Mercy, Baby," Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters' "Money Honey," La Vern Baker's "How Can You Leave A Man Like This?" and Ruth Brown's "Teardrops From My Eyes." "Forty Cups Of Coffee" rounded out the set, which is highly coveted by LP collectors. These waxings, along with the aforementioned "House Of Blue Lights", have much to do with Lady Mae being regarded as a Rock 'n' Roll pioneer. Her final sessions in June of 1957 yielded her Pop-oriented Morse Code album, for which Lee Gillette allowed her to choose the repertoire and collaborate on arrangements with Billy May. The standout of the twelve standards is an extended version of Johnny Mercer's chart-topper from 1945, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive". Ella Mae almost certainly recorded it as a farewell tribute to her mentor.

Had Lady Mae not killed the momentum of her career with premature retirement, who knows how many more hits she might've enjoyed? She'd probably be remembered today as an early female vocalist superstar, alongside her more successful contemporaries Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee and Dinah Shore. However, as she sang definitively in 1953, t'aint what'cha do/it's the way how'cha do it! The unique way Annie and George Morse's amazing daughter handled '40s and '50s Pop songs makes them sound almost as fresh today as they did back then; the arrangements and production values may have become dated and obsolete, but her performances haven't aged one bit. Currently, there are soulful White singers all over the place, jumping from Jazz to Blues to Country and back again just like Ella Mae Morse did in her heyday. As a singer, she clearly was 'way ahead of her time.



Booya!! and on THAT note...........dig this!! A fun little collection.............(besides...methinks it's a great way to lead into a Johnny Mercer list) **:)**

Cow cow boogie
Down in Mexico
False heart girl w/ Tennessee Ernie Ford
He's my guy
Here comes the blues
Daddy daddy
Coffee date
Happy habit
Get on board children
Dedicated to you
Greyhound
Boucin' ball
Have mercy baby
Hoodle addle
Hog-tied over you w/ Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the positive
Find a man for me, mama
Get off it and go
How can you leave a man like this
Give a little time (to your lover)
Good
Boogie blues
Bring back my baby
Goodnight sweetheart (it's time to go)
All I need is you
Baby won't you please come home
The guy who invented kissin'
It's early in the morning
Bombo B. Bailey
Big mamou (intro)
Big Mamou
Afraid
Big mamou (outro)
Hello Suzanne
Heart full of hope
Carioca
Heart and soul
Captain Kidd
Ain't that a shame
The blacksmith blues
Am I in love
Buzz me
day in-day out
Birmingham
The house of blue lights
Dream a little dream of me
Hey, Mr. Postman
Give me lovehttp://www.mediafire.com/?k9ggt3353ptef66

Pig Foot Pete
Money honey
I love you yes I do
I'm gonna walk
Mr. Five by five
Male call
Mr. Fine
It's you I love
Old Rob Roy
The merry Ha-Ha (alt version)
Put your arms around me
The merry Ha-Ha
Jump back honey
Lovey dovey
Mister Memory maker
No love no nothin'
Pine Top Schwartz
A long time ago
Milkman keep those bottles quiet
I'm gonna sit right down and right myself a letter
Old Shank's  mare
A little further on down the road a piece
My funny valentine
I'm a rich woman
Livin' livin' livin'
Invitation to the blues
On the sunny side of the street
The patty cake man (alt version)
The patty cake man
I'm gone
Jersey bounce
Love ya like mad
Old spider fingers
Is it any wonder
Love me or leave me
I can't get started
Jumpin' Jack
Music maestro please
Oh, you crazy moon
Piddly patter patter
It ain't necessarily so
Oakie boogie (alt version)
Organ grinder's swing
An occasional man
It's so exciting
Oakie boogie
Once you've been lovers
Milkman keep those bottles quiet (radio-29 April 1944 Command Performance)
http://www.mediafire.com/?8u31k89zl8r8cr1

Rock me all night long
What good'll it do me
Your conscience tells you so
That's my home
Rock and roll wedding
The thrill is gone
(we've reached) the point of no return
The song is you
That's my home (alt version)
You've taken an unfair advantage of me
Shoo shoo baby
Teardrops from my eyes
You ought to be mine
5-10-15 hours
Solid potato salad
Why shouldn't I
You for me
Tess' torch song (I had a man)
Rockin' and rollin'
Sway me
Won't you listen to me baby
Smack dab in the middle
Tennessee Saturday night
Sensational
T'aint what you do
Taking good care of me for you
Ya' betcha
Yes yes I do
Razzle dazzle
When my sugar walks down the street
40 cups of coffee
Rip Van Winkle
Seventeen
You go to my head
Singing-ing-ing
Sleeping at the foot of the bed
When boy kiss girl (it's love)
Thank your lucky stars (radio-10 july 1943 Command Performance)
http://www.mediafire.com/?ub8xdza0n0lk0u5

Ella Mae Morse w/ Freddie Slack

Some Dinah Washington....by request.....

Dinah Washington

The versatile vocalist Dinah Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa Alabama on August 29th 1924. She grew up in Chicago where her family moved in 1928.

Her mother was heavily involved in church community centered around St Luke’s Baptist and Dinah was surrounded by gospel and church music since her early childhood. She exhibited musical talents at an early age and was part of the church choir playing the piano and singing gospel in her early teens. At age 15, enamored by Billie Holiday, she started playing and singing the blues in local clubs and made quite a name for herself. In 1942 Lionel Hampton heard her and hired her for to front his band. Hampton claims that it was he who gave her the name Dinah Washington but other sources disagree.

Some suggest the talent agent Joe Glaser suggested the new name and others cite the manager of the bar where she was performing at the time as the person who recommended it. This was also the year when she married her first husband; John Young (she would marry 6 more times). She remained with Lionel Hampton from 1943-1946 and during this tenure made her recording debut, a blues session produced by Leonard Feather for Keynote records. She became quite popular both as the band singer for Hampton and as a solo artist. She used her new found financial success to buy a home for her mother and sister. She left Hampton’s orchestra early 1946 while she was living in LA and shortly afterwards recorded blues sides for the small Apollo label. Her big break came very shortly afterwards when she signed with Mercury label on January 14 1946. During her stay with Mercury she recorded a number of top ten hits in a multitude of genres including blues, R&B, pop, standards, novelties, even country. She never was strictly a jazz singer but did record number of jazz sessions with some of the most influential musicians of the day including Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, and Ben Webster. Her most memorable jazz recording is with Clifford Brown; the classic Dinah Jams from 1955.

After the unexpected commercial success of “What a Diff'rence a Day Makes,” in 1959, which marked Washington’s breakthrough into the mainstream pop and won her a Grammy; she stopped recording blues and jazz songs and concentrated on more easy listening tunes characterized by lush orchestrations. The critics decried this shift in her career but it did bring her music more widespread exposure and commercial success. She started having problems with her weight so she became dependant on diet pills and on Dec. 14, 1963 she died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and diet pills in a hotel room in Detroit. She was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Chicago. -www.allaboutjazz.com

Singer Dinah Washington, the Grammy-winning "Queen of the Jukeboxes," left her turbulent life behind at the tender age of 39. In that short period, a volatile mix of undeniable talent and deep-rooted insecurity took her to the heights of fame and the depths of self-doubt.

That was in 1963. Now, as fans mark what would have been Washington's 80th birthday, music historian Nadine Cohodas fills NPR's Liane Hansen in on some of the story. Cohodas has written Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 1924, the former Ruth Lee Jones moved with her family to Chicago as a young girl. She considered the Windy City her true home. And it was there in the early 1940s that a local nightclub owner provided her first gig — and a new name that she would make famous. By 1959 she had earned a Grammy for her version of the song "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes."

In his 2001 biography Q, music legend Quincy Jones vividly describes Washington's style, saying she "could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator and you would've still understood every single syllable."

But the singer's musical gifts were offset by a wild and extravagant personal life. Married seven times, Washington battled weight problems and raced through her profits buying shoes, furs and cars in an effort to lift her spirits.

Washington also tried numerous prescription medications, primarily for dieting and insomnia. A mix of the pills she was taking in 1963 caused her death, which was ruled an accident. Her gift lives on through her rich musical legacy. -NPR.org


Here's a few (well, more than a few) tracks.....There is some later stuff, but I put mostly earlier recordings and some later faves on here, today...enjoy!

Blues for a day
Cry me a river (Truth & Soul Remix) From the Verve Remixed 4 CD (just for fun)
Alone together (live)
Evil gal blues
Beggin' mama blues 
Come rain or come shine (live)
Chewin' mama blues
 I've got you under my skin (live)
Embraceable you
I can't get started
Blow top blues
Backwater blues
Ain't nothin' good
All or nothing 
Baby did you hear [Danger Mouse Remix] From the Verve Remixed 3 CD (just for fun)
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Go pretty daddy
Feel like I wanna cry
Fool that I am
I ain't going to cry no more
Destination moon
Homeward bound
Am I blue 1
Fat daddy
Baby get lost
All of me
Am I blue 2 
Cry me a river (live)
After you've gone
All of me (live)
Goodbye
I don't hurt
Easy livin'
Everybody loves somebody
I'll close my eyes
I'm lost without you tonight
I've got a feelin' I'm fallin'

http://www.mediafire.com/?ry1x5m7zylfbcg2


Lover come back to me (live)
Rich man's blues
Pacific Coast blues
Is you is or is you ain't my baby (Rae & Christian Remix) From Verve Remixed 1 (just for fun)
My lovin' papa
No more (live)
Ooo Wee walkie talkie
Joy juice
A slick chick (on the mellow side)
I won't cry anymore
Is you is or is you ain't my baby
Salty papa blues
Just one more chance
New blowtop blues
I know how to do it
I wanna be around
No voot no boot
Lean baby
Never never
Pennies from heaven
Set me free
My man's an undertaker
Let's fall in love
Ole Santa
I remember you
It's magic
Makin' whoopie
Mood indigo
My old flame
Red sails in the sunset
The man I love
If I were a bell
Is you is or is you ain't my baby 3
It could happen to you
It's too soon to know
Keepin' out of mischief now
Let's do it
Love for sale
Mad about the boy
Make me a present of you
Manhattan
Our love is here to stay
September in the rain

http://www.mediafire.com/?aub1tqto3os7g64

Walking blues
Summertime (live)
There is no greater love (live)
Stairway to the stars
You can depend on me
 You go to my head (live)
There's got to be a change
When a woman loves a man
Wise woman blues
Stormy weather
This bitter earth
With a song in my heart
You let my love grow cold
Smoke gets in your eyes
T'aint nobody's business if I do
Teach me tonight
Unforgettable
What a difference a day makes 


http://www.mediafire.com/?f83fjh0jsju0f4c

As requested.....a Dinah list coming up VERY soon........ :)

Back again..........grrrrrrrrrrr

Back up and running. The virus was pretty unpleasant, and it took all afternoon to be rid of it. It popped up just after I finished dropping in a new hard drive upgrade. The moment I turned on the computer and went online....bam...virus. Somehow, my antivirus didn't catch it. Geesh.....I'm so switching to Mac when my finances permit!

A bit of a delay for a few...

I have quite a few things on the agenda...quite a few planned items to post....unfortunately, there's going to be a bit of a delay. This morning I picked up a bear of a virus on the laptop that I do most of my work on, and that contains a lot of audio files. I do have most files backed up to various devices, but still this does derail my schedule for a few. My apologies, I do hope to be up and running again, soon.