In the months before his death on Aug. 30, Charlie Feathers seemed poised to receive the credit he was due. It wasn’t the first time recognition seemed at hand for Feathers. But with the recent resurgence of interest in rockabilly, and with the release of a classy two-CD Feathers retrospective on Revenant Records, acknowledgment finally seemed at hand.
Even in periods of deep obscurity, Charlie Feathers always recognized his importance to American music, and he didn’t mind telling people. The stories he spun often contradicted commonly held memories and facts: Feathers himself often said that he was playing rockabilly as early as 1949 and that he taught Elvis how to sing rockabilly. As a result, some people characterized him as a nut, a could-have-been—a musical eccentric who sought to disguise his lack of success with inflated tales. But whatever his reputation, his music speaks for itself.
Like the army of poor, white, Southern boys that revolutionized American music in the ’50s, Charlie Feathers was born into a world of poverty so severe that it made little differentiation between white and black. Born near Slayden, Miss., in 1932, Feathers left school after the third grade to work in cotton fields and at other hard labor. He learned to play guitar from bluesman Junior Kimbrough, but his first musical hero was Bill Monroe, followed soon by Hank Williams. All of these influences, and others, eventually shaped Feathers’ style.
By 1949, Feathers was living in Memphis, and he began hanging around the Sun Studio shortly after it opened in the early ’50s—recording demos, working on arrangements, and cowriting songs, including “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” Elvis’ last Sun single. In 1954 and 1955, Feathers recorded a handful of powerful, soulful hillbilly songs for Sun—songs that caused Sam Phillips to refer to him as “the first great country singer I ever cut and probably the best.”
But Feathers’ heart, it seemed, lay in rockabilly. In 1956, the singer had two rockabilly songs he was itching to record. Although Phillips refused to release any rockabilly sides by Feathers, Lester Bihari at Meteor Records, Sun’s main competition in Memphis, was more than happy to. The resulting single, “Tongue-Tied Jill,” backed with “Get With It,” became the singer’s first classic rockabilly release. The record didn’t gain much exposure outside Memphis, but it led to a deal with King Records in Cincinnati.
The four singles Feathers recorded for King in ’56 and ’57 sold few copies, but they are some of the purest, most unadulterated rock ’n’ roll ever recorded. At heart, rockabilly wasn’t clean, fun music—it was a mutant hybrid of the hot hillbilly boogie and over-the-top rhythm and blues of the late ’40s and early ’50s. It was midwifed not by the teen scene, but by young, hotshot crackers in honky-tonks and dives all over the South. A case in point is the King side “Bottle to the Baby,” on which Charlie Feathers sang frantically about having to feed his infant before a night of carousing.
As the popularity of rockabilly faded and most of its early proponents moved toward pop or mainstream country, Charlie Feathers kept the spark alive—recording a handful of singles on obscure labels and slugging it out in the honky-tonks of Memphis. When the first rockabilly revival began to stir in the ’70s, Charlie Feathers didn’t have to return to the music: He’d been standing his ground for years.
The recordings Charlie Feathers left behind—studio, live, and dozens of home demos—reveal a soulful passion and a stubborn adherence to his distinct musical voice. This single-mindedness may have denied him wealth or success, but it’s also what made him such a great performer.
Over the years, Feathers would receive smatterings of recognition. He was featured in Peter Guralnick’s 1979 book Lost Highway, and his belated major-label debut came in 1990 as part of Elektra/Nonesuch’s American Explorers series. Yet even as he became recognized and hailed as an American original, his reputation for eccentricity and spinning tales continued to eclipse his music.
One of the best Charlie Feathers stories dates back to 1974: On his first trip to the West Coast, he recorded a single for Rockin’ Ronnie Weiser’s Rollin’ Rock label. After spending most of the day working on one song, Weiser reminded Feathers that they needed another song and asked for something a little hotter. Feathers promptly grabbed a bass and slapped out “That Certain Female,” three minutes of powerful, unrestrained, rockabilly madness—illustrating just how simple it could be for him to produce a classic.
It’s doubtful that all of the stories Charlie Feathers told about himself were true. But regardless of their veracity, they remind us that the truth may not always be as simple as we believe it to be. The history of American music has largely chosen to ignore Charlie Feathers’ accomplishments, but the fact that Charlie Feathers lived that history cannot be denied.
—Randy Fox
Two solid afternoons of music, art, and crafts make up Celebration ’98, which starts 9 a.m. Saturday and noon Sunday at the Centennial Arts Center in Centennial Park. Saturday’s concert lineup includes Scott Rogness (who contributed songs and vocals to the That Thing You Do! soundtrack), Barry & Holly Tashian, the Butch Baldassari Trio, Bleu Plate Special, Dave Mackenzie, Adie Grey, and James Nixon; Sunday brings Marcus Hummon, Marianne Osiel, Bruce Dudley, Acme Jazz Movers, and a second serving of Bleu Plate Special. More than 80 visual artists will be on hand, working in media ranging from paint to glass. The festival is free and open to the public, and it’s sponsored by Metro Parks, the Federation of Musicians Trust Funds, and the Friends of Centennial Park.
Of Thee I Swing Dept.: BadaBing Bada-Boom, one of the first of the swing-revival bands to build a following at Nashville clubs, celebrates its third anniversary Saturday at the place where it all began, Wolfy’s on Lower Broad. Show up and hoist a brew to founder Eddie Mugavero, trumpeter Bob Dellaposta, violist Stephan Dudash, the rhythm section of bassist Chris Enghauser and drummer Tommy Giampietro, and hot-and-cool running vocalists Maureen Mohr (the blonde) and Rebecca Sayre (the brunette).
Surprise guest at Billy Block’s Western Beat Roots Revival last week at the Exit/In: Linda Gail Lewis, who came up from the audience to join the closing jam session with drummer Phil Lee, guitarist Tim Krekel, and bassist Garry Tallent. (Tallent’s back from New Jersey, where various Web sites have reported he’s been working on November’s box set of rare and unreleased Springsteen tracks.) Linda Gail sang two numbers, “Johnny B. Goode” and “Great Balls of Fire,” and we hear on the latter she pounded the white off the piano keys.
—Jim Ridley
Elliptical dispatches: Dick Stacy, led by self-described “Valley Girl pop singer” Stacy Carroll, has just issued its first five-song CD; the group commemorates the aluminum biscuit’s release with a show Friday at 12th & Porter. Check out the band that has more inventive uses for cigar imagery than Monica Lewinsky....
If you feel like driving four hours west, Memphis’ singles label Loverly Records is hosting its 1998 Record Release Show Friday at the Madison Flame, 1588 Madison. The event celebrates the release of new 45s by its “youth brigade,” which consists of the Satyrs, Jetty Webb, Lucynell Crater, and Pisshorse. Loverly is doing is best to keep Memphis’ tradition of musical iconoclasm alive; to find out more, call (901) 854-2698....
The New Being Human, a folk-rock quartet led by singer/guitarist Roland Justice and violist Tiffani Smitha, is hosting a live CD taping Saturday night at the Gibson Cafe on Lower Broad. Justice and Smitha are former members of the Cincinnati band Plough Horse, which released a CD in 1995.
