First Aired 3-14-97 The Best of Alley Records Welcome to Something Blue, This is Hairy Larry and I've got the blues, for you. --- All right now, that's Bobby Lee Trammell, cutting up on two of his Alley hits, "Hey Everybody Let's Twist" and "I Tried Not to Cry". Kicking us off tonight we heard Aaron Love sing "I'm Coming Down Mama", also recorded at Alley, right here in Jonesboro. Special thanks tonight to Joe Lee and Alley Records. Joe selected most of the tunes for tonight's show and we dubbed the tracks directly from Joe's master tapes for the highest audio quality possible on these historic recordings. Now here's Terry Ray Bradley with a great rockabilly tune, "Red Hair and Green Eyes". --- And that's Ray Coble with two country hits from Alley; "Divorce" and "Lonely Nights". At Alley, Joe Lee recorded all types of music; country, blues, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and jazz. The Joe Lee Combo released several instrumental tunes in a jazzy rhythm and blues style also popularized by Jr. Walker and the All Stars and Booker T. and the MGs. Here's two of those songs now, "Black Eyed Peas" and "Stagger Lee". --- All right, Paul Lovelace singing two of his Alley hits, "Is You Is or Is You Ain't" and "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine". Joe recruited the backup singers for "Is You Is" right off the street outside of Alley Records and he liked them so well he used them on several other recordings. Now here's Larry Donn singing one he wrote called "Joanie". --- And that's Larry Donn singing with a beautiful vibrato on the Hank Williams classic "I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry". Now for a couple of cookers. Here's Newcastle Blues "Walking the Dog" and then The Esquires with an original song "Sadie's Ways". We just posted a publicity photo of the then very young Esquires on the internet that Esquires fans must see. In fact let me show it to you right now. Can't see it? Here, let me hold it closer to the microphone. Oh well, we'll get to hear them anyway but first here's Newcastle Blues. --- And that's Donna Slater singing a very pretty song that she wrote called "Hello Stranger". Now here's The Pacers with a guitar feature called "Skeeter Dope". Listen to Jim Aldridge play these Bary Sax parts. --- And that's Ike Noble and the Up-Tights with two very contemporary sounding R&B hits recorded 30 years ago at Alley. Ike sang "She's Got to Be Loved" and "That's What I Get". For more information on Joe Lee, Alley Records, and many of these artists check out my web page on Delta Musicians. Just search for Hairy Larry on the internet, thats HAIRY LARRY. In 1993 I recorded Joe Lee with E.C. Brown and Mike Overall for Something Blue. Taking us home tonight here's three songs from that session, "Memphis Underground", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", and "Bernie's Tune". Until next week this is Hairy Larry reminding you once again, Blues is the mainstream.