Conductor Jack And Friends: Family Music

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One of the questions I'm most often asked is how I started doing vaudeville-inspired music at such a young age. Well, my grandfather was a vaudevillian, as was my great-grandfather. Here's a photo of my great-grandfather on the vaudeville stage in 1917. In fact, I grew up on his collection of old shellac phonograph 78rpm records. I didn't have a CD player until I released my first CD!

Below is a listing of some of my favorite singers and entertainers from days gone by. Many of these names are long gone, and some are almost forgotten today. I encourage you to do some research into any of these artists...their recordings have brought me so much joy over the years.

If you have any questions or you're a collector wanting to do some trading, just email me...I'd love to hear from you. Happy listening!

Conductor Jack

POPULAR SINGERS & CROONERS

Al Jolson

Rudy Vallee

Bing Crosby

Cliff Edwards

Johnny Marvin was one of the first musicians I became obsessed with. I would dig for hours in dusty antique stores looking for recordings by him. He was an excellent uke player, great yodeler and had a nice Oklahoma twang in his voice. He really could croon. He began his career working vaudeville with Charles Sargent and later performed as "Honey Duke and his Uke". In the 1930's he become a cowboy and sang as "The Lonesome Singer Of The Air." A few years later, he moved out west to work with the singing cowboy, Gene Autry.

Lee Morse

Russ Columbo

Gene Austin

Johnnie Ray

Patti Page

Dean Martin

Perry Como

HILLBILLY SINGERS & COUNTRY BANDS

Jimmie Rodgers

Patsy Cline

Loretta Lynn

Hank Williams

Buck Owens

Hank Snow

Pee Wee King

Roy Acuff

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys

Cackle Sisters / DeZurik Sisters

Carson Robison

The Carter Family

Claude Casey

Ernest Tubb

Carolina Cotton

Frankie Marvin

Del Reeves

Gene Autry

Smiley Burnette

Kenny Roberts

Moonshine Kate. How can you not like someone with a first name like "Moonshine"? Of course, that was her nickname - she was born Rose Lee Carson in 1909, the daughter of old-time fiddler John Carson. Kate was known as a great buck-and-wing dancer and comedian, but I like her for her voice. Her performance of "My Man's A Jolly Railroad Man" really takes the cake: as one of the first female country artists, it's too bad her name isn't remembered as much today. It's said her pa made a pretty mean jug of moonshine too...I think you can hear it in her voice.

Otto Gray's Oklahoma Cowboys

Patsy Montana

Zeke Manners & his Gang

Whitey McPherson and his great western swing backup group, the Rhythm Wreckers, were the holy grail of my record collecting adventure for several years. I've spent many hours looking for Whitey's recordings. It's throught that he was from Texas and he made his first recordings when he was thirteen or fourteen years old. Heavily influenced by Jimmie Rodgers and probably Emmett Miller, Whitey's got a great yodel with a big goofy jazz band sound behind it. This picture was taken in Tijuana with Woody Guthrie next to him. I'm not too keen on Woody but Whitey also ran with Gene Austin who's near the top of my list for great crooners. If anyone knows anything about Whitey, email me!

Rex Griffin is the man responsible for giving us Hank Williams, in my opinion. It's been said that without Jimmie Rodgers there'd be no Hank...but listen to any of Rex's records and it's clear that Hank loved him. In fact, Williams bought Griffin's 1939 arrangement of "Lovesick Blues" and of course had a big hit with that record in 1949. Now, Rex was a good old Alabama boy and a heck of a songwriter to boot. Like Jimmie Rodgers, he sadly died of tuberculosis. A friend just sent me his entire recorded works and it is simply brilliant.

COMEDIANS & NOVELTY JAZZ BANDS