| October 26th, 2005 10:29 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Sonny Fisher
Singer-songwriter who fused country music with the blues to produce rockabilly
Garth Cartwright
Wednesday October 26, 2005
The Guardian
Sonny Fisher, one of America's pioneering rockabilly artists, has died in Houston aged 73. Fisher never achieved anything more than regional stardom in the US during the 1950s yet, when London's Ace Records reissued his 1956 recordings in 1979, he found himself proclaimed king of the rockabilly revival.
Born Therman Fisher on a farm in Chandler, Texas, he was nicknamed "Sonny". His father sang cowboy songs and accompanied himself on guitar; when the young Sonny heard country music on the radio, he vowed to become a musician. Subsequently, he taught himself to sing and play guitar.
Sonny shifted with his family to California and Washington state as a youth, but returned to Texas, settling in Houston, where he put together a country music band. The band played Houston nightclubs and Sonny began paying attention to the new rhythm and blues music that youths, both black and white, were beginning to celebrate. Adding the exceptionally gifted guitarist Joey Long to the band enabled Sonny to start playing a potent mix of country and blues: in a couple of years time this would become known internationally as rockabilly.
In 1954 Sonny went to see Elvis Presley's initial Houston performances. Duly impressed, he believed his rockabilly sound could succeed. While playing the Cosy Corner nightclub in Houston, Fisher was spotted by the club's owner, Jack Starnes, who also happened to be one of the owners of Starday Records. Starday was a country music label, but Starnes, aware of Presley's success, wanted a share of the action, so signed Fisher. His first recording session took place in early January 1955 and the single, Rockin' Daddy, did well in the South.
A second single, Hey Mama, was released, and Fisher's popularity in Texas continued to grow. Elvis, impressed in turn by Sonny's act, borrowed Sonny's drummer to augment his band while playing at the Cosy Corner. Three more exultant rockabilly 45s followed, yet when Starday presented Fisher with a royalty cheque for $126 at the end of 1955, he was so displeased by the sum he refused to re-sign with them. Attempting to set up his own record label and publishing company proved impossible for Fisher, and his band soon fell apart.
In 1958 he began fronting an all-black band singing rhythm and blues. This was too radical a gesture for the South at the time, and Fisher was soon back playing country music. In 1965 he left the music industry, unaware that his Starday 45s were now considered by connoisseurs as classic primal rockabilly. When Soho's Ace Records market stall in London decided to set up as a label, they began with a ten-inch album featuring all of Fisher's Starday recordings. The success of the album not only launched Ace Records - now a leading force in reissues on this side of the Atlantic - but instigated a hugely popular rockabilly revival, and led to Fisher being brought to Europe for the first time.
Ace Records' Ted Carroll recalls, "I went to Houston to license the Starday masters from Pappy Daly and he was very keen for Sonny's recordings to be reissued. We managed to track down Sonny - he was living in a very rural part of east Texas, working in a sawmill, and was surprised by our interest. He was a humble, courteous man. When we brought him to Britain he still looked great - big pompadour, long sideburns, really slim, a stunning looking man - so the kids loved him. We recorded a new EP with him. He then got very popular in France and made recordings there."
After a successful French tour in October 1981, Fisher returned to Texas and turned down subsequent requests to return to Europe, although, exceptionally, he did make a trip to Spain in 1993, appearing in concerts and recording an album backed by Los Solitarios and veteran rockabilly Sleepy La Beef. Why Fisher vanished from the music scene for a second time, this time having found success, was something he chose not to disclose. He is survived by seven children.
· Therman 'Sonny' Fisher, singer, songwriter and guitarist, born November 13 1931; died October 8 2005
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| October 26th, 2005 10:49 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rockin.paul/Sonny-From%20Texas%20To%20Paris.htm
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels]
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
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