VARIOUS ARTISTS
OOH-EEE! WHAT YOU DO TO ME?! - STARS, INC. ROCKERS AND COUNTRY BOPPERS FROM ATLANTA, GA

Bill Lowery was the man when it came to Atlanta’s 1950s music scene. The dynamic Louisiana native began working as a deejay when he was 16, progressing to managing a radio station at 21 before settling in Atlanta in 1946. Lowery wore many hats after that as a top-rated deejay, a gig as ‘Uncle Ebenezer Brown’ on a Saturday morning country music program, and heading his own highly successful publishing firm, Lowery Music Company (Be-Bop-A-Lula and Young Love were two of his company’s early successes). In 1955, Bill launched his first record label, Stars, Inc. - the focus of this revelatory collection. Rockabilly was raging, and Lowery nailed down some top-flight local talent in the genre for his fledgling diskery. Even though he didn’t have a Stars, Inc. single of his own, Jerry Reed contributes mightily to this set, writing and playing sizzling guitar on separate versions of Ooh-eee (What You Do To Me) by Chuck Atha and Ric Cartey and peeling off bluesy lead licks on The Rockateers’ two-part instrumental Rock Bottom (Reed was the writer there too). Cleve Warnock’s My Baby Is Gone and The Night Hawks’ You’re My Baby are snarling rockabilly, while Did We Have A Party by Billy Brown rocks like crazy. Kenny Lee’s eerie Song Of The Singing Wind and Danny Welch’s Riding Shotgun (In A Hot Rod Car) careen over minor-key grooves, Billy Barton’s Ten Wheels is a rollicking truck driver’s lament, and 11-year-old Judy Tolbert sounds like worthy competition to Brenda Lee on I’m Wise To You Baby. Stars, Inc. only existed to the close of 1957, but Lowery obviously knew what he was doing - as he proved anew at his next Atlanta-headquartered label, NRC Records.