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| Handsome devil... |
I needed a palette cleanser after that last one. To start by setting the scene...
“While he never achieved the kind of success enjoyed by fellow bandleaders like Bob Wills or Spade Cooley, during the late '40s and early '50s Hank Penny ranked as one of the foremost practitioners of the Western swing sound.”
Herbert Clayton Penny was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in the autumn of 1918. His father, a disabled coalminer who moonlighted in a few creative arts (e.g., he played guitar, did magic and wrote poetry), inspired young Herbert to follow in his footsteps – and he didn’t wait long. He found paying work on local radio by his mid-teens and spent most of the rest of his life bouncing around for work in entertainment.
New Orleans was his first destination. Penny arrived in 1936, just in time to hear the first stirring of the Western swing sound, then put out by Bob Wills (profiled here) and his one-time bandleader/one-time collaborator, Milton Brown. He met one of his own steady future musical companions, the “steel virtuoso” Noel Boggs, but Penny did more radio work as a solo performer at New Orleans’ WWL. That period didn’t last long, though; he was back in Birmingham by 1938.
Once back home, Penny formed the first of many bands of his career. He called them the Radio Cowboys and handled banjo playing duties; the rest of the line-up included Julian Akins (guitar), Sammy Forsmark (steel guitar), Louis Dumont (tenor banjo), Carl Stewart (bass), and a guitarists/fiddler named Sheldon Bennett led on vocals...and I will only mention one more of Hank Penny’s band’s lineups because there are a lot of them (and, for the curious, allmusic.com is the best source). The Radio Cowboys got big enough locally to record a couple sides, their first being “When I Take My Sugar to Tea” and one of Penny’s own compositions, “Flamin’ Mamie.”
Penny spent the next several years bouncing between cities and bands, some of them major destinations in country music history – e.g., Nashville and Chicago (home to National Barn Dance) – and he was personally fairly in demand, turning down offers to lead established radio acts like the Light Crust Doughboys (where Wills started). After reuniting with Boggs in Atlanta (on another radio show), Penny moved on to Cincinnati’s WLW radio station where he formed his next band, The Plantation Boys, which, apart from Carl Stewart, had a completely different line-up (and Stewart switched to fiddle). Before long, though, he felt the pull of the unlikely city that had become the Western swing mecca of the United States, Los Angeles, California.
“While he never achieved the kind of success enjoyed by fellow bandleaders like Bob Wills or Spade Cooley, during the late '40s and early '50s Hank Penny ranked as one of the foremost practitioners of the Western swing sound.”
Herbert Clayton Penny was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in the autumn of 1918. His father, a disabled coalminer who moonlighted in a few creative arts (e.g., he played guitar, did magic and wrote poetry), inspired young Herbert to follow in his footsteps – and he didn’t wait long. He found paying work on local radio by his mid-teens and spent most of the rest of his life bouncing around for work in entertainment.
New Orleans was his first destination. Penny arrived in 1936, just in time to hear the first stirring of the Western swing sound, then put out by Bob Wills (profiled here) and his one-time bandleader/one-time collaborator, Milton Brown. He met one of his own steady future musical companions, the “steel virtuoso” Noel Boggs, but Penny did more radio work as a solo performer at New Orleans’ WWL. That period didn’t last long, though; he was back in Birmingham by 1938.
Once back home, Penny formed the first of many bands of his career. He called them the Radio Cowboys and handled banjo playing duties; the rest of the line-up included Julian Akins (guitar), Sammy Forsmark (steel guitar), Louis Dumont (tenor banjo), Carl Stewart (bass), and a guitarists/fiddler named Sheldon Bennett led on vocals...and I will only mention one more of Hank Penny’s band’s lineups because there are a lot of them (and, for the curious, allmusic.com is the best source). The Radio Cowboys got big enough locally to record a couple sides, their first being “When I Take My Sugar to Tea” and one of Penny’s own compositions, “Flamin’ Mamie.”
Penny spent the next several years bouncing between cities and bands, some of them major destinations in country music history – e.g., Nashville and Chicago (home to National Barn Dance) – and he was personally fairly in demand, turning down offers to lead established radio acts like the Light Crust Doughboys (where Wills started). After reuniting with Boggs in Atlanta (on another radio show), Penny moved on to Cincinnati’s WLW radio station where he formed his next band, The Plantation Boys, which, apart from Carl Stewart, had a completely different line-up (and Stewart switched to fiddle). Before long, though, he felt the pull of the unlikely city that had become the Western swing mecca of the United States, Los Angeles, California.
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| May as well give the venue its due. |
Helped by a lead when he arrived – when Boggs left Atlanta, he joined Jimmy Wakely’s band at the Venice Pier Ballroom, aka, the venue/orchestra Spade Cooley (profiled here) would take over (Wakely also led the backing band for Gene Autry) – Hank Penny got his feet under him and proceeded to set up the biggest bands of his career. The big one was the Painted Post Rangers, which he pulled together and promoted with the help of Spade Cooley’s then-manager, Bobbi Bennett Penny as one of (at least) two bands to cover dates that Cooley’s could not. The same period saw Penny record his biggest hits for King Records – e.g., “Steel Guitar Stomp,” “Get Yourself a Red Head” (both in 1946) and “Bloodshot Eyes” (1950), a song that later became a hit on the R&B charts for Wynonie Harris (who’s coming up). Apart from Boggs, he also worked with some of the bigger names of the era – e.g., Jimmy Wyble, Herb Remington, Roy Lanham, Speedy West, and Joaquin Murphey (fwiw, there were more, but those guys have Wikipedia pages).
Despite being a fairly minor figure, even in that time and place, Penny worked with integrity. To give the most famous example, Penny butted heads repeatedly with Foreman Phillips, the (reading between the lines) manager of the Venice Pier Ballroom. Phillips didn’t like the way Penny encouraged his bands to improvise and asked him to play more traditional, and predictable, country fare in the vein of Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb. The ask escalated into a demand one night, when Phillips ordered Penny to fire Wyble, Boggs and a fiddler named Harold Hensley. Penny did one better than refuse: he broke up the band.
That could get to why Penny rarely stayed with any band for long (and maybe why he moved all up and down the American Midwest), but he continued finding what work he could in entertainment. Anyone interested in more details should click to allmusic.com’s bio (link below), but after walking away from his last band, Penny found playing comedy parts, first on Slim Duncan’s Roundup Time in 1946 (assuming this was radio) and, later on, as a regular on Spade Cooley’s TV show as a recurring character called “That Plain Ol’ Country Boy.” Penny even spent time as a disc jockey - more than once.
He didn’t give up on music, however. He formed one more small band – the Penny Serenaders (wish I could find this one on Spotify, but...) – and, from 1954-1961, a bigger band with a residency at downtown Las Vegas’ Golden Nugget casino. Once again, Penny had the clout to call in real/future talent – e.g., Curly Chalker on steel and Roy Clark on guitar. His late career saw him playing as a member of a band (Bresh) instead of leading it and, he got one more crack at the TV big-time with a shot at the hosting slot for Hee Haw...but he lost out to Roy Clark, i.e., his former guitarist and the guy who honed his comic timing by watching Hank Penny. He basically retired after that – this was around the mid-1970s - and lived out his life with his fifth wife, Shari, in California. Penny died of a heart attack in April 1992.
While I usually prefer to work with more sources, I decided to follow through on Hank Penny’s story because something about it charmed me. He was never the biggest name in his field, but I get the impression that he didn’t care. Working in the business and working with people he liked and liked working with feels like his North Star. And his music was fun.
Sources
Wikipedia – Hank Penny
allmusic.com bio
About the Sampler
Went a little nutty on this one – 20 songs - mostly because Hank Penny’s an easy listen – e.g., the sound quality is good, the songs are good, fun and often funny pop. Related, there’s not a ton of variety in his Penny’s sound; it’s 90% that over and over again...which is not to say I got sick of it, because I’m looking at the titles now and thinking, “oh yeah, I like that one.” The only song that really bears individual mention is “Hillbilly Be-Bop.” Penny, a life-long fan of jazz, got hooked on be-bop when it came out and was the first (and probably only) country artist to attempt to meld the two genres (“Jersey Bounce” probably belongs up here too). Now, the rest:
“Wildcat Mama” (proto-Stray Cats), “Won’t You Ride in My Little Red Wagon,” “The Freckle Song” (another minor hit), “My In-Laws Made an Outlaw Out of Me” (fun as it sounds), “Hold the Phone,” “Red Hot Mama and Ice Cold Papa” (you really hear the proto-rock ‘n’ roll on that one), “Someone Moved the Ladder to Success,” “Taxes, Taxes,” “Rabbits Don’t Ever Get Married,” “No Fuss, No Muss, No Bother,” “Mister and Mississippi,” “Two Timin’ Mama,” “Lowdown Woman Blues,” “Wham! Bam! Thank You Ma’am.”
Good time music by a good time guy. Till the next one....
Despite being a fairly minor figure, even in that time and place, Penny worked with integrity. To give the most famous example, Penny butted heads repeatedly with Foreman Phillips, the (reading between the lines) manager of the Venice Pier Ballroom. Phillips didn’t like the way Penny encouraged his bands to improvise and asked him to play more traditional, and predictable, country fare in the vein of Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb. The ask escalated into a demand one night, when Phillips ordered Penny to fire Wyble, Boggs and a fiddler named Harold Hensley. Penny did one better than refuse: he broke up the band.
That could get to why Penny rarely stayed with any band for long (and maybe why he moved all up and down the American Midwest), but he continued finding what work he could in entertainment. Anyone interested in more details should click to allmusic.com’s bio (link below), but after walking away from his last band, Penny found playing comedy parts, first on Slim Duncan’s Roundup Time in 1946 (assuming this was radio) and, later on, as a regular on Spade Cooley’s TV show as a recurring character called “That Plain Ol’ Country Boy.” Penny even spent time as a disc jockey - more than once.
He didn’t give up on music, however. He formed one more small band – the Penny Serenaders (wish I could find this one on Spotify, but...) – and, from 1954-1961, a bigger band with a residency at downtown Las Vegas’ Golden Nugget casino. Once again, Penny had the clout to call in real/future talent – e.g., Curly Chalker on steel and Roy Clark on guitar. His late career saw him playing as a member of a band (Bresh) instead of leading it and, he got one more crack at the TV big-time with a shot at the hosting slot for Hee Haw...but he lost out to Roy Clark, i.e., his former guitarist and the guy who honed his comic timing by watching Hank Penny. He basically retired after that – this was around the mid-1970s - and lived out his life with his fifth wife, Shari, in California. Penny died of a heart attack in April 1992.
While I usually prefer to work with more sources, I decided to follow through on Hank Penny’s story because something about it charmed me. He was never the biggest name in his field, but I get the impression that he didn’t care. Working in the business and working with people he liked and liked working with feels like his North Star. And his music was fun.
Sources
Wikipedia – Hank Penny
allmusic.com bio
About the Sampler
Went a little nutty on this one – 20 songs - mostly because Hank Penny’s an easy listen – e.g., the sound quality is good, the songs are good, fun and often funny pop. Related, there’s not a ton of variety in his Penny’s sound; it’s 90% that over and over again...which is not to say I got sick of it, because I’m looking at the titles now and thinking, “oh yeah, I like that one.” The only song that really bears individual mention is “Hillbilly Be-Bop.” Penny, a life-long fan of jazz, got hooked on be-bop when it came out and was the first (and probably only) country artist to attempt to meld the two genres (“Jersey Bounce” probably belongs up here too). Now, the rest:
“Wildcat Mama” (proto-Stray Cats), “Won’t You Ride in My Little Red Wagon,” “The Freckle Song” (another minor hit), “My In-Laws Made an Outlaw Out of Me” (fun as it sounds), “Hold the Phone,” “Red Hot Mama and Ice Cold Papa” (you really hear the proto-rock ‘n’ roll on that one), “Someone Moved the Ladder to Success,” “Taxes, Taxes,” “Rabbits Don’t Ever Get Married,” “No Fuss, No Muss, No Bother,” “Mister and Mississippi,” “Two Timin’ Mama,” “Lowdown Woman Blues,” “Wham! Bam! Thank You Ma’am.”
Good time music by a good time guy. Till the next one....
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