Lee Rocker

Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker, August 3, 1961, Massapequa, New York) is an American rockabilly double bass player. He was a member of the influential Rockabilly band The Stray Cats.

He is the son of the classical clarinetists Stanley Drucker (the retired principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra) and Naomi Drucker. His sister Roseanne is a country music singer-songwriter. As a child, he played the cello, and later learned to play the electric bass.

Drucker's school friends included James McDonnell and Brian Setzer. The three of them played together regularly and widened their musical interests to include the blues and rockabilly. Drucker also learned to play the double bass to incorporate the sounds of blues and rockabilly on the acoustic instrument. The three of them formed the group The Stray Cats in 1979. McDonnell took on the stage name of "Slim Jim Phantom", and Drucker devised his own stage name of "Lee Rocker". Rocker evolved his own style of slap-bass playing with the group.

Rocker and the Stray Cats sold nearly 10 million albums and garnered twenty three gold and platinum certified records worldwide, and made them a mainstay on MTV.[citation needed] In addition to Stray Cats, Lee Rocker and Phantom Rocker and Slick albums, Rocker has recorded or performed with Carl Perkins, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, Keith Richards, John Fogerty, and Scotty Moore. Rocker was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1982, as was his father, they are the second father-son duo to be nominated for a Grammy in the same year. He considered to be an influential upright bassist in Rock n' Roll.

Since the break-up of The Stray Cats, Rocker has had a solo career and produced recordings independently. In 1985, Rocker, Phantom and Earl Slick formed the group Phantom, Rocker & Slick and recorded two albums for EMI Records titled Phantom, Rocker and Slick and Cover Girl. The song "Men Without Shame" landed Rocker back on MTV and in the charts. For Black Top Records, Rocker released the albums Big Blue (1994) and Atomic Boogie Hour (1995). He has also recorded for Alligator Records.


He released the album, Bulletproof, in 2003. His other albums included Black Cat Bone, released in August 2007, which featured Brophy Dale on guitar and Jimmy Sage on drums. Buzz Campbell (Hot Rod Lincoln and Sha Na Na) joined the band three years ago, and gave a Gretsch guitar sound to the band. In 2011 Lee released an EP called "The Cover Sessions" which features cover versions of songs such as the John Lennon/Paul McCartney song "Come Together," Elton John's, "Honky Cat," and The Allman Brothers song "Ramblin Man." In addition to recording and touring, Rocker hosted a radio show on XM Radio, called 'Rumble and Twang with Lee Rocker.' He also works in concert promotion with his Texas-based roots music festival, 'Revival Festival.' As of 2011, 'Revival Festival' is now in its fourth year and has proven to be successful. Lee Rocker joined the cast of the Broadway hit “Million Dollar Quartet” as bassist Clayton Perkins, the brother of Sun Records recording artist Carl Perkins in a twelve-show run from January 21 through 31st, 2011. He topped off the show with a special encore performance with the cast and an appearance on New York Today.

2013 has brought Mr Rocker much acknowledgment for his unique and technical style of bass playing with a "Life Time Achievement Award" from Bass Player Magazine as well as teaching master classes in London and Los Angeles. Lee is also a member of the "Long Island Music Hall of Fame" and the recipient of the "Visionary Artist Award" from the Laguna Beach Arts Council.

Rocker and his wife Deborah have two children. Daughter Sadie is an artist living in California. His son, Justin, is a screenwriter, who attended Chapman University where he was vice president of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. The family resides in Laguna Beach, California and New York City.

Clint miller (1950)

Isaac Clinton „Clint“ Miller (* 24. Mai 1939 in Ferguson, North Carolina) ist ein US-amerikanischer Politiker, Jurist und Rockabilly-Musiker.

Miller wuchs mit sechs Geschwistern in einfachen Verhältnissen auf. Er begann während seiner Schulzeit in Woodstock, Virginia mit Freunden zu singen und ließ sich dabei von Country-Größen wie Eddy Arnold oder Carl Smith beeinflussen. In Washington D.C. konnte er seine Sangeskünste im Lokalfernsehen zeigen.
Im Herbst 1957 unterzeichnete er einen Vertrag bei ABC-Paramount, die vergeblich versucht hatten, die Masterbänder des gerade von Johnny Faire eingespielten Rockabilly-Songs Bertha Lou von dessen Produzenten Kenny Babcock von Surf Records zu erwerben. ABCs A&R-Manager Don Costa entschied daher, mit Miller als Sänger den Titel im New Yorker Bell Sound Studio einzuspielen, der zusammen mit dem Original Anfang Dezember 1957 auf den Markt kam und aufgrund einer geschickten Promotion unter anderem über Dick Clarks Show American Bandstand mit einem 79. Platz der Billboard-Charts erheblich erfolgreicher wurde. Als B-Seite wurde der Carl-Smith-Hit Doggone It Baby, I’m in Love aus dem Jahr 1954 gecovert. Clint konnte auch weiterhin regelmäßig im Fernsehen auftreten und gehörte zum Programm der regelmäßigen Country-Tanzveranstaltung Town and Country Jamborees in Washington.

Im Juni 1958 ergab eine zweite Aufnahmesession Material für zwei Singles, darunter der tanzgeeignete, etwas poppigere Teenage Dance und mit Polka Dotted Poliwampus ein Novelty-Answer-Song auf Sheb Wooleys Purple People Eater. Nach einer Single für Big Top Records ging Miller zum New Yorker Label Headline Records, wo er zwischen 1959 und 1961 vier weitere Singles veröffentlichte. 1962 folgten zwei Platten für Lenox Records.

Während seiner Zeit als Musiker trieb Miller seine Hochschulausbildung voran. 1961 besuchte er die Stella Adler Studio of Acting, 1962 erreichte er an der American University einen Abschluss in öffentlicher Verwaltung. 1965 bestand er in Lexington ein juristisches Examen, auf das er seine weitere Laufbahn baute. 1972 wurde er für die Republikanische Partei in das Abgeordnetenhaus von Virginia gewählt, dem er bis 1993 angehörte. In diesem Jahr bewarb er sich erfolglos um die Nominierung seiner Partei für die Gouverneurswahlen, die stattdessen an George Allen ging. Bis zu seiner Pensionierung im Jahr 2006 arbeitete er als Richter in der Virginia State Corporation Commission.

Die Musik betrieb er während seiner politischen Karriere nur noch nebenher. 1976 nahm er eine Single auf und erst 1993 stellte er drei Songs auf einer CD zusammen.

Carl Perkins - Rockabilly People

Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998) was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954. His best known song is "Blue Suede Shoes".

According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins' sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed." Perkins' songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further cemented his place in the history of popular music. Paul McCartney even claimed that "if there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles."

Called "the King of Rockabilly", he was inducted into the Rock and Roll, the Rockabilly, and the Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame; and was a Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.



Early life

Perkins was the son of poor sharecroppers, Buck and Louise Perkins (misspelled on his birth certificate as "Perkings") near Tiptonville, Tennessee. He grew up hearing Southern gospel music sung by whites in church, and by African American field workers when he started working in the cotton fields at age six. During spring and autumn, the school day would be followed by several hours of work in the fields. During the summer, workdays were 12–14 hours, "from can to can't." Carl and his brother Jay together would earn 50 cents a day. With all family members working and not having any credit, there was enough money for beans and potatoes, some tobacco for Carl's father Buck, and occasionally the luxury of a five-cent bag of hard candy.

During Saturday nights Carl would listen to the radio with his father and hear the Grand Ole Opry, and Roy Acuff's broadcasts on the Opry inspired him to ask his parents for a guitar. Because they could not afford a real guitar, Carl's father fashioned one from a cigar box and a broomstick. When a neighbor in tough straits offered to sell his dented and scratched Gene Autry model guitar with worn-out strings, Buck purchased it for a couple of dollars.

For the next year Carl taught himself parts of Acuff's "Great Speckled Bird" and "The Wabash Cannonball", which he had heard on the Opry. He also cited the fast playing and vocals of Bill Monroe as an early influence.

Carl began learning more about playing his guitar from a fellow field worker named John Westbrook who befriended him. "Uncle John," as Carl called him, was an African American in his sixties who played blues and gospel on his battered acoustic guitar. Most famously, "Uncle John" advised Carl when playing the guitar to "Get down close to it. You can feel it travel down the strangs, come through your head and down to your soul where you live. You can feel it. Let it vib-a-rate." Because Carl could not afford new strings when they broke, he retied them. The knots would cut into his fingers when he tried to slide to another note, so he began bending the notes, stumbling onto a type of "blue note."

Carl was recruited to be a member of the Lake County Fourth Grade Marching Band, and because of the Perkins's limited finances, was given a new white shirt, cotton pants, white band cap and red cape by Miss Lee McCutcheon, who was in charge of the band.


In January 1947, Buck Perkins moved his family from Lake County, Tennessee to Madison County, Tennessee. A new radio that ran on house current rather than a battery and the proximity of Memphis made it possible for Carl to hear a greater variety of music. At age fourteen years, using the I IV V chord progression common to country songs of the day, he wrote what came to be known around Jackson as "Let Me Take You To the Movie, Magg" (the song would convince Sam Phillips to sign Perkins to his Sun Records label).

Wanda Jackson - Oueen of Rockabilly

Wanda Lavonne Jackson (born October 20, 1937) is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and '60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock and roll artist. She is known to many as the Queen (or First Lady) of Rockabilly.
Jackson mixed country music with fast-moving rockabilly, often recording them on opposite sides of a record. As rockabilly declined in popularity in the mid-1960s, she moved to a successful career in mainstream country music with a string of hits between 1966 and 1973, including "Tears Will Be the Chaser for Your Wine", "A Woman Lives for Love" and "Fancy Satin Pillows".

She has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity among rockabilly revivalists in Europe and younger Americana fans, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence in 2009.

Wanda Jackson was born to Tom Robert Jackson and Nellie Vera Jackson (December 19, 1913 – January 14, 2011) in Maud, Oklahoma, in 1937, but has lived much of her life in Oklahoma City. Her father, a musician, moved the family to Bakersfield, California, during the 1940s in hopes of a better life. Two years later, he bought Jackson a guitar and encouraged her to play. He also took her to see performances by Spade Cooley, Tex Williams and Bob Wills, which left a lasting impression. In 1948, when she was 11, the family moved back to Oklahoma. In 1956, she won a talent contest which led to her own radio program, soon extended by 30 minutes.

Jackson began her professional career while still attending Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City after being discovered by Hank Thompson in 1954, who heard her singing on local station KLPR-AM and invited her to perform with his band, the Brazos Valley Boys. She recorded a few songs on their label, Capitol Records, including "You Can't Have My Love", a duet with Thompson's bandleader, Billy Gray. The song was released as a single in 1954 and reached No. 8 on the country chart. Jackson asked Capitol to sign her, but was turned down by producer Ken Nelson who told her, "Girls don't sell records." Instead, she signed with Decca Records.

Stray Cats Band

The Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1980 by upright bassist Lee Rocker, Slim Jim Phantom (drums) and guitarist Brian Setzer in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", "(She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac," "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring it Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the 500 most important songs in the history of rock and roll.

Band members
- Brian Setzer - vocals, guitars, percussion
- Lee Rocker - slap bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
- Slim Jim Phantom - drums, percussion

Formation and move to UK
The group, whose style was based upon the sounds of Sun Records artists and other artists from the 1950s, were heavily influenced by Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and Bill Haley & His Comets. The Stray Cats quickly developed a large following in the New York music scene playing at CBGB and Max's Kansas City as well as venues on Long Island. When the Cats heard a rumor that there was a revival of the 1950s Teddy Boy youth subculture in England, the band moved to the UK. They then spearheaded the nascent rockabilly revival, by blending the 1950s Sun Studio sound with modern punk musical elements. In terms of visual style, the Stray Cats also blended elements of 1950 rockabilly clothes, such as wearing drape jackets, brothel creepers and western shirts with punk clothes, such as tight black zipper trousers and modern versions of 1950s hair styles.

Rockabilly

This article is about the genre of music. For wrestler formerly known as Rockabilly, see Monty Sopp. For the 1957 popular song, see Rock-a-Billy (song).
Rockabilly

Stylistic origins Rock and roll, country music, western swing, honky-tonk, rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, Appalachian folk music Cultural origins Early-Mid 1950s United States Typical instruments Guitar - Double bass - Drums - Piano, vocals Derivative forms

Psychobilly, punk rock, gothabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to early 1950s in the United States. It is a "blend of country & western and rhythm & blues [that] ... pointed the way to classic rock 'n' roll."[1] It has also been defined as "popular music combining features of rock 'n' roll and bluegrass."The term "rockabilly" is a portmanteau of "rock" (from "rock 'n' roll") and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music (often called "hillbilly music" in the 1940s and '50s) that contributed strongly to the style's development. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues. While there are notable exceptions, its origins lie primarily in the Southern United States.

The influence and popularity of the style waned in the 1960s, but during the late 1970s and early '80s (notably with the Stray Cats), rockabilly enjoyed a major revival of popularity. An interest in rockabilly endures even in the 21st century, often within a rockabilly subculture.