11 Feb 2010, Written by Tom LG in music

Un-issued Kentucky Macabre

In a New York City recording studio in the spring of 1935, four men from Kentucky began recording a tune for the American Recording Company (ARC) that was destined to be buried on the shelves in obscurity, unreleased for the next 46 years. An ironic fate since the tune’s story takes place in a graveyard.

The group was called the Prairie Ramblers (formerly the Kentucky Ramblers) and by 1938 they had made a respectable name for themselves by recording a wide range of genres. When Patsy Montana recorded with the group in the early-30s she would soon be the first female country artist ever to sell over a million copies of a record. Towards the end of the great depression up-tempo rhythms of the big and small swing bands were the thing. Artists like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and the Dorsey Brothers ruled the popular airwaves with their slick and clean dance records. In an industry more interested in bigger sales than content, ARC records began a “3 records for a dollar” program and issued and pressed over 30 labels including Columbia, Vocalion Brunswick. In the winter of 1938 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) bought the ARC complex and absorbed most of the ARC catalogue.

The tune was originally slated to be ARC recordings #17354-1 and was called “The Ghost in the Graveyard.” It featured Roland Gaines singing, Floyd “Salty” Holmes on guitar, Charles Chick Hurt on mandola, Jack Taylor on bass and Tex Atchison on the fiddle. People during the depression may have been disinclined to buy a record about murder, infidelity and the ghastly justice of a bitter revenant, but despite that on May 18^th 1935 it was recorded. The Ghost in the Graveyard is a macabre story of a man with a murderous past who has a chance meeting with the dead great-grandson of one of his victims while strolling through a graveyard one night. It begins as many spooky stories do, with a raspy laugh like a maniacal Popeye the Sailorman and a cold dead wind that fades just as the guitar, mandola, fiddle and bass quietly slip in.

We are introduced to the scene through the eyes of the murderer. The clichéd lyrics of the opening line are somehow naturally fitting: “It was a dark and stormy night, not a star was in sight, in a graveyard by a church way up on the hill.” It is not until he hears a voice speaking to him that he begins to realize his misfortune. It would seem that on this night, deep in the hills of Kentucky, justice is going to be served.

The ghost eventually confronts the man in a gravelly voice and exclaims; “I’ve got you where I want you. I’m gonna keep you where I got you, for you the one who shot my great grand-pa, ha ha ha ha. Now I told you I would get you, now if I saw you now I’ve got you, for you the one who stole my great grand-ma, ha ha ha ha.” It is clear that the man not only killed the great-grandfather but also stole away his great-grandmother. The ghost has no intention of letting this man out of his grasp.

Roland Gaines’s unique vocals mimic a dialogue between the ghost and the man. As a cat fight breaks out his fear becomes overwhelming; “Now you know I couldn’t stand there, I didn’t like them cats, you should know that. And I didn’t like them ghosts either. So I looked down at my feet and said; feet now come on and do your duty and carry me home.” But the ghost has already brought him home and intends to keep him there. The vocals almost sound goofy but the delivery is serious enough to make one think twice. The length of the song is woven together with strange sounds effects made by manipulating various instruments like the kazoo, fiddle and trumpet. There are spooky voices in the form of screaming tom cats, cold blowing winds and other odd sounds from the mysterious land of the dead.

Even after CBS’s purchase of the ARC complex, the recording number was changed to Columbia records #C2406-1 but was again left to sit upon the shelves in obscurity until 1981 when it was finally released in the US on the Columbia Special Products division box-set “Legendary Songs of the Old West.” (CSP P4-15542) which features another un-issued Prairie Ramblers tune featuring Smiley Burnette’s singing called “Minnie the Moocher at the Morgue.” This song was also part of the ARC catalogue and like “The Ghost in the Graveyard”, sat on a shelf in obscurity for years after it was recorded. The two tunes would have made a great two-sided record.

Perhaps it was the dark-bluesy mood of the tune that kept it from being released. Maybe it was the bleak nature of the subject or the strange and supernatural vocals that kept it on the shelf for so many years. It is interesting to note that there were dozens of songs with similar themes from the same time period that were released, including The 5 Jones Boy’s “Mr. Ghost Goes to Town” (1936) and Cab Calloway’s “The Ghost of Smokey Joe” (1939), and later Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboy’s “The Ghost and Honest Joe” (1946). All of these tunes were loaded with macabre imagery and subject matter. We may never find out why ARC and later CBS decided against pressing some of the most unique sounds in early country music history but one thing is certain: someone at CBS records recognized the importance of these recordings and it is because of them that we are able to enjoy these lost tunes. It is a shame, however, that we will never be able to listen to them on a crusty old 78rpm or a wind-up Victrola.

Tom LG a vinyl DJ with 16 years experience. He got his start as a DJ spinning electronic records in 1993. From 1996 to 2006 he worked as a used record buyer at Logos Books & Music in Santa Cruz, Ca. It was at Logos where he began collecting records outside of the realm of electronic and explored other atmospheres using strange and beautiful recordings of the 1920s to the 60s. He currently hosts two weekly vintage vinyl events in Santa Cruz, one being a speakeasy-style night featuring music from 1919-49 and the other an obscure tribal-exotica excursion spinning original 45s from the 50s and 60s. He lives with his wife Rosey deep within the Santa Cruz Mountains in a one room cabin with no running water and 7,000 45s, LPs and 78s. His podcast "Lost In A Fog" can be found here and he can be contacted or booked via his Myspace page.

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