Today, 45 years ago, the ´King of the Hillbilly Piano Players´died….let´s take a look back to remember a really great artist!
MOON MULLICAN - King of the Hillbilly Piano Players
(by Philip Davies in ´99 for Rockabilly Hall of Fame)
As a 14 year old in 1968 I bought the Lp By Request: More of the Greatest Live Show On Earth by Jerry Lee Lewis. Recorded in Panther Hall, Fort Worth, Texas on Sept 7, 1966. On side two Jerry Lee performed 2 country songs by artists ´who inspired me as a kid in Ferriday´, one was Hank (whom I´d heard of) and the other Moon Mullican. As Jerry Lee ripped through I´ll Sail My Ship Alone it quickly dawned that I needed to hear more from this Moon fellow. Before long I picked up a London 45 of Jerry´s Sun cut of the tune. Whilst it was easy to find stuff by Hank it proved impossible to get any by Moon.
Nuggets of information were gleaned from 70s fanzines like Kommotion, SMG, Rollin´ Rock, Dan Coffey´s lists and old copies of Boppin News. Eventually finances allowed me to subscribe to Lewis Scene and Fireball Mail (which is still going strong today). These Lewis fanzines helped enormously. However it was writings by Bill C Malone and Richard Kienzle that filled in the gaps. Today, thanks to their efforts, we know a lot more about Mr. Mullican.
Strange to think as I write this in 1999 that Aubrey *Moon* Mullican would have celebrated his 90th birthday, and would ´have made the bottles bounce on the tables´(as he once famously described his style) as he played in some Texan honky tonk. Aubrey was born to a farming family in the small rural community of Corrigan, Polk County, in east Texas on March 29th 1909. Bordering on Louisiana, Aubrey would have heard musical influences from both states in his formative years. The cajun influence would reap dividends later in his life.
Moon´s Orchestra at Reno Club in Houston (1937)
The surrounding area was forested and logging was a major industry. The mainly black labourers would seek solace from their daily grind by rousing it up at the hard drinking juke joints that sprang up around the camps. Particularly popular were the raucous barrel house boogie woogie piano players as well as the gutbucket country blues guitar pickers. Joe Jones was a sharecropper working on the Mullicans farm and he taught 8 year old Aubrey some rudimentary blues licks on his guitar. The Mullicans were a very religious family and Mr. Mullican senior paid $20 for a pump organ for his daughters to learn to play in church. 
However the blues smitten kid brother soon commandeered the instument, rapidly developing his driving keyboard style. No wonder the Killer felt great empathy for this cat.
Local legend says that the 14 year old Aubrey played piano in a cafe in Lufkin Texas (north of Corrigan) and walked out with $40 in tips bulging his pockets. After a row with his God fearing folks, Aubrey left home when he was 16 and thought playing piano in honky tonks preferable to breaking his back in a field under the hot Texan sun. Moon later recalled ´the only place a piano playing kid like me could get work wasn´t exactly high class. The ladies of the evening, who worked there , would come and set on the piano bench and fan me as I played´. Names of long lost players like Buster Pickens and Cowboy Washington are said to have influenced the raw youngster setting out on the long road to fame.
No one is sure how he picked up the nickname Moon but it was whilst playing in Houston that he acquired it.
Here are some theories:
1) it came from Moonshine
2) it was because of the late hours he worked in clubs
3) he showed his bottom to Pat Boone´s granny! (Ok I made that one up but what a great mental image!)
Cherokee Boogie
East Texas musicians heard cajun tunes, New Orleans and Chicago jazz, gospel, blues, hillbilly and pop. By the time Moon was in his 20s, Western Swing was the style sweeping through Texas. Musicians in seminal band the Light Crust Doughboys soon soon set up their own bands. For instance the hot bands of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and Milton Brown. They packed out dances, gigs, clubs, poured out of the airwaves and on 78s played on jukeboxes or the family radiogram. 
Bob Wills is the more famous but Milt Brown showed great foresight in promoting the piano to lead instrument instead of plonking away in the ensemble. Milt´s Musical Brownies was a showcase for the keyboard talents of Fred Calhoun. Milt died tragically young in 1936, after catching pneumonia whilst being treated for a punctured lung after a car wreck, leaving behind great versions of Garbage Man Blues, Sittin´On Top Of The World (Mississippi Sheiks song) and Somebody´s Been Using That Thing (Tampa Red song). White versions of black songs of course started way before the later Memphis explosion.
Fiddle player Cliff Bruner soon set up his own band, and as Fred Calhoun did not sing, he auditioned for a pianist/vocalist. It came down to a choice between Moon and a better musician but Moon´s charming personality won him the gig. Moon had played in fiddler Leon Selph´s Blue Ridge Playboys. Two original members went on to help develop the off shoot of western swing known as honky tonk. They were singer/guitarist Floyd Tillman and steelie Ted Daffan (writers of classics Slippin Around and Born To Lose respectively).
Writers Douglas B Greene and Bob Pinson evocatively describe the new style as ´honky tonk, being birthed from western swing the mother, and the rise of the jukebox and the tavern as the father´. Play me some of them Working Man Blues as Mr. Haggard hollered decades later. Cliff Bruner´s Texas Wanderers were the link between swing and honky tonk. Moon and the boys recorded in 1939 country´s first truck driving anthem, Truck Driver´s Blues(written by Ted Daffan). Other band members were Bob Dunn on steel, Dickie Mcbride guitar, Hezzie Brock bass and Will Raley on mandolin.
A fine mid price place to hear some of these bands is on the President cd Roots of RnR vol 7 Stompin At The Honky Tonk (PLCD 563) featuring many of artists mentioned earlier. The Wanderers are featured with and without Moon (and with and without Cliff, confusing isn´t it?). Moon sings Rackin It Back here in fine style. A previous volume features him doing his classic Pipeliners Blues, both tunes recorded in Houston April 4 1940. From the same year the cd has Moon singing New Falling Rain Blues.
Cliff Bruner told Nick Tosches ´When I left Milt Brown I hired Moon as my piano man. He developed his style, he´d call it ´three finger style´ (n.b. most other references call it ´Two finger style!´). He didn´t play very good when I hired him but he developed into a fine piano man, terrific showman. Later on, he and I had a band together for a few years, called it Cliff Bruner, Moon Mullican and the Show Boys.´ The war time ban on records lead to a falling back on live shows for income.
Moon was always in demand as a session player, he worked with the Sunshine Boys, Buddy Jones, Floyd Tilman, the Shelton Brothers, Jimmie Davis and the Modern Mountaineers. His peers knew a distinctive talent when they heard one. When the ambitious Jimmie (You Are My Sunshine) Davis entered politics in the 40s he got Moon to organise a band to play at his political rallies. Western Swing fiddle legend Johnny Gimble recalled that Moon´s personality got him more votes than anything else. Moon and Cliff continued to work together through the war years. In 1944 Moon invested his savings in 10 jukeboxes but the IRS confiscated them when he refused to pay the tax due. Shades of the Killer again. The young Jim Reeves worked briefly as a sideman for Moon in Beaumont.
Grandpa Jones interviewed by Doug Greene recalled how he became a King recording artist. ´In late 1943 Syd Nathan had a record shop close by radio station WLW, he called there one day and said he was starting a new label and asked if any of us were interested in recording for it. Some of us were, especially those who had not recorded before. One day Syd took Merle Travis and I up to Dayton to a studio he could use, he didn´t own one yet and there weren´t any in Cincinatti. I remember we recorded upstairs over a Wurlitzer Piano store. Later Syd asked us to think of a name for the label, we decided on King Records and Syd said yeah, King of ´em all!´ Grandpa and Merle´s efforts became the first King single as the Sheppard Brothers.
In 1946 Syd met Moon and signed him to a ten year recording contract. Syd was a proto Colonel Parker when it came to wheeling and dealing to his own advantage. The cigar chomping Nathan´s label failed to promote Moon´s first solo recording, King 565. So Lonesome Hearted Blues´ failure was blamed on distributor problems (the curse of the independent labels). Moon recorded 16 songs featuring a mix of maudlin country ballads like When a Soldier Calls and Finds Nobody Home and more lively offerings like the great Shoot the Moon. The boyhood taste for cajun paid off big time, Moon recorded an altered version of Harry Choates classic Jole Blon as the New Jole Blon´ with mock gibberish lyrics. This unlikely amalgam became a huge hit and firmly established King and Moon as contenders in the growing country boogie market. Moon now earned a gold disc, whether Syd gave him one is another matter! It must have taken a genius to come up with the follow up title Jole Blon´s Sister, the new Moon (sorry!) fans lapped it up and it was a hit. 
Bill C Malone in his ground breaking book Country Music USA describes Moon´s King era thus ´Moon revealed a vocal versatility that had scarcely been suspected in the bluesy and swing material in which he had earlier specialised. His piano playing remained his most distinguishing trait, ranging from a rather sedate style appropriate for romantic ballads to the aggresive, barrelhouse style perfected in the honky tonks and sporting houses of Houston and the Gulf Coast. Moon could still ´make the bottles bounce on the tables´ with an array of blues and boogie tunes which anticipated rock n roll, but he could sing honky tonk and sentimental tunes as convincingly as any singer of the period.´
Following sessions were the usual mix, maudlin and movers. Moon´s live shows focused on the good time uptempo boogies, whilst Syd ever with his eye on the dollar, wanted country weepers. Though to be fair he did encourage his country and r&b artists to record each others material (which of course kept the publishing in house). Back in 1939 Moon even ventured out to Hollywood for a rumoured film shot (can´t find any info in my film books on Village Barn Dance, anyone out there know more?). He certainly recorded out there several times including a King session with legendary musicians Speedy West, Jimmy Bryant and Billy Strange.
The best cd currently available of this era is Ace´s Moonshine Jamboree CDCHD 458, 23 prime Moon King Cuts.
Hey Mr Cotton Picker/ Leaving You With A Worried Mind/ What´s the Matter With the Mill/ Pipeliner Blues/ Triflin Woman Blues/ Nine Tenths of the Tennessee River/ Cherokee Boogie/ All I Need Is You/ I´ll Sail My Ship Alone/ Good Deal Lucille/ Moonshine Blues/ Rocket To The Moon/ Downstream/ I Done It/ Goodnight Irene/ Rheumatism Boogie/ Well Oh Well/ Don´t Ever take My Picture Down/ Lonesome Hearted Blues/ Its a Sin To Love You Like I Do/ I´m Gonna Move Home Bye and Bye/ I Left My Heart In Texas/ I´ll Take your Hat Right Off The Rack.
Good pics, excellent sound and detailed notes by Phillip J. Tricker of Hillbilly Researcher. An essential purchase to any one interested in country roots music. Highly recommended, highlights? put it on random play and let Moon´s seemingly effortless stylings sweep you away. If Jerry Lee ever stops playing his vast collection of 78s he””d slip this new fangled shiny into his boy”’’s cd player and let his mind drift back to Elmo´s old radio or Haney”’’s Big House in Ferriday. My personal favs would be Moon´s cover of Memphis Minnie´s What´s the Matter With the Mill, I´ll Sail My Ship Alone, Rocket to the Moon and Cherokee Boogie (BR54who?). Moon´s vocals and ringing piano licks are well worth the price of admission. There´s a couple of classics missing but we´ll get to that later. 
Increased sales on King meant that Moon could venture out of Texas and on a tour of Florida in 1949 he met and became instant friends with Hank Williams. Hank encouraged the Opry to feature his new buddy. There was initial resistance when some jobsworth sniffily declared that the Opry only featured stringed instruments, no percussion like drums or piano! Wonder if Moon smiled as he lifted the lid and showed him the strings inside. He made it onto the Opry and broke through with the classic I´ll Sail My Ship Alone.
The king of the hillbilly piano players took Nashville and all points south by storm. There´s some great footage of Opry stars like Moon, Minnie Pearl, Faron Young, Jimmy Dickens, Chet Atkins etc doing the rounds on video. Let´s just say that genial ole Moon stands out in such exalted company. Million selling I´ll Sail My Ship Alone, hits like Sweeter Than The Flowers, Mona Lisa, Goodnight Irene and Cherokee Boogie meant that Moon was playing with the big boys now.
Gradually Moon´s bluesy leanings came to the fore in recording sessions. In 1950 he cut fellow King star Tiny Bradshaw´s (of Train Kept A Rollin´ fame) Well Oh Well. Bullmoose Jackson returned the compliment by covering Cherokee Boogie. In 1950 Moon featured horns on his version of Roy Brown´s Grandpa Stole My Baby, (any info on Rufus Gore who played sax?). During ´51 and ´52 he hooked up with Buddy Hank again, and the boozy pals wrote the classic Jambalaya together on a paper bag. Perhaps that´s why modern country is so bland, they write on plastic bags. The old cajun connection worked wonders for Moon again.
Colin Escott´s brilliant Hank biography recalls that Hank mentioned Moon as one of his personal favs in an interview with Country Song Roundup magazine. Can there be a higher recommendation than that of country music´s true king? Whilst only Hank´s name is listed as Jambalaya´s writer, Moon got 50% secretly as he was still under contract to King and its music publishing wing (and we know how notoriously stingy Syd was). Acuff-Rose vs Syd Nathan, now that´s a contest to savour. In fact Moon had tired of King and tried to get out of his contract, but no golden goose escaped Syd´s clutches until the contract said so! Moon even went so far as to get the Opry´s Jim Denny to intercede on his behalf, but he got no joy from stonewall Syd.
Smokey Smith, Lefty Frizzell & Moon at KRNT
So he continued to record and perform in many diverse styles, elements of R&B, country, boogie, ballad, honky tonk, dixie and cajun evident. No wonder the Killer was an avid fan like most other southern citizens. Moon put the piano upfront like all those grinnin´ guitar pickers. Meanwhile in 1954 country music´s staid establishment was shaken by the genie escaping from the bottle in the hands of Haley, Presley, Feathers, Perkins etc. It took country music some time to get over the shock caused by this crazed rockabilly cousin escaping from the attic. Moon and many other pioneers showed that whilst the South was still socially and racially segregated, music knew of no such boundaries.
Moon grew tired of the Opry and its conservatism as well as having to sacrifice lucrative Saturday night gigs to race back to Nashville for 15 minutes or so air time. So he quit the Opry (it wasn´t the same without Hank) and concentrated on live shows especially round his base in Texas. He tackled rock head on by going into King´s studio in January 1956 with Boyd Bennet´s band. Together they cut the rightfully classic Seven Nights To Rock and I´m Mad With You (suprisingly missing from the Ace cd). What a brilliant gesture by a plump middle aged balding piano player, let´s show this durn kids that they didn´t invent the big beat. I was partly prompted to write this piece after sadly reading an interview with BR549 where they said they´d covered the song because they were familiar with Nick Lowe (ex son in law of Mr Cash, married Carlene Carter) 1980s cut, not with Moon´s original! That says a lot about the modern country stations in the US. There´s plenty of King material waiting to be issued on cd e.g. Seven Nights To Rock and Milk Cow Blues Boogie etc. Check out Tapio´s sessionography later.
Moon, along with Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton and a few others were amongst the handful of country stars who got to grips with the big beat. However much we love Seven Nights To Rock it is necessary to remind ourselves that it didn´t sell. He was the wrong age and had the wrong image, hot,young, sexy stars with a quiff were the teens desires. The older audiences loved him but it was the teens dollars that opened the golden gates. The week he recorded it the Tupelo flash gobsmacked America on national tv. Perry, Pat and Patti no longer ruled the airwaves and jukeboxes.
When Seven Nights To Rock/Honolulu RnR came out in early March 1956 it was competing for coin with the likes of James Brown (Please Please Please), Johnny Horton (Honky Tonk Man), Little Richard (Long Tall Sally), Howlin Wolf (Smokestack Lightnin´), Otis Williams (Ivory Tower), Fats Domino (I´m In Love Again) and Nappy Brown (Open Up That Door). Blue Suede Shoes was sweeping all before it and Rock Around the Clock was causing chaos in the film theatres. What a time to be a teenager, a little gem by a portly ´old guy´ just slipped by. Other records that didn´t make it then include classics like Bobby Sisco´s Honky Tonkin´ Rhythm, Bobby Mitchell´s Try Rock n Roll, Jodimars Dance To The Bop, Jerry Reed´s I´m A Lover Not A Fighter and Eddie Bond´s Rockin Daddy. Moon was in good company, but that”’’s little consolation.
Billboard described it thus ´The guy spreads himself thin as he rocks with 7 diff chicks in 7 nights. A swinging bit of commercial wax that could connect at the juke level.´
Moon´s recording life was in limbo whilst crazed upstarts like Jerry Lee demolished piano stools on Steve Allen´s tv show. I bet ole Moon raised a glass to the tv set as he watched with a grin, ´Son of a gun!´. Wonder what he thought of the Killer´s later take on I´ll Sail My Ship Alone? He knew these cats were following the path he had trodden through the forest back in the days of the early Texan beer joints. Trouble is though that he never earned the credit for all that pioneering during his lifetime.
In 1958 old Nashville pal and fan Owen Bradley stepped in, he´d recently become Decca´s head country honcho. Moon eagerly signed a deal with Coral records. Owen was veering country towards a poppier sound to compete with all these wild new guys (and gals! sorry Janis n Wanda). The Coral recordings and some great quotes from Owen can be found in the notes of Bear Family´s excellent cd Moon´s Rock BCD 1 5607 AH. Richard Kienzle once again provides superb notes and there”’’s a sessionography for all you anoraks.
Moon´s rock/ Jenny Lee / Pipeliner´s Blues/ Sweet Rockin Music/ That´s Me/ Cush Cush Ky-yay/ Writin On the Wall/ Wedding of The Bugs/ Nobody Knows But My Pillow/ My Love/ I´m Waiting For Ships That Never Come In/ You Don´t have To be a baby To Cry/ I´ll Sail My Ship Alone/I Was Sorta Wonderin/Every Which a Way/ I Dont Know Why (I Just Do)/ Sweeter Than The Flowers/ The Leaves Musn´t Fall/ nything That´s Part Of You/ Early Morning Blues/ My Baby´s Gone/ Colinda/ Make Friends/Cajun Coffee Song/ Quarter Mile Rows/ Just To Be With You/ I´ll Pour The Wine/ Fools Like Me/ Big Big City/ Mr Tears/ She Once Lived here/ This Glass I Hold
32 songs, the full Decca/ Coral 58/59 and Hallway (Kapp) 62/64 recordings.
Most of the Coral sessions were done April 29 - May 5 1958, with later sessions in May 59. Mr Bradley pulled out all the stops, calling in the Nashville A team, brother Harold, Hank Garland, Grady Martin, Bob Moore as well as drummer Farris Coursey from Owen´s stage band. Unfortunately he also asked the dreaded Anita Kerr Singers along to sweeten the sound. One song in particular indicated the potential there, Nobody Knows But My Pillow is a cracking blues, lashings of piano and a great vocal, even the backing singers don´t ruin it. On most cuts they butt in too often and lessen the impact, it´s a pity Moon didn´t take them back to a sweaty beer joint in Beaumont, they´d have run a mile.
The sessions were the usual mix, King re-recordings, a bit of blues, pop and the sentimental ballads. The stand outs were the rockers, Pipeliner Blues again, Moon´s Rock , Sweet Rockin´ Music and from left field a cover of Jan and Arnie´s West Coast paen to a stripper Jenny Lee (Moon does surf!). Coral put out an album Moon Over Mullican which is worth a small fortune but Moon´s era was past (I resisted the temptation to say waning). If you are vinylly challenged and can´t afford the original or the cd look out for an 1984 16 track lp on Charly called Sweet Rockin Music. 
These sessions are worth listening to but the cream really is the earlier recordings. Makes you wonder what he could have done at a more rocking label. Mind you the unissued Oct 59 songs ( 1 on Charly lp , 2 on Bear family cd) showed what might have been, Nobody Knows But My Pillow is a good country mid tempo song with a neat piano break and NO backing vocals. Even better is My Baby´s Gone, a good blues tune that would have suited the Ferriday Fireball. However, it was the end of Mr Bradley´s experiment to give Moon a Nashville pop sound.
Bob Naylor in Now Dig This no.65 says that Tommy Allsup played with Moon in Odessa Texas in 1958 and that Buddy Holly arrived there incognito and jammed on stage with Moon and Tommy, totally unrecognized by the audience. Tommy later played with Buddy in the studio and on the fateful Winter Dance Party tour in 1959. Buddy and Moon, both on Coral, now there”’’s a gig to savour.
Charly also issued a Moon Coral/King era 12 track lp/cd on their Sing label Kcd555 called His All Time Greatest Hits, tracks not on the Ace cd are Mona Lisa, New Jole Blon´,Sugar Beet, Honolulu RnR and Foggy River. Some of the other Sing cds left a lot to desired in sound quality and packaging. Much better value is the US 83 lp on Western 2001 Seven Nights To Rock, all King songs, well chosen and annotated superbly by Richard Kienzle. outstanding lp long deleted, buy it if you see it.
Moon”’’s 50s UK releases are very rare, Cherokee Boogie came out in 51 on a Vogue 78 and Parlophone issued 78 and 45 versions of Seven Nights To Rock and Honolulu RnR (45 valued at £300+). Parlophone issued an ep called Country Round Up GEP 8794 Jambalaya/ Well Oh Well/ Southern Hospitality/ Keep a Light In the Window For me. Parlophone only ever did a patchy job with the King artists in general, many major US artists had a handful of releases this side of the pond. There was an export only ep called Piano Breakdown on Parlophone CGEP15, issued in a company sleeve (anyone have a track listing?).
In the early 60s Moon based himself in Texas and carried on gigging and recording for Starday, remakes of King material but he got a welcome bonus when his Ragged But Right 45 made the charts. Always popular in his home state he toured less, especially after a Kansas City show in 62 when he had a coronary on stage. He was always a big man but he reputedly weighed 275 pounds at this time. When once asked why he played piano he replied ´Beer kept sliding off my fiddle!!´ Moon was also a munchies man, take a listen to the lyrics of Jambalaya if you don´t believe me. 
After recuperating he returned to Kansas City the following year and stormed through a great version of Pipeliner Blues. He recorded for smaller labels like Spar (including I Ain´t No Beatle, But I Wanna Hold Your Hand!!) and Beaumont´s Hall-Way(on Bear Family cd), stand outs being Foster & Rice´s Big Big City (moves nicely despite the twangy guitar) , I´ll Pour The Wine (classic piano honky tonk, tailor made for Mickey Gilley) and returning the compliment, Jerry Lee´s Fools Like Me. Colinda and The Cajun Coffee Song showed his love of Louisiana was still there. Kapp released these on a 69 lp Moon Mullican Showcase.
After recording again in Nashville in late 66, the curtain finally came down just after midnight New Year´s Day 1967. Moon suffered a major heart attack and died within hours. His widow lamented that while she got him to quit drinking she couldn´t get him to quit eating. The great saloon in the sky had called the big man home. His funeral took place on Jan 3rd with old pal Jimmie Davis attending and no doubt remembering those crazy days huckstering for votes in the rural backwoods. Top honky tonker Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys sent a wreath shaped like a musical note. Class act by a class entertainer.
Moon Mullican is often a foot note in Jerry Lee features but as the Killer would say ´Check his track record, it definitely stands for itself!!´ He reiterated the influence Moon had on him as a kid in a recent tv interview with Chas ´Dr. Rock´ White. Merrill Moore, Floyd Cramer, Carl Mann, Charlie Rich, Mickey Gilley, Gary Stewart, Preacher Jack and Jason D. Williams follow in Moon´s footsteps (or should that read hand-sweeps?) Moon was a major innovator with his piano stylings and is one of the main links between Western Swing, Honky Tonk and Country Boogie. This, allied with his seminal King recordings, should guarantee him a place in the Country Music Hall Of Fame, but hell it took them 44 years to recognize Elvis (and the Killer and Carl ain´t even there!). Moon should be there as a true pioneer of a major C20th American art form, a link in the chain stretching from those old piney lumber camps to the classic honky tonkers like the Killer and the Ole Possum. The more far sighted Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame inducted Moon back in 1976.
A major retrospective of his work is surely due. Westside are issuing King material how about a Moon 2cd set? (Or better still a box!!). Bear Family of course are doing sterling work with vintage material, a Moon related early Texan days compilation would go down a treat.
Final words to Moon, ´EH OH ALENA´, which says it all really.
Many Thanks to Phil Davies!
Linda Gail Lewis & Annie Marie Dolan arrived in Europe yesterday, tonite the tour starts in Yeovil´s Octagon Theatre. 
