ArtistInfo

Don Woody

*1937 US, Missouri
Rock

Who knows what Don Woody thought when the late Roger Scott phoned him back in 1976 ... Roger wanted to interview Woody for Capitol Radio, but Woody hadn't been in the music business for 20 years! The belated attention was caused by the fact that Don's '56 song "Barking up the wrong tree" popped up at the bottom of the British Top 50 that year. Don did the interview for Capitol and was finally recognized for what we think he is: one very fine rockabilly artist! His songs are still being played by many well known as well as unknown and obscure rockabilly bands around the world. I bet you heard "Make like rock and roll" many times, even though it wasn't even issued by Decca in the fifties. Back in 1956, Don was attending college, dee-jaying on KICK (Springfield, Missouri) and hanging around the stars of the famous Ozark Jubilee. He got signed to Decca after a song he wrote named "Bigelow 6-200" was cut by Brenda Lee. Don recorded 4 four songs at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio, 804 16th Avenue South in Nashville (Tennessee). Bird Dog (Decca 30277) Barking up the Wrong Tree (Decca 30277) Make Like Rock 'n' Roll Morse Code Only the first two were released by Decca at the time and even though Bird Dog sold pretty well, probably due to the succes of a song with the same title by The Everly Brothers, Decca couldn't be persuaded to renew Woody's contract. Woody cut another session for Arco in 1960, but did not sustain a career in music. He joined Sears-Roebuck and currently manages a store in Dallas, Texas. The first three songs mentioned above were re-released several times, the most well known re-issues in supreme quality are probably the ones on the Bear Family series "That'll flat Git It!" (Volume 2). The last song (Morse code) unfortunatly is not included on this compilation, but can be found on other obscure mixtures like on the "Rare Rockabllies" series (Volume 1). All four songs were written by Don Woody and his friend Paul Simmons. Of course "Make Like Rock 'n' Roll" was covered by the British band Matchbox in 1976 on their first album "Riders in the Sky" (Rockhouse LP 7612). So, let's all shake like a tree and leave, make like a storm and blow, now let's play it like a chicken and fly this scoop, let's make it like a rock and roll!" (from "BlackCat Rockabilly Europe")

Genres

• Rock
• Folk
• World
• Blues