RAM RECORDS 
On an impulse, I ordered another Norton Records LP at the same time as the Hasil Adkins album White Light/White Meat, which is a 2010 compilation of a man from northern Louisiana who calls himself The Lonesome Drifter called Eager Boy (subtitled: “Rockabilly and Hillbilly Bop from the Vaults of Ram Records 1958-59!”). Ram Records was the hub of rockabilly music in northern Louisiana and also seemed to be about half women, half men – much rarer in those days. Guitarist Mira Smith, with help from her cousin Alton Warwick started the Ram Recording Co. in Shreveport; and this was where the man born Thomas Johnson – who became known as The Lonesome Drifter – and his band headed. The second and last single, “Honey, Do You Think of Me” b/w “I’ll be Lonesome When You’re Gone” came out on Ram Records itself. The B side had been written and recorded by Linda Brannon on Ram two years earlier. (May 2011) |