Anyone here know much about this Ohio label operational from the early to mid 60's ?? 

 

Edited August 25, 20187 yr by Roburt

This 1st montage shown below (mainly lifted from a thread on Facebook) is very interesting ....

The recording act on Redbug was Lee Roye & the Emeralds and they recorded the song HESITATION ...

     The poster for the John Lee Hooker concert in Portland, Oregon shows a number of support acts ...

 . . . . . . Lee Roye

. . . . The Emeralds

. . .  Jimmy Valdez (who's signature sound is listed as the tune HESITATION) ...

             VERY INTERESTING (to me at least) ..

The picture at the btm left on the poster is I assume of the Emeralds ... but it's actually the promo picture used by Leroy & the Drivers (Duo recording act) ... the keyboard player in that group was Jimmy Valdez ... so it seems Lee Roye & the Emeralds became Leroy & the Drivers (led by Leroy Jones) ...

... so was the Lee Roye of Lee Roye & the Emeralds PLUS Leroy & the Drivers a completely different guy to the Lee Roye on Decca (who it seems was from Burlington,New Jersey).   

Before they cut for Duo, Leroy Jones & his band played on many HIT RECORDS sessions and had a number of releases on Hit themselves. Hit Records was of course the  Nashville-based outfit (Spar) run by producer William Beasley which cut cover versions of (then) recent hit songs.

 .     .   .     .     .. . . . . . So many questions, so few answers ...   

 

 

Edited August 25, 20187 yr by Roburt

Leroy & the Drivers in 67 ... see 45 scan below ...

So if (as seems highly likely) Lee Roye & the Emeralds became Leroy Jones & Band before they were Leroy & the Drivers, then that outfit's musical history is pretty much tied down from 1961-ish thru to the early 70's ...  BTW, the Lee Roye & the Emeralds concert seems to be from 1964, so he was operating as Leroy Jones & Band + Lee Roye & the Emeralds over the same time period.

. . . HOWEVER ... the guy who is listed as writing some of Leroy & the Drivers songs is Leroy Smith ... so it all gets quite muddy (I'm assuming that maybe Leroy Smith was the name Leroy Jones used for his song writing works).

 

Edited August 25, 20187 yr by Roburt

On 25/08/2018 at 09:29, Roburt said:

Anyone here know much about this Ohio label operational from the early to mid 60's ?? 

 

 

https://45rpmrecords.com/OH/Redbug.php

So the label was owned & run by Gene Redd. That makes sense as he was recording with Earl Bostic for King from the early 50's and then working directly for King from the late 50's into the 60's. Dayton is just up the road from Cincinatti (King's HQ). He got into production work in the mid 60's and he was also a major player at Musicor at the same time. He had moved on to De-Lite by the end of the decade and enjoyed much success there. Guess Redbug was the first time he dipped his toes into record label admin duties.

Edited September 2, 20187 yr by Roburt