Mira Ann Smith
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Mira Ann Smith
Mira Ann Smith (or often credited as Myra Smith; October 22, 1924 – August 29, 1989) was an American songwriter, music industry pioneer, record label owner, studio engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. In 1955, she founded Royal Audio Music, Inc. (a.k.a. Ram Records) and became one of the first women to own her own record company.  Her success led some in the music business to dub her “the female Sam Phillips." Smith is most well known for the songs she wrote with singer/songwriter, Margaret Lewis (Warwick), many of which charted on the ''Billboard'' Top 10. Smith and Lewis found their greatest songwriting success with singer, Jeannie C. Riley, and wrote many of her songs including, “ The Girl Most Likely”, “Oh Singer”, “The Rib” and “There Never Was a Time.” In addition, Smith and Lewis wrote hit songs for artists such as David Houston ("Mountain of Love"), Margaret Whiting ("I Almost Called Your Name"), and Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson ("Soulshake"). Four a ...
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Ram Records (US)
Ram Records (Royal Audio Music) was an American, Shreveport, Louisiana, based record label, founded in 1955 by Mira Ann Smith (1924–1989). The label recorded regional rhythm and blues, rockabilly, blues and country music artists. Ram's pressings were made by RCA. Ram also issued recordings on the Clif Records and K Records labels. The label later moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Ram recorded most of its music in the mid-1950s to early 1960s, but due to a tight budget, many of their recordings remained unreleased for decades. In 1994, Ace Records released a CD set of Ram recordings, including many which had never been issued. In 2018, the Academy Award-winning movie, '' Green Book'', featured six songs from the Ram label. Royal Audio Music Recording Company Founder Mira Ann Smith, was a guitarist, pianist, and songwriter. She was also a fan of the ''Louisiana Hayride'', a popular radio show broadcast out of Shreveport, Louisiana. She observed that many artists performing on ...
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Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is the fourth largest in Louisiana, though 2020 census estimates placed its population at 397,590. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, of which it is the parish seat. It extends along the west bank of the Red River (most notably at Wright Island, the Charles and Marie Hamel Memorial Park, and Bagley Island) into neighboring Bossier Parish. The United States Census Bureau's 2020 census tabulation for the city's population was 187,593, though the American Community Survey's census estimates determined 189,890 residents. Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a corporation established to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, an overland route into the newly independent R ...
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Leonard Chess
Lejzor Szmuel Czyż (March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969), best known as Leonard Sam Chess, was a Polish-American record company executive and the co-founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues, Chicago blues, and rock and roll. Early life Chess was born to Polish-Jewish parents in Motal, now in Belarus.Cohodas, Nadine (2000). ''Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records''. New York: St. MartinsBluestogold.com He and his brother, Fiszel, sister, Malka, and mother arrived in New York in 1928 from Poland. They quickly went to Chicago to join their father, Joseph, who was already engaged in the liquor business, which was illegal at the height of Prohibition and controlled in Chicago by Al Capone. The family name was changed to Chess, with Lejzor becoming Leonard and Fiszel becoming Philip. Chess Records Leonard and his brother Phil became involved in the black nightclub scene on the South Side of Chicago ...
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Jerry Kennedy
Jerry Glenn Kennedy (born 10 August 1940)Cusic, Don. (1998) "Jerry Kennedy". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 277–278. is an American record producer, songwriter and guitar player. Early years Kennedy was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. As a child, he recalls "beating on broomsticks and other things" as his initial forays into music-making. His first guitar was a Silvertone, which his parents bought for him when he was "eight or nine." He began taking lessons from a local guitar legend, Tillman Franks. Kennedy attended various shows around the Shreveport area as a boy, including the legendary ''Louisiana Hayride''. One show he particularly remembers attending is Hank Williams's last show at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium saying, "I was a kid sittin' on the front row." In 1954, Elvis Presley performed on ''Louisiana Hayride'', and Kennedy was in attendance with a friend. He recalls their frustration with th ...
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Dale Hawkins
Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins (August 22, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a pioneer American rock singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist who was often called the architect of swamp rock boogie. Ronnie Hawkins was his cousin. Biography He began recording in 1956. In 1957, Hawkins was playing at Shreveport, Louisiana clubs, and although his music was influenced by the new rock and roll style of Elvis Presley and the guitar sounds of Scotty Moore, Hawkins blended that with the uniquely heavy blues sound of black Louisiana artists for his recording of his swamp-rock classic, " Susie Q." Fellow Louisiana guitarist and future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Burton provided the signature riff and solo. The song was chosen as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. An accompanying album, ''Oh! Suzy Q '' was released in 1958. Creedence Clearwater Revival's version of the song on their 1968 debut album helped launch their career and today it is prob ...
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Joe Osborn
Joseph Osborn (August 28, 1937 – December 14, 2018Joe Osborn, Wrecking Crew Bassist, Dies at 81
''Billboard''. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
) was an American player known for his work as a in with the Wrecking Crew and in

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James Burton
James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Critic Mark Deming writes that "Burton has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest guitar pickers in either country or rock ... Burton is one of the best guitar players to ever touch a fretboard." He is ranked number 19 in Rolling Stone list of 100 Greatest Guitarists. Since the 1950s, Burton has recorded and performed with an array of singers, including Bob Luman, Dale Hawkins, Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley (and was leader of Presley's TCB Band), The Everly Brothers, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Claude King, Elvis Costello, Joe Osborn, Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, Hoyt Axton ...
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Swamp Pop
Swamp pop is a music genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s by young Cajuns and Creoles, it combines New Orleans–style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French Louisiana musical influences. Although a fairly obscure genre, swamp pop maintains a large audience in its south Louisiana and southeast Texas homeland, and it has acquired a small but passionate cult following in the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe Characteristics The swamp pop sound is typified by highly emotional, lovelorn lyrics, tripleting honky-tonk pianos, undulating bass lines, bellowing horn sections, and a strong rhythm and blues backbeat. It is exemplified by slow ballads like Cookie and the Cupcakes' "Mathilda" (recorded 1958), considered by many fans as the unofficial swamp pop "anthem". But the genre has also produced many upbeat compositions, such as Bobby Charles' " Later Alligator" (1955), ...
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Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musical styles such as country music, country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass music, bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" (from "rock 'n' roll") and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music (often called "Hillbilly#Music, hillbilly music" in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues. Defining features of the rockabilly sound included strong rhythms, boogie woogie piano riffs, vocal twangs, doo-wop acapella singing, and common use of the tape echo; bu ...
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Independent Record Label
An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN). Many of the labels started as producers and distributors of specific genres of music, such as jazz music, or represent something new and non-mainstream, such as Elvis Presley in the early days. Indies release rock, soul, R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, reggae, hip hop, and world music. Music appearing on indie labels is often referred to as indie music, or more specifically by genre, such as indie hip-hop. Overview Independent record labels are small companies that produce and distribute records. They are not affiliated with or funded by the three major records labels. According to Sound ...
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RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Arista Records, and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, classical, rock, hip hop, afrobeat, electronic, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. Its name is derived from the initials of its defunct parent company, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA Records was fully acquired by Bertelsmann in 1987, making it a part of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and became a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment after the 2004 merger of BMG and Sony; it was acquired by the latter in 2008, after the dissolution of Sony/BMG and the restructuring of Sony Music. RCA Records is the corporate successor of the Victor Talking Machine Company, founded in 1901, making it the second-oldest record label in American his ...
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KWKH
KWKH (1130 AM) is a sports radio station serving Shreveport, Louisiana. The 50-kilowatt station broadcasts at 1130 kHz. Formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications and Gap Central Broadcasting, it is now owned by Townsquare Media. Its studios are shared with its other five sister stations on Westport Avenue in West Shreveport (one mile west of Shreveport Regional Airport), and the transmitter is a three-tower array in Belcher, Louisiana. KWKH is no longer the local affiliate of the New Orleans Saints, but still broadcast the LSU Tigers (hence its nickname, "1130 The Tiger") as well as Fox Sports Radio. It is a 50,000-watt clear-channel station, one of two in Louisiana; the other being WWL in New Orleans. A single tower is used during the day, providing at least secondary coverage to most of northern Louisiana (as far east as Monroe and as far south as Alexandria, northeastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas. At night, power is fed to all three towers in a directional pat ...
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