SONNY FISHER R.I.P

Sonny Fisher was one of several American rockabilly artists who had been unable to break out of their regional markets in the Fifties but greatly benefited from the upsurge of interest in the genre at the tail end of the Seventies and subsequently acquired a new following in Europe. Nicknamed the "Wild Man from Texas", Fisher cut a distinctive figure with his jaw-length sideburns and raven pompadour.

In 1980,Ted Carroll and Roger Armstrong gathered eight sides Fisher had recorded in 1955 and 1956 for the Houston-based Starday label and reissued them on a 10" LP. Entitled Texas Rockabilly, the album came complete with an old-style brown paper inner sleeve and proved a steady seller for Ace records. Born Therman Fisher in 1931 on a farm close to Chandler, Texas, "Sonny" grew up listening to his father playing guitar and singing cowboy songs and was also influenced by the country singer Hank Williams and bluesmen Joe Turner and B.B. King.

In the early Fifties, he put together a hillbilly band which became the Rocking Boys after Sonny Fisher saw an Elvis Presley show at the Texas Korral in Houston in 1954. Following an appearance at the Cosy Corner nightclub in Houston, Fisher was offered a one-year contract with Starday Records by a local entrepreneur, Jack Starnes, who was looking to capitalise on the new rock'n'roll craze. In January 1955, Sonny Fisher and the Rocking Boys cut four titles including "Rockin' Daddy", a Fisher composition which became his first release. He also wrote "Sneaky Pete", the follow-up single, and recorded "Rockin' and A'Rollin'" (September 1955) and the excellent "Pink and Black" (1956) but, when he received a royalty cheque for only $126 for the four releases, he refused to sign another contract. He tried to set up his own label, Columbus Records, and kept on playing until 1965, but subsequently dedicated himself to his floor-laying business. When the people at Ace tracked him down in 1979, Sonny Fisher visited the UK and played gigs backed by Johnny and the Roccos.

Following the release of Texas Rockabilly, he recorded an EP of new material for Ace in May 1980. The following year, he cut another 10" album, Texas Rockabilly Tear Up, paying a corny tribute to Presley on "I Miss You Elvis" and recording eight of his own compositions, including "Sweet Sixteen", "Rockabilly Tonight", "Shake It Around" and "I'm Flyin' In". Between 1981 and 1983, Fisher played shows with Eddie Fontaine, Gene Summers, Billy Hancock and Jack Scott, and was in fine voice. Indeed, he had retained his black sideburns and quiff and all the swagger of his Fifties appearances. In 1993, he recorded Rockabilly Fiesta with a fellow rockabilly pioneer, Sleepy LaBeef, but then vanished from public view again.



Sonny Fisher, one of America's pioneering rockabilly artists, died in Houston aged 73. Fisher never achieved anything more than regional stardom in the US during the 1950s yet, when London's Ace Records reissued his 1956 recordings in 1979, he found himself proclaimed king of the rockabilly revival.
Born Therman Fisher on a farm in Chandler, Texas, he was nicknamed "Sonny". His father sang cowboy songs and accompanied himself on guitar; when the young Sonny heard country music on the radio, he vowed to become a musician. Subsequently, he taught himself to sing and play guitar.

Sonny shifted with his family to California and Washington state as a youth, but returned to Texas, settling in Houston, where he put together a country music band. The band played Houston nightclubs and Sonny began paying attention to the new rhythm and blues music that youths, both black and white, were beginning to celebrate. Adding the exceptionally gifted guitarist Joey Long to the band enabled Sonny to start playing a potent mix of country and blues: in a couple of years time this would become known internationally as rockabilly.
In 1954 Sonny went to see Elvis Presley's initial Houston performances. Duly impressed, he believed his rockabilly sound could succeed. While playing the Cosy Corner nightclub in Houston, Fisher was spotted by the club's owner, Jack Starnes, who also happened to be one of the owners of Starday Records. Starday was a country music label, but Starnes, aware of Presley's success, wanted a share of the action, so signed Fisher. His first recording session took place in early January 1955 and the single, Rockin' Daddy, did well in the South.

A second single, Hey Mama, was released, and Fisher's popularity in Texas continued to grow. Elvis, impressed in turn by Sonny's act, borrowed Sonny's drummer to augment his band while playing at the Cosy Corner. Three more exultant rockabilly 45s followed, yet when Starday presented Fisher with a royalty cheque for $126 at the end of 1955, he was so displeased by the sum he refused to re-sign with them. Attempting to set up his own record label and publishing company proved impossible for Fisher, and his band soon fell apart.

In 1958 he began fronting an all-black band singing rhythm and blues. This was too radical a gesture for the South at the time, and Fisher was soon back playing country music. In 1965 he left the music industry, unaware that his Starday 45s were now considered by connoisseurs as classic primal rockabilly. When Soho's Ace Records market stall in London decided to set up as a label, they began with a ten-inch album featuring all of Fisher's Starday recordings. The success of the album not only launched Ace Records - now a leading force in reissues on this side of the Atlantic - but instigated a hugely popular rockabilly revival, and led to Fisher being brought to Europe for the first time.

Ace Records' Ted Carroll recalls, "I went to Houston to license the Starday masters from Pappy Daly and he was very keen for Sonny's recordings to be reissued. We managed to track down Sonny - he was living in a very rural part of east Texas, working in a sawmill, and was surprised by our interest. He was a humble, courteous man. When we brought him to Britain he still looked great - big pompadour, long sideburns, really slim, a stunning looking man - so the kids loved him. We recorded a new EP with him. He then got very popular in France and made recordings there."

After a successful French tour in October 1981, Fisher returned to Texas and turned down subsequent requests to return to Europe, although, exceptionally, he did make a trip to Spain in 1993, appearing in concerts and recording an album backed by Los Solitarios and veteran rockabilly Sleepy La Beef. Why Fisher vanished from the music scene for a second time, this time having found success, was something he chose not to disclose. He is survived by seven children.

· Therman 'Sonny' Fisher, singer, songwriter and guitarist,
born November 13, 1931 ~~ died October 8, 2005

Merci Pearly, très intéressant, voici pour compléter

Sonny Fisher & Los Solitarios - Pink And Black (1993)

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Chanteur Rockabilly US né Therman Fisher, le 13 septembre 1931 à Chandler (Texas). Sonny Fisher a débuté en 1949 avec un petit groupe Country et en janvier 55, il se lance et enregistre un disque à ses frais dans les studios Goldstar de Houston. C'est du grand Rockabilly et le producteur Jack Starnes édite immédiatement 4 singles. L'histoire aurait pu s'arrêter là, car en tout Sonny n'a enregistré que 8 titres, mais il a continué à chanter sur scène jusqu'en 1961. Heureusement, il est revenu sur scène au début des années quatre vingt et a enregistré à nouveau des Rockabillies. Sonny Fisher est décédé le 8 octobre 2005 à Houston (Texas).
"The Wild Man from Texas," rockabilly cat Sonny Fisher recorded a series of little-heard but incendiary singles for the Starday label during the mid-'50s, finally winning acclaim from European audiences close to a quarter century later. Born Therman Fisher on a farm outside Chandler, TX, on November 13, 1931, he grew up in Tacoma, WA, but eventually returned to the Houston area. First drawn to music by his father, an amateur singer and guitarist, the adolescent Fisher also favored Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, and Ernest Tubb. Fisher formed his own country band in 1951, assembling fiddler Paul Vaughan, steel guitarist Red Leonie, bassist Leonard Curry, and drummer Darrell Newsome. With the addition of electric guitarist Joey Long, the group began incorporating R&B covers into its repertoire, and after Fisher witnessed Elvis Presley's late 1954 appearance at Houston's Texas Korral, he steered his music fully in the direction of rockabilly, sacking Vaughan and Leonie while dubbing the remaining trio the Rocking Boys.
Following an appearance at Houston's Cosy Corner, Fisher signed with the local Starday imprint, cutting his debut single, "Rockin' Daddy," in early 1955. Though earning little notice outside the local market, the record remains a classic example of rockabilly at its most primal, galvanized by Fisher's impassioned vocal and Long's ferocious guitar soloing. "Sneaky Pete" followed in the spring, and while it too failed commercially, Presley was so impressed that he borrowed Newsome for a series of Houston performances. Fisher and the Rocking Boys closed out the year with "Rockin' and a-Rollin'" and in mid-1956 resurfaced with the blistering "Pink and Black." When all four singles netted Fisher a royalty check amounting to only 126 dollars, he refused to renew his Starday deal, instead co-founding Columbus Records with Newsome. Fisher produced sides for singer/guitarist Eddie Eddings and saxophonist Hub Sutter, but never recorded for Columbus himself, eventually selling his share of the company to Newsome. After the Rocking Boys split, he led his own R&B group for a time before returning to country, working the Houston nightclub circuit until 1965, when he retired to mount his own flooring business.
In 1979 Ted Carroll and Ray Topping, founders of the British reissue label Ace, tracked down Fisher at his home in Crosby, TX. With vintage rockabilly all the rage in Europe, they financed Fisher's first tour of the U.K. and collected his eight Starday sides on a much-acclaimed 10" LP, Texas Rockabilly. The singer's talents proved to have diminished little if at all in the years since his retirement — and with his jet-black pompadour and jaw-length sideburns, he also looked much as he did on-stage at the Cosy Corner 25 years earlier. With Scottish backing band Johnny & the Roccos, Fisher entered the studio in mid-1980 to record a new four-song EP, followed a year later by the Big Beat release of his first ever full-length effort, Texas Rockabilly Tear-Up. After returning home to the Lone Star State, Fisher dropped out of sight for over a decade, but in 1993 he turned up in Spain, cutting Rockabilly Fiesta with fellow Texas legend Sleepy LaBeef and the Spanish group los Solitarios. The recording was Fisher's swan song. Little is known of his activities in the decade prior to his death in Houston on October 8, 2005.
Talents : Singer, Guitar, Songwriter
Style musical : Rockabilly

DRIVIN' MY LIFE AWAY PINK AND BLACK ROCKIN' DADDY

Fisher, Sonny



Born 1931 in Tyler, Texas. Died in 2005.

References:
Feature article and sessionography in issue 25 (1980) of New Kommotion.
Article in issue 252 (2004) of Now Dig This.

Original Releases



Discography is intended to be complete through 1964

Date & Source	Label & Number	V	Titles {& References to LP/CD List}	As By	Matrix Numbers
1955/Mar. 19 Bb c&w rev.	Starday 179		Rockin' Daddy {a,c,d,e,g,h,m,q,s,v,y} Hold Me Baby {a,h,m,s}	1 1	2240 2241
1955/May 14 Bb c&w rev.	Starday 45-190		Sneaky Pete {a,d,g,h,i,m,x} Hey Mama {a,c,h,k,m,s,w}	1 1	2242 2242-A
1955/Sept. (Bb est.)	Starday 207		Rockin' And A Rollin' {a,b,f,h,m,s} I Can't Lose {a,c,h,m}	1 1	2334 (ST 29) 2335 (ST 30)
1956/June 9 Bb c&w rev.	Starday 45-244		Pink And Black {a,b,h,j,l,m,p,r,t,u} Little Red Wagon {a,h,m}	1 1	2443 2442
Additional Tracks on Comps
	[unissued]		Rockin' Daddy [alt. vers.] {n,o}

References in "As By" Column:

1. as by Sonny Fisher