Jim Sweeney, "The Buzzard And The Owl" c/w "(Where You Lead Me) I'll Follow You," Columbia 4-41454 (rel. 8/1959)

In 1954, as Sam Phillips was beguiled by the voice of a local white kid who loved Black music, a demo recording of a song called "Without You" came across Sun Records' transom. The voice on the demo was unidentified, but he delivered a slow, elegant ballad in a way that music historian Greil Marcus described thus: "...full of pain and full of acceptance; gliding along the stately lines of the song, reaching for solace, falling short, reaching again."

        Elvis Presley tried to record "Without You," but grew frustrated that he couldn't summon the same feeling as the anonymous demo singer. The session was abandoned. Elvis would soon find his groove with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black in a series of singles that revolutionized popular music.

        For years, the identity of the "Without You" singer wasn't recognized--despite the fact that the singer was active in Nashville and made several singles under his own name and a pseudonym. Jim Sweeney recorded songs by Nashville cleffers John D. Loudermilk, Marty Robbins, Don Gibson and Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (along with his own compositions). 

        Presley absorbed some of Sweeney's style but never learned who that voice was. Nashville native Chris Kennedy made the connection in recent years; he knew Sweeney's other work and it became obvious. Kennedy devoted himself to restoring Sweeney's legacy. The result was a 2020 LP, Without You. Though the album misses some of Sweeney's sides (including both of today's tracks), it's an LP I'd like to own one of these days. 

      Jim Sweeney was a reverse Elvis: a Black man who sung within a white-dominated industry but did so with confidence and style. He seems to have been admired and accepted by other musicians. His recording session crossed racial and musical lines. Born in 1922 in Nashville and named after his father, Sweeney excelled at athletics in his youth but was drawn to music. By 1947, he and his vocal group The Varieteers. They made Sweeney's first single that year for Bullet Records in Nashville. Others followed, and with the inception of Hickory Records in 1954, Sweeney, whose songs were published by Acuff-Rose, the city's biggest musical firm, joined the company-owned label. A vehicle for popularizing their stable of songwriters, Hickory is full of "easter eggs" by Acuff-Rose composers--with many songs' only recordings. 

      Sweeney and The Varieteers were among Hickory's first slate of releases in 1954. Photographs exist of the session and show white Nashville sidemen, including Boudleaux Bryant on rhythm guitar, in concert with Sweeney and his group.

    Sweeney remained with Hickory to the end of his career, with a couple of sidelines for Columbia Records. Columbia's country connections were strong, and once Sweeney signed with them, he had to record as 'Jimmy Bell' for Hickory. If Columbia caught on, they didn't take action.

     We catch Sweeney in fine form on a 1959 Columbia release; he sings his own material with the usual stable of Nashville cats backing him up. "The Buzzard and The Owl" appears to be an answer song to the bird-themed novelties of LA performer Bobby Day. This colorful pop-rock novelty references "Rockin' Robin" and a bevy of avian species on a story song of some density in the classic blues form.

      Drummer Buddy Harman and guitarist Hank Garland are present on this session, along with The Anita Kerr Singers, who are, at last, properly balanced in the mix. They don't detract from the fun spirit of the song, but their ambient sound helps balance all the elements out.

       Perhaps too busy a song for the pop charts, it's a delightful piece and well-produced by Columbia's country guy Don Law, who seems to have been okay with this new youth music thing.

    

Cash Box was all in for today's single. "Could make

noise/good ballad poise" was high praise.

"(Where You Lead Me" I'll Follow You" gets more into the Nashville Sound template. This blues ballad with a gospel overlay has more forceful work by drummer Harman and guitarist Garland; The Anita Kerr Singers sound...soulful? Is that adjective allowed in any discussion of them? Well, they add something of value to this performance rather than contradict its ambitions.

        Hear we hear the vocalist Greil Marcus described above: a voice full of hope, hurt and in search of redemption. 

Jim Sweeney quit music in 1962. He'd never had that breakthrough hit, as singer or songwriter, that could sustain a career, and music hadn't earned enough for him to support his large, loving family. He became a civil servant and spent the rest of his able days far away from the studio milieu of Music City. He passed on in 1992, beloved by all who knew him. 

        Chris Kennedy interviewed Sweeney's family for Mojo magazine; they expressed a moving loss that remained long after Jim Sweeney's death. The Without You album project helped remove a talented singer and composer from utter obscurity. Alongside Ted Jarret and Robert S. Riley, Sweeney was proof that, in segregated America of the post-war period, racial and musical harmony comfortably co-existed in Nashville. In these troubled times when brutal thugs push to revoke decades of hard-won civil rights (prediction: they will fail and be prosecuted for their hate crimes), Jim Sweeney remains an inspiring figure.

Tomorrow: among the first releases of Hickory Records was a solo single by champ cleffer Boudleaux Bryant. This super-rare release of 1954 is one bizarre record; ya gotta hear it!