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Charlie McCoy and John Ellison In Concert
Charles Ray "Charlie" McCoy (born March 28, 1941 in Oak Hill, West Virginia) is an American session musician noted for his work on a wide variety of instruments. In his career, McCoy has backed several notable musicians including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Astor, Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins and Ween. He has also recorded thirty-seven studio albums, including fourteen for Monument Records. Thirteen of his singles have entered the Billboard country charts. He was a member of Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. Any musician in Nashville has heard of Charlie McCoy. But the work that has distinguished this world-class harmonica player is contained on more than two dozen albums that Charlie has released over the past 3 decades.
Charlie is known all over the world. He performs every year in Europe and Asia, most frequently France, Japan, and Denmark. His European backup band is made up of Europe's finest musicians and is second to none.
Biography
Born Charles Ray McCoy, his family moved to nearby Fayetteville when he was a boy and then to Miami, Florida. At age eight, he began playing the harmonica and the guitar and later, in his teens, he also learned to play the bass and trumpet. In high school in Miami his skills had developed to such an extent that he decided to pursue a career in music. He joined a local rock and roll band as guitarist and singer. When he was sixteen years old he reluctantly accompanied a friend to visit a country barn dance radio show in Miami called the "Old South Jamboree". Upon their arrival, McCoy's friend left him in the crowd and went to talk to Happy Harold, the host of the show, with the intention of coaxing McCoy up on stage to sing. McCoy's performance that night, along with the positive response from the show's audience, led to him and his rock band being signed to the Old South Jamboree. His band consisted of Donny Lytle, later known as Johnny Paycheck, on bass; Bill Johnson on steel-guitar; Charlie Justice on guitar; and Bill Phillips, vocal. About this time the band took part in a local rock and roll contest winning first prize. Following an invitation from Mel Tillis, the eighteen-year-old McCoy went to Nashville, Tennessee for a week's stay in 1959. During his stay in Nashville he visited numerous producers and record companies but all to no avail. Since his efforts to start a musical career in Nashville had failed he went back to Miami. He enrolled at the Miami University[citation needed] majoring in musical education. His goal was now to become a teacher. Meanwhile, he continued to perform on the "Jamboree". When Miami faculty members discovered that he was playing rock and roll for a square dance they warned him not to continue with such "lower forms of music". McCoy replied that he was willing to quit his work at the barn dance if they would give him a scholarship. The faculty rejected his request.
McCoy, who still wanted to make a career in music, applied for the vacant job as guitarist in John Ferguson's band. But when he arrived in Nashville, due to some misunderstanding, his job was already taken by guitarist Vance Bullock. After a short discussion Ferguson decided to hire McCoy as a drummer instead. McCoy bought a drum set and joined the band. John Ferguson's band was unsuccessful and shortly they disbanded.[1] After a month of unemployment he joined Stonewall Jackson as a drummer. The job came to an end in the autumn that year. Then he received a call from the booking agent Jim Denney who informed him that Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records had listened to McCoy's tapes and wanted to sign him. McCoy cut his first single for the Cadence label and "Cherri Berri Wine" reached No. 99 in the Billboard chart. In Nashville, Denney gave him the advice to do demo sessions and to concentrate on the harmonica. Next, McCoy joined Wayne Moss as a bass player performing at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
Chet Atkins heard one of McCoy's demo tapes and immediately hired him in May 1961. Thus, his first recording as a harmonica player was on a song, "I Just Don't Understand", by Ann-Margret for RCA.[3] Fred Foster of Monument Records also heard about McCoy and hired him as harmonica player on Roy Orbison's song "Candy Man". It became a million-seller. McCoy's reputation as harmonica player and studio musician increased. McCoy continued to record for the Monument label without a written contract. Although some of his singles and albums at this time did not sell, Foster believed in McCoy's music.[2] Tex Davis, the promotion manager of Monument Records, was persuaded by Charlie Dillard of WPFA to release "Today I Started Loving You Again" as a single. It had previously been released on McCoy's second LP. When the single came out in 1972 it sold 750 000 copies.[4] The single went to No. 16 in the Billboard country charts.[5] For his next album, "The Real McCoy", he won a grammy from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. His album "Good Time Charlie" reached No. 1 in the Billboard country chart. In the 1970s, McCoy, as a studio musician, took part in more than 400 sessions a year.[4] He has won 2 CMA Awards and 7 ACM Awards.
From there, he went on to play harmonica for other acts, Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Barefoot Jerry, "Gene Summers In Nashville" LP and Ween.[5] He also played guitar on Dylan's "Desolation Row", from the album Highway 61 Revisited, and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands", from the album Blonde on Blonde, bass guitar (on all the tracks from Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding,) keyboards, and drums plus on several wind and brass instruments. For 19 years McCoy worked as music director for the popular television show, Hee Haw, and was a member of the Million Dollar Band.
On May 17, 2009, Charlie was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame along with Roy Clark and Barbara Mandrell.[6] He is also a member of the International Musicians' Hall of Fame, and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Charlie has two children with his first wife, and five grandchildren. All of his grandchildren have contributed to one of his albums in some way. His second granddaughter did the artwork for one of the albums covers (Somewhere Over The Rainbow) and sang on one of his Christmas CDs. His oldest granddaughter has played flute and sang on a few of his albums. All of the youngest three kids have sung on one of his albums, as has his son (Charlie, Jr.) and daughter (Ginger).
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John Ellison is an American/Canadian musician, best known for writing the song "Some Kind of Wonderful." He was born in Montgomery, West Virginia, and was raised in Landgraff, West Virginia, a small, poverty-stricken coal mining village near Welch, West Virginia, and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, receiving his Canadian citizenship in 2006.
Biography
In the mid-1960s, Ellison traveled to Rochester, New York, where he met the original members of the Soul Brothers Five, becoming the sixth member and prompting the band to change its name to the Soul Brothers Six. The other members of the group included Charles Armstrong, Harry Armstrong, Vonnell Benjamin, Lester Pelemon, and Joe Johnson. The group signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records.
Ellison was the lead guitarist, singer, and songwriter for the group; and while traveling to a recording session in Philadelphia in 1967, Ellison wrote "She's Some Kind of Wonderful." This original version reached number 91 on the US Billboard chart. In 1987, the book Sweet Soul Music named the Soul Brothers Six as a major influence on the sound of modern music. Not only has the trademark bass line in "She's Some Kind of Wonderful" been utilized by countless other artists for a variety of different songs, but the song has also earned the Soul Brothers Six a spot in music history. More than 50 different artists have recorded "She's Some Kind of Wonderful," making it one of the most recorded songs in the history of music. In 1995, Ellison received a citation of achievement from Broadcast Music for writing the third-most played song in the world.
After the Soul Brothers Six broke up in the 1970s, Ellison continued to record and perform. In 1993 he released his first solo album, Welcome Back, followed by Missing You in 2000. In 2007, he released his third solo album, Back. He is a regular performer at the Nice Jazz Festival in France, and also performs regularly throughout Europe, Asia and North America.
In November 2008, Ellison was nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year,[1] and for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year,[1] for Back at the Hamilton Music Awards in Hamilton, Ontario. He also performed at the awards ceremony. On December 6, 2009, he was honored with the ArcelorMittal Dofasco Lifetime Achievement Award and performed at the Hamilton Music Awards.
Ellison released his autobiography, Some Kind of Wonderful: The John Ellison Story, in July 2012. This work explores the racism and violence Ellison encountered and examines the relationship between these experiences and his songwriting.
In July 2013, a site near his childhood home in Landgraff, West Virginia, was cleared by Boy Scouts and other volunteers, as part of a service project connected to the 2013 National Boy Scout Jamboree. Plans are pending to build a replica of his boyhood home to house a museum dedicated to John Ellison's music and his early live in the local mine camp community of Landgraff, West Virginia.[2]
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LocationHistoric Fayette Theater (View)
215 South Court Street
Fayetteville, WV 25840
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: Yes! |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
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