OH Taxonomy
Wendel Stoltz was only a year old when his father, a big band musician, opened a music store in Memphis. The year was 1949. Wendel’s father, Colie, continued to perform at night for many years until the store was established enough for him to focus on the business. Wendel worked in the store...
Roland Janes! There were musicians/engineers/producers and then there was Roland Janes! The man nearly single-handedly invented many of the engineering methods used in modern recordings, from microphone placement and cabling to board and tape deck tricks. Yet, what he seemed most fond of was his...
Skip Buss played trumpet for several big bands on the road and in local hotel ballrooms during the great Swing Era of the 1940s. He decided to leave the road when his son was born at which time he gigged at local clubs and ballrooms at night and worked for a small music retailer by day. He joined...
Jason D Williams grew up with music all around him so it was no surprise that he devoted his life to playing. With a strong influence from boogie woogie and rockabilly, Jason D began performing in the style of Jerry Lee lewis at an early age. He soon discovered many other musical heroes and...
Smoochy Smith was hired by Sam Philips at Sun Studios in Memphis to play piano on a few sessions in the late 1950s. Smoochy was being requested for record dates from both local performers as well as others who heard his style on countless tunes. He soon recorded on several other labels such as...
Cliff Acred began playing music in junior high school and later majored in music in college. He played in the 3rd Army Band out of Atlanta while in the service and once out returned home to Memphis. Cliff was hired to play bass in the house bands for Sun Records and later for Stax Records. At...
Carl Mann sang in church as a child and grew up just a few years behind Elvis Presley, who, like Carl, brought the style of church musical expression to popular music when he began recording for Sun Records in Memphis. While playing guitar on several Sun Record sessions, Carl met and befriended WS...
WS Holland played drums behind Johnny Cash for over 40 years! The man put the beat to most of Johnny’s greatest recordings and his innovations in drumming inspired countless musicians around the world. WS, known by his nickname Fluke, began as a session player at Sun Records in Memphis and would...
Jack Pearson grew up listening to the Allman Brothers not knowing that one day he would join the band and tour the world playing the songs he loved. His talents on the guitar developed as a teenager playing along to his musical heroes like Duane Allman on records and the radio, but he cut his...
Eddie DeGarmo grew up across the street from Graceland (he has a great Trick or Treat story from 1960) and somehow always knew he wanted to have a career in music. As a member of a Christian hair-band of the 1980s he recorded 17 albums with that band and performed for many years with several...