365 Days #202 - Watt Wilfong Songwriter Demos (mp3s)

MP3:
01. Watt Wilfong - No Money Down Blues (2:51)
02. Watt Wilfong - No Money Down Blues (2:40)
03. Rodd Keith - No Money Down Blues (3:28)
04. Rodd Keith - No Money Down Blues (Instrumental) (3:42)
05. Watt Wilfong - Home Coming Time In Dixie (2:09)
06. Watt Wilfong - Home Coming Time In Dixie (2:17)
07. Rodd Keith - Home Coming Time In Dixie (2:46)
08. Rodd Keith - Your Vacant Chair (2:29)
09. Rodd Keith - Your Vacant Chair (2:50)
10. Watt Wilfong - I'll Never Forget To Remember (2:10)
11. Anonymous Female - I'll Never Forget To Remember (2:22)
12. Don Ross - I'll Never Forget To Remember (1:43)
13. Watt Wilfong - Casey's Stew (3:02)
14. Watt Wilfong - Fair Weather Gals (2:19)
15. Watt Wilfong - I've Got My Old Girl Back Again (2:11)
16. Anonymous Female - Sidetracked (3:16)

I find most of my records at estate sales, and I can never seem to pass up acetates of any kind. This is a sampling of acetates from a recent estate sale. An elderly lady was moving out of the house she'd lived in all her life. I found a box of acetates, and when I asked her the price, she was very hesitant to give them up, as they were her father's songwriting demos. Never one to back down from a potentially interesting score, I offered to dub all the records off to CD for her. Her grandson stepped in and suggested that she just GIVE me the box of records in exchange for this service, and she agreed.

Now, I have to say that most of the songs were only marginally interesting. There were alot of hymns, etc. But since I had to sit and listen to all of them in order to make the CD for the lady, I found myself getting sucked in to Watt Wilfong's tiny corner of the musical universe. I couldn't help but be charmed by his spirited readings of his own songs, and could only imagine how let down he'd probably felt by the relatively bland demos he'd commissioned from Action Records and other LA demo-sharking studios. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's Rodd Keith singing on "No Money Down Blues" and others, right? It definitely sounds like his sort of arrangements, with various organs, beatboxes, Chamberlin sounds, etc. And it sounds like his voice too.

Well anyway, the records came with a stack of sheet music and copyright forms, a few of which I've scanned.

- Contributed by: Pea Hix

Images:
No Money Down Blues: Sheet Music Page 1, Sheet Music Page 2, Record Label
Home Coming Time In Dixie: Record Label 1, Record Label 2
Your Vacant Chair: Sheet Music Page 1, Sheet Music Page 2, Record Label 1, Record Label 2
Casey's Stew: Sheet Music Page 1, Sheet Music Page 2
Fair Weather Gals: Record Label
Sidetracked: Sheet Music, Record Label

Media: Acetates
Credits: Watt Wilfong, Rodd Keith (?), Don Ross et al
Date: late 1960s / early 1970s

Comments

[Jonathan Ward]

Wow, Pea - another excellent post. Watt is great. And the depth of the Rodd Keith well is startling!

[Jurgen Reitze]

Fine music ! And thanks for it. Jurgen, from Chile.

[illlich]

Sure sounds like Rod "Keith" Eskelin to me. . . I found a copy of "The Eskelin Family Singers" gospel LP last year. . . pretty trashed vinyl, but playable. Musically nothing special, but nice rarity (but then, isn't everything RK did a "rarity"?)

[Scott Mercer]

I had to give up on Mr. Wilfong's world almost immediately as he made the cardinal mistake (to me) of rhyming BLUES and SHOES, a tactic that was probably a cliche even if this was recorded in 1950. Maybe if he kept going right through the Sixties, he may have used my second most hated rhyme, GROOVY and MOVIE.

But God Bless Rodd Ketih for tackling the songs with his usual medicated brio.

[Sammy Reed]

My guess on the "anonymous female" is Bobbi Blake.

[Bruce]

I'd recommend http://onlinelyricist.com - they put lyrics to your music, and hell cheap too.