Rockabilly unissued
Birth name, Jimmy Wages
always klick on pic’s.
Mad man (uniss.) - rec. 1957
Miss Pearl (uniss.) - rec. 1957
Jimmy Wages (born 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, † 1999) was an American rockabilly musician. Wages became known within the rockabilly scene mainly through his original unpublished songs for Sun Records.
Life
Childhood and youth
Jimmy Wages said in an interview with Colin Escott that he was the same age as Elvis Presley. He went to school together with Presley in Tupelo before moving to Memphis, Tennessee. Wages spent - unlike Presley - his entire life relatively unnoticed in Tupelo.
Career
Wages began appearing in Tupelo with some local musicians and with the Miller Sisters. After the Miller Sisters went to Memphis and recorded some singles on Sam Phillips' label Sun Records, Wages also tried his hand at the record business. In 1956 Wages traveled with his bassist Jesse Carter to Memphis and held for Sun from his first session. Overall, he held five sessions, in which about eight to ten songs were recorded, none of which was finally published. Sam Phillips was out to bring out Wages' Mad Man, but Jack Clement, who was in charge of Wages, had doubts about the success and convinced Phillips of it. Since Wages had no own band, he was on most titles of Sun's studio musicians Jimmy Van Eaton (drums), Ray Harris (guitar), Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich (piano) and Stan Kesler (steel guitar) accompanied. Although Wages himself played guitar and piano, he only sang. Wage's material at Sun was exclusively written by himself, which was probably the deciding factor for Sun's failure. Wages' bizarre, on the one hand by conservative moral ideas, on the other hand by then modern youth views, ambiguous texts were certainly not made for the charts and corresponded in any way to the contemporary pop songs. Wages is thus in the tradition of many other musicians of the time. Wages left Sun for a while afterwards. In 1960 he held a session for Hi Records, by his former guitarist Ray Harris was overseen. Wages already knew Harris from his early days in Tupelo, but the recordings were again unsuccessful. However, there is an obscure record on TomBigBee Records of Pontotoc, Mississippi, which Wages never mentioned. When the single was recorded is unknown. Although he did take a few shots for Stan Kesler at Memphis and Woodland Studios in Nashville, Wages focused on touring for the years thereafter. He toured across the US and played in small bars, pubs and other events. In the 1980s, Wages lived with his mother in a small house in Tupelo and still lived from his small and volatile income as a musician. Jimmy Wages died in 1999.
discography
Year Title Label #
Biggest Man Around / Right In The Middle TomBigBee 102
Unpublished titles
1957 Heartbreakin 'Love
(Take Me From This) Garden of Evil Sun Records
Mad Man
Miss Pearl Sun Records
unidentified band