1 Norman Petty– I Kiss Your Hand, Madam
2 Don Guess– Believe Me
3 Hope Griffith– Only Once In A While
4 Ralph Newton– I’m Grievin’
5 Bobby Jackson – Wow, Man!
6 Jim Robinson – Man From Texas
7 Lloyd Call– If I Had Known
8 Bob Church– Teenage Lady
9 Sherry Davis– Broken Promises
10 Roy Orbison– Cat Called Domino
11 Don And His Roses– Since You Went Away To School
12 Rick Tucker & The Roses– Dig Ya Little Later
13 Earl Henry– Whatcha Gonna Do?
14 Jimmie Stewart – Livin’ Doll
15 Glenn Pace & The Starlites– Outer Space
16 Johnny Wilson– I’m With You
17 Ronnie Price & The Velvets– White Bucks
18 Bill Sego– Come Along Dolly
19 Sonny Curtis– Red Headed Stranger
20 Ivan – That’ll Be Alright
21 Derrell Felts– It’s A Great Big Day
22 Jimmy Bowen– You Made Me Love You
23 Jack Kennelly– Cool Fool
24 Alvis Edwards– I Wake Up Crying
25 Honest Jess And His Western Cavaliers– Suzanne (Quit Rockin’ To The Can-Can)
26 Don Webb– Little Ditty Baby
27 The Big Beats, The Rhythm Orchids– I’m Runnin’ Late
28 Juanita Jordan– Some Sweet Day
29 Myron Lee & The Caddies– Blue Lawdy Blue
30 Terry Wayne – Be My Baby
NORMAN PETTY STUDIOS—Vault Series Volume 7, 1953-1959 (Nor-Va-Jak) CD
The Petty Vault Series moves back to the 1950’s with Volume 7, with 30 tracks from West Texas and New Mexico artists (except for Myron Lee, who came down from South Dakota), 11 of them originally unreleased.
The set starts off with a 1953 cocktail-jazz piano trio track from Petty himself, which is fitting because Petty’s success with his trio, with hit records on major labels, gave him the money to improve the studio in Clovis, New Mexico, and gave him the contacts with major labels and talent agencies that he used so well in placing the masters of artists he produced with a myriad of labels. Only in recent years has the full scope of Petty’s production work been catalogued and recognized. Petty’s name didn’t even appear on many of the records he produced, and often Petty collectors had to look for his publishing companies, Dundee Music or Nor-Va-Jak Music, on a 45 label to identify a possible Petty production.
The other 29 tracks here are all the kind of thing one expects from 1950’s Petty productions: lean, twangy small-group rockabilly, rockin’ country, and teen rock and roll with the inimitable West Texas grit. Well-known names such as Roy Orbison (an early version of “Domino”), Sonny Curtis, and Jimmy Bowen are mixed with artists associated with Petty’s stable (Peanuts Wilson, Juanita Jordan, Don Guess, and post-Holly Crickets vocalist Earl Sinks/Earl Henry) and lesser-known tracks by rockabilly legends such as Alvis “Eddie” Edwards and Derrell Felts, as well as local artists from cities such as Amarillo, Texas, and Hobbs, New Mexico. The released sides appeared on nationally distributed labels such as Coral, Dot, and Okeh, as well as obscure labels such as Enall, Fashion, Fidelity, Gold Air, and Triple-D.
As usual for this series, the material is presented in chronological order but provides a good mix of styles and tempos, making for a satisfying listening experience. You’d be hard-pressed to find just one of the 45’s included here for the price of this over-stuffed and attractive CD. These Nor-Va-Jak reissues, all from the Petty master tapes, have presented a huge amount of quality little-known music in the last few years, but they sell out in a few months, so grab this one while you can if you want an actual CD and not just a download.
BILL SHUTE, originally published in Ugly Things magazine in 2019
January 2024 note: This album is long out of print, and I see ZERO copies presently for sale on Discogs.
However, it IS available on various streaming services. 28 tracks from it can be found on You Tube Music:
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Be sure to pick up a copy of my newest poetry book:
STATIC STRUT by Bill Shute
KSE #421, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover, $6.95 cover price
published 2 January 2024
available for immediate order in the USA from https://amzn.to/48GeYC5
Kendra Steiner Editions (Bill Shute) 
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