Bill Browning

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Wilmer "Bill" Browning (May 16, 1931 Wayne, West Virginia - January 23, 1977) was an American Rockabilly musician, recording studio and songwriter.

Browning is best known for writing the song Dark Hollow , a country music hit when later recorded by Jimmie Skinner and a popular rock rendition for the Grateful Dead.^[1]

Early years[]

Wilmer Lewis Browning was born May 16, 1931, the first of eight children, in Wayne, West Virginia to coal miner Haskell Browning and his wife, Elsie Napier Browning. Browning's father bought him a Gibson guitar when he was still a teenager. Browning's brother Carlos received a mandolin. (4)

After performing locally, the Browning brothers won a talent contest conducted by "The Old Farm Hour," a weekly radio program on WCHS in Charleston, West Virginia. The brothers then joined Lew West & The Kanawha Valley Ramblers. This group had its own weekly program on WTIP in Charleston. (5) At age 16, Browning formed Bill Browning & the Kanawha Valley Boys. His group would have a show on WTIP from 1947 to 1950. (6)

In 1955, Browning moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio in search of work. (7) He soon found a job driving for White Star Trucking.

"After a while Bill's music bug began stirring again," his widow recalls. "The [Browning] boys had never stopped playing around the house, but Bill wanted more than that. The Circle Theater on the east end of Cleveland was where Nashville artists were booked in every Saturday night. Bill began putting a band together and went over to see Mr. [Emanuel ‘Manny’] Stutz, [manager] of the theater, about a spot on one of the shows. He talked Mr. Stutz into letting him be master of ceremonies [of the 'Circle Theater Jamboree'] and use his band to back all the artists who booked in without their own bands." (8)

When WJW disc jockey Danny Ford died in a traffic accident in July 1956, (9) Browning wrote and recorded a song memorializing him.

Island records[]

While driving his truck, Browning met Frank J. Videmsek, a local restaurant owner. Browning discussed his musical ambitions with Videmsek and in 1957 persuaded him to set up Island Record, a record label. Videmsek also served initially as Browning's personal manager.

"After Island Records came into being," says Mrs. Browning, "we also started a publishing company call B&F Publishing and also the Jean Johnson Booking Agency [Doris Jean Johnson was Mrs. Browning's maiden name.] Every record package and address was done across our kitchen table."

Browning named his band the Echo Valley Boys. The band included guitar player Rudy Thacker, Art Fulks, Merl Hoaf, Jackie Wooten, Roy Barker, Marshall Looney and Wayne Moss.

In 1957, the Echo Valley boys released two singles: "Wash Machine Boogie," B-sided by "Ramblin' Man." Browning wrote both songs and sang lead vocals on them, The band released four more singles on Island Records in 1957. They were "Don't Wait Too Late"/"One Day a Month" and "Hula Rock"/"Makes You Feel-a So Good."

In 1958, the Echo Valley Boys released "Dark Hollow", written by Browning. (1) It was the B-side to "Borned With the Blues." (2) Billboard reviewed it in its March 17. 1958 issue, saying, "This is a train weeper delivered in traditional style by the artist. Plucked and steel guitars lend effective support on the medium beater. Traditional c&w fans will like this." Of "Born With The Blues," the reviewer opined, "A c&w blues delivered just as appealingly as the flip. This can also do biz." (10)

WWWA Jamboree[]

After the release of "Dark Hollow" in 1958, the band joined the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia. (11) Browning and family moved from Cleveland to St. Albans, West Virginia. Browning recruited Wayne Moss into the Echo Valley Boys. Speaking of Browning, Moss said

"He was fun to work with, and he kept us busy playing gigs," (12) "We toured through Canada a lot. Of course, he was able to promote those things from [radio station] WWVA."

The Echo Valley Boys now consisted of Browning, Moss, bassist Tiny Smith and comedian "Lazy" Jim Day. According to Moss,

"[Bill] had a Hudson we [toured in] a lot. I remember one day waking up in a snow bank with Lazy Jim Day on top of me. Tiny Smith lived in Pennsylvania and had a Cadillac. So we'd drive [from West Virginia] to Pennsylvania in Bill's car and get into Tiny's Cadillac and go the rest of the way. . . . Lazy Jim liked to drink a lot. So we'd be in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan or somewhere, and he'd say, 'Hook a right up at the next corner. I want to get me some sheep dip.' That's what he called his liquor. I quit performing with [Bill] when it was time to move to Tennessee."

On Sept. 20, 1958, Cash Box praised Browning's "Dark Hollow" follow-up single, "Don't Wait Too Late"/"One Day A Month. In assessing "Don't Wait Too Late," the reviewer said, "Bill Browning, who created quite a stir in platter circles with the chart-riding Island debut, 'Dark Hollow,' bids fair to follow suit via his newest single for the diskery. It's a persuasive, moderate paced item that finds Bill warmly passing along a bit of friendly advice to the lovelorn." The reviewer gave a positive review to the B side also. (13) Cashbox also noted that "Dark Hollow" was "one of the big items" in jukeboxes around Richmond, Virginia but had been "unavailable" for a time, probably the consequence of a small label suddenly having a sizable hit to manufacture. (14)

At the end of 1958, Browning left Island Records. He recorded the first of an eventual four sides for Starday Records. On Sept. 5, 1959, while the band was touring in Massachusetts, Day suffered a medical emergency and died while Browning was driving him to the hospital. "I remember Bill saying he almost burned his car up trying to get him to the hospital," Browning's widow says.

The Jan. 11, 1960 issue of Billboard reported: "A c&w package featuring Johnny Horton, of 'Louisiana Hayride,' Hawkshaw Hawkins and Jean Shepard of 'Grand Ole Opry,' and Bill Browning and His Echo Valley Boys, of WWVA, Wheeling, W. Va., pulled a full house at the high school auditorium in Greensburg, Pa. New Year's Eve." (16)

Later years[]

In the early 1960s, Browning gave up touring and became a truck driver again. However, at some point during the mid to late 1960s, he established the Midway Recording Studio in Hurricane, West Virginia, Browning catered to country music and gospel artists in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. He recorded himself only occasionally. T

On Memorial Day weekend of 1975, Browning discovered that his diagnosis of acute colitis was actually cancer. (17) Browning died Jan. 23, 1977 at age 45.

Browning's survivors included his wife, Doris Jean, and children Billy Chris, Angela Jean, Deanna Lynn, Susanne Renee, Sherry Sharpnack, and Wilmer Dale Preston.

Discography[]

Island Records[]

• "Wash Machine Boogie"
• "Ramblin' Man" (as the Echo Valley Boys)
• "One Day A Month"/
• "Don't Wait Too Late"
• "Makes You Feel-a So Good"
• "Hula Rock"
• "Breaking Hearts"
• "Lay Me Low"
• "First Prayer"
• "Let The Bible Be Your Guide"
• "Borned [original spelling] With The Blues"
• "Dark Hollow"
• "Gonna Be A Fire"
• "Down In The Holler Where Sally Lives" on a 45 EP labeled "W.W.V.A. Jamboree Special" that also included two songs each from the Cook Brothers, Buddy Durham and Hardrock Gunter.
• "Just Because You Say Your [original spelling] Sorry"
• "Sinful Woman"

Starday Records[]

• "Don't Push Don't Shove"
• "Dark Valley Walls"
• "Down In The Hollow"
• "Country Strings"

Salem Records[]

• "She's Not Such A Bad Girl"
• "Lookout Girl"

Marbone Records (Browning's label)[]

• "Marbone Swamp"
• "It's A Long, Long Way"
• "I Heard That Train A-comin'"
• "Dear Mom"
• "I Was Touched By The Master's Hand"
• "Precious Memories" (as Bill Browning and the Hilanders)

Alta Records (Browning's label)[]

• "He Sent His Only Son"
• "People"
• Bill Browning and the Hilanders (album)
• "Gone Astray"
• "The Church Is Gone"
• "How Great Thou Art"
• "I Believe In Jesus"
• "I've Been Saved"
• Today Was Yesterday's Future"
• "Oh Lord, Do You Remember Me"
• "Soul Salvation"
• "There'll Be Singing"
• "Don't Wait Too Late"

References[]

• 1.Interview with Browning's widow, Doris Jean Browning.
• 2.Label photos on YouTube
• 3.Revealed via YouTube search.
• 4.Interview with Doris Jean Browning.
• 5.Ibid.
• 6.Ivan Tribe, Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music In West Virginia, pp. 117–118. 7. There is some dispute about the year in which Browning move to Cleveland. Tribe (op. cit.) says it was 1955; Mrs. Browning estimates it was "around 1954."
• 8.Interview with Doris Jean Browning.
• 9.Cash Box, July 21, 1956, no page number listed.
• 10.Billboard, March 17, 1958, p. 34.
• 11.Billboard, May 26, 1958, p. 47.
• 12.Interview with Wayne Moss.
• 13.Cash Box, Sept. 20, 1958.
• 14.Ibid., p. 59.
• 15.Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs: 1944 to 2005, p. 347
• 16.Billboard, Jan. 11, 1960, p. 49.
• 17.Letter from Doris Jean Browning.