"Lucky" Joe Almond and His Hillbilly Rockers

"Lucky" Joe Almond was a great, though obscure, country singer.  He seems to be better known in Europe than in the US considering that some of the most extensive Internet documentation of him is at Wikipedia in German.

Hailing from Wedowee, Alabama Lucky Joe had a short, four year career during which he recorded several transitional country/rock and roll songs on the Trumpet and Globe labels.  It seems that the effort to bridge that gap was most intentional with his backing band renamed from "the Georgia Peach Pickers" to '"Lucky" Joe Almond and His Hillbilly Rockers' for the 1954 release of "Gonna Roll and Rock" and "Hickory Nut Boogie".  The record was released on August 7, 1954 - a few weeks after Elvis Presley's first Sun release, "That's All Right". 






Special thanks to Kevin Nutt for the heads up on Lucky Joe.

More information: http://alabamamusicoffice.com/artists-a-z/a/2715-almond-qluckyq-joe