Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ROCKIN' JIMMY and the BROTHERS of the NIGHT

A Tulsa bar band which had a deserved cult following. Oklahoma was home base for J.J. Cale, Elvin Bishop, Leon Russell; Eric Clapton recruited sidemen there, and covered 'Little Rachel' by Jimmy Byfield (b 7 February 1949, Tulsa) on There's One In Every Crowd '74, had top 30 USA hit 'Tulsa Time' '80. An ex-Joe Cocker roadie, Peter Nicholls from the UK, was the engineer for Russell's Shelter label, and formed the Pilgrim label in Tulsa, recording local acts: the Tulsa clique turned out a two-disc sampler unreleased commercially, edited to single LP The Tulsa Sampler '77, including a track by Guava, a band fronted by Byfield; another sampler The Green Album '78 included 'Little Rachel', others by Jim Byfield and His Band; then By The Light Of The Moon '81 was by Rockin' Jimmy and the Brothers of the Night: Byfield on vocals, Steve Hickerson on guitar, Chuck DeWalt on drums, Gary Gilmore on bass, Walt Richmond on keyboards, backing singers Jim Sweney and Debbie Campbell, electronic 'horns' on some tracks, subtle and appropriate. Gilmore had played with Cale, Taj Mahal; Richmond with Bonnie Raitt, Rick Danko, others; Campbell (from Fort Worth TX) had been lead singer with L.A. group Buckwheat, and toured with Raitt.

Gilmore was replaced by Gary Cundiff on their second album Rockin' Jimmy And The Brothers Of The Night '82 (the quintet only): it should have been called Rockin' All Night after the first track. All songs except a Ray Charles cover, 'Leave My Woman Alone' on the first LP, were written or co-written by Byfield, co-writers including Nicholls, on second LP Hickerson, Richmond, Cundiff. Distribution problems of all small labels prevailed; Byfield, a family man, did not want to tour widely; the band was soon history, but the LPs lived for a while on the Sonet label in the UK: good songs, Byfield's soulful tenor, rhythm section rooted in R&B (laid-back yet tense) made music with space, time, loneliness, roadhouse optimism in it, proving that there was nothing wrong with rock no matter what was on the radio. Fans treasured the LPs and felt a shock of recognition upon meeting one another. The band also played on Sweney's Didn't I Blow Your Mind? '79 on Pilgrim, Campbell's Two Hearts c.'82 on Tulsa's Churchill label.

Richmond was a member of The Tractors, a successful country band in the mid-1990s; Byfield, Richmond and others are still active as songwriters; there work can be heard on the Youtube TV channel BRT TV. Rockin' Jimmy and the Brothers of the Night have been preserved in clips of live performances, also on Youtube.