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Click below for the transcript.




Just a head's up for those of you who have a limited time -- this one runs slightly longer than most of the Patreon bonus episodes. The script's the same length, but there are about twice as many music clips as normal, so it may last closer to fifteen minutes than ten.

Today we're going to look at a duo who at one point I planned to include in the main podcast, and when I moved them out of the list for that, I forgot to do as a Patreon episode at the appropriate time. But this week's main episode deals with the Searchers, who popularised their most successful song, so today we're going to look at a duo who are almost certainly the only artists ever to influence both Frank Zappa and Donny and Marie Osmond. We're going to look at Don and Dewey, and "Farmer John":

[Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "Farmer John"]

Don "Sugarcane" Harris and Dewey Terry were two of the best multi-instrumentalists on the California R&B scene in the fifties. Harris could play guitar, harmonica, and piano, and also spent a decade learning classical violin, while Terry started out on piano, but soon became a fearsome blues guitarist in the style of Guitar Slim.

They started working together in a six-piece vocal group, the Squires, who were based in Pasadena where both men grew up:

[Excerpt: The Squires, "Lucy Lou"]

As well as recording under their own name, The Squires also recorded as The Blue Jays, making soundalike EPs of current R&B hits for a budget label called Dig This Record. One EP, as an example, featured "Sincerely", "Earth Angel", "Hearts of Stone" and "Pledging My Love", the latter with Don on lead vocal:

[Excerpt: The Blue Jays, "Pledging My Love"]

However, Don and Dewey soon realised that since between them they could play most instruments, sing most parts, and write songs, there was no need for them to continue splitting the money with four other people, and started working as a duo, while the Squires continued on their own. Don and Dewey recorded a couple of singles for small labels, the vocal "Miss Sue":

[Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "Miss Sue"]

And the instrumental "Slummin'", which was the first record to show off Harris' unique violin playing. I can't find my source for this, but I read somewhere that Harris created his own electric violin by taping a record needle to his violin and hooking it up to an amp. Whatever he did, he got a unique sound that proves that the violin can work as a great blues instrument -- his playing manages to combine the timbre of both the blues guitar and the harmonica, and it sounds stunning:

[Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "Slummin'"]

Shortly after this, Bumps Blackwell signed the duo to Specialty, where they were quickly fitted into what was fast becoming the Specialty house style, making records that sounded just like Little Richard or Larry Williams, starting with "Jungle Hop":

[Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "Jungle Hop"]

Their second Specialty single was a song that would become a standard, "I'm Leaving It All Up To You":

[Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "I'm Leaving It All Up To You"]

In 1963 that would reach number one for a duo called Dale and Grace, and in the seventies it would become a top ten hit for Donny and Marie Osmond:

[Excerpt: Donny and Marie Osmond, "I'm Leaving It All Up To You"]

But it was their last record of the fifties that became their most influential, even though like their other records it wasn't a hit -- a song called "Farmer John", that they released in 1959:

[Excerpt: Don and Dewey, "Farmer John"]

Shortly after that, they moved labels, as their A&R man, Sonny Bono, who had written their earlier single "Koko Joe" was moving and they went with him. Unfortunately, their new label did little to promote t