The Preacher meets Sonny Burgess and Bobby Crafford from the Pacers

Well it has been a long time since the Preachers last podcast, but this is well worth the wait and this has got to be one of the greatest moments I have ever had to be able to sit down with Sonny Burgess and Bobby Crafford at a little hotel in Rye near Camber Sands on the south coast of England October 2010 while they were playing at the world famous Rhythm Riot R&B Roots music event http://www.rhythmriot.com/ . A Big thanks goes out to Robin, Collette and Jerry Chatterbox for helping make the interview happen. In the early 1950s, Sonny played boogie woogie music in dance halls and bars around Newport. Sonny, Kern Kennedy, Johnny Ray Hubbard, and Gerald Jackson formed a boogie-woogie band they called the Rocky Road Ramblers. In 1954, following conscription to the US Army (1951–53) where he joined a band made up of mainly army cooks, Burgess re-formed the band, calling them the Moonlighters after the Silver Moon Club in Newport, where they performed regularly. After advice from record producer Sam Phillips, the group expanded to form the Pacers in 1955 at Newport, Arkansas. The band's first record was "We Wanna Boogie" in 1956 for Sun Records, in Memphis. They had five singles on SUN Records: "Red Headed Woman" b/ "We Wanna Boogie", "Thunderbird", "Ain't Got a Thing", "Buckets Got a Hole In It", and "Sadies Back In Town". "Red Headed Woman and We Wanna Boogie" has been voted the wildest record ever recorded. The songs have been described as "among the most raucous, energy-filled recordings released during the first flowering of rock and roll." Their onstage antics in performance were similarly described. Like other artists such as Ray Harris, Hayden Thompson, Billy Lee Riley and Warren Smith, chart success largely eluded him. They also had a hit in 1965 on Razorback Records with "The Short Squashed Texan". Sonny and the Pacers played clubs, festivals, shows, and colleges all over the US and Canada. They were one of the pioneers of rock and roll and travelled with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Danny and the Juniors, Conway Twitty, Patsy Cline, Ronnie Hawkins, Billy Lee Riley, Ace Cannon, Charlie Rich, Teddy Riedell, Narvel Felts, and many more. Sonny Burgess disbanded the group in 1971 but later found a new audience in Europe. In about 1990, Burgess toured with The Sun Rhythm Section. This group was comprised of former session musicians from the Sun Recording Studio. Beside Burgess, bandmembers included Paul Burlison (electric guitar), J.L. "Smoochy" Smith (piano), Stan Kessler (bass), Marcus Van Story (acoustic guitar & lead vocals), and D.J. Fontana on drums. D.J. Fontana who was a member of Elvis Presley's band for 17 years. In April of 1999 the Pacers played for a world wide Rockabilly show at Viva Las Vegas and stole the show. In May of 1999, Sonny Burgess was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame of Europe. His group, now called The Legendary Pacers, was a hit that same year in a rockabilly concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. http://www.legendarypacers.com/ They recorded Still Rockin’ and Rollin’ in 2000, voted the best new album in the country and roots field in Europe. The Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis also opened in May of 2000 and features a section on the Pacers. In October of 2000 they were asked to play for a special show at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis honouring Sam Philips and his legacy at Sun Records. The group was inducted in 2002 into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson. 2005 was the Pacers 50th year in the music business. Sonny Burgess & The Legendary Pacers performed at the 2006 National Folk Festival in Richmond, Virginia to large, enthusiastic audiences. Sonny Burgess hosts a weekly radio program called We Wanna Boogie with co-host June Taylor. The program, named after his first record, airs Sunday nights from 5-7pm Central Time on 91.9FM KASU in Jonesboro, Arkansas. http://www.wewannaboogie.org “Living Legends in their own time” The Preacher 2012 http://www.rockabillypreacher.co.uk