Earl Peterson

Earl Peterson (born February 24, 1927 in Paxton , Illinois , † May 1971 ) was an American country musician . His most famous song is the Boogie Blues .

Life

Childhood and youth

Earl Peterson was born in Illinois, but his parents moved him to Michigan before he was two years old. Peterson developed an interest in music as a young child. When he was two he learned to play the guitar and when he was 14 he learned to play drums . As a teenager, he performed at local events. He had his first own radio show on WOAP in Owosso, Michigan.

Career

After school, Peterson began Jura to study, but quit his studies in favor of a career as a musician on. In mid-1950, Peterson and his band, the Sons of the Golden West , had two daily radio shows, one in the morning from a quarter to seven in the morning and one at noon. He released his first single, Michigan Waltz / Take Me Back To Michigan, on the small nugget label owned by Peterson and his mother . In January 1954, Peterson traveled to Memphis , Tennessee , to audition for Sam Phillips , owner of Sun Records . Peterson knew Phillips from his work on various radio stations. Phillips liked Peterson's self-written song Boogie Blues . He played a total of four titles on Sun, but only the Boogie Blues was released together with In The Dark . The record was hardly noticed, only 2672 copies were sold.

Beginning in 1955, Peterson and his band worked at WCEN in Mount Pleasant, where he had a morning show called "Melody Trails" and an evening show, "Country Junctions". He also worked for the station as a director and took on other tasks. He owned a small club with his mother, where he and his band performed every Saturday night. In the same year, Peterson moved to Columbia Records .

After Peterson's time at Columbia, he continued to perform with his band in his mother's club, where he also accompanied other guest musicians. In 1960 he moved with his family to Greenville , Michigan, where he founded the radio station WPLB. A year later he gave up his career as a musician, but continued to work in the radio. In 1965, Peterson was diagnosed with cancer. He spent the last years of his life working on his radio station until he died in 1971. Because of his numerous appearances on the radio, he was nicknamed Michigan's Singing Cowboy . His boogie blues was used in the 2005 film Walk the Line .

Discography

year	title	Record company
1950	The Michigan Waltz / Take Me Back To Michigan	Nugget 1
1954	Boogie Blues / In The Dark	Sun
1955	Boogie Blues / Believe Me	Columbia
1955	I'm Not Buying, Baby / Be Careful Of The Heart You're Going To Break	Columbia
195?	I Ain't Gonna Fall In Love / I'll Life My Live Alone	Columbia
195?	World Of Make Believe / You Gotta Be My Baby	Columbia

Web links

• Earl Peterson on Hillbilly-Music.com (English)
• Do they yodel in the USA? - Earl Peterson's "Boogie Blues"
• Discography with audio samples