Another Michigan "Air-Loom"

 Howdy folks, 

First, just a quick nod to Sammy Reed, who has posted an entire song-poem album here.

And now for an echo of a post from a few years ago: 

Nearly eight years ago, I posted a record on the "Air-Loom" label, with both sides sung by Cara Stewart. The song featured at the top was "Michigan, My Home". Today, I have another rendition of the same song on the same label. This time, the artist is Jeff Lawrence, accompanied by the far too wordy "Film City Orchestra (New Sounds From Hollywood)", all of which immediately identifies this as a Film City creation. 

The existence of this record confirms (or nearly confirms) one thing about this label and one about the author of these songs. The first is that "Air-Loom" was very likely the product of one Gail Hines (or as she is credited here, Gail Hamilton Hines). Ms. Hines is the credited author of every documented song released by the Air-Loom label. 

And the second is that Air-Loom, and Ms. Hines creations, are probably more accurately identified as vanity releases rather than true song-poems. A quick listen to Cara Stewart's rendition of "Michigan, My Home" and Jeff Lawrence's performance demonstrates that they are the exact same song - tune and words - although the two versions start at different points in the lyric/tune. 

Almost always when two renditions are found of the same song-poem, by two different companies, the backing, tune and arrangement bear no similarities. In this case, Lee Hudson took this material, and at some other point, Sandy Stanton took the material, and each made a record of it, and they both came out with the same song, lyrics and melody. My guess is that Ms. Hines was actually a songwriter and not just a lyricist. 

Jeff Lawrence seems to have made only a handful of records for Sandy Stanton, and he is just as ineffectual as the other post-Rod Rogers/Keith singers he featured at Film City, and this rendition of "Michigan, My Home" cannot compete with Cara's version. But few can really compete with Cara. 

Download: Jeff Lawrence with the Film City Orchestra (New Sounds From Hollywood) - Michigan, My Home

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Speaking of the ineffectual singers of the late period Film City crew, the flip side of this record features another Gail Hines song (of course), this time sung by Frank Perry with another rarely heard from song-poem singer, Karen Kent. "A Sweetheart By My Side" is a lugubrious slog of nearly four minutes, with the dullest Chamberlin backing imaginable, poor production and bland vocals. A song-poem trifecta!

Download: Frank Perry & Karen Kent with The Film City Orchestra (New Sounds From Hollywood) - A Sweetheart By My Side

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A Michigan "Air-Loom"

The "Air-Loom" label appears to fit the concept of a "tiny, regional" label to a T. Except that it probably didn't exist to promote actual attempts at hits, in the way that normal labels did. This was most likely the project of a few people, perhaps even just the one - Gail Hines - who wrote both sides of today's record.

The AS/PMA page for this label only shows two records on the label, although given that this is record #111, my guess is that at least 11 singles exist on the label. And for this one, at least, Ms. Hines turned to Lee Hudson, who assigned his best singer, Cara Stewart, to the job. As indicated on both sides of the record AND on the sleeve, which also includes Ms. Hines' signature (see below), "Air-Loom" and its related publishing company were based in Lansing, Michigan. So there will be no surprise when you learn that one side of the record features the dulcet tones of Ms. Stewart singing about "Michigan, My Home":

Download: Cara Stewart with Lee Hudson Orchestra - Michigan, My Home
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Pretty standard stuff for a Cara/Lee record, but I just eat that stuff up.

The flip side is equally lovely, and it's called "Beyond the Night":

Download: Cara Stewart with Lee Hudson Orchestra - Beyond the Night
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