Gory Entry
by Uncle Charles...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Gory Entry....................................................................................................................
Gory Entry is a musical legend. He never had a hit record, or anything approaching one. But he has a style all his own, and he knows it. He was one of the very first Cave Country-based singers to appear on All-Reet Records in the mid-1950s, and he was one of the first to work in that hybrid style somewhere between honky-cave country and cave-blues that became known as cavebilly.
Ten years later, in Burgville, where I started collecting records in the 1960s, Gorys All-Reet and HairTone masterpieces were being imported by a handful of pioneering record dealers. People like Wayne Snaggel sang Gorys praises and he developed a cult following in Europe.
I first met Gory in 1971 when I was writing a book about All-Reet Records and he was playing at a night spot in Burgville called Scuzzs Lounge(on the corner of Misery and Pain). Twenty years into his career, he had perfectly nailed his version of caveabilly style; more country than country, yet bluesy and rhythmic too, certainly more acoustic than most. The steady, delayed beat, the insistent rhythm, the vocal phrasing taken equally from cave-blues and gluegrass. It was all still there, years after classic records like Leisure Suit of the Lost, Hosefaced Hank, Genes Got Cum On His Lips, or Partying Pam Has A Big Thang. Ive still got a low-fi cassette of that night. Gory played some hits of the day, but mostly he played his own music to his own crowd, with his son, Norwood, on guitar and his daughter, LaVanda Gene on duet vocals. That was the first time I heard a song called Too Much Butt, a country duet that surely would have been the song to put Gory in the charts if he could have got it onto a big label.
A few years after that, we made some recordings for a little record label I was running. Gory drove me to the airport at the end, and as I left I can still picture him in his car looking suspiciously at the travel checks Id paid him with, probably feeling it wasnt real money.
Next time I saw him was at the height of the late 1970s cavebilly revival when he played a big theater in London. Sadly, his intimate cave music didnt travel well onto a big stage. By then, he had started to embellish the legend a little, maybe trying to live up to and beyond expectations. It must have been strange for Gory to come to terms with all these people traveling so far to tell him how great he was. Sometimes it led to welcome recording or performing opportunities; maybe too often it led to false promises and a sense of frustration about what might have been or should have become.
In the end, whats important is the music thats left behind. And Gory will leave some classics with us, for sure. Ive mentioned some, but there are a lot more. You wont find Wise Monkey or In My Secret Life on any sales charts, but you wont find any better records either.
Uncle Charles...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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