Porky Freeman
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| Porky Freeman | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Quilla Hugh Freeman |
| Born | June 29, 1916 Vera Cruz Missouri, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Western swing |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Songwriter, Bandleader |
| Instrument(s) | Electric guitar |
| Years active | 1940s-1950s |
| Associated acts | The Porky Freeman Trio |
Quilla Hugh "Porky" Freeman is a Western swing performer, bandleader, and songwriter from Missouri. He is also an electric guitar pioneer and inventor.[1]
In the 1940's he lead a popular Callifornia band, the Porky Freeman Trio. One of his early hits, "Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings", began Rock & Roll's evolution out of Western swing.[2] As a session artist he backed many of the popular musicians of the time.
His early expermentation with the electric guitar lead to several patents for the instrument. [3] One of the patents, "Single Pickup Frequency Control For String Instrument", lead to legal wrangling with Fender.
[edit] References
- ^ Doyle, Echos and Reverb, p. 256: "Porky Freeman began adapting boogie bass patterns to the electric guitar in the mid-1940s, ..."
- ^ La Chapelle, Proud to Be an Okie, p. 95: "Porky Freeman and Red Murrell, the session musicians on Jack Guthrie's 'Oakie Boogie,' even recorded a guitar instrumental, 'Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings' which many enthusiast argued invoked Memphis barrelhouse music and anticipated rock and roll. Cut during the war, the independent release proved so popular that Freeman and Murrell released it, putting it on both side of the disc to keep jukebox listeners from wearing out the groove."
- ^ U.S. Patent Office: Patent Nos. 3,035,472; 3,657,461; and 4,122,746.
[edit] Bibliography
- Doyle, Peter. Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960. Wesleyan University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8195-6794-9
- La Chapelle, Peter. Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California. University of California Press, 2007. ISBN 0-520-24888-0
- United States Patent Office.
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