Music Memories Monthly (April 1963)

Music Memories Monthly (April 1963)

April 1963 issue of Music Memories Monthly (Vol. 3, No. 2), produced in Birmingham, Alabama, by Patrick Cather. Highlights of this issue include a cover story by Cather on the Birmingham blues and boogie-woogie pianist Robert McCoy, as well as a profile by George Blau on W. C. Handy, based on Blau's correspondence with Handy. At the time of this publication, Cather had just produced on his own Vulcan record label the first of two LPs by McCoy; an advertisement for the record appears on the back cover.

Additional items in this issue include a short column on Sleepy John Estes by blues producer Bob Koester; a Jelly Roll Morton piano rollography; and auction listings, classifieds, and want ads, from collectors across the country, for vintage records and piano rolls.

Though only a teenager at the time of publication, Cather was highly active as a record producer, publisher, collector, and promoter -- as well as a point of contact for blues researchers coming to Alabama. The issue also includes a "Visitors" column describing some recent visitors, including Sam and Ann Charters; the same page includes a short tribute to Rudy Vallee by Cather's mother, Virginia Ritchie Cather.