From KUTX:
This Week in Texas Music History is brought to you by Brane Audio.
On Sept. 12, 1946, blues piano player Amos Milburn made his first recording for Aladdin Records of Los Angeles: “After Midnite,” backed with “Amos Blues.” Milburn took to the piano early, served in the Pacific during WWII, and launched his professional career upon returning to Texas.
Those first Aladdin records came only a few months after talent scout Lola Ann Cullum discovered Milburn at San Antonio’s famed Keyhole Club. Cullum had been there to see headliner Duke Ellington, but was entranced by Milburn. Cullum brought Milburn to Aladdin’s attention.
Aladdin Records already had hits on Texas boogie-woogie piano player Charles Brown and were looking for a similar artist as a follow-up. Milburn fit the bill. His career took off, topping the charts with liquor-themed party anthems like “Bad, Bad Whiskey,” “Thinkin’ and Drinkin’” and “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer.”
The Houston-via-Los Angeles piano style of Milburn and Brown developed some of the key language of rock ‘n’ roll by the late 1940s: Fats Domino would cite Milburn as a key influence, while Ray Charles would point to Brown.
In 1949, Milburn was Billboard’s best-selling rhythm and blues artist. And yet, we don’t hear enough about Milburn and Brown.
Author Michael Corcoran suggested that one reason why was that Milburn and Brown were in a committed relationship together at a time when there were significant roadblocks for gay artists. There were lanes for some queer musicians like Little Richard, but this did not always translate to equal opportunity or fair representation.
Milburn and Brown were relegated to mid-range nightclubs in mid-range markets by the early 1960s. Their last influential recording would be a shared one, 1961’s “I Want to Go Back Home,” which they recorded as a duet, a song perhaps better known in its second rendition as Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me,” also originally meant as a duet with Brown.
Sources:
Carlyn Copeland in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012.
Michael Corcoran. Ghost Notes: Pioneering Spirits of Texas Music. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2020.
