KB-148 - POTTER 1005 (Updated 1 Jan 2020)

LAWRENCE DUCHOW and his Red Raven Orchestra
LES WALDROOP and his Carolinians
55
KB-148A - Swiss Boy   (No Publ.)
KB-148B - Moonlight's A-Wastin   (No Publ.)
POTTER 1005
Potter, WI

For some reason, maybe local airplay, "Moonlight's A-Wastin" was reissued on this - previously issued as KB-81

Lawrence Duchow started his musical career in 1932 playing with Hal’s Bluebirds out of Chilton, Wisconsin.  Their first job was for a dance at Kleist’s Hall in Potter, Wisconsin.  Lawrence took over the operation reins in 1933 and called it the Lawrence Duchow and his Red Raven Inn Orchestra as the band was performing at the Red Raven Inn in Hilbert, Wisconsin.  The band grew and began to record for Decca and later for RCA Victor in which they had some of the biggest hits of any band playing polka and waltz music.  The orchestra introduced Windy City Polka, Milwaukee Polka written for the Milwaukee Centennial newspaper, Vagabond Waltz, The Swiss Boy and their theme, Red Raven Polka.  With recording success, came road work, all the way from coast to coast and border to border.  They played weekly at Trianon Ballroom in Chicago and had a weekly coast-to-coast radio broadcast on WGN.  During the war, many servicemen carried Red Raven records with them overseas.

Lawrence Duchow served in the Army until a medical discharge sent him back to the band and his public.  After the dissolution of his orchestra in 1953, the traveling music library was sold to Don Peachy of Burnette, Wisconsin.  Jay Wells of Appleton and Andy Anderson received the rights of the Red Raven Orchestra name and the rest of the library in 1960.

Duchow settled in California, where he developed a store coupon brokerage firm called the Lawrence Duchow Markets.  He also was a booking agent for West Coast orchestras.

His death at the age of 58 in 1972 at Hamlet, California, was the result of a stroke.  He will be remembered for what Franklyn MacCormack of WGN Radio said was “The best damned Old-Tyme band there ever was.”  They recorded some 300 singles.  During the peak of his career, Lawrence Duchow was considered second only to Lawrence Welk in the area of dance music.

(L Duchow info taken from International Polka Association.)

Link: http://www.ipapolkas.com/blog/otw-portfolio/lawrence-duchow-deceased-category-inducted-1983/

KB-81 - POTTER 1008

LES WALDROOP and his Carolinas

55

KB-81A - I Love Dixie

KB-81B - Moonlight’s A Wasting

POTTER 1008

Potter, WI

Les was born in April 1930 in Franklin, NC. After serving in the Korean war, he started playing in bands and writing songs for himself and anyone else who was looking for a tune to record. His first known disc was on Centennial Records (details unknown). He also cut at least one disc on Country Jubilee Records, based in Demorest GA. In between these two, he ended up on the tiny Potter label, from Potter WI. How this came about is a bit of a mystery. It's possible they were simply recorded in Georgia or NC and shipped out to the label.

Les is better known for "Got It Made(In The Shade)" release on Flop records - a Starday Custom from 1963.

Les passed away in 1989.

(Source: Jay Stern)