Nebraska Rockabilly: The State's First Rock and Roll Records
Rockabilly – the raw, rhythmic blend of country, rhythm and blues and boogie-woogie that exploded out of Memphis in the mid-1950s – is usually associated with the South. But the new sound traveled fast, and young musicians in Nebraska were playing and recording it almost as soon as they heard it. Nebraska rockabilly produced a handful of singles that are now prized by collectors in the United States and Europe, and several of the artists behind them are members of the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame.
What Rockabilly Is
Rockabilly took its name from "rock" and "hillbilly", the industry term for country music at the time. Its classic sound features a slapped upright or electric bass, twangy lead guitar, a strong backbeat and a singer who might hiccup, shout or croon in the same song. The records Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis made for Sun Records in Memphis between 1954 and 1957 defined the style, and they inspired thousands of young players across the country to form bands of their own.
In the Midwest, rockabilly arrived through radio, jukeboxes and touring shows. Stars such as Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and Bill Haley played Lincoln and Omaha, and local musicians were in the audience – and sometimes on the bill.
Bobby Lowell and Nebraska's First Rock and Roll Record
Bobby Lowell, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998, is considered Nebraska's first rock and roll recording artist. Growing up in Lincoln in the late 1940s, he danced for tips in front of downtown juke joints and blues bars, and by the early 1950s he had fallen in love with Black blues and R&B, learning the music alongside Black entertainers in the Lincoln–Omaha area.
In 1956 Lowell and guitarist Jimmy Akin recorded "Umm Baby-Baby" for ROTO Records, then located at 21st and O Streets in Lincoln. Released as Bobby Lowell & the Rock-A-Boogie Boys, the single charted around the Midwest and, according to Akin's Hall of Fame biography, climbed to No. 11 on the Top 40 charts in Lincoln. A second ROTO single, a cover of "Sixteen Chicks", followed. Both are now regarded as rockabilly classics and trade hands among collectors around the world.
Lowell befriended touring stars including Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and Bill Haley and the Comets before entering the military. He moved to south Texas in the 1960s, returned to Lincoln in the mid-1980s and recorded again, including new versions of his 1950s songs. Jimmy Akin, meanwhile, went on to play with The Invaders, The Spinning Wheel and the Orchard Motor Company, and was later inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Dennis Volk: Nebraska's Pounding Piano Man
If Jerry Lee Lewis was the model for wild rock and roll piano, Nebraska had its own answer in Dennis Volk. Raised on a farm near McLean in a musical family – his mother Evelyn was a respected jazz pianist and his brother Roger later drummed for The Smoke Ring – Volk played with Ron Thompson and Don Sohl and became a local celebrity, though he remained, in his family's words, a shy farm boy at heart.
His only recordings, "Dennis Boogie" and "You Are the One", were released on Flame Records of New York, a subsidiary of the Fury label best known for Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City". The Hall of Fame describes them as two of the finest sides to come out of the Midwest in the 1950s, and they have been reissued on rock and roll compilations in Europe and the United States. Volk later played keyboards in Omaha with the Berry Brothers and died in 1991.
Omaha's Early Rockers
Omaha had its own crop of 1950s rockers. The original Hall of Fame history names the Rock-A-Bops, Carl Cherry and the Cherry Flips ("The Itch"), Lou and Red Berry and the Bel-Raves, Vince Emmanuel and the Premiers, Luther and the Night Riders, and Bobby Williams and the Royal Flairs. The Berry Brothers' instrumental "Hot Rod" / "What a Dolly" was the first release on Omaha's Dreem Records, formed in 1959 by Harold Peterson and Ted Sass; it reached No. 22 on the KOIL "Fabulous 50" survey and was later picked up by 20th Century Fox.
Perhaps the most striking Omaha rockabilly figure was Sparkle Moore, remembered as "a female Elvis" for her leathers and short, greased-back hair. She released several 45s, including "Skull and Crossbones" on Fraternity Records, before leaving the music business.
Norfolk and the Northeast Nebraska Sound
In Northeast Nebraska, the rockabilly spirit fed straight into the region's first rock and roll bands. Ron Thompson and the Broughams – Dick Allison on bass, Ron Thompson on lead guitar and Dennis Volk on piano – recorded original songs in Kansas City and released "Dream World of Love" / "Tiki Guitar" on Dreem and "Switchblade" / "Hot Night" on the Minneapolis label Soma. Don Sohl and the Roadrunners cut several singles on the same Kansas City trips, often with a shared cast of Nebraska musicians. These records are covered in more detail in our guide to collecting Nebraska 45s.
How to Hear These Records Today
Original pressings of Nebraska rockabilly singles are scarce, and clean copies can be expensive. Fortunately, several of them have been reissued on compilation albums of regional 1950s rock and roll, and some can be found on streaming services or in online archives. Many inductee pages on this site also include archival sound clips from the original Hall of Fame web site; these are RealAudio (.ra) files that open in media players that support the format, such as VLC.
If you own original records, tapes or photos from this era, consider preserving and digitizing them – see our guides to preserving band memorabilia and digitizing old recordings.
Start with the pioneers. Read the Hall of Fame pages for Bobby Lowell, Jimmy Akin and Dennis Volk, then explore the 1995 and 1998 classes.
Conclusion
Nebraska's rockabilly era was short, but it left a lasting mark. A handful of singles recorded in Lincoln, Kansas City and Minneapolis showed that the new music was not confined to Memphis, and they encouraged a generation of Nebraska teenagers to pick up guitars and form bands. Seventy years later, collectors around the world still seek out "Umm Baby-Baby" and "Dennis Boogie" – proof that great rock and roll can come from anywhere.