Black Oak Arkansas featuring original vocalist, the legendary Jim
"Dandy" Mangrum!! ! The ONE and ONLY Jim "Dandy" Mangrum brings Black
Oak Arkansas to Fresno's Fulton55 on Friday, May 11 at 7:00pm. Plus
very special guests, The Appletones and Out Of Stock. One of the first
Southern rock bands to rise to prominence in the wake of the Allman
Brothers Band's breakthrough, Black Oak Arkansas put a tough, gritty
spin on the high-volume hard rock boogie that was popular in the early
to mid-'70s. Fronted by the over-the-top antics of lead singer James
"Jim Dandy" Mangrum(who has often been cited as a key influence on
David Lee Roth's performing style), Black Oak Arkansas evolved from a
more psychedelic-oriented band called the Knowbody Else, who cut one
album in 1969; by the time they returned as Black Oak Arkansas in
1971, they'd beefed up their guitar sound, Mangrum's vocals had
matured into a deep, throaty growl, and they sounded rowdy and
rough-hewn on numbers like "Hot and Nasty" and "When Electricity Came
to Arkansas." With 1973's High on the Hog, Black Oak Arkansas
tightened up their sound a bit and scored a hit single with their
version of LaVern Baker's "Jim Dandy." The band's raunchy sound and
raucous stage show made them a popular attraction through most of the
decade, but after the release of 1978's I'd Rather Be Sailing, the
group stayed away from the recording studio, and health problems kept
Mangrum out of the band during the first half of the '80s. They
returned as Jim Dandy's Black Oak Arkansas with the 1984 LP Ready as
Hell, and continued to record and tour periodically into the 2010s,
releasing a fresh studio album, Underdog Heroes, in 2019. The Black
Oak Arkansas story dates back to 1965, when James Mangrum and Rickie
Lee Reynolds met while attending the same junior high. Mangrum was
born in the small town of Black Oak, Arkansas (the population was less
than 300 people), while Reynolds came from the larger nearby community
of Monette. Mangrum decided he wanted to be a singer after seeing
Elvis Presley on television for the first time, while Reynolds played
guitar, influenced by the Beatles and the Byrds. Eager to make music
of their own, they formed a band that they called the Knowbody Else;
in addition to Mangrum on vocals and Reynolds on rhythm guitar, the
band featured Harvey "Burley" Jett on lead guitar and keyboards, Artis
Brewer on guitar, Pat "Dirty" Daugherty on bass, and Sam Schattenberg
on drums. The band gained local infamy when, in need of a PA system
and lacking the money to buy one, they stole one from a nearby high
school; they were caught and the culprits were sentenced to 26 years
behind bars, but the sentence was suspended. The band gigged as often
as possible throughout the South and honed their chops during a
year-long residency in New Orleans in 1968. For a while, the Knowbody
Else relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where they attracted the
attention of the legendary R&B label Stax Records. Hoping to expand
into the lucrative rock market, Stax had launched a subsidiary label,
Hip Records, and the Knowbody Else became one of their signings,
releasing a self-titled album in 1969 dominated by a lean but powerful
psychedelic attack. However, Hip lacked promotional muscle, and the
album came and went with little notice. The Knowbody Else began work
on a second album for Hip, but the label folded and the material went
unreleased. While their album sales were minimal, the Knowbody Else
toured heavily to support themselves and spread the word about their
music. With psychedelia on the wane, they adopted a new name taken
from Mangrum's home town, and they revamped the line-up, with Mangrum,
Reynolds, Daugherty, and Jett joined by new members Stanley "Goober
Grin" Knight (guitar and keyboards), and Wayne "Squeezebox" Evans
(drums). Black Oak Arkansas played a handful of shows in Los Angeles,
where they were scouted by representatives from Atco Records. Atco
struck a deal with BOA, and the group's self-titled debut featured
several favorites from their live show, including "Hot and Nasty" and
"When Electricity Came to Arkansas," and captured the group's bigger,
heavier, and raunchier approach. It wasn't a hit, but the band toured
extensively, building a reputation as a raw, incendiary live act
loaded with energy and fueled by the unsubtle sexuality of Mangrum,
whose flowing blonde hair, tight satin pants, and raw magnetism gave
him a reputation as one of the most outrageous personas in rock. The
months of live work tightened up the band, and Black Oak Arkansas
sounded more powerful on 1972's Keep the Faith. Later in 1972, they
released a third album, If an Angel Came to See You, Would You Make
Her Feel at Home?, which debuted BOA's new drummer, double-kick drum
virtuoso Tommy Aldridge. While their record sales were growing, it was
Black Oak Arkansas' live show that was fueling their popularity, and
they documented their stage smarts on the concert souvenir Raunch 'n'
Roll Live, released in February 1973. November 1973 brought BOA's
commercial peak, the album High on the Hog, which rose to number 52 on
the Top Albums charts, buoyed by the Top 30 cover version of "Jim
Dandy (To the Rescue)," which featured female vocalist Ruby Starr
trading innuendoes with Mangrum. In 1974, BOA returned with Street
Party, which fared well but didn't live up to High on the Hog's sales
and failed to spawn another hit single. Also in 1974, Stax released
Early Times, which was billed as Black Oak Arkansas but was actually
material from the Knowbody Else's unreleased second album. In 1975,
Black Oak Arkansas released the album Ain't Life Grand, which proved
to be another commercial disappointment, and the band soon parted ways
with Atco, ending their relationship with another concert set, 1976's
Live! Mutha. By the time the live LP appeared, Black Oak Arkansas had
already released their first album under a new deal with MCA Records,
1975's X-Rated. Two more BOA studio albums came out in 1976, Balls of
Fire and 10 Yr Overnight Success, which closed out their deal with
MCA. The group streamlined their name to Black Oak and struck a new
deal with the pioneering Southern rock label Capricorn Records, and
they introduced a new line-up with the lead singer billing himself as
J.D. Mangrum, joined by Jimmy Henderson and Jack Holder on guitars and
keyboards, Greg Reding on guitar, Andy Tanas on bass, and Joel
Williams on drums. Black Oak released Race with the Devil in 1977,
followed by I'd Rather Be Sailing in 1978. The Capricorn albums failed
to chart, and the group went on a recording hiatus. Black Oak Arkansas
continued to tour, and though Mangrum took time off from the band
after he was sidelined by an auto accident, Rickie Lee Reynolds
returned to the fold and led a line-up of the band featuring Bob
Simpson on lead vocals -- Simpson would be replaced by Randy Ruff
before Mangrumreclaimed his position in 1984. That year, the album
Ready as Hell was released, credited to Jim Dandy & Black Oak
Arkansas, though only Mangrum and Reynolds remained from the original
line-up. The Black Attack Is Back followed in 1986, under the same
billing. Through the second half of the '80s and most of the '90s,
Black Oak Arkansas toured occasionally, but didn't release a fresh
studio album until 1999's The Wild Bunch, with the band billed as Jim
Dandy's Black Oak Arkansas. Mangrum, Reynolds, and the returning Pat
"Dirty" Daugherty were joined for the sessions by guitarist Rocky
Athas and drummer Johnnie Bolin. An impressive number of musicians
joined and left the band in the years that followed, with Mangrum and
Reynolds the sole constants as they played for their loyal following
in the South and discovered a new fan base at biker gatherings around
the country. In 2013, Black Oak Arkansas returned to Atco for an
unusual project. Back Thar n' Over Yonder featured five new songs from
the latest edition of BOA (Mangrum, Reynolds, guitarists Buddy Church,
Jimmy "Soulbean" Henderson, and Hal McCormack, bassist George Hughen,
and drummer Johnnie Bolin) alongside ten unreleased tracks recorded
between 1972 and 1974. In 2019, the Cleopatra-distributed Purple
Pyramid label -- which reissued the Knowbody Else album on CD in 2008
and re-pressed it on vinyl in 2016 -- unveiled a fresh studio album
from the indefatigable Southern hell raisers, Underdog Heroes,
featuring ten original songs written by Mangrum and Reynolds. Rickie
Lee Reynolds died on September 4, 2021 of kidney failure and cardiac
arrest, compounded by the COVID-19 virus; he was 73 years old.
Guitarist Harvey "Burley" Jett died on December 21, 2022 at the age of
73.
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09/07/2025 Last update