Biography
The hardships of poverty and sharecropping, paired with genuine musical ability, propelled Curley Money toward a performing career, yet his drive for financial stability kept him occupied with multiple enterprises that likely blocked the lasting stardom attainable in either country music or rock and roll. Older than most participants in the latter genre, he was already performing country fiddle by the early 1940s and transitioned naturally into the emerging style during the mid-1950s. Born Robert Earnest Money in Haleburg, Alabama, in 1925 as the youngest of eight children in a sharecropper household, he showed an early affinity for music, mastering the fiddle before the guitar and soon using both at local barn dances to supplement income during his teenage years. Sharecropping remained grueling, so in 1942, at age seventeen, Money relocated to Columbus, Georgia, in search of cotton-mill employment while simultaneously forming the Rhythm Ramblers to pursue music full time; the group secured a WGBA radio contract and later moved into television work.
Beyond performing and recording, Money established Rambler Records in 1956, issuing his own “Playing the Game” backed with “Why Must I Cry” as the inaugural release, followed by “Stop Your Knockin’” backed with “Tenderly I Love You.” The 1957 single “Gonna Rock” reached number three on the charts, after which a trademark dispute prompted him to rename the label Money Records. Among the artists signed that year was Lee Mitchell, whom Money took to Memphis to pitch to Sun’s Sam Phillips; the same trip left behind Money’s own “Chain Gang Charlie,” which remained unheard until its discovery in the Sun vaults more than thirty years later and revealed solid, energetic rockabilly from a performer already past thirty when the style was still fresh. Although Money’s personal rock-and-roll activities proved short-lived, the label continued until 1965, amassing forty-two releases before he shuttered it. He subsequently cut sides for Gold Standard and additional Nashville imprints throughout the 1970s while also operating clubs and serving as a longtime radio announcer in Columbus, Georgia.
These concurrent commitments left no opportunity for a sustained campaign toward major success in country or rock and roll, yet Bison Bop assembled twelve of his recordings into a 1979 LP that highlighted his considerable skill. Occasional live appearances continued, and in later years he assembled a band at a senior center to entertain fellow residents. Inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2003, Money died later that year at the age of seventy-eight.
Beyond performing and recording, Money established Rambler Records in 1956, issuing his own “Playing the Game” backed with “Why Must I Cry” as the inaugural release, followed by “Stop Your Knockin’” backed with “Tenderly I Love You.” The 1957 single “Gonna Rock” reached number three on the charts, after which a trademark dispute prompted him to rename the label Money Records. Among the artists signed that year was Lee Mitchell, whom Money took to Memphis to pitch to Sun’s Sam Phillips; the same trip left behind Money’s own “Chain Gang Charlie,” which remained unheard until its discovery in the Sun vaults more than thirty years later and revealed solid, energetic rockabilly from a performer already past thirty when the style was still fresh. Although Money’s personal rock-and-roll activities proved short-lived, the label continued until 1965, amassing forty-two releases before he shuttered it. He subsequently cut sides for Gold Standard and additional Nashville imprints throughout the 1970s while also operating clubs and serving as a longtime radio announcer in Columbus, Georgia.
These concurrent commitments left no opportunity for a sustained campaign toward major success in country or rock and roll, yet Bison Bop assembled twelve of his recordings into a 1979 LP that highlighted his considerable skill. Occasional live appearances continued, and in later years he assembled a band at a senior center to entertain fellow residents. Inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2003, Money died later that year at the age of seventy-eight.