Biography
Born on 29 June 1916 near Vera Cruz, Missouri, Quilla Hugh Freeman grew up in a household that supported itself through a modest farm while fostering musical interests from the start. Piano, fife, ocarina and harmonica occupied him as a youngster; by 1928 he had taken up banjo and trumpet for the school band and soon afterward added fiddle, mandolin and guitar, the last of which became his principal instrument. Leaving school in 1931, he spent time riding the rails before assembling a quartet that broadcast from a Jefferson City station. Returning home two years later, he joined Raul Hatfield And His Ava Wildcats, a trio heard on KGBX in Springfield, Missouri, where his earliest recordings were made. After briefly resuming his schooling, he appeared at local events until 1937, when he joined the staff of KWTO Springfield, alternating between the Brownlow Boys and Otie and Sue Thompson, the latter pair bestowing the nickname Porky. Subsequent work found him handling guitar and trumpet alongside Doc James, traveling with the Weaver Brothers and performing in Fort Worth, Texas, with both Bill Boyd and Roy Newman.
Back at KGBX Springfield in 1942, Freeman became a fixture on the Slim Wilson Show and later accompanied Bill Nicholls in Los Angeles. Already among the earliest players to adapt boogie-woogie techniques to the guitar, he cut “Porky’s Boogie Woogie On The Strings” for the Morris Lee label in 1943, the first country boogie instrumental on record. Its reception led to an ARA contract the following year under the name Porky Freeman Trio. He contributed to Jack Guthrie’s hit “Oklahoma Hills” and, on the strength of that association, worked and toured with the Sons Of The Pioneers, Spade Cooley, Hank Penny, Jimmy Wakely, Stuart Hamblen and numerous other leading acts while remaining a sought-after session player. In September 1945 the Porky Freeman Trio—Merle Travis, Tommy Sergeant and Alan Barker—laid down two takes of “Boogie Woogie Boy,” Freeman supplying the lead guitar and Travis the vocal; the initial version appeared on ARA and the alternate lyric take later surfaced on 4 Star Records. That Travis relied on Freeman for lead-guitar duties on those sessions underscored the latter’s instrumental command.
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s Freeman continued to perform and record with numerous popular artists in the Los Angeles region. Eventually settling in West Hollywood, he maintained a local performance schedule into the late 1980s. The German Cattle label issued a collection of twenty-one of his 1940s sides in 1987, among them a version of the instrumental that had launched his recording career. Bear Family Records included the Travis collaborations in a five-CD retrospective of Merle Travis’s work released in 1994.
Back at KGBX Springfield in 1942, Freeman became a fixture on the Slim Wilson Show and later accompanied Bill Nicholls in Los Angeles. Already among the earliest players to adapt boogie-woogie techniques to the guitar, he cut “Porky’s Boogie Woogie On The Strings” for the Morris Lee label in 1943, the first country boogie instrumental on record. Its reception led to an ARA contract the following year under the name Porky Freeman Trio. He contributed to Jack Guthrie’s hit “Oklahoma Hills” and, on the strength of that association, worked and toured with the Sons Of The Pioneers, Spade Cooley, Hank Penny, Jimmy Wakely, Stuart Hamblen and numerous other leading acts while remaining a sought-after session player. In September 1945 the Porky Freeman Trio—Merle Travis, Tommy Sergeant and Alan Barker—laid down two takes of “Boogie Woogie Boy,” Freeman supplying the lead guitar and Travis the vocal; the initial version appeared on ARA and the alternate lyric take later surfaced on 4 Star Records. That Travis relied on Freeman for lead-guitar duties on those sessions underscored the latter’s instrumental command.
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s Freeman continued to perform and record with numerous popular artists in the Los Angeles region. Eventually settling in West Hollywood, he maintained a local performance schedule into the late 1980s. The German Cattle label issued a collection of twenty-one of his 1940s sides in 1987, among them a version of the instrumental that had launched his recording career. Bear Family Records included the Travis collaborations in a five-CD retrospective of Merle Travis’s work released in 1994.