Seems that there is not too much to tell about Larry Birdsong, but he surely had a hilarious surname! He was discovered by songwriter-producer Ted Jarrett at the Sugar Hill nightclub in Nashville, Tennessee, where Larry was leading the house band in the mid 1950s. Back then, Larry was still a teenager, right out of reform school - and he really wasn't the kindest kid of the neighborhood. When Ted Jarrett wanted to sign a contract with him, he actually had to go to court to get Larry released from probation for tours and recording. Larry became one of the classic Excello R&B artists, but he recorded also for other labels like Carvert, Champion, Decca, Ace, Home Of The Blues and Vee-Jay. In fact, when Vee-Jay Records was trying to sign Larry in 1957, Jarrett told them that they couldn't get Birdsong unless they took also Gene Allison, who was still a totally unknown artist. Vee-Jay and Jarrett made that deal, and it didn't take long for Allison's "You Can Make It If You Try" to become a nationwide hit. Larry Birdsong never met that kind of popularity but he continued recording until the mid 1970's, and singing in church until his death in Nashville, 1983.
