Porky Freeman

American Western swing guitarist, bandleader and songwriter (b. June 29, 1916, Very Cruz, Missouri - d. July 21, 2001). He was raised by a musical family and Quilla began playing piano, fife, ocarina and harmonica as a young child. In 1928, he added banjo and trumpet and played in the school band, soon adding fiddle, mandolin and, his main instrument, guitar to the list In the 1940s he led the Californian based band, [a6063754] . One of his early hits, "Porky's Boogie Woogie on Strings", for the Morris Lee label, which became the first country boogie instrumental. The song proved popular and in 1944, he was given a contract with ARA, where he recorded as the Porky Freeman Trio. In September 1945, the Porky Freeman Trio, which comprised Merle Travis , Tommy Sargent and Alan Barker, recorded two versions of ‘Boogie Woogie Boy’. Freeman played lead guitar and Travis added the vocal. The first take was released on ARA and the second with a variation on the lyrics later on 4 Star Records. His early experimentation with the electric guitar led to several patents for the instrument. One of the patents, 'Single Pickup Frequency Control For String Instrument', led to legal wrangling with Fender. Throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, he played and/or recorded with many popular acts in the Los Angeles area. Freeman, who retired to make his home in West Hollywood, continued to perform locally into the late 80s. In 1987, the German Cattle label released an album of 21 of Freeman’s 40s recordings, including a version of the instrumental that started his recording career. The recordings with Travis were included in a 5-CD set of Merle Travis’ work by Bear Family Records in 1994.