Bullet Records--Near You--Francis Craig

[jboger]

Well, I hope I don't bore people. I've been going through all those records and I've stumbled on things I never heard of. I have a recording of Near You by Francis Craig out of Nashville. It's on the Bullet label. Not listed on the on-line discography of 78s. No Bullet Records. Went to Wikipedia (which has the answers to all of life's questions) and found not only a listing for Bullet Records but specifically that song Near You. Not much to go on. Does anyone know anymore about Bullet Records that they would care to enlighten me with? The big labels (like Columbia, Victor, and Decca) are all well known; it's these other labels that I'm finding sort of interesting.

[victorIIvictor]

Bullet Records of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, was formed by Jim Bulleit and operated from the late 1940s into the early 1950s. It recorded and released a wide variety of African-American and "country" vernacular music, including several sides by pianist and singer Cecil Gant, who had had a large hit in 1944 with "I Wonder" on Gilt-Edge.

With "Near You," you have turned up Bullet Records' one national hit, which was covered by many other artists on competing labels. However, at least this one time, the independent seems to have slayed the competition, as I turn up the Bullet version of this recording more frequently than any other. It seems like I can't go through a bunch of late 1940s 78s without it turning up. I quite like the tune and the arrangement, but the material Bullet Records pressed their discs on leaves a lot to be desired… as you probably already discovered yourself, the surface is very noisy, even on a pressing which appears "mint." I wonder if there are vinyl DJ pressings out there?

There is a lot more about the history of Bullet Records and its Nashville-based competitors on the Bear Family box set "A Shot in the Dark:Nashville Jumps, Blues & Rhythm 1945-1955," details here:

https://www.bear-family.com/various-nas ... d-box.html

You will find even more detail on Bullet Record specifically in Martin Hawkins' book "A Shot in the Dark: making records in Nashville 1945-1955," Vanderbilt University Press & Country Music Foundation Press, 2006. Details on the book here:

http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/6691457

Best wishes, Mark