Kicks

KICKS
 
 
One cool thing about the Cramps is that they were always about half women, half men.  One of their drummers, Miriam Linna met Billy Miller at a record show in 1977; and their common musical interests led them to form a fanzine called Kicks, dedicated to obscure rock, soul and rockabilly.  They are now married.
 
A 1986 article in Kicks on Hasil Adkins caused a sensation, and Norton Records was born when they released Out to Hunch later that year, the first of several albums collecting Adkins’s music.
 
The liner notes on The Lonesome Drifter LP were written by Kicks and Norton Records co-founder Billy Miller.
(May 2011)
 
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Of course, these are all people who are more or less well known.  Other singer-songwriters live in obscurity but still produce their music year after year.  One example is Hasil Adkins, the rockabilly one-man band from rural West Virginia that I have discussed previously.  Once Miriam Linna and Billy Miller of Kicks magazine brought him to a wider audience, launching one of the best reissue record labels in the process (Norton Records), Adkins had some celebrity in the final years of his life.  Wikipedia and Allmusic list 10 studio albums and 6 compilation albums by Hasil Adkins; I’m up to I think 5 albums myself thus far.  If not for NortonHasil Adkins would have been almost completely unknown, and that would be a tragedy in my mind. 

 
(March 2015)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021