Matt Lucas (singer)

Recording wise there were new CDs in 2001 "Shockabilly", "I'm Movin' On & Other Timeless Rockers" on Redita Records of The Netherlands and "Back In The Saddle Again" on Ten O Nine Records out of Chicago. The Redita release features all his old Rock & Roll songs as well as some interesting tracks from the sixties/seventies. "Back In The Saddle Again" features all new songs and was recorded with the James Burton on guitar and Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica. One of the new songs is a new recording of his biggest hit, now titled "I'm Still Movin' On" :

He has continued performing starting with a trip to Scandinavia in 2000 followed by appearances at The Rockabilly Hall of Fame Introduction Show in Jackson, Tennessee (2000), The Hemsby Rock 'N' Roll Weekender in Hemsby, Norfolk England (2001), The Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans, Louisiana (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), American Music Magazine Show, Sweden (2005) and various other small festivals.

In 1990 he became Steamboat Director for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, and his wife tour manager, together they cruised the Mississippi river from New Orleans to Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Ohio river from St. Louis to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the Mississippi Queen.

Around 1980 he accepted an offer for a job on a cruise ship. This turned out to be an excellent career move because even though he was not nearly as wild as he used to be, he knew exactly how to work the crowds who took to the seas to have a good time. He mixed old Rock & Roll songs from his Memphis days with new 12 bar blues tunes which he had been writing about his own experiences and the audiences loved it.

In 1975, his wild life caught up with him. He had a heart attack, almost died and he decided to make some drastic changes in his lifestyle.

In 1974, he returned to Ollie McLaughlin in Detroit and recorded "You've Gotta Love" backed with a song called "I'm So Thankful". Musicians on the session included Minnie Ripperton, Donnie Hathaway, and Phil Upchurch. The single was released in 1974 or 1975 on Quality Records, Canada's largest independent record company. The record became a hit in Canada, and also appeared on an album called "Disco mania" with songs by acts like Van McCoy, Gloria Gaynor and The Ohio Players.

In 1972, Gene Lees, a Canadian composer and editor of the jazz magazine Down Beat, who had just started a new record label called Kanata Records, offered to cut a blues album on him and his band. Recorded at Sound Canada Studios the album, "I Paid My Dues", produced the single "I'm Movin' On" / "The Old Man" which became a double-sided hit in Canada, reaching just below the Top 20.

In the early seventies, he started rebuilding his career with some success. In 1971, he made the cover of the prestigious The Globe and Mail Magazine and appeared on the Pierre Burton Show, while CBC TV did a special on him called "Return of a Singer". At the same time, he married a girl who owned three massage parlors and then he turned around and became involved with Xavier Hollander, also known as The Happy Hooker. They remain close friends.

In 1965 he briefly returned to the States when he was contacted by Ollie McLaughlin, producer/manager of Del Shannon, Barbara Lewis and later The Capitols. Ollie had taken a liking to him when he visited Detroit during the promotion of "I'm Movin' On” and he was asked to come up with a song to hook in on a dance craze, which was big in Detroit. The dance was called The Twine and a single by Alvin Cash & The Crawlers called "Twine Time" was a big hit.

The record sold 50,000 copies in Detroit alone. It was a big hit in Canada as well and it was released in Europe on Smash, Belinda, Philips and several other labels. In August 1963 the Belgium Teen magazine "Juke Box" listed the single as "promising" and one month later it entered the Belgium hitparade at #10. In October it moved to #8 and in November it peaked at #6. The November 1963 Juke Box Hit Parade reveals an even higher listing (#4) in the French-speaking Southern part of Belgium. All in all it was a genuine worldwide smash pop hit. Stateside it officially peaked at 56 in Billboard and 45 in Cashbox but locally it was much bigger especially in the Southern markets.

In late 1962 he recorded "I'm Movin' On" in the Sonic Sound Studios in Memphis, at the end of a Narvel Felts session. The song was initially released on Renay Records, a label owned by Roland Janes. The deejays loved it; the only problem was they liked the B-side "My Heavenly Angel". In an effort to kill the record a "It's Different – It's A Hit – I'm Movin' On by Matt Lucas" stamp was applied to the sleeves and sometimes the record itself. The reaction was swift and devastating "The record is too wild and crazy and we don't want to play this nigger music on our white radio station".

In the summer of 1961, while Narvel Felts was serving six months in the US Army Reserve, he stayed in Memphis playing drums for Bill Rice and Jerry Foster as well as doing studio work. Sometime during those six months he recorded "Trading Kisses / Sweetest One" at the Fernwood Studios in Memphis with Alvy Browning on bass, Bill Rice on piano, himself on drums and Roland Janes on guitar. The latter also produced the record and released it on his Good Records label.

For his next record he left the formula of taking an established song adding his own drum beat to it and throwing in some extra lyrics. "Turn on Your Lovelight" a Bobby Blue Bland hit from 1961 was recorded in Memphis with the same people as "Maybellene" with the organ at the end dubbed in. The record basically saw no chart action and was largely ignored by both black and white radio.

In 1959, he met up with Narvel Felts again when he was asked to audition for a new trio that Narvel was about to form after the breakup of his "Narvel Felts and The Rockets" band. His experience in drumming in a wide variety of musical styles landed him the job and he started in 1960 as the drummer for the Narvel Felts Trio, which also featured J.W. Grubbs on stand-up bass and Narvel Felts on lead guitar. The Narvel Felts Trio played across the Missouri/Arkansas/Illinois area from real dives like the Starlight in Lepanto, Arkansas, to honky-tonks in Missouri and strip joints in Cairo and Chester, Illinois.

In July 1956, while playing a gig at the El Morocco Club in Gideon, Missouri, he met a local singer by the name of Narvel Felts who had started to build himself a reputation as an Elvis-type rocker. This meeting turned out to be the start of a lifelong friendship.

In the fall of 1956 they ended up in the same band when Jerry Mercer, leader of the band for which Felts sang, fired drummer Bob Taylor and Felts recommended Lucas for the job.

In 1955, when Rock & Roll began, he went back to Poplar Bluff where people immediately started ridiculing him due to his love for black music. He decided to move to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked bars and night clubs including a stint at The Bamboo Key Club in East St. Louis, Illinois, where Ike Turner was the house band.

Lucas was soon asked to sing a couple of songs during each set in order to broaden the trio's repertoire, and he reverted to the blues and R&B he had learned during his years as a drummer in the clubs of East St. Louis and Calumet City. In addition to songs like "Annie Had A Baby" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" he started playing around with Hank Snow's 1950 country hit "I'm Movin' On" changing some of the lyrics and adding lines like "wind it up baby" and "shake it for your daddy" and " I'm gonna ride that train tonight". The song became a crowd favorite and convinced him he had a potential hit on his hands.

Matt Lucas (born July 19, 1935) is an American rock and roll, soul and blues singer, drummer and songwriter. He is best known for his "rocked-up" version of the Hank Snow country classic "I'm Movin' On." He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1999, the International Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2005.

Born on July 19, 1935, in the General Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, he grew up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. At the age of seven he discovered he was adopted when he found his adoption papers and a letter dated September 6, 1935 signed by the Assistant Superintendent Tennessee Children's Home Society Shelby County Branch.