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| | Charles “Diamond” Pennywell was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the third largest city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The city has a rich musical heritage from soul to gospel, R&B to country and much more and was the home for many of music’s major acts. Charles was also a childhood friend of Joey Jefferson who would have a part to play in the future musical career of Charles. Charles began singing at the age of ten. It would be high school where he began to take it seriously. Along with fellow school friends, Eddie Lejay, Thomas Odom, Steve Ross they formed the The Fairlanes, named after the Ford Fairlane and keeping with the doo-wop tradition of naming the group after cars, The Cadilacs etc. The group’s first release in 1959 was to be Seventeen Steps” b/w “Johnny Rhythm” which came out on Dee Marais’ Lucky Seven label and in the same year for Pappy Dailey’s Dart label out of Houston, TX the group released “Just For Me”. They would also record for Eddie Shuler’s Tic-Toc label releasing “You’re Lonesome Now” in 1961. Charles would record solo for Smash with “Web Of Love” b/w “It’s So Funny I Could Cry”. |
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