Glen Glenn

While he never gained the same fame and public recognition as such fellow West Coast rockabilly pioneers as Eddie Cochran and Ricky Nelson, Glen Glenn's talent far outweighed his luck in the music business, and his classic sides have become the stuff of legend among rockabilly fans as well as such roots rock giants as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan, all of whom have covered his tunes on-stage. Glenn was born as Orin Glenn Troutman on October 24, 1934, in Joplin, MO. Troutman was raised on the classic traditional country sounds of the deep South (and was related to Porter Wagoner by marriage), and when his family relocated to San Dimas, CA, in 1948, his enthusiasm for classic country and Western swing sounds continued to grow. By the time he was 17, Troutman had bought a guitar and had started jamming with Gary Lambert, a gifted guitar picker who went to the same high school as Troutman and had also started listening to the new R&B sounds which were pouring into California's airwaves. Troutman and Lambert formed a country duo called the Missouri Mountain Boys, and they began making the rounds of Los Angeles's country bars, with Troutman dropping out of high school to devote himself to music full time. Eventually, Troutman and Lambert landed a regular spot on a local television show devoted to country music, where they made friends with another local artist with a distinctive style, Eddie Cochran. Lambert cuts some demos with Cochran, and Troutman was strongly influenced by Cochran's blend of country twang and R&B rhythm. Soon Troutman was dropping R&B and rockin' country tunes into their sets, and after editing his name to Glen Trout, he began touring steadily and cutting demos for a variety of labels, mostly with but occasionally without Lambert. In late...