ROCK ABILITY: LOU HOBBS SALUTED AS A ROCKABILLY ORIGINATOR

Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis and Bill Haley are some of the performers whose faces have appeared on the cover of American Music Magazine, a Swedish journal dedicated to documenting the history of American rock 'n' roll. Now Cape Girardeau's Lou Hobbs has joined the select crowd.

The magazine's December cover photo is the same picture the then-22-year-old Hobbs used for his first single, 1962's "Mama, Mama, Mama." Hobbs' career is chronicled in a cover story and his discography is detailed dating from "Mama, Mama, Mama" to the 2000 recording "My Country Roots." Hobbs is pleased with the honor.

"It's the high point of my career to tell you the truth," he says.

The magazine is the house organ for the Swedish Rock 'n' Roll Club. It illustrates how much in love its readers are with American culture. An ad offers a tour called "Let's Go to Memphis." The back cover consists of a 1951 ad for Kaiser cars.

The article calls Hobbs a "rockabilly originator." "Although the times have changed," authors Bo Berglind and Tony Wilkinson write, "the spirit of rockabilly continues to live on in Lou's heart."

Rockabilly is a term coined to describe the hybrid of rock and hillbilly music that was born in the 1950s. Hobbs is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Cape childhood

The cover story follows Hobbs' childhood in Cape Girardeau, his attendance at May Greene Elementary School, and the talent contests his mother, Ruby, entered him in. It follows his progression from performing at Onie Wheeler's Ozark Corral and Tiny's Dance Land to sneaking into the 61 Club at 18 to hear Narvel Felts and his band play.

Felts, who grew up in Bernie and went on to record such hits as "Drift Away," "When Your Good Love Was Mine" and 1975 Single of the Year "Reconsider Me," and Hobbs are still friends. Hobbs in fact wrote and recorded a song called "The Ballad of Narvel Felts."

His is a career filled with dates at small clubs studio sessions that produced singles for small record labels. In all, there are some 20 singles and seven LPs.

Hobbs has had a music career without ever having a national hit, unless you count 1990's "Living on the New Madrid Fault Line," which received lots of attention when the national media came to cover the earthquake that never materialized.

His most recent recording, "Boys in Blue," was written as a tribute to the police after two Cape Girardeau officers were shot in the line of duty earlier this month.

At the Americana Festival where Hobbs will perform in Nottingham, England, again this summer, fans from Australia or Japan or Sweden will know his music as well as Beatles fans know their idols'.

In America, you're supposedly too old to rock 'n' roll when you reach a certain age. Music fans outside America are in love with the people who helped create American rock 'n' roll.

"Age makes no difference to them," Hobbs says. "Over there they call you a master."

In 1986, Hobbs came off the road and went to work for Greater Missouri Builders, which owns the Town Plaza Shopping Center. He remains a manager for the company. He and his wife, Nancy, have five daughters.

He has continued to record for a long while had a regular show on KFVS-TV. Now he does occasional specials.

The 59-year-old Hobbs was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease two years ago. The disease weakened his voice and hands and makes it difficult to play the guitar leads and sing at the same time. But he is fighting back and provides a demonstration of his progress with a crushing handshake and a peek at his bicep.

"If I get the first lick on you, you're going down," he says in the best rockabilly tradition.