Real Country's "DJ Of The Month"

January 2004

"DJ Rolf Hierath"- Germany

DJ Rolf Hierath from Germany definately takes pride in great music, and seems to live and breathe it everyday and in every way.....he is an accomplished musician himself.....plays the guitar, dobro, and lap steel guitar, & sings in a band called Cottonmouth. He also has two records: "Millions In The Phonebooks" & "Ben Colder, Please Don't Sing My Songs" which he wrote himself as "Rye" W. Henderson & 86 Proof & has his own little recording studio.

Rolf has been a DJ for 8 years, and is one of the founding members of his radio station which broadcasts from Wiesbaden. He has 3 programs called "Hillbilly Jukebox", "Rockin' Rollin' Rheinwelle", & "Rolf's Pladdekaddong" in which his format is ALL TYPES!!! The Days and hours of his programs are Tuesday's, Thursdays, & Fridays at 2:00 p.m. His programs have an audience of approximately 800,000 to 1,000,000 listeners.

Rolf has a collection of approximately 8000 longplay records and CD's in his private collection plus 7000 single (7") records. He receives new CD's from all over the world everyday for airplay consideration, and tries his best to play them all....but "that's easier said than done" relates Rolf.....and he is a huge supporter of Independent Music!!!

After being with his sweetheart for 27 years, he married her on December, 12, 2003. They have no children but they have 2 cats named Mephisto and Johnny. Another cat Wilhelm (Willie) died in March 2003 at age 15.

Artists and Records labels may send their music to the following address:

Rolf Hierath
Radio RheinWelle
Hauptstrasse 62
65396 Walluf
Germany

Email: cashville@gmx.de

Website: http://www.cashville.de

Please Read The Following Very Interesting Biography of DJ Rolf Hierath

ROLF HIERATH / "RYE" W. HENDERSON BIO

I was born on June 2, 1958 in Wiesbaden, Germany. It is interesting that on that day, Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater" appeared the first time on the Billboard Charts. And it's also interesting that I loved to hear the german version, "Wumba Tumba Schokoladeneisverkäufer"(Wumba Tumba Chocolate Ice Cream Salesman), sung by Bill Ramsey as I was a little boy, but without knowing the original song.
As I was 12 years old I got my first guitar. The class teacher of mine showed me how to tune up that guitar and from this time on I'm a self-education person: I bought myself cheap learning books, learned a few guitar chords, sat right down in front of my record player and played with Johnny Cash: boom-chicka-boom-chicka... until I couldn't hear it anymore. But I got it.
In 1973 I began a to learn a job at the Postal Service and from the first money I earned ($120 a month) I have bought records, in the first way. But because the records weren't cheap at that time, I founded together with some school mates a dance band ($6 per hour for everyone of us - today unpossible to believe) "The Royal Swingers" (oh God), but I had to leave them after one year or so, because I didn't want to sing stuff like "hey-o hey-o ho" and "Sha-la-la".
And they didn't want to play country music...
Some time in the 70s I got a compilation in my hands on which I found also the "Purple People Eater" from Sheb Wooley. Anyhow the "Wumba Tumba Schokoladeneisverkäufer" followed me.
From October 1977 until December 1978 I had to do my time of military service: basic training in Warburg/Westfalen (Germany), interfacing dispatch-rider at the PzPiKp 60 in Stadtallendorf (Germany). Here I played too in a "Chaos-Band" called the "Baumholder Five" but it wasn't a disadvantage for me.
In 1979 me and my brother and some of our friends founded the "Country & Western Club Rheingau". In our hometown weren't (and aren't) much activities and we wanted to show them that there is something different than Rhine - Wine - Coziness and German hoompa music. So we organized a concert with HERMANN LAMMERS-MEYER and his EMSLAND HILLBILLIES. At Hermann Lammers-Meyer's place I heard the first time of Ben Colder. And Ben Colder was no one else than Sheb Wooley and he has sung the original "Schokoladeneisverkäufer", I was fascinated by this guy.
Until 1982 we organized several festivals with the "Country & Western Club Rheingau" featuring Fats & His Cats, Drifters Caravan, Kentucky Bluefield, Chambergrass, etc. Then we stopped the activities, because there wasn't the interest for anymore as it was at the beginning and the other reason was that we found out that our business partner (an innkeeper, on which area we held the festivals) was very non-serious.
In the following years I was on the road with the "Bill Haley of Wiesbaden", HANK KERNS. Hank has really played one time the slap bass for Bill Haley in the 60s for about 3 weeks at his tour. Bill's original bass player, Al Rappa, couldn't play for a while 'cause he hurt his finger.
From time to time I wrote some songs. And as I played at the end of the 80s "Millions In The Phonebooks", the song was so very well accepted, that I thought on recording this song. So I called some old buddies and after a short time we had a record: "Millions In The Phonebooks" and "Committed To Parkview", a Johnny Cash Song, on the flipside.
We named ourselves "Rye" W. Henderson & Eighty-Six Proof and the record sold pretty well.
One day I asked myself how it would be to have a Hit song and then to see that this song was wrecked by Ben Colder. It wasn't long (maybe 3 hours) and I had written another song "Ben Colder, Please Don't Sing My Songs". As a precaution to I sent the words to Sheb Wooley and I told him that I wanted to record this song. After I was called some days later, late in the night and someone asked: "ls this "Rye" Henderson who wrote Ben Colder, Please Don't Sing My Songs? Listen, l don't know how late it is, but go and record it, man", I knew: this guy really has humour. Sheb died of leukemia on September 16, 2003.
Because of problems with my health I had to restrict my activities in the 90s. Then there were some problems with the profession and it wasn't easy to find the right people for a solid country band. And I had also two weekly radio shows on Radio RheinWelle 92,5 in Wiesbaden: Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m. the "Country Jukebox" (now HILLBILLY JUKEBOX) and Thursdays at 2:00 p.m. the "Rockin' Rollin' RheinWelle". Since January 2002 I have a third one called "Rolf's Pladdekaddong". By the way I'm a founding member of Radio RheinWelle 92,5. It is a non commercial local radio station.
Eighty-Six Proof: the Band was put together with people I knew partly for a longer time. With Ernst Tauer (Bass) I have lived as a little boy together in the same house. Heiko "Cody" Himmelmann played normally Blues and Rock. Norbert Ewen is now Drummer in a Rock & Roll Band "The Rounders". Klaus "Mozart" Müller I learned to know through Hank Kerns. Klaus was a classical fiddle player at the Wiesbaden Orchestra and he had much pain in his ears each time he had to listen to a Hillbilly - Fiddle. Meanwhile he died of cancer. With Charly Draeger I played only a few times. Biber Herrmann (Background Vocals on the Ben Colder Record) is a very successfully solo artist. He plays Blues, Folk, Ragtime, Oldies, Rock - everything. His Blues CD is really great. Oh and at the Ben Colder Single was Jörg on the drums. He is now at the music and art university Geisenheim

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