Freddy Fender Christmas Card

Here is Freddy Fender's version of the old Jimmy Donley

Christmas classic, Santa, Dont Pass Me By.

Produced by Huey Meaux at Sugarhill Studios...

special holiday bonus: trippy Santa Claus graphics!

Merry Christmas!

How Cool Was The Carousel Lounge? #1

First in a series of posts regarding cool venues of yesteryear in the Corpus area. The Carousel Lounge was located in the Six Points area (1713 10th Street) and ruled in the mid to late 60's. Known as a proving ground for area rock-n-roll acts, the club also brought in many cool acts from around the south, including The String-A-Longs from Plainview, TX and Louisiana swamp pop legend, Tommy McLain.

The String-A-Longs were an instrumental group produced by Buddy Holly producer, Norman Petty for Warwick Records. They had their biggest hit in 1961 with Wheels, which reached #3 on the Billboard chart and #8 on the UK charts. The song has became an instrumental classic with numerous cover versions released over the years. The group later switched labels to Dot Records and also recorded an Lp for Atco in 1968.

Swamp Pop star Tommy Mclain is still tearing up audiences with his soaring soulful voice. Tommy began performing in the 1950's with fellow swamp popper Clint West, together they were involved in The Vel-Tones and later with a version of The Kings, a spin-off of the legendary Boogie Kings. Together in 1965 they released a duet of the 6/8 mover, Try to Find Another Man. Tommy's best known song is his blue-eyed soul version of Sweet Dreams, also a big hit for Patsy Cline (and the title of her bio-pic in 1985). Sweet Dreams hit #15 in 1966 on the Billboard Hot 100 and gave Tommy a chance to perform on Dick Clark's American Bandstand TV show.

In the late 60's and early 70's, Tommy recorded for Huey Meaux, releasing numerous singles and several Lp's on Crazy Cajun Records. Tommy had a long association with Meaux label-mate, Freddie Fender and wrote a hit song for Fender, If You Don't Love Me (Leave Me Alone) in 1977. In 1975, Tommy and his Mule Train Band appeared in the Paul Newman thriller, The Drowning Pool. Today Tommy is performing regularly in Louisiana and has made appearances at The Ponderosa Stomp and Austin as well.

More on the great Carousel Lounge in future posts.

Corpus Christi - Rick Presley

Here is a video of Rick Presley's Teardrop single Corpus Christi. Rick had a successful career as an Elvis impersonator in Corpus in the 70's - pre Elvis' death. More on Rick in future posts...enjoy this!

Liltin' Miss Martha Tilton!

Corpus born Liltin' Miss Martha Tilton sang with Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Hal Grayson, Three Hits and a Miss and many others. She was with Goodman when he performed the first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Best known for her version of And The Angels Sing with Benny Goodman she enjoyed many chart hits in the 1940's on RCA, Coral, Capitol and Decca Records among others. She appeared in films such as Topper, The Benny Goodman Story, Queen of The Stardust Ballroom, Swing Hostess and others. Read this bio by Jason Ankeny of All Music Guide:

Big-band songbird "Liltin'" Martha Tilton enjoyed her greatest renown during her two-year stint with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Featured on Goodman's smash rendition of the swing-era classic "And the Angels Sing," she was also the first non-classical vocalist to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Born November 14, 1915, in Corpus Christi, TX, Tilton spent the majority of her adolescence in Los Angeles, where as a high school student she began moonlighting with bandleader Sid Lippman on the radio show Coconut Grove. A three-year stint with the Hal Grayson Band followed before Tilton joined the vocal quartet Three Hits and a Miss in 1936. A year later, she joined the Jimmy Dorsey Band, and appeared as a lounge singer in the classic Hollywood comedy Topper. Soon after Goodman arrived in Tinseltown to film Hollywood Hotel and conduct auditions to replace his previous vocalist Helen Ward, and within days of landing the gig, Tilton joined the band on tour, not returning to L.A. for two years. Acclaimed for her clear, lovely vocals and straightforward interpretive style, Tilton's performance was a highlight of the Goodman Orchestra's landmark January 16, 1938, appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall, the first showcase of its kind awarded to a swing group. Her rendition of "Loch Lomond" earned the longest ovation of the evening, and her growing fame was further solidified via the 1939 Johnny Mercer composition "And the Angels Sing," the biggest hit of her 80-odd Goodman recordings.

When Goodman dissolved the group in April 1939, Tilton signed on with bandleader Paul Whiteman's Philco-sponsored series on NBC radio. For a brief spell during the early '40s, she hosted her own NBC show, Liltin' Martha Tilton Time, as well. During a now-infamous ASCAP strike, she made her first solo recordings for Standard Transcriptions before signing to the fledgling Capitol Records in 1942. A series of releases including "I'll Walk Alone," "A Fine Romance," and "I'll Remember April" followed, and during World War II Tilton was also a fixture of the USO tour circuit, traveling with headliner Jack Benny to military outposts in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. After her Capitol tenure ended in 1949, she recorded for independent labels including Coral and Crown, and with singer Curt Massey (co-composer and vocalist on the 60's TV theme song Petticoat Junction!) spent seven years co-hosting a 15-minute daily syndicated radio show sponsored by Alka-Seltzer. In 1955 Tilton played herself in the Hollywood biopic The Benny Goodman Story, appearing in a re-creation of the Carnegie Hall performance. That same year she gave birth to her third child, and in the years to follow gradually receded from the spotlight to focus on raising her family. Tilton resurfaced decades later in a series of swing-era revival tour packages, including a mid-'80s trek through Australia as part of a Goodman tribute showcase spearheaded by pianist/arranger Al Lerner. Tilton died of natural causes at her Brentwood, CA, home on December 8, 2006; she was 91 years old.

Check out this soundie with chromatic harmonica great Leo Diamond!

Here her voice is overdubbed for Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)

The Red House (1969)

Followup on a Corpus Gold post about The Stereo Shoestring (See Corpus Gold post from Jan 2011)

The Red House formed with former members of The Stereo Shoestring in 1969.

James Coco (vocals and harmonica)

Ric Gonzales (guitar)

Tommy Durham (guitar)

James Noe (bass)

Billy King (drums)

One single on Big K out of Ingleside: Mary Anne b/w Sunflower got plenty of airplay on KEYS radio.. In the summer of 69, they were the house band at Love Street Light Circus and Feelgood Machine in Corpus. See cool pics and read all about them and Stereo Shoestring at

http://www.garagehangover.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1973

The Love Street Light Circus and Feelgood Machine' Corpus location was one of several around Texas, with the original being in Houston. The Corpus' grand opening featured Bubble Puppy, Zakary Thaks and Ginger Valley! Read all about the venue and see a plethora of cool pics and posters at http://people.missouristate.edu/dennishickey/lovestreet.htm

Enjoy!

Corpus Country Vol.1

Country music in Corpus has been a constant at least since the 1940's. One of the biggest stars of 1970's country music, Freddy Fender called Corpus his home but country music was not his first influence. Another local star that gained national exposure in the pop and country charts (Lovin You Just Crossed My Mind and You Can Have Her) was the late great Sam Neely but again more from a crossover appeal. Ernest Tubb spent some time in Corpus in the late 30's, long before he became a star. Country pop star and multi-instrumentalist Barbara Mandrell lived there as a child. Barbara's younger sister Irlene Mandrell was born in Corpus and was a regular on Hee Haw. The great fiddle virtuouso, Johnny Gimble opened for Bob Wills with The Roberts Brothers Rhythmaires there in 1949:

Taken from an interview with Johnny Gimble http://www.bobwills.com/gimble_excerpt.html

"The Roberts Brothers Rhythmaires were playing a club (The Trocodero Ballroom) in Corpus Christi. There was Buck, Carlton and Curly Roberts, a drummer, and myself. We played all the old standards and the popular country tunes they called them hillbilly, Eddy Arnold, every one of Bob Wills's tunes, they were always popular on dances. But we also played In the Mood, Basin Street, Tuxedo Junction, Rose Room, we had a guitar player, Troy Passmore, he used to play like Charles Christian (another Texan). We were all digging those guys.

Bob was booked into that club. He had played a show in the auditorium and we opened the dance and they came over about ten o'clock. Tiny Moore told me that Jesse Ashlock was leaving in the next few weeks and he wanted to know if I'd be interested. (1949) I didn't meet Bob at that date. Eldon Shamblin hired me when Bob was in the hospital. When I was hired I came by and they were playing a job in Waco and Bob asked me to play a tune and he made a remark over the PA. I had played Waco, it was sort of home to me in a way and Bob said There's a little fiddle player here, the boys have hired him and I haven't heard him. They say he's good and he'd better be! He put me on. He was real nice. "

The bulk of the scene was built around the bands that played in the honky tonks and VFW's in the area. Names like The Mac Pollard Show, The Lively's, Claude Merritt, Johnny Rinehart & Texas Unlimited, Barbara Clawson and The Nashville Beats and Billy Jack Collard worked the area in the 1960's and 70's. Not to mention area favorites, Al Dean and The Allstars (whose classic intrumentals of Jalisco and Cotton Eyed Joe were played often on Robstown country station KROB leading up to the news) and Sandy and The Six Pack (who recorded for Nashville steel man Pete Drake's Stop label among others). Scant information is currently available online about this vibrant scene.


Johnny Rinehart is a talented guitarist that has worked the South Texas area at least since the 60's. He headed up his own bands and worked with others, including some time in the band of the late Freddy Fender.I used to see him on the locally produced country music television show, The Frank Head Show in the late 60's early 70s. Frank Head of Head Furniture Center sponsored, hosted and sang on the show along with his wife " Decca recording artist, pretty Miss Martha Lynn." I have not yet found any recordings on Decca by Martha Lynn, however I have found one on PEP out of Bakersfield, California (not sure if it's her or not). The show was not unlike other locally produced country shows around the country (Cowboy Weever and his Pals of The Saddle & Dewey Groom in the Dallas area come to mind) trying to emulate the syndicated country shows of the time (Buck Owens, Bill Anderson, Porter Wagoner). The format was usually a few vocals by Martha Lynn, a few by the band and a religious recitation by Frank against a blue screen image of praying hands. I would love to see those shows on Youtube someday if they still exist.

Barbara Clawson was probably the most successful and prolific of the Corpus 1960's country scene. She recorded several Lps for Pete Drake's STOP label out of Nashville and hit the road working the vibrant country circuit from 1967 to 1987. Barbara wrote much of her own material including songs like One Bud Weiser and Mad Mummy. Her husband Bob and son Bubba (also a recording artist) own Clawson's Musicland which still caters to the country scene in the Corpus area. Many cool photos used to adorn the walls of the shop on S.P.I. D taken at Corpus country music concerts in the 60's (photo's of Jerry Lee, George & Tammy and Charlie Pride at Memorial Coliseum). Most had been taken down when I visited the shop this summer.

Smooth soul singer Billy Jack Collard (aka Buddy Collard) held a house gig at The Country Palace in Corpus in the 70's. Focusing on country, his show mixed in pop and soul influences as well. Zakary Thak's guitarist John Lopez worked with him for a time. Collard recorded for Huey Meaux's Crazy Cajun label in addition to releases on Country Palace. His funky Maintain Your Groove (the flip of local hit Watching a Wino) on Crazy Cajun is a favorite on English Soul sites.

CORPUS GOLD NOTE: If anyone can provide additional information about these artists please get in touch.

Tony Joe - High Sheriff of Calhoun Parish

Not much time this week to post but found this awesome vid of Tony Joe White back in the day.

Mighty fine!

July 3, 1955 Elvis at The Hoedown Club

Elvis, Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana logged a lot of miles in 1955 criss-crossing across the south, in fact just a few weeks prior to this date his pink and white Cadillac caught on fire outside of Texarkana (Scotty returned to Memphis to pick up the Presley family's Crown Victoria to keep the tour going).. Elvis was still on Sun Records and was in the process of transferring management from Bob Neal to Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis and the trio worked from Florida to Texas and back many times that year. A good bit of the dates they did in 55 were in Texas, not only for his ever-growing fan base here but also for the relative close proximity to Shreveport, where he performed every Saturday night on The Louisiana Hayride. ( He had picked that gig up earlier in the year).

Now Corpus is not exactly around the corner from Shreveport in fact with today's highway system it can be done in just over 8 hours, but that is where they headed, most likely driving after the gig on July 2 at The Hayride. Elvis and band were slated to perform at Nelson's Hoedown Club at 4320 South Lexington Blvd. which is now South Padre Island Drive. In fact the site where the Hoedown was is a strip mall today home to a furniture store (between Weber and Everhart on SPID).

Elvis and the band performed from 4 to 8 that day in Corpus. That would be at least three sets. I suspect there were other performers on the show that day that were not listed in the ads. It's reasonable to think that he stretched his show a bit to accommodate the requirements of the gig.In fact there are reports that he did at least two songs that were not in his usual set list: Born to Lose (originally done by Ted Daffin's Texans and Do The Mess Around which was an R&B hit for Ray Charles in 1953 (Corpus Gold note: of course Brother Ray later had a hit with Born to Lose himself).

The next day, Elvis and the boys really got to work, they oerfomed three shows in three diferent towns: Stephenville, De Leon, and Brownwood, Texas.

July 4 Stephenville, TX City Recreation Hall (10:00am)

DeLeon, TX Hodges Park (afternoon)

Brownwood, TX Soldier's & Sailor's Memorial Hall (8pm)

Cited from an Elvis news site:

On 7/4/55 various music acts performed in two different cities - Stephenville and nearby De Leon - in what was called the Battle of Songs. They would perform in the first city then when there was a break, the groups would change cities and perform again. It was a mix of country and gospel singing. Elvis began in the morning at Stephenville and did his regular rockabilly show. The rest of the performers were gospel singers, The Blackwood Brothers and The Statesmen. Over in De Leon was one country act and other gospel groups such as The Stamps. Elvis was so touched by the tribute the Blackwood Brothers gave for their members who had died in a plane crash that he didn't sing his usual music in De Leon. He sang only gospel, including "The Old Wooden Church," "Precious Memories," "Known Only To Him" and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee," disappointing the teenagers who had come to see him. That night Elvis performed in Brownwood in a benefit show at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, doing his regular show. It was a three-show day for Elvis.

Just a month later Elvis would record the Junior Parker blues classic, Mystery Train at the Memphis Recording Company (Sun) in Memphis.

Johnny Rodriguez' version of Corpus Christi Bay

Robert Earl Keen's song about Corpus Christi has been covered by others but the definitive version for me, is Johnny Rodriguez' version. The studio version came out on his Hightone cd You Can Say That Again produced by the great Roy Dea (Gary Stewart).
That was my favorite version until I saw this youtube post of Johnny and band kicking it for real at somebody's birthday party.


I saw Johnny and Tom T Hall at one of those all night Telethon shows at Memorial Coliseum back in the day. More recently when I caught Johnny Bush at a bar on SPID. Johnny R showed up and jammed.. He's still doing it.

The Shadows at The Rogues Club

Who can tell me about this band and the revolving bar?

Albert Collins - The Corpus Connection

From his 1958 debut recording "The Freeze" through his 1962 instrumental hit "Frosty" for the Texas-based Hall label and a series of frigidly titled landmark albums for Alligator from 1978 to 1986, Collins parlayed his enduring icebox identity into international stardom.

Collins happened on his chilly gimmick by pure chance. "I played in Corpus Christi, Tex., and we was on our way home to Houston," he said in a 1978 interview. "My bass player, his name is Cooks.

"He said, 'Man, you better turn the defrost on!' It was during the wintertime, and the windows got all fogged up. I was riding along about two or three miles, and I said, 'Hmmm... Defrost!'

"And what I did, I said, 'Well, I'm going to do a song called "Freeze," and I'll do one called "Defrost.""

CORPUS GOLD NOTE: Wonder where his gig was?
It was indeed ironic that the blistering Texas guitar style of Albert Collins came to be identified with Arctic temperatures (his best-known recordings included "Frosty" and "Sno-Cone"), because a hotter electric blues guitarist has yet to exist.

"Albert was a unique force in the blues. There was not anybody before him that sounded much like him," says Alligator Records owner Bruce Iglauer, producer or co-producer of seven Collins albums (including "Showdown!" the incendiary 1985 Grammy-winning summit meeting of Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Robert Cray).

The reverb-drenched icy fire that blazed deep within "the Master of the Telecaster's" playing first developed during the late 1940s and early '50s in the ghetto gin joints of Houston.

A cousin named Willow Young taught Collins the unusual minor key tunings that he steadfastly employed, while fellow Lone Star guitar great Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was influential in several ways, notably Collins' use of a capo (or clamp, as Albert referred to it) on his axe.

"After I got around Gatemouth, I got hooked on that clamp," said Collins in a 1983 interview. "It gave me a good sound.

"Gatemouth, he plays with his fingers and a pick. But I started out playing with just my fingers. I tried to use a pick, but I don't know, it seemed like it was a handicap to me," he said. Brown also inspired Collins to play the solid-body Fender Telecaster that came to define his image.



From a remembrance by Bill Dahl

Huey Meaux Corpus Connection Part 1: Freddy Fender

The story of Freddy Fender hitting it big with Before The Next Teardrop Falls in 1974 is one of the great stories in music lore. It seemed to me back then that one minute he was gigging nightly at The Rogues Club in Corpus and literally the next, he was all over the radio and television (Dinah Shore, Midnight Special, Bob Hope, American Bandstand, The Tonight Show, Dean Martin). Anyone familiar with Freddy's music knows he had the talent and the voice, but by the time he hit it big he had been doing it for 20 years already and was about ready to hang it up. After working day gigs and playing on the weekends he started taking vocational classes at Del Mar College. He hooked up with producer Huey Meaux in 1969 and begin a musical collaboration that would eventually turn to gold.



On his debut hit LP on ABC Dot Freddy says a friend told him about Meaux. (Maybe it was Doug Sahm). Meaux recounts in the PBS documentary on latin rock (Latin Music USA) that he was in Corpus and stopped by a car wash to get his car washed and heard someone singing. Recognizing it was Fender, he said "Man what are you doing working here, here's my card... call me"
or something like that, however it happened, Freddy was soon heading down to Sugarland Studios.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/latinmusicusa/index.html#/en/wat/01/07

Huey Meaux had a lot going in the 60's, recording hits on Barbara Lynn, TK Hulin, Jivin Gene and The jokers, BJ Thomas and conceptually helped to create the South Texas answer to the British Invasion: The Sir Douglas Quintet. Recording hundreds of regional favorites on various labels by cats like Link Davis, Floyd Tillman, and Tommy McLain.. Not to mention all the artists he recorded that didn't hit nationally then but later went on to greater fame such as Mickey Gilley, Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Copeland and Johnny Winter! It's hard to believe it took Freddy and Huey so long to get together.

However it came down, Freddy began recording with Meaux down in Houston at Sugarhill Studios. They recorded several Lps of songs trying to find something to hit. One of my all time favorite Freddy Fender Lp's is on Crazy Cajun and features Freddy singing in Spanish over reggae grooves with Tex-Mex horns wailing! It's also got a funky version of Junko Partner with Huey yelling a dedication from the background to " Malcom Rebbenack, the man with the plan from the git go! Hit it brother...!"

At some point Meaux wanted Freddy to record a song originally recorded by Duane Dee and writen by Ben Peters and Vivian Keith...Before the Next Teardrop Falls. Freddy didn't want to , he felt it was too country. After all he was EL Bebop Kid!Meaux insisted, he said he could see "hit all over it if Freddy sang it. Meaux took the tape of Before The Next Teardrop to Nashville and was rebuffed. He took it back to Houston and released it on Crazy Cajun and took the number one spot on local radio. Nashville was a little more accommodating the next time.

Corpus Gold Note: A good example of how it's not always just the song but the right voice at the right time that makes a hit. Teardrop was recorded not only by Duane Dee, but David Houston, Charlie Pride, Dottie West, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jim Ed Brown and Jack Greene before Freddy recorded it.

The song sung in English and Spanish catapulted Fender to the big time! It along with Wasted Days and Wasted Nights (originally recorded in Corpus in 1959) became his signature song and I am sure he sang it on every show till he left us in 2006.

Huey P Meaux died April 23, 2011. Whatever his faults were, he recorded some of the best music Texas and Louisana had to offer! Adios Crazy Cajun.

The Bad Seeds

photo courtesy of Peter Buesnell
The following from All Music Guide by Bruce Eder
The Bad Seeds were the first rock group of note to come out of Corpus Christi, Texas, itself a hotbed of garage-rock activity during the middle/late 1960s. They started when guitarist/singer Mike Taylor and bassist Henry Edgington, then member of a local band called The Four Winds, met up with lead guitarist Rod Prince and drummer Robert Donahoe, who had been playing in a rival band called The Titans until its demise. Prince wanted to form a new group, and he, Taylor and Edgeington became the core of the Bad Seeds, who were signed to the local J-Beck label in 1966. They stayed together long enough to record three singles during 1966, of which two, "A Taste of the Same"/"I'm a King Bee" and "All Night Long"/"Sick and Tired," are unabashed classics of blues-based garage-punk, three of them originals by Taylor (who wrote most of their originals) or Prince. Even their normally maligned second single, "Zilch Part 1"/"Zilch Part 2," has some worth as a pretty hot pair of throwaway tracks. The band's sound was the raunchy Rolling Stones-influenced garage-punk typical of Texas rock groups in the mid-'60s.

Following the breakup of the group after the summer of 1966, Mike Taylor became a writer and producer for the the Zakary Thaks, another Corpus Christi-based band (who were signed to J-Beck after being spotted playing on a bill with the Bad Seeds), and also recorded singles in a folk-like mode as The Fabulous Michael (Corpus Gold note:Checkerboard and Arkansas are pretty cool with alleged backing by The Thaks). Rod Prince went on to become a key member of the legendary band Bubble Puppy, who were signed to Leland Rogers' International Artists' label, and the post-psychedelic group Demian that saw a self titled release on ABC Dunhill.

Bad Seeds music can be found on the French EVA label Self-titled (also known as J-Beck Story 1) LP and the more recent 7 inch vinyl release on Sundazed.

Another Oscar Martinez classic...You Went Away

Here is another classic from the great Oscar Martinez & Orchestra on Impala. Digging deep into that great blend of South Louisiana swamp pop and South Texas Tex Mex groove... featuring once again the great voice of Pepe Cavazos! Dig those Tejano horns! We need a whole collection of this stuff! Keep it coming. I hope to be talking to Oscar in the near future to find out more on these classic sides.

Kashmere Stage Band @ The Show Palace

In the 70's The Kashmere Stage Band, hot on the heels of their Texas Jazz Festival performance, injected an evening of burning funk into the Show Palace. Their recordings from the 70's have been reissued to funk maven's delight under titles Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974, Zero Point, Out of Gas- Still Burning 1974.

From Wikipedia:

Kashmere High School is located in a predominantly black neighborhood known as Kashmere Gardens in Houston, Texas. Music teacher Conrad O. Johnson attended an Otis Redding concert in 1967 and was inspired to translate the style of the concert into a program he could sustain at the high school in order to create opportunities for his student musicians. The Kashmere Stage Band was born.
During its time, KSB won national championships in high school band competitions and gained a reputation as being unbeatable. Johnson served as band director, arranger, and principal composer for the band. KSB recorded eight albums during its life.
The teenagers in the Kashmere Stage Band produced a sound equal to that of the contemporary funk bands the JB's and the Bar-Kays. Although lost for decades, since 2003 the KSB recordings have been released on 7" or 12" LP record or CD, and have become prized by hip-hop artists and dj's for their inimitable sound. A notable sampling occurs on the Handsome Boy Modeling School album So... How's Your Girl?; DJ Shadow’s track “Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II)” samples “Kashmere” from the album Kashmere Stage Band Plays Originals. Many of the modern KSB releases are occurring for the first time.
Notable KSB alumni include jazz drummer Bubba Thomas.
See the film THUNDER SOUL!

Belinda by Bobbie Gentry

Another in a series of songs that name-check Corpus!Now Bobbie Gentry is not from Corpus Christi, but she clearly drew some inspiration from the Sparkling City as is evident from her song about Belinda. Featured on her 1971 release Patchwork, Belinda is about a dancer working in Corpus Christi. (You may know my body but you don't know my mind). Is it a true story?

Wikipedia sez: Patchwork was Bobbie Gentry's twelfth album, released in 1971. The first of four albums she released that year, although the only album of new material as the other 1971 releases were retitled reissues of earlier albums. it was produced by Bobbie Gentry.
As a bonus I am posting this vid of Bobbie dancing & singing the Jim Ford / Pat & Lolly Vegas (Redbone) hit Niki Hoeky on the Smothers Brothers TV show. (Niki Hoeky has been recorded by many including Bobbie, Aretha Franklin and most associated with the great PJ Proby!) ... cuz it's cool!

ALVIS WAYNE!

Being a rockabilly fan, I had heard of Alvis Wayne, Mike Buck played me his infamous " I Wanna Eat Your Puddin'" single on Rollin' Rock years ago. I knew nothing about him however, till my friend Tjarko Jeen turned me on to the fact that Mr. Wayne was actually from the Sparkling City. With information available from the excellent research of John Kennedy (Rocket magazine) and others I have compiled this short history of Alvis Wayne in Corpus. (http://www.rockabillyhall.com/AlvisWayne.html)

Alvis Wayne (Alvis Wayne Samford) was born in Paducah, Texas, located near the Panhandle in 1934. The Samfords moved often in the years following Alvis' arrival, work was scarce (it was the Depression of the 1930's) and his dad found himself taking many different jobs to keep the family afloat. The family settled down in Corpus Christi in 1953 where Alvis attended Sundeen High School.

Alvis became interested in music at an early age, listening to music on the family radio:

AW - "We kids slept in a small bunkhouse behind the main house and I had a small radio that I would listen to until the early hours of the morning. Jimmie Rodgers, the Mississippi Blue Yodler, Hank Snow, Eddy Arnold and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys were early influences. I was twelve years old when I got my first live radio show from KBOP in Pleasanton, Texas. I also listened to a station out of Del-Rio, Texas as well as an R & B station in Shreveport, Louisiana. On Saturday nights we listened to WSM and the Grand Ole Opry."

When he was ten years old he received his first guitar:

AW- "When I got up to be twelve and thirteen years old I started playing in the nightclubs and all that stuff. Friday was the busiest night of the week so there was a whole bunch of them who didn't take to kindly to it all. At that same time one of my aunts, who was supposed to be part of this thing, encouraged me along and that's the same aunt who bought me that guitar. Most of the big stars came to San Antonio; it was one of the swinginest towns in the state. I remember going; I guess when I was about ten years old. I got on the bandstand with Bob Wills in a little old town called Macdona, about thirty miles out of San Antonio. They all came, George Jones, Ray Price you name it and if they were in the business, they played in San Antonio."

While a student at Sundeen High School in Corpus, Alvis was playing gigs with various bands, when he was approached by a local musician, Tony Wayne Guion about going on the road with his band Tony Wayne & The Rythym Wranglers. (Tony recorded one record of his own for Westport). Although his parents were not happy about it, he left school and traveled with the band performing the country hits of the day and some Elvis and Jerry Lee numbers. The band made little money and decided to call it a day and return to Corpus. Shortly thereafter Alvis hooked with the locally popular AI Hardy and The Southernaires. AI Hardy owned his own club and had Alvis gigging seven nights a week. Tony Wayne was still in regular contact with Alvis however and approached him about doing some recording for a label in Kansas City, Missouri called Westport Records.

AW- "Tony... said 'hey I got us a recording contract with Westport records in Kansas City, Missouri, and they want some Rock'n'Roll records. He said I got five songs already written for you and all you gotta do is go in there and sing. As far as I know Tony never sung or performed those songs on stage, he wrote them just for me. I had to sit down and drum them into my brain and learn them. I think it was probably Tony who suggested that I change my name from Wayne Samford to Alvis Wayne because he said Elvis has already got this thing going and your name is Alvis and all that. I said OK whatever, you know more about this than I do so let's go for it."

Alvis went into to a Corpus studio, a converted machine shop, to record in 1956. Backed by AI Hardy's band; Chuck Harrison on guitar, Danny Walker on drums, Hank Evans on bass, Dusty Rhoades on steel, Wally Bright on piano and himself playing rhythm guitar, they recorded three tracks: Swing Bop Boogie/Sleep Rock-A-Roll Rock-A-Baby (Westport 132) and another track I Gottum. The record got frequent airplay on local radio but didn't go very far outside of Corpus.

AW- "I remember the day not long after we had recorded 'Swing Bop Boogie'. I was driving down the street in Corpus Christi listening to my radio and 'Swing Bop Boogie' started playing and I almost wrecked my car. I had goose bumps and I went through all different kinds of emotions because that was the first time I had heard it on the radio."



In 1957, Alvis and the band followed up with Don't Mean Maybe Baby with CASHBOX citing: "The Westport label could have a hit on its hands with this terrific rock and roller, that Alvis Wayne drives out in dynamic fashion. It has the sound that the kids in all markets should go wild for. Now heading for the charts"

Alvis had the number one record in South Texas for six weeks running , even knocking Elvis out of the number one slot! Although the success was mostly in South Texas, Alvis found steady work, playing one-nighters from Corpus to Port Arthur.

AW-"We backed several star names in the old Palladium because we were the opening act before the big names came on and did their thing. I knew Elvis; I worked with him on five separate shows and also on the Louisiana Hayride. I got to talk to him although not for very long because the girls would keep pushing you out of the way tryin to get a kiss or whatever. But during the times we did get to speak I thought he was a real good old boy and he seemed a real nice guy to me". I also worked with Bob Luman, Johnny Horton, Slim Whitman and all the old timers back then as well as all the package shows for the Hayride."

A local musician named James Bacon had a doo-wop vocal group in Corpus that covered tunes of the day, in 1957 he approached Alvis about a song he had written called Lay Your Head on My Shoulder. Bacon wondered if Alvis might be into recording it. Tony Wayne set up the session in Houston with James Bacon's singers in the backing group.

AW- "James Bacon had written 'Lay Your Head On My Shoulder', offered it to me and said he would back me up on the record and that's what he did. We made arrangements to go and there was a whole tribe of us maybe three or four cars and we drove over and did that session. Anyway, when I walked in there I sang this song for all these musicians I had never seen before in my life, but they were studio musicians and they knew what they were doing. I told them I wanna do this song and I want it to sound different. Then the drummer said wait a minute and he jumped up and went out the back door of the studio and there was a big pile of trash out there in the alley. He found an old bean pot and brought it back and sat on the stool and he started out beatin' on the bottom of that old bean pot and that's where that sound on the beginning of 'Lay Your Head On My Shoulder' came from."


Lay Your Head On My Shoulder'/'You're the One' (Westport 140) was released in early 1958 and was the final Alvis release on that label. Further success was slow to come and by 1960 Alvis had enlisted in the Air Force. Upon his release (in the mid-sixties) from the service and a return to South Texas, he began to perform again, this time on weekends. He hooked up with a San Antonio band led by Lee Harmon that gigged in the area. He released a a couple of honky tonk singles around this time on two different labels: Storm in my Heart'/'I Don't Believe I'll fall in love Today' (the same Harlan Howard tune cut by the great Warren Smith) on Kathy in 1966 and Sweet Tender Care'/A Million and Two' on Brozos in 1969.

In the seventies, he was rediscovered by rockabilly enthusiasts in Europe and recorded two LP's. Rockin' Ronnie Weiser of Hollywood's Rollin Rock label recorded him in 1974 along with other Texas rockabilly greats such as the late great Johnny Carroll, Ray Campi, Sid King and Mac Curtis. The results: I Wanna Eat Your Pudding'/'It's Your Last Chance To Dance' (Rollin' Rock' 032) and She Won't See Me Cry Anymore' from the comp Rollin' The Rock Volume One. (LP 009). Puddin' also found it's way into the Johnny Legend produced movie Teenage Cruiser (the first X-rated rock-n-roll movie). Also on the soundtrack: former X guitarist Billy Zoom, Mac Curtis, Jackie Lee Cochran, Ray Camp, Charlie Feathers, Chuck Higgins, Kid Thomas and more!

Alvis Wayne is still active and rockin''. He has toured Europe and performed in the states at the Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekenders and New Orlean's Ponderosa Stomp in recent years. His recordings are available on releases and re-releases on various labels. Read about his Proud of My Rockabilly Roots CD http://www.rockabilly.nl/reviews/rockabillyroots.htm
Rock on Alvis!

The Stereo Shoestring - On The Road South (1968)

From left to right : James Coco, James Noe, Richard Lalor, Steve Schulz, Jim Howard

The Stereo Shoestring came together (with former members of Clockwork Orange) in 1968 and released this fuzzed out classic on their own English record label. A friend of theirs, Ashley Johnson (later in the 70's to own and operate a very cool record store on South Alameda in Corpus - Ashley's High Speed Boogie Shop) suggested that they take The Pretty Things non-lp 45 tune Defecting Grey and rewrite it. The punkified hyper-fuzzed result has been intriguing record buyers ever since it was re-released on some Texas Garage Rock comps. Within a year, The Shoestring broke up with many of the members going to form another band, Red House.

Listed #111 THE SECOND 100 MOST LEGENDARY COLLECTABLE U.S. 60's GARAGE 45's http://www.finerecordingstudio.com

Back to the well...

Campos & Nole at The Petroleum Club (1970's)

Lounge singers have a lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. The somewhat derisive term lounge lizard was coined then, and less well known lounge singers have often been ridiculed as dinosaurs of past eras and parodied for their smarmy delivery of standards. In any event, these lounge singers, perhaps performing in a hotel or cocktail bar, are usually accompanied by one or two other musicians, and they favor cover songs composed by others, especially pop standards, many deriving from the days of Tin Pan Alley. When one thinks of lounge acts, you first think of acts appearing in Las Vegas or The Catskills of New York, but back in the day there was a thriving lounge circuit that took acts from coast to coast, from border to border and yes, even to Corpus Christi.

"Most lounge acts are bought blind for a blind room, for this reason lounge acts are at the lowest end of the entertainment field although there are 10, 000 nightclubs with the hotel chains accounting for 6,500 of these." From the article: Firm to Rate Club Talent for Buyers Bill Board 1973

The premier venue for the professional touring lounge act in Corpus was The Petroleum Club. The club featured a house band that if I remember correctly consisted of an organ / piano, a drummer and possibly one other piece. The top billed entertainment included over the years lounge legends The Three Suns, former Harmonicat Don Les, south of the border actor / crooner Tito Guizar of El Rancho Grande fame, a Beetle (not Beatle!) from the Brando pic, The Wild One's harmonica player Danny Welton and many many others.

Sometime in the 1970's Campos and Nole performed at The Petroleum Club in Corpus Christi.
I do not have a lot of information on Phil Campos early career, but I do know he recorded a wild bongo JD rocker on Impact Records called Street Fight. (It along with Rebel Rider has been re-issued on various compilations including Sin Alley, Volume 4.




It appears that either at the same time or a few years after he became involved in the folk music scene. Campos was recruited by the great exotica composer / arranger Les Baxter for a folk music vocal group a la New Christy Minstrels, to be christened: Baxter's Balladeers. An apparent one-off LP on Reprise followed. Eventually Les Baxter's Balladeers gave way to a one-man - two women ensemble called The Forum that recorded a 1967 hit The River is Wide. Comprised of Phil Campos, his future wife Rene Nole, and teenager Riselle Bain, the Forum were formed in 1966 by Campos. When Bain left for a solo career, Phil and Rene were married and formed their own act. It is this incarnation that Corpus audiences were given the chance to enjoy. Let's hope he closed with Street Fight!

A review of Phil Campos at The Ice House in Pasadena, Ca.

"From the first chords of the second act the audience knows that Phil Campos is a folk singer who really commands his guitar. His mastery of that instrument is obvious during gentle passages and very impressive when he tries to rip the strings out of his guitar while still producing great music. To supplement his guitar work, Phil adds a strong and musical voice. His quiet and blue rendition of "2:10, 6:18, 10:44" leaves one entirely unprepared for the violence and strange comedy of "The Street Fight" or "Big Jack," the love song of Jack the Ripper. "
FRETS & FRAILS - California Tech Student Newspaper 1966

"One of the most outstanding of those aboard was Phil Campos, who appeared in the final slot. He combined a key sense of dramatic song projection with humor, and brought the house down with his offering of Street Fight."
BILLBOARD 1963

"Renee Nole...nice, brassy, sexy, one whale of a singer."
Gus Dana Nightclub Review - MIAMI BEACH SUN

"a strong and colorful duet...highly enjoyable...loaded with talent."
Louie Morales - THE BANGKOK POST

"an unfailing hit wherever they play...sparkling polished act"
Connie Hershorn - DALLAS TIMES HERALD

"Felipe Campos...dramatic and talented song stylist...electrifying...exciting vocals"
CARSON CITY NUGGET
See a video of Campos and Nole and read more at http://www.philcampos.com.
Other sources include liner notes. Billboard and Wikipedia.

Tony Joe White - Polk Salad Annie (1968)

The master of swamp funk, Tony Joe White began his gigging and songwriting career while living in Corpus Christi in the early 60's. Nick-named The Swamp Fox, his blend of down home blues, backwoods country and funky southern soul became the gold standard of what became known as swamp rock. Others have memorably interpreted his songs, from Elvis' classic live renditions of Polk Salad Annie to Brook Benton’s unforgettable take on “Rainy Night in Georgia” in 1970 and on to Tina Turner’s intensely soulful rendition of “Steamy Windows in the 90's.

One of seven children, Tony Joe White was born on July 23, 1943, in Goodwill, Louisiana, a crossroads near the small town of Oak Grove. When he was about 15, however, his brother gave him a recording by blues guitarist Lightnin' Hopkins, and he was hooked. After finishing high school he worked for a short time as a highway department dump truck driver in Marietta, Georgia, where his sister and her husband lived. In the early 1960s he moved to the Texas Gulf Coast around Corpus Christi, put together a band, began playing local clubs, and finished both "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie." By 1964 he was appearing in Kingsville, Texas, in a band called Tony White & his Combo. As fashions changed and gigs diversified, Tony White & His Combo became Tony Joe and the Mojos or Tony's Twilights. Several much sought after singles were recorded on the legendary J-Beck label (Zakary Thaks) under the name, Tony Joe And The Mojo's.

TJW-"I went on down to Texas, to Corpus Christi, which is where I actually wrote it. In fact, 'Rainy' [which was a hit for soul singer Brook Benton] and 'Poke' [White's own hit single, 'Poke Salad Annie'] all happened in the same week."

TJW – "I lived in Corpus Christi (Texas) for 12 years. I left Louisiana when I was just out of high school and went on down to Corpus where I started writing. I was about 19 or twenty years old. That was where things started to move because until then, in the clubs, I was doing John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Elvis tunes every night. They were my heroes but then, when I started writing, it all turned into the swamp feel. I was still playing in a club in Corpus Christi for 10 dollars a night, just me and my guitar & a wooden box as a drum. My manager comes in and says “Hey Tony Joe, you got some interviews in France to do as you’ve got yourself a top 5 record there” (Soul Francisco from the Black and White album).

TJW-"I was doing ‘Polk’ every night" at a Corpus Christi club called the Carousel, he recalled to Campion. "People came to dance. And they had those damn weird dances! One was called the alligator—a guy would lay down on the floors, the girl would lay on his back, and they would just crawl around like gators on the floor." From the start, White's music was bluesy, low, and stark. At the start he accompanied himself by stamping his foot. When the wah-wah guitar pedal became widely available in the mid-1960s, White quickly acquired one and made it a key part of his sound. He spent most of the 1960s in Corpus Christi, starting a family with his wife, LeAnn. The couple raised two children; one son, Jody, later became White's manager.

About the Corpus days...

TJW- "I was really into it. I mean barefoot all the time and brown and fishing out on Padre Island. And playing in the clubs at night. I thought, "Man, this is already it." I actually started writing down there. I was just about 19 when I first went there, right after high school. And I started playing in the clubs there six nights a week"

Corpus Gold Note: In the 90's I had a chance to visit with Tony Joe and ask him about some of the places he played in Corpus back in the day. Frenchy's Beachcomber and The Safari lounge were two he mentioned. More on them in later posts.

In 1966 Tony Joe made a serious try at breaking into recordings by driving to Nashville and knocking on doors. Staying at a boarding house and mingling with musicians in the city's Lower Broadway district, he heard many discouraging words. But he struck gold when he showed up at the office of Combine Music publisher Bob Beckham, who agreed to listen to his songs and was impressed by his deep blues sound. Soon Tony Joe was signed to Monument records and the rest is history.

Visit http://www.tonyjoewhite.com/ to see what Tony Joe is up to today.



Sources for this post include www.texasmonthly.com, www.elvisinfo.net, www.metroactive.com, www.answers.com and Tony Joe's site listed above.

Los Dinos - So Hard to Tell (1963)

Bobby Lira, Abraham Quintanilla, Seff Perales - vocals, Joe Garza - drums, Floyd Hannan - organ, Johnny Cadena - guitar, John Joslin - trumpet, Louis Flores - trumpet, Rudy Perales - bass, George Ramirez - sax, Sylvester Ramirez - sax

Long before Selena (Quintanilla) y Los Dinos rode the charts, her father Abraham was singing with a group called Los Dinos. Los Dinos fused the three-part harmonies de los trios romanticos coming up from Mexico with similar harmonies of soul groups from Chicago, Philly and Motown. Crafting a sound similar to the San Antonio-based Royal Jesters, they were extremely popular in the region from 1962 to 1968. Their recordings mixed popular soul tunes with Mexican standards and were released on Epitome, Falcon, Fox, Fine, Fun, and Van records.
Information from the incredible book by Ruben Molina entitled Chicano Soul: Recordings & History of an American Culture.

Time by The Pozo Seco Singers (1966)

Group members Don Williams (Gregory-Portland HS grad) and Lofton Kline were playing together under the name The Strangers Two in Corpus Christi, Texas when Susan Taylor aka Taylor Pie heard them at a Circle K hootenanny held at Del Mar College. She asked the two if they'd like to form a trio, which became the Pozo Seco Singers. Taylor, a student at W.B. Ray High School at the time and charter member of the local folk music society, introduced them to Paul Butts, their first manager. "Time" written by Michael Merchant was the group's first recording for a local label, Edmark Records and it was an instant regional hit. Columbia Records then signed the three and nationally released the song which became the title of their first album. Two more albums followed on Columbia, they signed with Albert Grossman management, and Kline was replaced by veteran folk singer Ron Shaw . Lofton Kline pursued a solo career after leaving the group and is currently recording Christian music. When the group disbanded in 1970, Taylor focused on songwriting for JMI Music and had songs recorded by artists such as Tanya Tucker, The Lewis Family, John Conlee, The Forester Sisters, and Mickey Gilley. Shaw joined the popular commercial folk group, The Hillside Singers and Williams went on to a highly successful solo career in country music.
Info from Wikipedia and loftonkline.com

Bad Seeds - Taste of The Same on Teen Time 1965

J-Beck recording artists on Channell 3's Teen Time, 1966.
Mike Taylor - guitar, vocals (later to record solo as Michael)
Rod Prince - guitar (later of the great Texas rock bands: Bubble Puppy & Demian)
Henry Edington - bass
Bobby Donaho - drums
Taste of The Same written by Mike Taylor