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