The Federal Fugitives were unknown to me until Rick Ledbetter commented below with the lineup:
Rick Ledbetter – lead guitar Steve Allen – rhythm guitar Dennis Mitchell – bass Gary Stone – drums Johnny Stovall – horns Steve Allen – horns
“Woman of Stone” is a good light-psychedelic original by Ledbetter and Stone. Jim Youmans (of the Swingin’ Apollos) did a fine job of production.
The musicians are accomplished, I wonder if the Federal Fugitives is a pseudonym for another group.
Ledbetter and Stone also wrote the harmony-filled ballad flip, “Just Remember”.
Released on Youmer Records Incorporated, YM 1002 with an address of 524 Plasters Ave, in Atlanta. Youmer’s first release was the Sons of Bach, “Stubborn Kind of Fellow” / “I Knew I’d Want You”, which I haven’t heard. Youmans produced this one too. Without original songs, there’s even less chance of finding out who played on that record.
Both songs published by Margie Music BMI, which was based in Decatur, but I can’t find registrations for either.
Rick told me more about the members of the Federal Fugitives:
Gary Stone went on to play with Billy Joe Royal.
Dennis Mitchell played with Ben Dover and Tennessee Tucker and also appeared in Six Pack with Kenny Rogers.
Rick Ledbetter went into radio broadcasting (Rick Ledbetter On Air on youtube).
Steve Allen performs as a one man band.
Johnny and Ted Stovall also played horns with The Soul Patrol around Atlanta after Rick formed the new group after two years in the Army.
Ted Stovall went on to arrange the horns on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “What’s Your Name” and “Moonlight Feels Right” by Starbuck.
I cannot find much information on the Incidentals, who were primarily an instrumental band. They released three singles on the Ford Records label out of New York.
The first is the excellent “All Night”, a band original, backed with a version of the Ventures “Driving Guitars” (including drum solo), on Ford Records 134. Cash Box reviewed the single in October, 1964, giving the sides B+ and B grades. These instrumentals are primarily guitar-driven melodies, but the group did have a pianist. The entire band plays very well.
Rest-A-While Music Company (ASCAP) published “All Night”. Rest-a-While Music appears on other Ford and Merry-Go-Round releases, including Ford 117, The Gallant Men’s “Lost Romance” by Foti and O’Donnell, and Dolores Rodell “Go For Broke” written by Vin Roddie, on Ford 132. The company had a New York City address.
I haven’t heard or seen their second single as the Incidentals, two more instrumentals, “Fireside” / “Lucille” on Ford 138. Cash Box reviewed it in January 1965, awarding the same B+/B grades as their first single.
A third 45 “Walkin’ the Dog” / “If You Go” on Ford 143 is credited to Bill Ervin & the Incidentals. The Library of Congress has a May 1965 registration for “If You Go” written by William Ervin, published by Merry-Go-Round Melody Co. I’d like to hear these, and would like to know if Bill Ervin was an added vocalist or if he played an instrument on the earlier records.
Billboard listed Sherman Ford Jr as the Incidentals personal manager, he was also president of Ford Records and Merry-Go-Round.
This Incidentals almost certainly was not the group from Ocala, Florida with a single on Paris Tower “baby I Want You Back Again” / “It’s All in Your Mind”. Members of that Incidentals were Ed Barnett, vocals; John Winter on guitar; Steve Fordyce on bass; Tony Cummings and Biff Ruff on organ; and Mike Barnett on drums.
Nor were they the group who cut “Baby Shake” / “Till the Ending of Time” on Gold Standard.
The Motleys were an actual band, though the lineup I see online is partly incorrect. Harvey Price (now known as Mike Price) and Mitch Bottler formed the group at Fairfax High School. It seems Mitch Bottler became more of a behind-the-scenes song writer with the group as it settled into the lineup for its two singles on Valiant:
Mike Price – guitar and vocals Dan Walsh – lead guitar and vocals Steve Adler – bass and vocals Bob Carefield – drums
Dan Walsh’s brother John Walsh produced some demos at Gold Star that have not been released, but the Valiant contract came from an audition for Bodie Chandler, Barry DeVorzon and Don & Dick Addrisi.
Cash Box, October 30, 1965Billboard Oct. 30, 1965
Bodie Chandler and Edward McKendry wrote the top side of their first Valiant single, “I’ll See Your Light”, arranged by P. Botkin, Jr.
Bodie Chandler and Barry DeVorzon wrote the rockin’ flip, “Louisiana”.
Billboard and Cash box reviewed the single, with Cash Box labeling it as “Newcomer Pick”, saying “Deejays should come out in droves”. That didn’t happen, and in retrospect I wonder if “Louisiana” may have been the more commercial side. The group did appear on 9th Street West to promote the single.
Mitchell Bottler and Michael Price wrote both sides of their second single, released on Valiant Records V-739 in February, 1966.
“You” is very different from their first single, more complex but also more pop, and with piano the lead instrument. “My Race Is Run” features the group’s harmonies.
Sherman-DeVorzon Music published “You” and “My Race Is Run”. I found a February 1966 copyright registration for a song that may have never been released, “Rain on Down the Line” with words by Harvey Price and Jack Herschorn and music by Mitch Bottler.
Cash Box, March 26, 1966Despite a “B+” in Cash Box in March, there was no chart action and when Valiant dropped them, the group broke up.
Valiant kept Mike Price and Mitch Bottler signed as song writers, and they added Dan Walsh to their team when he brought them a song “Carnival of Life” (the demo for which seems lost unfortunately).
At this point, they met producer Gary Zekley who asked them to wrote songs for the Looking Glass and the Visions. Rev-Ola’s Temptation Eyes: The Price & Walsh Songbook lists the top session musicians who played on their demos, like Hal Blaine, Bodie Chandler and Carol Kaye. I suspect these musicians also played on the Motleys singles.
Price and Walsh started work on an album with Zekley (with Mitch Bottler assisting in the song writing) that was never completed. Price and Walsh went on to much success as a song-writing team, while Mitch Bottler continued to work with Zekley for a time.
Zekley was not in the Motleys, despite repeated incorrect statements on the internet.
I asked Mike Price about “Rain on Down the Line” and he responded:
I don’t recall cutting a demo on “Rain”. We probably played it for Barry Devorzon, who was the head man at Valiant Records, and they had someone do a lead sheet and then copyright it. That song was inspired by a great, early folk rock band called the Rising Sons. We went to see them at a folk club in West Hollywood called the Ash Grove, and they blew us away. So, we ran home and did our version of what we heard.
Dan Walsh and I were staff writers at ABC Dunhill records for eight years beginning in 1969. We wrote a couple of tunes aimed at Steppenwolf when Gabriel Mekler was producing them. One was never completed, and the other, a song called “Mojaleskey Ridge” ended up being cut by a group called Smith.
We did our demos in studio A at ABC / Dunhill recording complex, Steely Dan recorded down the hall in studio B. They took so long recording that their drummer Jimmy Hodder and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter would wander down the hall and sit in with us. So, we had some songs with half of Steely on them.
Dunhill was such a hot label, it was an amazing place for two 21 year old songwriters to be.
Rev-Ola’s Temptation Eyes: The Price & Walsh Songbook has a photo of the Motleys. Steve Stanley’s extensive liner notes to that CD was the main source for this article.
The Trojans of Evol came out of the Gary, Indiana area, and cut one amazing single in early 1967. The band members were:
Ted Zale – lead singer and keyboards Steve Polomchak – lead guitar and keyboards Chuck Kukelka – rhythm guitar Barry Ardell – bass guitar Curt Burgess – drums
Carlo Espero contacted one of the members and received this short history of the Trojans of Evol:
Songs were recorded at Columbia Studios in Chicago. Ted wrote the lyrics and Ted and Steve wrote the music [for “Why Girl”]. They were just a garage band that played at parties and small events in the area. The record got a lot of airplay on the local radio station in Gary, Indiana and jukeboxes across the area (where we all grew up) and made it to the top of the chart. Steve was invited to play with the Buckinghams when they were looking for a new guitar player. We have no pictures but I can try to find some for you.
Ted Zale wrote “Why Girl”, arranged by Steve Polomchak. The label credits Barry Ardell and Steve Polomchak as writers of “Through the Night”, arranged by Curt Burgess and Barry Ardell.
Released on their own T.O.E. label with a Columbia custom pressing code of ZTSC-125969/70.
If anyone has photos or more info on the band, please contact me!
Blackwater is an early ’70s obscurity from the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.
“It Doesn’t Matter” is the rocking side, a successful performance. I like how the lead singer repeats “It don’t matter” but the title uses the more proper “Doesn’t”. I hear two lead guitars, piano, organ, bass and drums, plus the vocals.
The flip is a ballad with an uptempo middle, “Paper Airplanes”, written by Al Bernard and D. Stipp.
I have no info other than what is on the labels. Al Bernard arranged both sides, with Werdina Music publishing.
I don’t know of any other releases on Bernwald Records; the address was 2621 Gallinghouse St, New Orleans.
The Rel Yea’s on stage live at the Arcadia Theatre, in Kerrville, April 17, 1964The Rel-Yea’s came from San Antonio, Texas. Members included:
Jimmie Bolado – guitar Zeke Green – guitar Jim Bisset – bass, sax Mickey Drumm – drums (also Eddie Guererro – drums)
Jim Frizzell also was a member on guitar and keyboards before he joined the Chayns.
The Rel-Yea’s were young kids when they recorded their first two 45s on Wildcat Records in 1960.
Their second Wildcat single credits the band as “The Relyea’s From ‘The Ricci Ware Show’. Ricci Ware was a popular San Antonio DJ. Johnny Ware played sax with the group at times, I’m not sure if he was related to Ricci Ware. “Round Rock Boogie” includes someone named Ware as co-composer, but the Library of Congress registration only lists Zeke Green.
Beginning in 1963 the Rel-Yea’s released three singles on Kaye Records, which seems to have been their own label, located at 327 Shropshire Drive in San Antonio. The first of these is a fast instrumental by the band, “The Rugged Rock” b/w a version of “Good, Good Lovin'”.
“You Know How” is the second of their Kaye Records singles. Jim Bissett and Jimmie Bolado sang lead vocals.
I found a notice for the Rel-Yea’s playing at the Arcadia Theatre in Kerrville on April 17, 1964. Bruce Hathaway, DJ at KTSA in San Antonio is also on the notice. The Arcardia was the primary movie theater in Kerrville, but this is the only live band notice I’ve found so far. The former Rialto Theatre hosted a number of live events in 1967.
A full discography for the Rel-Yea’s is at Rockin’ Country Style, and you can see a few photos of the group at Mean Gene’s Bull Session blog. Jimmie Bolado’s Facebook page has a number of photos of the group, including many with famous country & pop stars of the day, including George Jones and Roy Orbison.
I’d like to know more about the group. The Rel-Yea’s continued into the mid and late ’60s but the recordings stopped around 1964.
The Casket held weekend teen dances from June to November, 1967. The Casket had been the Rialto Theatre, which was built in 1938 on Water Street in Kerrville, Texas. Around 1957 it stopped showing movies, and for the next ten years was used for infrequent events like bingo games.
On June 7, 1967, the Kerrville Mountain Sun gave an introduction to the club by Edith Jennings:
Several young people with the assistance of the Kerrville Jaycees are renovating the building for use as a dance hall. The exterior has been painted a shocking wild pinkish-purple, and inside the theatre, the old seats have been stacked in the rear or lined against the walls. The theatre renamed “The Casket” has an ideal location for teenage dances and the added effects of the somewhat sloping floor (not too steep for dancing) and the murals, contributed by artist Ben Gebhardt, make it a place where teenagers feel they can really have a “blast!”
Friday, two weeks ago, the kick-off dance was held, another on Tuesday when a nationally famous band performed with the “Chapter 16” group… admission $1.25 stag and $2.50 drag. Dance times are eight to midnight…
A June 25, 1967 profile of the club by Frank Stevenson headlined “Teenagers ‘Rock’ In Jaycee Project’ is worth quoting in detail:
As you arrive at the door, you pay your money and your hand is stamped, apparently by a stamp which makes no mark. Then, when you pass through the lobby into where the band is playing, an area which appears to be a theatre with the seats removed, the place on your hand where you were stamped does indeed bear a mark, a mark which glows slightly.
Many other things are glowing too, and they are glowing a great deal more than slightly. Your clothes glow if they are the right color, as well as specks of lint unnoticed before, and the strange designs on the wall. Radium watch dials go crazy, glowing ten times brighter than they have ever shown before. And meanwhile the rock ‘n’ roll band plays on and the teenagers all around you dance and appear to be generally enjoying themselves…
The Casket, so named as a result of the contest held to rename the Rialto building, is the final product in the Jaycees project which began in May with a dance held at the National Guard Armory in co-operation with San Antonio radio station KTSA [Jim Jones & the Chaunteys according to the Daily Times on April 30, 1967]…
… the average attendance at the Casket dances runs more than 300, and has been up to 410 at one of the dances.
Working through Devine attorney Brock Huffman, who runs an establishment similar to the Casket called the Shaft in Devine, and who acts as agent for the Kerrville Jaycees, is contracting bands, the Jaycees are able to provide music by rock ‘n’ roll bands such as the Playboys of Edinburg and the Chayns.
Neal Ford and the Fanatics on August 18, 1967 – band name rendered as Neil Ford and the Sanatics!Serving as emcee for the dances is Bruce Hathaway, KTSA disc jockey, who gives out free albums during the dances, and occasionally passes out even bigger prizes, such as the free tickets to the Jefferson Airplane performance in San Antonio several weeks ago…
Jim DeSha and Joe Schmerber … head up the operation…
What [parents] will find is a large number of teenagers having the right kind of fun in a wholesome atmosphere. The only thing to watch out for are the occasional strobe light shows, which although harmless, make walking difficult during the shows.
Some legendary Texas bands played the Casket in those five months.
Three members of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators came from Kerrville, but the band didn’t play any live shows in Kerrville to my knowledge, until a partial reunion in 1977.
Below is a list of show advertisements I have found from the Daily Times and the Mountain Sun:
1967:
Friday, June 9 – Chayns
Friday, June 16 – The Other Side
Saturday, June 17 – Jim Jones & the Chaunteys
Friday, June 23 – Zakary Thaks and Back Row Majority
The Laughing Kings – possibly the Laughing Kind featuring Max Range, September 1, 1967Friday, September 1 – The Laughing Kings (The Laughing Kind?)
Saturday, September 9 – The Grim Reaper
Saturday, September 16 – The Outcasts
Saturday, September 23 – Translucent Umbrellas
Saturday, September 30 – The Chayns
Saturday, October 7 – The Absentees
Saturday, October 14 – The Extremes
Saturday, October 21 – Wink Kelso & the Kaleidoscopes
Saturday, October 28 – The Spiedels
The Proof – formerly the Outcasts – is this the San Antonio band with Galen Niles?Saturday, November 4 – The Proof (formerly The Outcasts)
Saturday, November 11 – The South Canadian Overflow
Saturday, November 18 – Madison Review
Last show at the Casket? The Union Jacks, from San AntonioAn article in the San Antonio Express and News on December 16, 1967 mentioned Billy Joe Royal would be playing the Casket as well as the Shaft in Devine, but I don’t believe the concert occurred.
The Casket was used for one further show, on August 1, 1969 with the Union Jacks (“Notre Dame Youth Dance … Music by ‘Untion Jacks’ from San Antonio”), a band I’m not familiar with.
Rialto Theatre, Kerrville, seats for sale, August 1967
The Casket name may have been appropriate for the club. Joe Herring wrote in a 2018 post on the Rialto, “We neighborhood children found a way to get inside the place and explore; it was dark and spooky in there.”
The Rialto Theatre was torn down in 1974 and the space is still empty as of 2020.
In July, 1969, Jim DeSha organized a live show at Louise Hays Park with two bands, the Green Fog and Blue Cherry, according to the Kerrville Daily Times on July 3, 1969.
Does anyone have photos of the Casket or the Rialto at that time, or of any bands that played Kerrville during the mid-late ’60s?
Here’s a mystery outfit, possibly a studio creation, from the Los Angeles area. With folk and pop strains, neither of their two singles is garage or rock, but each has some interesting moments.
I’m not sure of the order of release, but I have The Sounds of Phase III doing “Special Citation” and “La Bamba” on KarMil Records 631. Δ65687 in the runout dates it to February or March, 1967. The flip is “La Bamba”, arranged by Karlton, Miller and del Carmen, which interestingly has a Kavelin publishing credit.
I prefer “His Song” on their other single, Karmil Records presents The Sounds of PHASE THREE. Karl Karlton wrote “His Song”, backed with one I haven’t heard, “Lissy” (by Gooding-Nutting) produced by Gerry Nutting, on Karmil 2500. Publishing by Aim Co.
There is also a one-sided acetate I haven’t heard, The Sounds of Phase III from HR Recording Studios in Hollywood, with three songs, “Jamestown”, “Bill Bailey”, “So Fine”.
Morticians photo circa 1965, top row l-r: Bubba Rowell lead guitar, Donny Guess keyboards and Steve Smith bass guitar. Bottom row l-r: Royce Sisk drums and Donnie Humphreys vocals
Donny Guess sent in these photos of two bands from Levelland, Texas, just west of Lubbock. The Morticians would become the Shyles with different lineups over the years. I first encountered the Shyles name in a news clipping about a battle-of-the-bands in Brownfield, which featured a photo of the Charvonnes.
Donny writes:
The Shyles, a garage band from Levelland played venues in west Texas and eastern New Mexico from May 1965 to August 1968.
Their first gig was late May 1965 in Brownfield, TX, at a end of school year battle of the bands dance. At that time they didn’t have a name so the organizer for the youth center suggested the The Morticians, since the other band was the Undertakers. The youth director then suggested that both band members ride in the back of a pickup through town with a borrowed casket to promote the dance.
The Shyles, top row l-r: Brad Billingsley drums, Loyd Summers vocals, bottom row l-r: Gary Butner bass guitar, Bubba Rowell lead guitar, Donny Guess keyboards.
We did not record a record as the Shyles. One band member, who left the Shyles in late 1966 did record with another group, no details available though. As the Shyles we did make a trip to Norman Petty studios in Clovis to visit about cutting a record but were unable to raise the money to produce it.
We played mainly youth centers, ballrooms and National Guard armories.
Other members of the Shyles not in the photo include:
Ronnie Stoughton – guitar Jan Pharis – drums
Shyles reunion, June 2020: Steve Smith, Bubba Rowell and Donny Guess reunited in Garland, Texas.
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
I am dedicated to making this site a center for research about '60s music scenes. Please consider donating archival materials such as photos, records, news clippings, scrapbooks or other material from the '60s. Please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com if you can loan or donate original materials
The Federal Fugitives were unknown to me until Rick Ledbetter commented below with the lineup:
