Long considered to be a studio group only, the Hooterville Trolley who cut “No Silver Bird” were a working band in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Gary Garman wrote a profile of the band in the Albuquerque Journal on December 4, 1967:

The sound is that of a hard-hitting ‘psyche-rock’ group called the Hooterville Trolly.

The band has been fortunate enough to have appeared with the Buffalo Springfield and the Seeds.

Composed of five seniors from Highland High School seniors and one from Sandia High School, the sextet was originally a three-man band which grew last summer.

In the group are Cris Arlenth, manager; Martin Nassif, lead and rhythm guitar; Don Kinney, bass guitar; Wayne Galio, lead and rhythm guitar; Bill Chreist, organist; and Doug Borthwick, drummer. Wayne is the outsider from Sandia.

Martin, Don and Doug were the original group, formed this past April.

“We decided we needed more members to make our sound complete,” they said. “So we auditioned Wayne and he came into the group in May. Bill joined us in July.”

With practice sessions at least twice a week and engagements each weekend, the group claims their favorite spot for a job is Carnaby 66, a teenage night club.

…

“We play with a style of our own,” they say.

All compose the songs performed by the Hooterville Trolly, “but Martin is the brain power behind most of our songs,” Wayne said.

Note the band’s name is spelled Hooterville Trolly in both the news clippings and in the sign at the front of the stage. This is the same Hooterville Trolley that recorded the single “No Silver Bird” / “The Warmth of Love”. How that single ended up on a Mississippi label is a story that requires me to back up and discuss the Lance Records label and their in-house producer, Tommy Bee.

Tommy Bee, Lance Records and Lynn’s Productions

Tommy Bee (short for Tom Benegas according to an Albuquerque Journal article) produced records for Albuquerque’s recent upstart, the Lance Records label including the Lincoln St. Exit’s “Paper Place” / “Who’s Been Driving My Little Yellow Taxi Cab” and the Cellar Dwellers’ “Love Is a Beautiful Thing” / “Working Man”. Many of the compositions he published through his company Stinger Music, BMI.

In February 1967 Bee produced the Fe Fi Four Plus Two’s “I Wanna Come Back (from The World of LSD)” at Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico. He would later return there to record the Hooterville Trolley.

According to an article in the Albuquerque Journal, Tommy Bee resigned from Lance Music Enterprises on August 25, 1967, dissolving his partnership with Dick Stewart and Ross Benavidez. After Tommy’s departure Lance released six more singles, half of them Spanish music, then closed up the label and the Lance newsletter by the end of 1967.

Tom Bee (as Tommy Benegas) filed a lawsuit against Lance over ownership of the exclusive contract with the The Sheltons, whose single “Find It” he had sold to Dot Records that summer. The suit was settled out of court. Terms were not disclosed, but it seems Tommy Bee won control of the artists and productions he had brought to Lance.

Bee continued to produce and release music by some of the artists he had worked with back in New Mexico, mainly by placing recordings with Reginald Records distribution out of Greenville, Mississippi. I’d like to know how he found Reginald and its owner Henry Reginald Hines (aka Lynn Williams). In any case it was to be a fruitful collaboration.

One of the most surprising things about this arrangement is how many of the songs Bee would send to the Mississippi company had been already released on Lance. These include two Lance recordings of the Sheltons, “Find It” / “I Who Have Nothing” were re-released on the Reginald-distributed Bar-Bare label, Doc Rand & the Purple Blues “I Want You (Yeh I Do)” / “I Need a Woman” (originally Lance 119/120), which was re-relased on Landra Records 020, and the Vendels’ version of “Try Me”, originally released on Lance 113, shows up on Lynn’s Records LR 1728, backed with one I haven’t heard, “Boo Ga-Louie”.

Besides re-releasing earlier Lance singles, Tommy Bee also produced new 45s by the artists he worked with in Albuquerque, either for a Reginald imprint or for his own Souled Out label.

These include the Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2’s second single, “Pick Up Your Head” / “Mr. Sweet Stuff” for Odex, and the Trademarques’ “I Can Set You Free” / “Free Your Fears” on Randolph. Tommy Bee produced “Straighten Up and Fly Right” by the Beaumont, Texas group The Kidds for another Randolph front, the Big Beat label.

Those interested in reading more on the history of Henry Reginald Hines and his various labels and productions should take a look at Greenville And Beyond. Be sure to check out the chilling debt collection letter at the bottom of that page, it has to be read to be believed.

The Creation and “No Silver Bird”

On July 7, 1968, Tommy Bee went into Norman Petty’s recording studio in Clovis, New Mexico to record “No Silver Bird” / “The Warmth of Love”, two songs previously recorded on a single by another Albuquerque, New Mexico group, The Creation.

The Creation were two brothers, Al and Mike O’Donnell, plus Ernest Phillips. They were young musicians who landed a publishing deal with Tenmand Music run by Joe Green. They recorded two singles of their original songs on the Centurion label in late 1967.

Possibly through Ernest Phillips, who was employed by Tommy Bee Enterprises around this time (according to the Billboard 1969 Intl. Tape Directory), or through someone handling distribution at Lance Music Enterprises, the Creation’s second single made its way to Tommy Bee. The Hooterville Trolley cut both songs for their single. Ernest Phillips’ name was kept on the writing credits (but O’Donnell was left off of “The Warmth of Love”) and the publisher switched from Tenmand to Tommy Bee’s Stinger Music and Henry Reginald Hines’ Reginald Music Publ.

Six months after recording, in January of 1969, Bee released the songs on Lynnette Records, one of Hines’ labels in Greenville, Mississippi. The Creation’s O’Donnell brothers were unaware of the Hooterville Trolley’s versions of their songs until 2018.

The Hooterville Trolley’s version of “No Silver Bird” is very hypnotic with touches of strings and what sounds like a Moog or some other early synthesizer.

Bill Chreist answered some of my questions about the Hooterville Trolley:

The band was formed in 1967 in Albuquerque New Mexico. The original members of the band were Don Kinney (bass & vocals), Martin Nasiff (lead guitar & lead vocals), Bill Chreist (keyboards & vocals), Wayne Galio (rhythm guitar) and Doug Borthwick (drummer and back up vocals). We played live at dance clubs in Albuquerque (Carnaby 66 was one of the popular clubs in 1968), Santa Fe & Colorado. We also played at the Hullabaloo club in Oklahoma.

Ernest Phillips wrote the original song but we (Martin, Don and I) re-wrote the words because we didn’t think the original words were “heavy” enough for the songs of that time, but let him still get the credit for the song.

Norman Petty who owned the recording studio had just received a new “string machine” that he was excited to try out. He asked us if he could add it to the song “No Silver Bird” saying if we didn’t like it he would take it out. We told him to go ahead and see what he could come up with. We loved it and thought it added a new sound that we hadn’t heard before. The only problem was when we played live we couldn’t duplicate it but no one seemed to care at the dances we played at.

The song was played a lot in Albuquerque but never became a national hit. Our manager at the time (Tommy Benavidez) paid for the recording so he owned the master.

The lyrics have been changed on this version. Still only six lines, but sung twice:

Go, get ready to fly,
Lock all the doors as if to hide,
Don’t worry about faces inside,
Just come with me, and ride.

Go, get ready to fly,
You’ll see silver birds in the sky,

Go, get ready to fly,
Lock all the doors as if to hide,
Don’t worry about faces inside,
Just come with me, and ride.

Go, get ready to fly,
You’ll see silver birds in the sky.

Regarding the string sounds, Alec Palao says he believes Norman Petty had a Chamberlin, a U.S. manufactured precursor to the Mellotron. Alec added “Petty treated instruments a lot with EQ, compression and echo/reverb, and got some pretty unique sounds in the process. His multi-tracks are amazing to listen to.” I haven’t heard “The Warmth of Love” yet, if anyone has a clip please let me know.

In March of 1969, the Journal reported the death of Wayne Galio in a traffic accident, describing him as “formerly a member of the ‘Hooterville Trolly'”.

In 1970 the Hooterville Trolley’s exact recording of “No Silver Bird” turned up on Magic Sand’s eponymous UNI LP, retitled “Get Ready To Fly”, sounding like nothing else on the LP, which is a rougher soul or blues-based rock. Ernest Phillips’ name is off the song writing credits which instead go to A. Klein (Highwood Music Corp./Segway Music BMI) whose name is on many of the songs on the LP, while the musicians’ names are not listed. A. Klein also turns up in the credits for Mud’s Uni LP Mud on Mudd.

A. Klein is Al Klein, head of Buffalo Bill Productions. He may have been the same Al Klein who was Southwestern district sales manager for Motown in the mid ’60s. Vic Gabriele, who had been in the Monkeymen (“Route 66” / “Mojo” on QQ 311) and the Piggy Bank (“Thoughts of You” / “Play With Fire” on Lavette), and whose name also turns up on Magic Sand writing credits, was vice president for Buffalo Bill productions. Harry Narviel and Rick Knott were other employees.

For more information on Lance Records, see Mike Dugo’s article on Lance Records.

Thank you to Bill Chreist, Gregor Kessler, Alec Palao, Max Waller and Westex for their help with this post.