By late 1969 we had pretty much touched all show biz bases:
bars, concerts, tours, TV & Radio, exhibitions media coverage, etc.
The logical progression now seemed to be to get something on record. This
was a very difficult undertaking at that time as there were no professional
studios in the area. Nor was there anyone who knew anything about getting
original songs published, record production, manufacture, distribution,
promotion, etc. In our search for contacts we found that about the only
records being produced in Manitoba were ethnic (largely Ukrainian) and
gospel.
Enter Alex Moodrey, who had produced and distributed a number of
Ukainian music albums on his Winnipeg label, Galaxy Records. The
deal we made with Alex was that he would record us in his studio, pay for
the pressing and jackets, and would then have rights to our album which
he would distribute through his network of shops selling Ukrainian and
ethnic music - which included stores in Chicago, of all places. All we
would have to do would be to promise to buy a few hundred records. His
profit on our guaranteed purchase would cover all costs of production and
manufacture of 1000 albums and then anything he sold beyond that would
be to his pocket.
At the time, the deal sounded like a good initiation into one facet
of the business that was still a bit of a mystery to us. So, we went into
rehearsals. Since there were four us us in the Western Union at
that time, we decided that we would each be featured on three songs --
this meant that Sue-On and I would have one whole side of the proposed
album to ourselves. We chose a mix of songs we were familiar with, along
with a few more obscure "classics" that we thought were long overdue for
fresh exposure.
Barry did three fiddle numbers: We had been adapting Cajun-type fiddle
material into our stage shows because they lended themselves to the more
driving sound we were starting to get with the heavy backbeat Sue-On was
now getting out of her new drum kit and the more biting sound I was
eking out of the Fender Telecaster guitar that was starting to replace
my Gretsch. Barry's first instrumental was a Cajun number by Don Rich of
Buck Owens' Buckaroos - Down on the Bayou. He followed this up with
our country rock-flavoured version of the old folk song - Eighth of
January, better known as The Battle of New Orleans. Barry has
always done an excellent job on old time waltzes so it was natural that
his next choice would feature the beautiful, Twilight Waltz. A regret
that we all shared on Barry's numbers was that we didn't hire a session
bass player. Barry played bass on everyone's songs except his own - for
which he moved to fiddle.
Jake has a great voice for ballads, so his first choice - Hangin'
On - was a good one. It also gave me a chance to experiment with the
recently-installed Bigsby tremolo bar and home-made B-bender on my Tele
to try to come up with steel guitar sounds. Jake's next choice was
Merle Haggard's
Branded Man. A bit of a thrill for me as I got to
sing on my first record. Jake comes from a church background where he grew
up singing in choirs and quartets. As a result he has a good grasp of harmony
-- an area I was very weak in, since on most of my duets with Sue-On, she
had always sung the harmony parts. In our stage shows then, I would sing
lead to the chorus of his Branded Man and he would take the harmony
parts. Since voice-overs were not possible on this session, we decided
to do the song as we had always done it on stage. His third song
was the Hank Williams classic, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.
Sue-On opened our side with the beautiful Lefty Frizzell waltz ballad,
Mom
and Dad Waltz - a song that we thought was ready for exposure. One
of her show-stopping stage songs was Silver Threads and Golden Needles
to which we had worked out a rock arrangement. Then, for a change of pace,
she chose one of the most requested songs from our TV shows: Tiny Bubbles
-
a song I got to try harmony on. Sue-On has really an amazing voice. In
a matter of seconds she can switch from projecting uptempo songs where
she barely needs a mic, to soft, whispery and throaty ballads.
For my quarter of the album I chose two guitar instrumentals and
an old Red Foley song -- Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy - a number
that I used to like as a kid. It's a song with good rhythm potential and
is a lot of fun to sing. My first instrumental was a country standard --
The
Steel Guitar Rag -- in an arrangement I had worked out on the Telecaster.
In keeping with our trying to do three entirely different types of songs
I chose medley of a couple rock/blues tunes for my second instrumental:
Freddie King's Hide Away and the Wailers/Kingsmen hit, Louie
Louie. We've always had a habit of trying to work as maximum number
of song titles onto a session or stage show.
Being limited to three numbers each, we all put a lot of thought
into the choosing of these numbers. We had a few rehearsals at Jake's farm
near Rapid City but were a little nervous and a whole lot excited when
we finally carried our gear into the "big time" recording studio. Also
joining us on the session was Warren Hanna, a drummer I had worked with
in rock bands a few years back, but we hadn't been able to get together
for a full rehearsal with him. All of us were more than a little bewildered
at the location of the studio: The Winnipeg Grain Exchange. Alex Moodrey's
Galaxy Recording Studio was actually some sort of all-in-one portable system
which he somehow wrangled permission to set up for the day in a room in
this Main Street old office building. When we arrived on Saturday morning
-- November 29, 1969 -- It wasn't quite what we expected: linoleum floor,
bare walls, street and corridor noise, engineer Alex sitting on a rickety
old wooden chair behind a stereo reel-to-reel recorder perched on sort
of a kitchen chrome table, and a half dozen cables leading to mics scattered
around the room. Everything would be recorded live to tape, without the
benefit of baffles, EQ, reverb, DI, overdubbing or even enough mics. A
whole lotta trial and error. The play backs we listened to after recording
each number were not too promising, but we gave it a game try. Alex promised
us that everything would be fixed in the mix... mmmm... what mix?... and
echo would be added down east at the mastering plant. We couldn't help
but wonder just how they were going to change the sound of poor Warren's
kick drum which sounded like some sort of giant Salvation Army bass drum.
Somehow, after a long day's work, we got the twelve songs down, signed
releases and binding contracts and then five shell-shocked musicians stumbled
out onto Portage and Main -- we didn't feel much like recording stars.
The next stage of this project was to supply Galaxy with a band photo
to put on the record jacket. The people at CKX-TV and Radio were very obliging
-- we were one of the first bands in the area to put out a record album,
and since we had done shows at CKX for many years, they readily supplied
a photographer and the use of their studio so that we could pose with a
TV camera in front of one of our sets.
When the final product arrived we were happy with the look of it
but the finished mix was a shock -- delay echo on every voice and every
instrument... Whew! Like no record I'd ever heard before... or since --
botched in post production -- but even so, it had its satisfying moments.
Because of our TV show and regular live performances, the record sold pretty
well -- but, foreshadowing the situation in years to come and the success
of future releases, we didn't sell any in our home towns. Still seeking
acceptance, a few years later, we even went so far as to do hometown tribute
albums and actually featured the hometown area in a chapter for a
college-level geography textbook I was commissioned to write for Brandon
University and the University of Manitoba. The book is in its third printing
but we have yet to sell one locally.
This stumbling, humbling debut experience in the recording world
only seemed to whet our appetites. We learned from our mistakes and benefited
from the experience, and a year later we were about to embark on our second
recording venture -- the first of a long line of independent recordings
for which we would retain complete control and ownership.
