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My name is Norie Guthrie from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library Rice University. I am interviewing Danny McVey today is March 2nd 2017 and this is part of the Houston Folk Music Archive, oral History project. Can you talk about your early life here in Houston? I

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sure can. Um My name is Danny McVey. As you said, Native Houstonian, uh grew up in the east end of Houston, went to Jackson Junior High, Austin Senior High. I think this uh sound guy thing started probably when I was in junior high and became the

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AV geek, uh working for Mr Cheesman going around setting up projectors for science classes. Uh For some reason, I think that was kind of where really the addiction for technical backstage stuff kind of started. And then from there, I lived a half a block away

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from the high school band called The Protozoans. And uh they um would rehearse in the garage. So how could a, you know, a 12 year old, 13 year old kid not be drawn magically to music in the neighborhood? And I'd go there and sit and listen

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and just be fascinated, um went through school did, you know, high school did some plays always still drawn to the technical end of it. Um, from that kind of, uh, you know, got into all the different business jobs as we all do to survive, did some,

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uh, Petty Ray Geophysical kind of stuff. Worked with big photo dot computers on a night shift and, and, you know, worked for Southwestern Bell for a, a period as a service rep, absolute torture and, uh, and, and such as that, until eventually I started working, uh,

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my mom and dad had both passed away in a probably short period of time. So I was an only child. So I kinda, you know, was on my own by my late twenties. And then that's when I kind of started hanging out with my music friends

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and, uh, started, oh, ok. You need a sound guy. I think I could maybe do that for you and started working with some friends that had a band previously called Dog Tooth Violet, which was kind of, you know, a big kind of countryish type band,

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really good, good talented people in the late sixties, early seventies. And then after that band broke up, there was a group they put together called Paradise, which was a major portion of that band and a couple of other players. That was my first band that ever

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said, hey, why don't you mix tonight? Not, did my typical joke. Yeah, I always try to talk to people. No, mix the sound in those days, mixing sound meant you had a very small board. Um, didn't have what, what are nowadays called faders that you can

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fancily slide up and down. There were big old turn knobs and they were like small six channel Tapco boards in almost every club. Um, and usually you would just mic the vocals and you would adjust the instruments, you know, with your ears. Ok. Bass, turn up

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guitar. Can you turn down just a little things like that to kind of balance the sound. Um that was in some clubs like Theodore's on West Timer, uh Corky's, which was absolutely one of the greatest clubs. Les and Eileen uh Les passed recently, but Les and

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Eileen ran that club and it was family, you know, everybody that played there from Shake and Dana to Shake to Uncle Walt's Band, to Blaze Foley to uh John Vandiver to Ron Crick, some really, you know, and Townes Van Zandt and just some of the most amazing

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people go into this little bitty house in Montrose that maybe, probably had a legal capacity of about 80 to 100 people. And it was wonderful. So, and that's probably where I got most of my start. I started working with Michael Marcoulier then full time and stopped

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working for the phone company and, and kind of, you know, tried to make it in music and music, you know, is a great thing sometimes you can, but it's usually always feast or famine, you know, some weeks. Yeah, we got four gigs! Next week, we dont have

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any gigs. So, um so you were saying that you uh you worked with Paradise as one of those first bands? And so uh you said you're kind of doing some kind of a little bit simpler kind of sound engineering, right? I mean, literally when I started with

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them, it was basically just kind of playing with the sound in the bedroom that we were all crammed into for about a year until they finally got comfortable enough to play out. Um And then it was, you know, mostly I was really just kind of, I

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was in a little better shape and help them with equipment and stuff and then it kind of got, well, why don't you try to help, make sure our vocals stay up and sound good. And so, OK, you know, and then really, it was like, first time

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it was all over for me, I was just, you know, instantly addicted. This is fun. I like doing this. Corky's is the same kind of situation. A small six channel board pretty much kind of the way it, it was at that time. You, you did, it

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was more, I, I still to this day kind of call it old school mixing where you get the vocals were there, you know, at a certain good level and they sound good and then you try to make all the other instruments kind of let's just changing

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their volumes balance. And then the first thing where it got real fancy, you would throw in a kick drum mic and that way you could get the beat in with the mix and it would sometimes that would not always be prevalent enough. Ok. And so could

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you talk a little bit more? Well, trying to think about this? Um So you can, the was there kind of like a, did you learn how to do this really quickly? Did it kind of come about slowly? It was, it was really amazing. I think that

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just one I kind of accidentally naturally came to it don't really know why it was. But, but what truly brought me from just being a guy that knew how to turn up a vocal mic and maybe adjust the EQ on it a little bit, turn up

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bass, turn down mids or highs. That's basically, you know, your three channels in the early days. But by each of those, if you have a vocalist that's too bassy, you might want to pull a little bass out and his vocal will sound good. It's, it's just

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a matter of listening. And then I had a lot of just really wonderful guys that were either house guys that kind of took me under their wing. Probably the they were the first person that really did. That was a lady named Madeline Sealy. That mixed at

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Liberty Hall. And um, she used to let me come up and sit in the sound booth with her and Liberty Hall was just um, one of the greatest early places from everybody from Doctor John and the Night Trippers where he literally came in wearing skins and

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a big bag of um, glitter that he would throw out on the audience. And he had his gris-gris ladies that would sing these really beautiful high parts. And Bruce Springsteen played their um Jerry Jeff Walker played their to three in the morning or four in the

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morning once, uh notorious. Anyway, uh um uh you know, a lot of that stuff, Michael um Michael Martin Murphy. I'm sorry, I had to get his full name right. Used to play there as well. So it was, you know, it was a phenomenal place. I have

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to honestly say that, I don't know for sure if I was as fascinated by Madeline. And the sound is, how was the, the look of the two microphones in her tight jeans back pocket? I'm just gonna be honest. Um But truly, that's, that's probably where I

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got my first start seeing what really sound was about. I think Mark Speck was the owner of the sound and that was Daccus sound and they did the Texas Opry House later and they were Sound for Liberty Hall. They were kind of one of the real

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early, you know, selling companies so that it was a much more sophisticated set up there. Well, for the time, for the time it had a board that was like this as opposed to like this and, and that's, and that was the difference. It, it was in

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a, in a show like that where it goes into what, what you would call more slightly larger venue, something that you're gonna have 2 to 3 hundred people crammed into. That's when you want to go and have a board big enough. So you start with your kick

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drum on channel one and then you go snare and high hat and rack Tom and floor Tom. And that's your drum kit. So you got to get each one sounding like it's supposed to sound. Then you go to bass guitar, keyboards, guitars and then usually that's

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where you get vocals or keyboards, you know, vocals are the last thing because once you got your instruments all sounding good, then when you push the vocals up, if they sound good, great. If you can't hear them, then that's where you have to start bringing the

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mix back down to balance it out. But by doing that, everybody can hear the snare drum, everybody can hear and, and certain music literally requires certain instruments be noticeably louder. Uh Cajun music, for example, the, the snare drum in, in Cajun music, the way they want

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to hear it is almost high as the vocals. And normally, you know, you wouldn't really do that, but with that music, it fits beautifully and it gets the people out dancing and, um, so every, every kind of music has little things about it that don't make

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sense really with a lot of other music, but totally fit with the sound that the people really are, are trying to achieve and hear. Um, could you talk more about, well, you, you know, in a conversation that we had before, um, you had mentioned, um, having

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the, getting your first chance to actually make sound at Anderson Fair. Well, what was that experience like? That was absolutely to this day still is, is one of the things that I'm honored by. Tim Leatherwood is to me, he's a tradition of Houston. He's kept Anderson

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Fair going somehow miraculously, all these years Anderson Fair as far as I'm concerned is, is the heart of Houston music. I mean, I, I know that Sand Mountain there were other clubs before then, but he's got in there. He's stuck with it. He is, he's such

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an incredible fixture. He's always Tim and he and in Anderson Fair, it's such a unique building because one, there's the back of the stage wall has got a big hump and you can't really tell because there's curtains there. But when you go back in the dressing

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room, you go, who in the world built this place. But he also has a little soundboard that's kind of in a roost right at the back of the club, first time I was allowed to, you know, was with the Paradise Band. We went in there and

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of course, Tim was friends with Pam and Joe and all the dog tooth people. Don't think he really knew me that well at that point. But by, I think just by luck of association, he allowed me, you know, the honor of mixing and to me, one

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of the greatest clubs in the city. And then it kind of, I think he was enjoyed sometime because he knew I was probably safe and I wasn't gonna blow his system up. You know, we got to be, hey, sure, no problem, you know, have fun. Enjoy

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yourself. And, uh, that, that, you know, that means a lot, some guys, um, sometimes you hear, you know, thank yous and boy sounded great tonight, whatever. But for the most part, if you don't really hear anything, if you, unless you did something wrong and that's, that's

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how a lot of things are. But so it's ok. Um, so after working with Paradise, you'd mentioned that she worked with, um Michael Marcoulier Shake Russell, John Vandiver, Dana Cooper. Can you talk more about working with them over the years, Michael Michael, um, had a

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band and, uh, um, kind of, I was hanging out at Corkys, at the time just kind of get, you know, because I knew some of the people and such and, and, uh, Michael found out that I knew a little bit about sound and, you know, it's sometimes

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real helpful for a band that travels a little bit. Not, you know, it wasn't like we were going to New York every week. We were going to Huntsville or Nacogdoches or some place to play a small college town. Um, but it, you know, it was, it

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was a little reggae, it was a little country. Um, and, uh, he had Carson Graham and Bill Strong was his bass player. Carson was the drummer and Jimmy Raycraft, um who's his guitar player and Jimmy and I, you know, have since become, you know, best of

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friends. He's my roommate known each other ever since then. And um Jimmy and I were about to go to play Armadillo World Headquarters with Michael once and we were at Corky's talking about it and he goes, yeah, that's gonna be fun. That's my birthday. And I went, no,

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it's not your birthday. Lets see your license, we both have the same day, same year, same city that we were born on. So how can you not be best friends? So, you know, uh and so because of that, we kind of developed a good friendship. Uh I

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traveled wherever, you know, Michael traveled did sound for him, learned and grew myself because a lot of times we go into some club in, on sixth street in, in, in Austin and there would be some, you know, house sound guy there and you either go in

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and you act like you're a real stuff and they laugh at you and, and let you kind of sink on your own or you go in and make best friends and tell me what my rules are. And then you, you know, sometimes you can learn a

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whole lot and that was probably the thing that helped me the most was learning because every place was different. Um The steamboat in Austin on Sixth Street had a very unusual because it was a long straight room, had a single sound system, uh kind of one,

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just one speaker stack, most of them, there's always two that you'll see, but there they just put one on one corner of the stage and shot it across the club and it worked great because of the way the room was laid out. Um We did shows

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there opening for Stevie Ray Vaughn and, you know, lots of different, you know, different people. Um Excuse me with my um he was obviously we're all good friends with Shake and Dana and John Vandiver and that kind of just grew into kind of a, just a big group

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of friends all, you know, we'd open as Marcoulier for Shake and Dana and then John would come out probably between us and do one of his unbelievable shows. Um And then Shake and Dana would come out and then John would come back up and Michael would

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come up and Jimmy would come back up and it would be like a million people on stage. And even some of those I think I mentioned to you that, um, the mixed position for, uh, Steamboat Springs here in Houston was actually in an, in an air

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vent. The air also was shared with a print shop next door. And so sound check at five o'clock as they were finishing up and cleaning out their chemicals sometimes would get a little creative. Uh, um, but later in the night when it would just be, you

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know, we'd done our set and we were about to, you know, go forward and, you know, and then we'd, everybody would be back up. I would go up and we would share the mix because one would be a big mix. There would be like so many

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people singing and so many instruments and uh shakes engineer, Don Lawrence and I would, we kind of just what do you want instruments or vocals, Well I'll do instruments, Ok. And we would share, we'd tell each other, hey, that sounds a little funky or? That sounds good. One

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more wonderful learning experience. Don Lawrence has been with John Hagee's Church in Cornerstone, I think, or something out in San Antonio for years. It goes with my 'ole joke of whole sound guys either die or they get a church gig. So, yeah, it seems like you're really

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right about that. Some things can't be denied. I'm one, I've been uh 17 years in April at my current job at a church. So, um so you played it, um, not played. Um So you did the mixing at the, at the variety of clubs. Can you

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talk about some of those? You, you kind of described what the, the difficulties of Anderson? Um What were, how did the other ones work? Well, Anderson Fair was always wonderful because it's truly, and I've heard it referred to as this. So I don't think I'm insulting

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anybody, but it's a hush bar. Where literally, people aren't shy about turning around and telling you, can you be quiet, stop talking, stop making all that noise. We're trying to listen to our friend here sing, and that's usually the case to me. That's, that's I'm sorry.

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That's very cool. I mean, I, I've had people that I've been with that are that have been hushed and I'm just going. Yeah, you need to, you know, either we pay attention or we go outside either way. So it, and Corky's was a little bit. How

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can I say, a hair wilder? But, but the, the incredible talent that would go through Lee Roy Parnell also, I think used to play there. Um The talent that would go through there in a single month was phenomenal. And uh and I really still to this day

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believe because it was, it was a family thing when nights when you weren't playing there, there'd be a 50 50 chance you'd be there to see somebody else and that, that, that's what to me is what a real music scene is about. Um, and it may

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be going on today. I'm just kind of, you know, a little older and I don't, I don't get out as much as I used to. It's, it's kind of rare. I get out some but, but not like I used to, uh, full time jobs and going

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out till two in the morning just aren't near as much fun as they used to be. I'm not saying I haven't done plenty. But, um, can you describe Cork you said that Corky's was in a house, a house on Hawthorne and Whitney in the Montrose area that, uh,

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Hawthorn is like the parallel block to Montrose probably in a few blocks over. It was a real nice brick house, um, had a kind of a 15, 20 car parking lot, not, not giant, um, had, um, a small room in the front, a main room that

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literally was maybe two tables deep and then a bar that ran a section of the room. Uh, and then a back room, I guess that was where people could kind of go and be noisy and such the main room though. You pretty much and there were

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speakers back there through the sound, but you couldn't really see the stage unless you were kind of in the front part of the back room. Um, like I said, it was, it was a, it was a great place uh Les and Eileen treated everybody like family.

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Um Bruce, their manager was this big tall giant, wonderfully funny guy and uh he kind of ran the place. Um I did have a night when, when I uh tested electronics, not on purpose, but I had a Margarita in my hand and there was four light

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switches that you would change lights. So when you're mixing three microphones, you can kind of get bored and those lights are fun. Um But unfortunately, my Margarita was apparently way too close to that spot on the shelf. Fortunately, it was close to the end of the

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night. And I looked as it poured right down onto the mixing console at that time. Of course, I'm a musician slash sound guy and I'm not making money to buy anybody a new board and I'm just like total shock and Les just goes well. No, we'll talk tomorrow.

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It'll probably dry out and be fine. We'll get a hair dryer and of course, first call the next morning. Uh Do I need to like, start borrowing some money? What's, what's going on? No, everything's good. We dried it with the air dryer. It's working great. So,

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you know, life lessons, they're everywhere. Um Did you also uh do sound at Theodore's? I did. That was where I think that the story about mixing actually first happened with Paradise. Uh didn't really do much else there. Uh Michael played there before I, I got with

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his band. But no, not, not really. I remember, um, that it was a neat small, it was one of those big old timey two story Montrose houses near Westheimer, right near the beginning of it, what I call the beginning of Westheimer. And, um, it

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was a big two story house but it was like all those that were broken up in little small rooms. So actual listening room. If it held 40 people, it'd be a miracle. But it was, it was fun, you know, um, a lot of gear we carried

00:22:36.099 - 00:22:51.420

in. Uh, I remember the piano player was using a, uh, a Fender Rose piano that I used to think I was really strong and I was, and I'd grab it like a, a bear and just try to carry it in and it weighed, it weighed a

00:22:51.430 - 00:23:08.890

ton. And thank goodness it wasn't the Leslie B3s which some people travel with, which are giant organs and they have a big heavy wooden speaker cabinet that goes with them with a horn that revolves inside of it, which makes wonderful sounds. But I always feel

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so sorry for road crews when you see a B3 going. Oh, poor guys. And then, um, so there were steamboat is one that I don't really know very much about it. It was over near the Galleria. There was a little, uh, there's a parking lot

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probably there right now and there's a little curve street and it was right there and it was a, it, it was one of those places that with no windows and you go inside and it was probably an office building or something. Or at least I don't,

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I don't remember it being many real open windows to the place. They had a nice stage. Um, I can't recall the owners' names but, but it was all ok. We always did really good there. Uh, it was one of those places just like Rockefellers. If you,

00:24:00.250 - 00:24:16.569

if you're doing good, you can get 350 people in there and just be, wow, this is great. You know, because it really looks packed and I'm just gonna tell you bands as well as sound guys feed off that energy. It's a, it's a real thing when

00:24:16.579 - 00:24:33.319

people, when you're up there and you're three songs into it and suddenly you realize the entire place is with you and dancing or singing along. That's kind of the magic of music. And there really is not sound like a weirdo, but there really is magic to

00:24:33.329 - 00:24:55.099

music. I'll make a T shirt someday. Um And then can you talk about Rockefellers? What that was like? I can, I, I have a funny Rockefeller story or two. You might have to edit. Um Rockefellers was a absolutely beautiful building. Uh We had a wonderful friend

00:24:55.109 - 00:25:10.130

there named Don Mackaniche who was like the monitor guy for years. Uh And then another guy uh Tony Carrey, who later went to work at LD Systems where I worked, who was kind of the front of house guy back during, during the period when we were

00:25:10.140 - 00:25:31.300

there, which was probably late seventies to mid eighties, something like that. Absolutely beautiful building. The dressing room was the old bank vault. So literally when you went out onto the stage, you opened the door and there was probably at least 6 ft of solid concrete that

00:25:31.310 - 00:25:48.910

you walk past to go up onto the stage. Um And, and it was a perfect presentation spot because the stage was really high. So not only could the people, you know, get a great visual from the floor seating. They had these wonderful little balconies that you

00:25:48.920 - 00:26:03.699

could, you know, from the second floor that you could literally be right over a band on a couple of them that were at the front and then the rest were just all wow, great seats. Um A lot of, a lot of interesting times there, a lot

00:26:03.709 - 00:26:24.010

of really great players. It was, it was an absolutely wonderful room. It, it always sounded great. Uh One of those places where, you know, people like, you know, from Albert King notorious for going out with a wireless guitar and playing out in the middle of Washington

00:26:24.020 - 00:26:43.560

Boulevard. Um A lot of, a lot of unusual stuff like that and every wonderful artist you can think of from BB King to you name it. Has played Rockefeller stage. Um, in the early days it was owned and, and building probably been sold now, but this

00:26:43.569 - 00:27:01.020

was owned by Sanford and Susie Criner, which are just two wonderful people and did a, I think they actually had the Satellite lounge for a while. Was theirs as well. They owned a, a big portion of Washington Boulevard to my understanding from their family and such and

00:27:01.030 - 00:27:23.920

just great people, great people. So, after um doing work with um Michael Marcoulier and Shake Russell John Manner or Dana Cooper actually to go back to that, you know, um Can you tell me uh a little bit about John Vandiver and your experiences with him?

00:27:24.890 - 00:27:38.150

John was a um how can I say it? He was a, he was a if, if it's one of the terms like a gentle bear. Um He was, uh he wasn't like, you know, I mean, I, I didn't know him enough that I could say, oh,

00:27:38.160 - 00:27:57.469

yeah, we had these great in depth conversations. Well, no, but, but we did enjoy each other's company. Uh We did a recording with, that's absolutely still to this day holds up from out at Rivendale studio with Shake John and Michael. All, all three groups, Shake Dana,

00:27:57.479 - 00:28:14.890

sorry Michael and, and John and it's called Coming Home. And it is truly to this day still holds up a good album. Brian Tankersley was the engineer on the project. Sound guys would know that I guess, um, and I've worked with him since he went to

00:28:14.900 - 00:28:35.810

LA did some stuff and wound up in Nashville doing like Shania Twain recordings and did really good. Um, but John was a, a, a, just a wonderful guy. Uh, the, you know, when him and Debbie Debbie, his, his girlfriend was just absolutely one of the sweetest ladies,

00:28:35.819 - 00:28:53.469

you know, she hung out at, um, uh, Corky's quite a lot. That's why I probably knew her more even than I did John because she'd hang out with whoever was working the door. Those were kind of like all friends and stuff. And um, and then of course,

00:28:53.479 - 00:29:10.349

you know, the, the sad news of when John and Debbie were killed, which was, you know, a total, you know, shocker for everyone. Um, you know, John to my understanding had kind of taken this guy and that would help him work on his MG's and John

00:29:10.359 - 00:29:25.930

had kind of a collection of older MG's that was his kind of passion. Uh He lived out kind of had a little piece of property out kind of Tomball area. I always understood but never went. And apparently John did a little bit of extra curricular

00:29:25.939 - 00:29:48.910

activities to say and um this person decided to bring some friends and come back and rob them and, and murder them and uh very, very sad. Uh shook up the our whole community massively, nobody knew what happened. Nobody knew if it was something more involved if

00:29:48.920 - 00:30:08.420

anybody else should be afraid it was and it was just one off evil, plain and simple, just one off evil and a true loss that, that man could go into Rockefeller's completely packed house with nothing but his guitar and within half a song had the place

00:30:08.430 - 00:30:29.000

in his pocket. And, uh, uh, I, there's like some CD's out that, that his daughters released. Uh, recently she started putting some more recordings that she has out online. I saw a picture of the whole crew uh in on the stage and Rockefellers all wearing

00:30:29.010 - 00:30:46.040

white tuxedos and uh and that was kind of cool. I don't think it had anything to do with the recording, but it was an absolute great shot. Um And so, you know, that, that's, that's pretty much my John memory seems, you know, great guy taken too

00:30:46.050 - 00:31:11.829

soon as somewhere. Um, after kind of moving on from working with Marcoulier um Russell, Vandiver, Cooper, um you started to mix sound for um some of Jimmy Raycraft bands. Yeah, Jimmy was a guitar player for Michael and, and Michael just got into, you know, some kind of more

00:31:11.839 - 00:31:25.910

personal issues and stuff and, and things just got a little maybe too serious for Jimmy and I, and we were kind of hanging out buddies and stuff anyway. So it was kind of like, it's kind of like the, the our gang comedy of, well, we can have

00:31:25.920 - 00:31:42.739

a play. We got a barn and Jimmy and I were, we can put a band together. We, we know how to do that. And, um, I don't know that we necessarily did. We started with, you know, Michael's other members and, um, uh Mike Roberts was part

00:31:42.750 - 00:32:00.510

of the Potatoes Band and he was, uh, now plays with Shake and has for years, just a wonderful guy. And, um, so we did some stuff with him. We did, um, um, a project called Jimmy Ray, Ray Craft and the Thin Men right out of the, um,

00:32:01.420 - 00:32:15.790

let's see, I guess, was that, uh, no, actually that was after the dishes project. So I'm jumping, jumping bands a little. So we tried some things called the Potatoes and different things right after Michael and we would play at Touch of Texas up in Huntsville because

00:32:15.800 - 00:32:33.050

we did a lot of shows up there. Touch of Texas was a very interesting club as well. It was literally on the Town Square might have used to have been an old movie theater, uh, about two blocks down from the prison walls, which is, needless to

00:32:33.060 - 00:32:51.540

say, an interesting place to be trying to play music. Um, the sound board was very strange. It was upstairs and directly above the band. So to mix, you had to make your adjustments, run out of the sound booth, run to the opposite end of the club

00:32:51.550 - 00:33:07.810

upstairs and listen and lean down and see if it sounded ok and then whatever else and you run back and make other adjustments. It was, it was different but a great, also a great place. Uh, local Huntsville people, James Gray, I think was one of the

00:33:07.819 - 00:33:26.770

owners and, uh, just, you know, really good people. Uh, Jimmy Don Smith and the Coal Cuts, which were really unbelievable kind of more blues type band, uh, would play there a lot and I mixed sound for him probably a couple of times there. And, uh, you

00:33:26.780 - 00:33:45.000

know, he, he, he was just one of those monster players. If he hadn't have passed, he would have probably been the, the other Stevie Ray Vaughn kind of guy and very, very talented. And so, um, after the, um, the Potatoes, then there were the dishes, right, the

00:33:45.010 - 00:34:00.760

Dishes kind of, um, was one of those things where we just went, well, this is the other thing is not working very good, but let's try something different. Ok, because, you know, with bands, it's always, it's always a ever changing kind of gel form of some

00:34:00.770 - 00:34:18.239

sort until, until something say solidifies. And, um, uh, Jimmy and I both knew a girl named Barbara Donohoe and she was a guitar player, keyboard player, singer. Uh, Jimmy knew a guy named Dickie Malone who was a bass player and Jimmy had worked with him previously

00:34:18.250 - 00:34:38.159

in a very unusual rock and roll band called Spats. And, uh, so Dicky kind of came and then we tried some different drummers. One drummer was, uh, came over to be interviewed and he pulled up in an old vintage Ford sixties Ford gets out carries his

00:34:38.169 - 00:34:55.209

drum kit in his drum pedal is the pedal of a drum bass drum is normally metal and all this was cut out of a piece of wood, I guess to the shape of his foot. And in the resume that he sent us, he said he was

00:34:55.219 - 00:35:08.350

a stand up show drummer. So after we did a song or two, and, you know, he, we could tell he had speed issues, meaning that he would start out at one speed. And at the end of the song, he'd be, you know, moving a lot faster

00:35:08.360 - 00:35:24.760

than anybody else. But he was telling the story about how he became a stand up drummer. He said, well, it's 1111 day I, I had this new drum stool and I played and we had a long show and I played just, it started rubbing a sore

00:35:24.770 - 00:35:40.260

on me. And I finally, I just stood up and I, and I kicked that stool away and I've been standing up to play ever since. Fortunately, he wasn't our drummer, but he was made for some really great stories. Uh, we tried, uh, another couple of drummers

00:35:40.270 - 00:35:55.350

on our 1st and 2nd gig because we just wanted to get out there and play. You should always have your, your whole show together before you take adventures. We did one show and we did a lot of Beatles music with the Dishes. Um The first show

00:35:55.360 - 00:36:15.850

we did had almost every Beatles song, had an incredible reggae beat, not quite what you're after, but different. Um And then, uh after that, we finally discovered through a waitress at Corky's, her husband, Pete Falconi was a, a drummer. And so we got talking to Pete.

00:36:15.860 - 00:36:30.439

We all liked him because he was just, you know, one of those guys that you could not help but like, you know, drummers will have concentrate concentration points when their face goes or their mouth or the tongue sticks out. But it's what they used to do.

00:36:30.449 - 00:36:47.570

Their concentrating. Pete's was just a giant smile. He could not play without it being a giant smile. That was his point of concentration. And, uh, so it turned into a real interesting project. Um We were given a warning at Corky's one night for doing, uh a

00:36:47.969 - 00:37:05.969

Harry Nilsson song. "You're breaking my heart, you're tearing me apart." So two words I can't say right now. But, uh, unfortunately, we had a gentleman in the audience from the Texas alcohol and beverage commission and on break, he came up and said, guys, I uh could

00:37:05.979 - 00:37:22.459

give you, uh uh a ticket for that, but you did it really well. So just maybe not do it again. OK. And so we were smart enough to know, not, not to do it again. But that, that band was pretty experimental and, and uh they were

00:37:22.469 - 00:37:41.679

doing some, uh, Johnny are you Queer song, which was kinda, it was a little new Wavy, a little, you know, kind of fun rock and roll stuff and turned into a really major dance dance show. We would pack Rockefellers, we would pack Fitzgeralds and, uh, just, you know,

00:37:41.689 - 00:38:01.129

consistently, sometimes one or two nights a month. And, uh, and, um, you know, and then Nacogdoches, we would just pack there of all places, College Station, there was a little tiny club there called Grins, Doctor G. And Morgan Stearns were the three names for the same

00:38:01.139 - 00:38:17.889

place. And I'm sorry, I can't remember in what order they were. But, um, but at this place was literally a hole in the wall like a small house, but they literally would pack in through the night. We would have 300 people pay covers through the door

00:38:18.729 - 00:38:45.429

and it was, you know, just a whole lot of fun, you know, college towns. Um Then I guess at some point you, when did you start working for, um Beans Barton? Um I started, well, the Jimmy Dishes project probably broke up in 86 87 fantasized about

00:38:45.439 - 00:39:01.520

going to chiropractic school and realized that that was gonna be financially just a bit of a challenge. So I took a job at LD Systems, which is probably at that time and probably still to this day is the largest sound and lighting company in town. They

00:39:01.530 - 00:39:19.330

do the Sound and Lights for Houston Rodeo. Uh, they toured with, uh, ZZ Top, they toured with Stevie Ray back in the days. So they, you know, they, they, and they've done major stuff that probably have the most state of the art sound gear, you know,

00:39:19.340 - 00:39:36.209

in the country at this time. Um, so working there, it kind of was like, you know, uh, it was a job, you know, it was full time, it was, you know, running the rental department and not, you know, kind of missing music, reality and Beans, you

00:39:36.219 - 00:39:49.389

know, called up and said we sure we should come, you know, fix us. And I go, well, let me give it a try. And the good thing about Beans at the time was he would always pretty much just, he didn't wanna work odd nights. He was

00:39:49.399 - 00:40:04.399

always, I wanna work Saturday nights because that's when the people come out, that's when I can recover on Sundays, that kind of thing. And so I went out, started mixing them just obviously Beans is one of these kind of people that you, you got to admire

00:40:04.409 - 00:40:20.899

him for so many reasons other than being the musician, being the Mr mom, being whatever other great things the guy has accomplished the performance artist, the real artist. Um, any guy that can take a blank canvas at the beginning of the night and at the end

00:40:20.909 - 00:40:35.449

of the night auctioned it off for the Houston Food Bank. That's, that's, that's cool. I just gets points. Um, and, and it just, you know, it's one of those things where Beans told me about halfway through it. You know, if you ever stop doing this, I'm

00:40:35.459 - 00:40:54.040

gonna stop it. I don't put that on me ever, but after about 24 years got to the point where he really wasn't enjoying working in clubs as much. I, um, and then so he would try to want to go out and do like a show in

00:40:54.050 - 00:41:13.270

a, a venue. Uh I think the last few he's done were in a Frenetic theater, like a dance type place in the east end and really neat little venue, perfect place. But at that point, with a full time job and the thought of having to

00:41:13.280 - 00:41:25.290

arrange of sound system, have it there for the day for rehearsal, pray that it's there the next day when you show up for your job, which is getting a little too much for me. So at that point, I kind of begged out maybe in the last

00:41:25.300 - 00:41:44.120

two years and, uh you know, kind of just, uh I, I run a crew of 10 people doing sound every day of the week where I work. And uh so an average of about 80 events a week. So I, I um I get all that pretty

00:41:44.129 - 00:42:09.360

much, you know, I'm still, I'm still satisfied pretty much with that. So if you think about kind of the comparisons, how was it mixing for kind of folk related acts versus rock bands. Uh, drums, drums. I, I just, I, I'll say it, I'll say it. Uh,

00:42:09.370 - 00:42:27.199

my, my absolute favorite television show right now of all things comes on the Rural Farm channel and it's the Marty Stewart show. If you haven't seen it, figure out a way to see it. It's, it's absolutely wonderful and it's very kind of old school and they'll

00:42:27.209 - 00:42:43.479

even bring out his wife who's a pretty famous country singer and they'll do a gospel song at some point and they'll have everybody on the show you can think of. But there are places where the drummer will walk out during a beautiful gospel song or even

00:42:43.489 - 00:43:00.949

a country song with a snare drum on his belt and brushes and just give the feel of the rhythm. Um So that's really the main difference. You know, there are folk acts that I've mixed, you know, that have, have drums and that's all great, but usually

00:43:00.959 - 00:43:13.379

they're a little more reserved. With rock and roll. You know, your mix starts with the kick drum and you build off of that and you want it to, you know, you want people to, with rock and roll. The, the kind of, I guess real difference is

00:43:13.649 - 00:43:30.280

the kick drum and the bass guitar you want to feel right here in your chest as crazy as that sounds when you do. You know that the mix is getting right for what people want to feel, to dance and that's pretty much the difference. Focus, listening

00:43:30.340 - 00:43:48.709

rock is, you know, hopefully you're gonna get people up and moving and dancing and that's, that's, and, and of course, obviously the volume factor, uh, rock is always gonna be louder. Uh, you know, leads are gonna be bring that lead out that's here. With folk, It's,

00:43:48.719 - 00:44:04.810

it's, you know, so discretionary, you don't pull something out a lot if it's already there and sounding really good. Like I think I mentioned to you about mixing Slaid Cleaves at the Mucky Duck and the greatest thing about it was at one point he said, Danny,

00:44:04.820 - 00:44:22.020

turn the monitors off and he had a nice big old style, large diaphragm type recording microphone that was set up and the band formed a horseshoe around the microphone. So when he'd sing, he'd lean into the microphone and when somebody would take a lead, they'd lean

00:44:22.030 - 00:44:44.929

into the microphone and that's, to me that's, that's some real pure stuff. So, and then looking over kind of that time period in Houston in the seventies and eighties. Um What do you think has changed in the music scene? Um I, I still, like I said,

00:44:44.939 - 00:45:02.850

up until probably up until the nineties, I would still, you know, go out hear clubs, you know, sometimes mix it Dan Electro's just because my friend Jim Hall, he was the owner and one another one that like was kind enough to you know, allow me to

00:45:02.860 - 00:45:18.020

mix, uh, you know, to, when someone trusts you enough to go. Hey, I'm, I'm in, I got a tend bar night. Will you cover me? Yeah. And, and, and that's great. Through, through that I was able to mix, uh, Billy Joe Shaver on his birthday one

00:45:18.030 - 00:45:36.540

year there. Um, the year I think previous to that, uh, I mixed him when his son, Eddie was still alive and his mom or somebody in his family had just passed away and, you know, we were just talking about all that and then the very next

00:45:36.550 - 00:45:56.199

year I think Eddie had passed. So, uh you, you know, like one more example of just music is pretty magical. The opportunities that allows you, I once did sound for Jerry Lewis at the Galleria. How crazy is that Jerry Lewis? But turned out for my entire

00:45:56.209 - 00:46:15.340

life. I thought he wasn't gonna be a really nice guy. I figured he would be not and he was the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. So, go figure, um are there any kind of ways that you could look over that time period and kind

00:46:15.350 - 00:46:36.479

of like kind of things that you can something that made it special or I think, I think that to me what, what made that, that time period special was there was a music community. Everybody knew each other. Everybody's kind of supported each other. Um Yeah. In,

00:46:36.489 - 00:46:54.689

in places like Corky's. Yeah, musicians were just waved through your on the guest list. It was, you know, you're part of the family. I think that was really part of what made that time period so magical in a way because people would not only there'd

00:46:54.699 - 00:47:12.070

be a great act like Uncle Walt's band performing at Corky's for just unbelievable. Um And then in the audience you would see Shake and you would see this person and this other musician and they'd all be just mesmerized by, you know, how good they were. And

00:47:12.080 - 00:47:29.139

then the same thing on Shake's night, he'd be up there and the other people would be in the audience. Same thing. It's, to me that's, that's, that's where it really gets past just being, you know, going to hear somebody and, and such as that there actually

00:47:29.149 - 00:47:45.030

is a community. People see it, people know when there's other performers in the audience. And because of that, I think that draws people into clubs for that reason. So, uh and I, and I don't know that, I mean, I know that up until, you know, I

00:47:45.040 - 00:48:03.959

kind of stopped in the last I'll say 10 years or better really doing a whole lot of club stuff. Um I, I, that could very well be going on right now and I hope desperately it is because to me, it's, to me, it's crucial. Everything as

00:48:03.969 - 00:48:19.399

you showed me from the incredible archives that are here, everything that we do, even some silly poster. It means something. It, it, it, it's part of our history. It's part of what people did, Jimmy used to do these silly flyers that I'm sure I might have

00:48:19.409 - 00:48:38.919

brought you some that were nothing but he'd take old magazines and do his own version of clip art and cut out little funny cartoon faces and stuff and turn that into the calendar for the month, events and, uh, you know, things where you learn about making

00:48:38.929 - 00:48:55.110

posters. Uh, you know, we, how many posters have you seen that has so much information on it. Unless you're standing right beside it. You couldn't, you couldn't tell what it was. I still think some of the greatest posters ever made were the ones that Liberty Hall

00:48:55.120 - 00:49:14.989

Liberty Hall had, which were like famous posters with like red, yellow, green or something, just sections on it. But they'd have the artist picture, the location, the date, probably $4 cover or something like that to see, you know, who knows somebody that nowadays you would pay

00:49:15.000 - 00:49:32.800

a fortune for. Well, I want to thank you so much for coming in and, um, for talking about what you do and, um, the experiences that you had, this has been an absolute pleasure, wasn't sure, but I really enjoyed it.