Country Nu-Notes
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Country Nu-Notes session tape
box
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On a Sunday night in February 1974, Bill Josey hauled his 2-track
Ampex recorder and portable audio mixer down to the Broken Spoke,
one of Austin's most popular and, to this day, infamous honky
tonk dance halls. There he recorded a live performance by the
Country Nu-Notes. By the mid-'70s, Austin had already become
the world headquarters for the "outlaw" country
movement, but bucking that trend, the Country Nu-Notes' music
remained true to the classic country tradition. The Broken Spoke
session may have been intended to yield a live album for
release on the Sonobeat label; spanning three full 7" tapes,
the total running time of the recorded material -- 29
songs -- was about 90 minutes. It's unclear from the Sonobeat
archives whether Josey circulated any demos of the Country Nu-Notes
to national record labels, as he had done with tapes of so many
other groups. Songs recorded included My Shoes Keep Walking
Back to You, Sundown, Night Life, This
Drinkin' Thing, She Calls Me Baby Baby All Night Long, Whiskey
River, Red Neck Mother, Silver Wings, White
Lightning, Jolie Blon, Big Blue Diamonds, Red
Red Wine, Peanuts, Keep on Smiling, Holding
Things Together, The Only Thing I Have on My Mind Is
Loving You, Tell Me a Lie, Silver Bells, It
Was Always So Easy to Find That Unhappy Woman, The Back
Door to Heaven, Sangria Wine, Cinderella, I
Honestly Love You, and I Can Help You.
The Country Nu-Notes were formed by Johnny
Lyon (who now operates
the Texas Hall of Fame in Bryan, Texas) when he was a high school
student, and the Sonobeat recordings were made during the band's
first year together. Lyon has kept the band together and performing
for over 30 years, albeit with many personnel changes. The Country
Nu-Notes' recordings and the single by the Afro-Caravan -- which
was recorded at HemisFair '68 in San Antonio -- are the only
known live recordings made by Sonobeat; however, we haven't heard
any actual audience noise, such as applause or chatter, on
the Nu-Note tapes, suggesting that the Nu-Note sessions may
have been recorded when the Broken Spoke was closed to the
public.
No other artists are known to have recorded unreleased material
at Sonobeat Studios in 1974. This is partly because in mid-'73,
Bill moved the Sonobeat Studios to an old stone A.M.E. church
outside Liberty Hill, Texas; it took him almost a year to get
the new facility ready. Notably, Bill's "Blue Hole Sounds", as
he called the new Liberty Hill studios, were still not ready in
February '74, so Bill was forced to record the Nu-Notes at the
Broken Spoke.
We picked a couple of representative samples from
the Country Nu-Notes tapes to present here, including a cover
of the Willie Nelson classic, Night Life, which was also
covered by Don
Dean as a 1967 Sonobeat release. The
other is the Nu-Notes cover of the Ray Price 1957 country hit, My
Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, written by Lee Ross and James
Robert Wills.
Next: 1975 |
