"THE HISTORY of NW ROCK, Vol. 2: THE GARAGE YEARS" (1999)

AN EPIC ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION into Seattle’s senior pop label’s master tape vaults yielded this selected set of twenty-two vintage Teen-R&B ravers and classic Pacific Northwest rock ‘n’ roll tunes. It is a solid mix of groundbreaking smash hits, long-lost regional radio classics, and wondrously unknown ‘60s Garage Rock gems.

THIS SECOND VOLUME of Jerden Record’s History of Northwest Rock CD series is an exploration of the secondary phase of that distinct regional strain of music widely known as the original “Northwest Sound.” To backtrack: On the History of Northwest Rock Vol. 1 (JRCD 7002) of this series we recalled how between about 1958 and 1963 a teen subculture had emerged with a its own sound that was essentially an aggressive jazz-tinged offshoot of ‘50’s West Coast Rhythm & Blues traditions. This largely instrumental music form often highlighted sophisticated horn sections, squalling sax solos, driving electric guitar leads, and the mighty oomph of the ubiquitous Hammond b-3 organ. 

Now, this disc tracks the development of the “Original Northwest Sound” into its next significant phase by following the musicians in their stylistic trek “Back to the Garage.” This was an era when many of the scene’s earlier musical subtleties were willfully abandoned resulting in a savage wild-ass school of rockin’ that has been credited with representing the very beginnings of what later came to be known as proto-punk Garage Rock.

Our story picks up around 1962, a point in time when Pacific Northwest kids were enjoying a truly vibrant teenscene that was fueled by Battles of the Bands events, pushed along by pied-piper Top-40 DJs, documented by new mom & pop record labels, and anchored around weekly dances. By this time the previously low-key high school sock-hops had expanded into a regular dance circuit that included old union halls, legendary ballrooms like Parkers, the Evergreen, and the Spanish Castle, as well as roller rinks, roadhouses, armories and, eventually, full-fledged Teen Fairs.

It was late-’62, just about the time that the World’s Fair wound down, when Seattle record promoter, Jerry Dennon, returned from a couple years in Los Angeles and began preparing to reactivate his dormant Jerden label. Funds were still tight so he kicked things off by issuing a couple 45s produced from a few old masters that were still lying around from Jerden’s first attempt back in 1960. Dennon had just begun to ponder just how and where he would discover a talent that had the potential to push his label into the big-time when around April of ‘63 he was contacted by Ken Chase, a Portland DJ who owned a teenclub, The Chase. The pitch was that Chase was managing a band called the Kingsmen, that the band had a readymade audience at the club, and that Chase could guarantee radio airplay for the band. All they needed was a record. Would Dennon consider releasing a 45 on his label?  Sure, that was a no-brainer. Thus, within a week or so Chase had his band ensconced in Portland’s Northwestern recording studio cutting their rendition of a song that the region’s top act, Tacoma’s Wailers, had scored a huge local hit with back in 1961 – and a song that has remained the region’s signature tune ever since – “Louie Louie”.

And, well, the rest is history: As it happened, another Portland-based combo, Paul Revere & the Raiders, along with their DJ/manager, also decided to record a version of that very same song, in that very same studio, that very same week.  The ensuing Battle of the Louies has become a fabled event that eventually resulted in both bands getting signed to contracts by big-time labels and launching successful careers. The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” – a song whose wonderfully sloppy nature was instantly understood by the international teenage underground to be of the highest virtue – was (falsely) identified as having pornographic lyrics – causing it to face media scrutiny, governmental bannings, FBI and FCC investigations, and the like. A natural born promoter, Dennon poured gas on this fire by publicly offering a $1000 reward for proof of the offending lyrics – a gambit that brought even more press coverage. All of these factors, of course, ultimately led to “Louie Louie” selling an estimated 12 million copies over the years. Furthermore, to some rock historians the tune has come to signify the very beginnings of the Garage Rock Era.

Jerden, meanwhile, had scored the initial hit it needed to establish itself in the industry’s eyes as another (after Dolton Records’ amazing success in 1959-’60) savvy Seattle-based label. Over the next few years Dennon expanded his efforts, launching two additional labels (Panorama and Piccadilly Records) and dramatically increased his activity in general: In ‘63 he issued about 25 records total, in ’64 that grew to about 40 records, and by ’65 he produced over 60 records. Thus decades before the time when Northwest rock would be known as Grunge and the world associated that sound with Seattle’s Sub Pop label, Dennon had carved out a wide reputation as the king of rock records in the region.

So:  The stage is set, the crowd is stompin’ and shoutin’, the steam is risin’, and the bands are ready to rumble once again…. Well, so what are we waitin’ for?  Let’s get to the tunes!!! 

By 1963 Northwest teenagers had become so loyal to their own scene’s distinct musical soundtrack that we really didn’t have much time for imported pop sounds. That mindset explains why California’s Beachboys’ wimpy Surfer Rock was mercilessly booed at their debut appearance in Seattle in ’62. And too, why in May of ’63 when the Beatles’ sappy “From Me to You” debuted on Seattle’s giant KJR radio, the odd sounding British tune simply didn’t catch on and was promptly dropped from the playlist after one week.

What us Northwest kids did want to hear was very simple: “Louie Louie.”  This was a clear marketplace demand that the Wailers, the Kingsmen, the Raiders, Don & the Goodtimes and about a dozen other local bands who recorded versions were happy to supply. Even a gender-modified variation like the Raymarks’ version, “Louise Louise,” was welcomed.

For that matter, even well into the decade occasional stabs back at the earlier instrumental rock tradition (like Don & Goodtimes’ “Turn On” – which was a remake of the Counts’ huge regional radio hit “Turn On Song”) were appreciated. Another few examples that illustrate the very tail end of that classic early R&B-infused period are the Counts’ “Trick Bag”, the Bandits’ “Little Sally Walker,” and George Washington & Cherrybombs’ remake of the Raiders’ naughty early stage favorite, “Crisco Party.”

The local teenscene was going strong however by 1964 inexorable changes were unfolding in pop: the Southern California Surf Rock craze’s popularity had continued to increase, ultimately leading to the mass marketing of surf-related tunes about hot rods, skateboards, stingray bikes, Honda scooters, etc… And, of course, in February the Beatles landed at Kennedy Airport and the relentless British Invasion of the American pop charts commenced in full. In no time it suddenly seemed that bands everywhere were adopting new surfer or Anglo identities to cash in on these pop trends. Washington’s coastal towns of Aberdeen/Hoquiam produced the Beachcombers who shared the bill with Beach Boys at a local dance. This disc reprises their classic “The Wheeley” as well as offering their previously unreleased garage pounder “Farmer John”. Meanwhile the Jesters recorded “Alki Point,” a boss tune named for the beachfront cruising strip in West Seattle.

But even as the established Northwest rock esthetic was being diluted by these new outside influences the teenscene prepared to retaliate with a secret weapon or two. In 1964 lots of locals – especially other bands – began taking note of a combo from Tacoma called the Sonics. Indeed, it was hard not to notice the band given that they’d developed an highly aggressive sound that was simply unprecedented in rock ‘n’ roll. The sum of their snarling vocals, demented lyrics, scorching guitar, and whiplash drumming was a key precursor to punk rock – long before anyone knew what to call it. In the wake of the Sonics’ emergence, everyone from the Raiders to the Wailers to the Kingsmen began toughening up their sound.  For that matter British groups who heard the Sonics opening for their tours in Seattle became big fans including the Kinks and the Who. This 1966 recording of the fuzz-guitar basher “High Time” was from one of the Sonics’ final sessions.

With the Sonics serving as the primary guiding light the Garage Rock Era was now fully under way and Northwest bands were producing the tuffest rock music in the land. By this point Oregon was proving to be a serious hotbed of proto-punk energy: Portland’s Don & the Goodtimes struck again with their put-down hit “Little Sally Tease,” Eugene’s Heirs gave fair warning with “You Better Slow Down,” Salem’s Live Five snorted “Hunose,” and Portland’s Mr. Lucky & Gamblers wailed “(Stop) Take A Look At Me” – a plea honored when big-time Dot Records took notice and licensed it for wider distribution. Meanwhile Bremerton, Washington’s Raymarks kept the faith with “I Believed,” Tacoma’s Galaxies kicked out “Along Comes The Man,” and Seattle’s Dimensions and Tom Thumb & the Casuals offered up, respectively, “Knock You Flat,” and “I Should Know,”

Meanwhile another Jerden 45 – James Henry & Olympics’ cover version of an obscure tune (“My Girl Sloopy”) by an obscure LA-based R&B group (The Vibrations) – had an interesting fate. Marketed locally around April 1965, the Seattle band’s 45 was completely overshadowed when a couple months later the (Chicago-based) McCoys’ rendition (retitled: “Hang On Sloopy”) roared to #1 national hit status and, like the song it is reminiscent of – “Louie Louie” – it too has been a Garage band staple ever since.

One of many bands that remodeled themselves in the wake of the British craze was the Fabulous Continentals, er, the Bards. Though Dennon eventually cut a number of sizeable regional hits with this Moses Lake-based combo, he initially had difficulty getting their career going. At the time Dennon had scored enough hits that he was able to cut licensing deals with various major labels, however the Hollywood-based Capitol Records simply balked at his proposal that they issue the Bards’ new recording – a rocked up take on Edward Leer’s classic olde poem, “The Owl & The Pussycat.” Problem was, the tune wasn’t cut out of a deep sense of literary appreciation, or to note their fondness for fuzzy house pets, but was rather obviously a chance for the naughty boys to titillate their fans with the line “...oh what a beautiful pussy you are.” Dennon pushed though and a deal of sorts was finally struck: Capitol would press up a small number of test 45s with anonymous white labels. Then if Dennon could secure airplay for the Bards on the basis of his clout and the strength the song – in other words: without using the prestige of Capitol’s logo on the label – they would then perhaps reconsider and market it themselves. True to form, Dennon pulled it off; regional airplay was strong enough that Capitol ended up issuing the 45 – with a picture sleeve no less.

Meanwhile, KJR DJ Pat O’Day’s Teen Fairs were doing well and adding to the growing sense of a seriously vibrant regional scene. In 1966 the fair incorporated the First Annual Teenage Fair Band Championships and all kinds of new bands performed – some with a greater degree of originality than others as later noted by the UW Daily: "There are a lot of local bands in the Seattle area that few people have heard of. In most cases it is no loss. But in some cases it is. Case in point: The Famous Plums. Early this summer, an amateur band contest was held at the Seattle Teenage Fair. Ninety per cent of the bands in the competition fell into two categories: poor imitations of Paul Revere and the Raiders, complete with their steps, routines and song list; or poor imitations of the Rolling Stones, complete with 16-year old Jagger-style vocalists and a blinding conglomeration of checked, striped and houndstooth pants. …Anyway, somewhere between the 23rd version of ‘Satisfaction’ and a few versions of ‘Kicks,’ a most curious collection of musicians formed on the stage….”  Ah yes, Jack Horner & the Plums: This was a band who eschewed the usual band uniforms, synchronized dance steps, and canonized set lists shared by many of their peer combos, and thusly were noted as one of the first local bands that was a bit freaky – a harbinger of hippie things to come. As one of the event’s top finalists the Plums’ solid take on Bo Diddley’s classic, “Who Do You Love,” was included on one of Dennon’s resultant Battle of The Bands compilation LPs.

Though the spirit of Garage-Rock that was forged during the mid-60s was one that would re-energize the rock world more than once in ensuing decades, by about 1966 its initial influence on pop music was giving way. After the Brits conquered the world and the Surfers influence ebbed, the folk/protest singers and psychedelic bands soon found the spotlight.

One local band that bridged these eras was Bellingham’s Thee Unusuals. After cutting the very hep “I’m Walkin’ Babe” for Dennon the combo soon dropped all associations with the Northwest’s indigenous “Louie Louie” culture and transmogrified into a full-blown hippie band. Achieving levels of weirdness that most other bands could only aspire to – one bandmember performed wearing a boa constrictor years before Alice Cooper was even a twinkle in Satan’s eye – they soon were recording for a Chicago-based label, Mainstream Records, the same firm that would soon sign a young Frisco band, (Janis Joplin &) Big Brother & the Holding Company. Interestingly, after Joplin’s death, Big Brother forged on after recruiting one of the Unusuals’ singers, Kathy McDonald.

So, the Garage Rock Era – a joyfully primativistic period when Northwest Rock redefined itself and won a fanbase around the world – drew to an inevitable close. Now the Summer of Love awaited America’s youth. In the third volume of Jerden’s History of Northwest Rock (JRCD 7008) we will take a journey back to the dawn of that revolutionary era. Though a good number of Northwest musicians felt the siren song calling from Haight-Ashbury and headed off – some finding positions in such notable bands as Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and Quicksilver Messenger Service – many others stayed local and created great new music here in the Northwest. The History of Northwest Rock Volume 3 will showcase many of the finest and funkiest recordings of Seattle’s peace-nik jug bands, mushroom-addled psychedelic rockers, and Flower Power freaks. 'Till then…

[NOTE: This is a lightly edited version of an essay that was originally published as liner-notes for Jerden Records' THE HISTORY of NW ROCK VOL. II CD]

"THE HISTORY of NW ROCK, Vol. I: THE ORIGINAL NORTHWEST SOUND" (1994)

NO MERE GREATEST HITS compendium this. Rather, the initial volume of Jerden Records’ History of Northwest Rock series is an unparalleled aural chronicle of a distinct regional sub-strain of ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll, the original “Northwest Sound.” This compilation is intended as a kickoff point in an effort to dig back into the depths of the Pacific Northwest region’s big-beat roots.

AN EPIC ARCHEOLOGICAL exploration of Seattle’s senior pop label’s master-tape vaults yielded this select set of twenty-one vintage rock tunes. It's a solid mix of long-lost regional radio classics, the nearly forgotten, and the absolutely unknown. Certainly a number of the area’s premiere early-‘60s combos are represented here by their best-known hit(s), but equally swingin’ are the other selections which were strictly commercial flops upon their original release. The remaining couple gems have rested in the can unheard by human ears for three decades. Enjoy.

As you'll hear: The rockin’ teen-R&B sound that developed in the Pacific Northwest was an aggressive jazz-tinted offshoot of ‘50s West Coast Rhythm & Blues traditions – as exemplified by the likes of Ray Charles, Freddy King, Big Jay McNeely and Richard "Louie Louie" Berry – with a wild streak of Little Richard, Bill Doggett, James Brown, and Peter Gunn all thrown in for good measure. And so it came to pass that this provincial brand of dance music would rely heavily on pounding pianos (and then later the oomph of a big Hammond b-3 organ), squalling sax solos and/or rich horn choirs, tight drumming, and proto-Spaghetti Western blues guitars, all melded into ensemble workouts that were executed with all the finesse of a runaway night train.

Around 1959 the whole thing got chuggin’ along here in the Northwest when a slew of local teenaged combos suddenly managed to hit the Billboard and Cash Box charts with their debut 45s. All within a few months time-span, a string of solid hits were racked up by Seattle’s Frantics and Ron Holden & the Thunderbirds, Tacoma’s Little Bill & the Bluenotes, the Ventures, and the Wailers, and Olympia’s Fleetwoods. Indeed, the Frantics and the Wailers would both score twice that year. The Fleetwoods finished out '59 with four major hits.

The Wailers and Holden were handled by established New York or Hollywood-based labels so their success was at least imaginable. The miraculous feat, however, was that the other four of these acts had been independently produced in Seattle by a tiny startup company called Dolton Records. For a fledgling label based out in the cultural backwaters, Dolton’s international success was phenomenal. And for a truly magic season or two the firm could do no wrong. The size and goals of the operation expanded in step with their meteoric rise and eventually the label would abandon the local scene, relocating to Los Angeles.

While still in town, though, Dolton served as the perfect model. And thus, in the wake of all this action, scores of other mom & pop record companies quickly sprang up. It seems that overnight everybody and their brother suddenly thought that they, too, could pick hits. Dolton had made it all look so easy after all and now everyone was an expert. And, of course, every “talent” around was set on booking a session at the facility where all these hits were being cut: hobbyist Joe Boles’ home studio in West Seattle.

In the midst of all this excitement hit-singer/producer Bonnie Guitar – who was one of the label’s principals – jumped ship in the early ‘60s, taking along a young promo-man, Jerry Dennon, and the duo launched their own label, Jerden Records. The very first combos that Jerden signed were the Adventurers of Seattle, the Exotics from Kent, and the Checkers who hailed from the Lower Yakima valley. The latter band featured Larry Coryell, who would later make a name for himself in the jazz world. Nevertheless, neither the Checkers’ Jerden 45, “Soft Blue,” nor the Adventurers’ “Little Genie,” nor the Exotics’ “Four banger” managed to strike the pop hit jackpot. The label had an inauspicious start; within a few short months – and after only issuing a handful of 45s – Jerden folded. Dennon and Guitar each went their own separate ways – to the music biz in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, over the next couple years the Northwest’s rock ‘n’ roll scene would flourish. The long-standing school-based sock-hops were augmented by the first commercial teendances thrown at old dancehalls and roadhouses like Seattle’s Parker’s Ballroom and the Spanish Castle, Mount Vernon’s Seven Cedars, and Olympia’s Evergreen Ballroom. And Seattle's 1962 Century 21 World’s Fair injected a good deal of energy into the town’s economy. The local nightclub and teenage radio market both came into their own around this time period and opportunities for young bands generally expanded. By 1963 Dennon was back in town and Jerden was back in the game. Joe Boles had passed away and the label continued on recording local combos, usually downtown with engineer Kearney Barton at Audio Recorders.

One of Jerden’s first signings was the Dave Lewis Trio. This act was without a doubt the singular indigenous talent to exert a major direct musical influence in the development of a regional rock aesthetic. Pianist/bandleader Dave Lewis had been the musical trendsetter on Seattle’s scene since about 1956 when his trailblazing combo toured the region billed as the “Northwest’s Greatest Rock ‘N’ Roll Band.” They may in fact have been the greatest. What we know for sure is that the Dave Lewis Combo was the first at just about everything. If not the town’s first teen band, they were surely the first with a Fender electric bass guitar. The town’s first killer horn section. And, for the record: years and years prior to any white kids ever picking up on “Louie Louie,” the Dave Lewis Combo was doin’ it to it weekly at the regular Central District gig at the Birdland danceclub. The combo hipped alotta local musicians (including young Jimi Hendrix) to alotta things in the years before they dissolved at the decades end.

Then Lewis resurfaced playing the electric organ in a killer R&B trio with Dicky Enfield (drums) and ex-Adventurer Joe Johansen (guitar). These three players were to have an undeniable influence on legions of their contemporaries and many of Lewis’ originals became standards in the developing canon of classic Northwest Teen-R&B tunes. The trio really shows who’s boss on their Jerden debut 45, “David’s Mood.” Not only did the song prove irresistible to damn near every local combo with an organ, but it broke out as a strong radio hit all across the region. “David’s Mood,” however, never took off nationally though it did earn the trio a bigtime album contract with Herb Alpert’s young A&M label. 

One of Dave Lewis’ numerous instrumental tunes that became staples on the scene, virtually required of all bands, was “J.A.J.” In Seattle the Dynamics scored the hit but the version laid down here is by the Kingsmen. A Portland band, the Kingsmen actually also recorded Lewis’ “David’s Mood” and “Lip Service.” “Feel Alright” – yet another of Lewis’ dancefloor faves – is covered here in a previously unreleased version by the Counts. A Seattle band that had formed back in ’59 at Ballard High School, the Counts by this point were a top draw on the dance circuit.

And please note a few other sonic artifacts from this period: “Crossfiring” and “Backyard Compost” by Seattle’s Imperials, “Fidget” by Leroy & the Gallahads, Moses Lake's Johnny & the Velvetones with both sides of their Jerden 45 “Hitch Hiking Home” / “S.O.S.” and also a previously unreleased blaster, “Full Stop Ahead.” Don’t forget “Purple Peanuts” by Hoquiam High School’s Beachcombers, or – from Spokane’s Central Valley High – Doug Robertson & the Goodguys, who contribute a couple Jerden tracks, “Drivin’ Home” and “Quiet Riot,” as well as an obscurity of interest only here probably – their faithful remake of Ron Holden’s 1960 Top-10 R&B ballad, “Love You So.” And, once experienced, who among us is able to forget Portland’s Gentleman Jim & the Horsemen and their “Soul Searchin’”? The final cut on Vol. 1 is a second selection by the Counts, showcasing their boss horn section and the blistering guitar-work of Dan Olason on the down-home original, “Chitlin’s Etc.”

Certainly a cool bunch of tunes, and ones that serve as a fine and proper introduction to the subject. Yet by any measure, Jerden Records’ greatest mark in all musicdom was made in mid-’63 with the label’s release of that infamous and immortal 45, “Louie Louie,” by the Kingsmen. But, well, we’ve raced a little bit ahead of our story’s pace – to sync up again you’ll want to head ‘Back To The Garage’ with us on the History of Northwest Rock Volume II (Jerden 7007).

[NOTE: A version of the essay originally appeared as liner notes on Jerden Records' History of Northwest Rock Volume I album.]

"LOUDER THAN HECK: THE NORTHWEST NOW," DISCoveries Magazine (1990)

THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT but that it was those those rockin’ vinyl 45s, as issued by small independent record companies, which defined the “Northwest Sound” of the 1960s. The success of these local labels was possible mainly because of the favorable economics of marketing music in a format that was both popular and affordable.

By the 1970s the “long-play” (LP) album had long since become the industry’s standard format of choice, but it was those trusty little 45s that the emerging punk rockers, new wavers, and post-punkers predominantly used throughout the 1980s.

As we head into the ‘90s, the general public is constantly being told by corporate media that the days of vinyl are gone and we must accustom ourselves to CDs and cassettes. This may well be true. But apparently somebody has yet to relay this important message to all the small regional/local bands and their labels. Indeed: during the last couple of years vinyl output by local bands – at least up here in the Pacific Northwest – has skyrocketed in volume and the end of this phenomenon is seemingly nowhere in sight. Rumors of inexpensive CDs have remained largely that, so it is still most economical for a new band to issue their debut recordings on vinyl 45s. There has been some mighty music released recently on independent LPs in the Northwest as well.

By the mid-1980s the Pacific Northwest had garnered a worldwide reputation for its legions of heavy metal bands and their epic albums. A few of the area’s premier metal-meisters include: Queensrÿche (EMI), Metal Church (Elektra), Q5 (Polygram), Fifth Angel (CBS), Sanctuary (CDB), TKO (Infinity), Rail (EMI), Coven and Lethal Dose (Ever Rat), MACE (Restless), and Alice In Chains (CBS).

In my opinion, band for band, the best of our current crop easily out-rocks the bands from the Northwest’s sixties scene. Northwest rock has rarely been as exciting, or noisy, as it is today. And noise – grating, grinding, gloriously tortuous noise – was the element that had been missing for so long. For too many years the music had gotten soft: the tiring granola music of the ‘70s as well as the tedious power-ballads of the ‘80s.  It seems that many "rock bands" everywhere somehow forgot the self-evident truth that joyful noise itself was a crucial, if not virtually essential, aspect of real rock ‘n’ roll.

The common thread in much of the best rock music from Little Richard’s unrestrained orgiastic screams to Link Wray’s rumbling guitar amp to any Sex Pistols song you can name, is harsh, rude, noise performed with such wildness as to guarantee your old parents a one-way trip to the nuthouse.

And it is noise that is also the key to the new and recently much-vaunted “Seattle Sound.” Since about 1986, when the local metal and post-punk scenes began cross-pollinating, a certain strata of are bands have generated an aggressive and unusually heavy approach to hard rock.

A handful of new labels emerged with vinyl by the crew of rockers and immediately a whole slew of the local independent releases grabbed international attention. In no time at all major labels were scrambling to grab a piece of the action. Some of these initial signings include: Seattle’s Soundgarden with its recent Grammy-nominated LP, Ultramega OK (SST), and subsequent LP, Louder Than Love (A&M). Then there’s the Screaming Trees from Ellensburg, Washington, which has gained a wide audience with a few LPs including, Even If and Especially When (SST). And don’t forget Seattle’s other up-&-comers:  SGM’s Aggression (Medusa), Mother Love Bone’s Shine (Polygram), or Crisis Party’s Rude Awakening (Restless).

Any or all of these discs are guaranteed to knock you flat, but some of the more intriguing records in recent Northwest rock ‘n’ roll were overlooked by outside companies and are still being marketed by local indie labels. These labels have continued to fulfill their historic role as the chief producers of cutting-edge rock sounds. In particular, Sub Pop has received worldwide attention for their catalog of modern Northwest rock. While mainly perceived as promoters of grunge rock splayed by Mudhoney and Soundgarden, the label also offers the new folk-rock of the Walkabouts and the psych-garage leanings of Nirvana and the Screaming Trees. This diversity is well-represented on the 3-LP boxed set Sub Pop 200.  Also representative of the alternative scene is PopLlama Records, home of the Young Fresh Fellows, who have received growing national recognition. Known for their eccentric releases, the label's current success is a Sonics’ tribute LP, Here Ain’t The Sonics.

What follows is a brief rundown on some of the Northwest’s currently most-active rock-oriented labels and a few recommended offerings from their talent rosters. A nearly incalculable number of one-shot labels operated by individual bands also exist locally – this list is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Contact these labels if you need some new Northwest noise in your life:

• AMERICAN LEATHER (Portland) Recommended listening: Poison Idea’s 11-song 45 that includes “Pure Hate” & “Underage.”
• BLACK LABEL (Seattle) Recommended listening: the U-Men’s “Solid Action” & Gas Huffer’s “Firebug” 45s.
• C/Z (Seattle) Recommended listening: Ten Minute Warning, Vexed, Coffin Break, Skin Yard, H-Hour, Malfunkshun, My Eye, Green River, and the Melvins.
• EMPTY (Seattle) Recommended listening:  The Accused’s Brutality & Destruction and the Derelicts’ Bullet for Fifi.
• ESTRUS (Bellingham) Recommended listening: the Monomen “Burning Bush,” Stumpy Joe’s “Baskey Case.”  Monomen’s album may be out by now.
• FATBALD (Seattle) Recommended listening: Chemistry Set’s “Fabulous Stinking,” and Pure Joy’s “Now I Know.”
• GREEN MONKEY (Seattle) Recommended listening: the Icons, Liquid Generation, Green Pajamas, Arms Akimbo, the Queen Annes, the Purdins, the Bombadiers, Prudence Dredge, the Hitmen.
• K (Olympia) Recommended listening: Beat Happening, Go Team, Some Velvet Sidewalk, Mecca Normal, and Girl Trouble’s “She No Rattle My Cage.”
• LEOPARD GECKO (Tacoma) Recommended listening:  Alphabet Swill’s “Rotation,” Seaweed’s “Love Gut,” and the Melvins’ “Revulsion.”
• NASTYMIX (Seattle) Recommended listening: Known mainly as the home to Seattle’s Gold Record rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot, the label is branching out and signing rock acts too, including the Northwest’s kings of splatter-rock, the Accused.
• NO THREES (Seattle) Recommended listening:  the Vains, and the Fastbacks’ In The Summer.
• POPLLAMA (Seattle) Recommended listening: The Young Fresh Fellows (45s & LPS), Red Dress, the Fastbacks, Joey Kline & the Cropdusters, the Entropics, the Walkabouts, Pure Joy, the Dharma Bums, the Squirrels “Oz on 45,” and the Posies’ Failure.
• REGAL SELECT (Issaquah) Recommended listening: The Fallouts, Nights and Days, 64 Spiders, and the Kings of Rock’s “I’d Rather Go To Jail.”
• SILENCE (Boise) Recommended listening:  the Treepeople’s 3-song, 7-incher, “Important Things” / "Handcuffs” / "In My Head.”
• SUB POP (Seattle) Recommended listening: Blood Circus, Swallow, Love Battery, L-7, Green River, Mudhoney’s “Touch Me I’m Sick,” Soundgarden’s Screaming Life, TAD’s God’s Balls, the Walkabouts’ Cataract, and Nirvana’s Bleach.
• TOMBSTONE (Clackamas) Recommended listening: Dead Moon, Fingers of Doom, Sacred Reign, Drive Train, the Meat Cigars, and No Face.
• VELVETONE (Ellensburg) Recommended listening: Screaming Trees 1986 classic debut LP Clairvoyance, P.S. O’Neill’s album, and both LPs by Moral Crux.
• WIGOUT (Tacoma) Recommended listening:  Girl Trouble’s “When Opposites Attract” a 3-song 7-incher from 1989.

[NOTE:  This is a lightly edited version of an essay that was originally published in the “Pacific Northwest Music Explosion” issue of DISCoveries magazine in April 1990]

Text copyright ©, 1990, 2011, by Peter Blecha

"THAT's TOUGH: VINTAGE R&B of the NORTHWEST," DISCoveries Magazine (1990)

RHYTHM AND BLUES in the Pacific Northwest would require an entire book to explore. In a complete history we would get to look back at many great black (and white) singers and musicians from this region. Reviewing the names of some of these obscure R&B combos and doo-wop groups from earlier decades certainly evokes images of a bygone era of wonderfully soulful music: Chuck Moore & the Allstars, Lanny Hunt & the Majestics, Billy Larkin & the Delegates all worked out of Portland, Oregon in the 1950s and ‘60s. Meanwhile, Yakima, Washington, had Harper Morrison & the Silvertones, and Tacoma had the Barons, Skylarks, Parking Meters, Elegants, Willie Washington & the Titans, and Bobby Shorter & the Innkeepers. Seattle had the Dave Lewis Combo, Ron Holden & the Playboys, the Don Mallory Combo, Gallahads, Shades, Mello-aires, Tiny Tony & the Statics, Jimmy Pipkin & the Boss Five, and James Thomas & His Tomcats, among many others. The Northwest’s R&B scene also produced a number of artists who have achieved lasting fame including guitar aces Jimi Hendrix and Robert Cray.

Though certain details surrounding the national origins of R&B music may have been lost in the mists of time, its genesis on a regional level here in the Northwest is quite clear: the very first local rhythm and blues recording of note from Seattle – “Confession Blues” (Downbeat Records #171) – was cut by the Maxin Trio in a downtown radio station studio in 1948.

THE MAXIN TRIO:  The Maxin Trio – also (inaccurately) noted elsewhere as the “Maxine” or “Maxim” Trio – held a regular gig throughout 1948 and into ’49 at the Rocking Chair, one of the many afterhours jazz rooms that contributed to Seattle’s infamous Jackson Street jazz scene in the postwar period. There were numerous other ensembles comprised of African-American musicians working the scene, including the Oscar Holden Quintet, the Zak Harris Combo and bands led by Pops Buford, Joe Gauff, and Roberts “Bumps” Blackwell.  But, because they dosed their sets with a heapin’ helpin’ of downhome blues, the Maxin Trio stood out from the pack of local cocktail jazzers and became a remarkably influential musical force in the area. Eventually the trio would cut about 40 tracks for a Los-Angels –based label including a happy blues that was written for, or about, their friends in Seattle. It’s title? “Rockin’ Chair Blues.” By ’52 the Maxin Trio’s pianist/singer R.C. Robinson went solo, signed with Atlantic Records, and proceeded to cut a string of innovative hits that would essentially redefine R&B/ Soul music. Those later accomplishments were, of course, made his new stage name: Ray Charles.

BIG JAY McNEELY: A west coast R&B saxophone honker, Big Jay McNeely, recorded what remains his most memorable number  – the classic “There Is Something On Your Mind” – in a tiny home studio in Seattle in 1957. Back in those days very few local radio stations programmed or supported big-beat music of any type. There was, nevertheless, quite a strong nightclub scene around the area. Many of the most legendary names in early 1950s rhythm and blues found work in Portland, Vancouver B.C., and Seattle/Tacoma nightspots.   

McNeely’s band occasionally got bookings in Seattle rooms such as Dave’s 5^th Avenue or Birdland for several weeklong engagements.  Prior to one of these stays, he contacted Tom Ogilvy, a local pop songwriter and recording enthusiast. Ogilvy quickly arranged to take McNeely’s combo to his friend Joe Boles’ basement studio in West Seattle.  The session produced a number of quality original tunes, but all those present agreed that releasing any of the songs on Ogilvy’s Seafair label would be futile given the realities of Northwest radio. So, upon the completion of his gig in town, McNeely packed up the Master Tapes and hit the road back to Los Angeles.  When he eventually contacted Hunter Hancock – then L.A.’s top R&B disc jockey – and played him the tapes, Hancock offered to form a label and release them himself. Helped immensely by the airplay that Hancock was in the position to provide on his popular daily show, Huntin’ With Hunter, the first single “There Is Something On Your Mind,” (Swingin Records 614) was released on February 17, 1959. The song quickly climbed to the No.5 slot on Billboard magazine’s R&B charts, becoming one of the top-selling R&B songs of that year.

JOE BOOT and the FABULOUS WINDS: 

Originally formed in the early 1950s as the Southwinds, this 5-man vocal group began by performing strictly gospel-oriented music. Strictly, that is, until they crossed paths with a red-hot fireball of a rockin’ rhythm and blues singer named Joe Boot. From that point on, group members would ever be torn between spirituals and R&B. A compromise was struck and they added Boot, renamed themselves the Fabulous Winds, and proceeded to work up a mixed repertoire of tunes. While retaining some of their devout members, the Winds worked out vocal arrangements for pop standards and eventually some of Boot’s originals. By 1957 the Winds found themselves at one of Seattle’s pioneering recording studios, Dimensional Sound. Numerous sessions were held there with instrumental backing by the Floyd Standifer Orchestra. 

Boot seemed to know all of the top African-American stars who passed through town and on one occasion in the fall of ’57 none other than Little Richard Penniman stopped by a session at Dimensional and announced that he had just given up rock ‘n’ roll and returned to religion. Furthermore, having just abandoned his international rock tour, Penniman said that he as going to appear down the street at the Moore Theater to spread the Good Word at a revival show.  After a quick prayer with Penniman, the Winds agreed to appear at that show. But, unlike his sold-out dates in previous visits to Seattle – including a blistering matinee show at the Eagles Auditorium that very summer – Penniman’s Moore show was, reportedly, very poorly attended. Joe Boot and the Fabulous Winds, however, went on to cut what was most probably the very first rock ‘n’ roll record ever produced in the Pacific Northwest. Issued by Dimensional’s in-house label, Celestial Records, “Rock and Roll Radio” / “That’s Tough,” remains an ultra-rare, but essential, regional classic.

[NOTE:  This is a lightly edited version of an essay that was originally published in the “Pacific Northwest Music Explosion” issue of DISCoveries magazine in April 1990]

Text copyright © 1990, 2011, Peter Blecha

"ROCKIN' PARTY: NW ROCKABILLY," DISCoveries Magazine (1990)

ELVIS AND ALL THOSE ROCKIN' CATS from Memphis certainly kicked off the rockabilly phenomenon in a big way back in the mid-1950s, but I imagine that before too long every hamlet worth its salt could boast a greasy side-burned hillbilly rocker or two. The towns of the Pacific Northwest were no different, and, as elsewhere, much of the early rockabilly action occurred on the fringe of the country/western music scene.

The C&W circuit in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana was based on Saturday night grange-hall dances, downhome live local radio broadcasts, and on what may be to some readers, a surprising number of Northwest singers and musicians of considerable talent.  To hear old C&W fans tell it, the Northwest enjoyed an incredibly rich scene in the 1950s. There was a point when local fans could have gone to hoedowns held in area halls and danced to the singing of Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, or Willie Nelson – and not from records on some jukebox!

All three of these stars lived and worked in the Northwest. In the late-‘50s Owens ran dances in Tacoma, Washington, and hosted a radio show on station KAYE, and cut a few singles in Seattle. Meanwhile, Lynn lived in Custer, Washington, got a guitar in Seattle, and recorded her classic debut 45, “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl” (Zero Records 107), for a local label. Nelson kept busy singing at area dances, working as a  C&W deejay at radio station KVAN in Vancouver, Washington, and in 1957 recorded his now-ultra-rare debut 45, "Lumberjack," in a tiny studio in Portland.

There were also a number of less-famous local names who cut interesting recordings showing a certain wild energy that was rather atypical of traditional C&W music. Ace electric-guitar picker Jack Rivers cut an up-tempo bopper “Navy Hot Rod” (Listen Records 1441), during his Seattle years.  Then there was Seattle’s Bill Osborne who recorded his guitar instrumental, “Osborne’s Boogie” for Rivers' label (J.R. Ranch 1424).  Though neither of these discs can be considered rockabilly, they sure pointed the way!

In 1955 Bill Haley and his Comets first scorched their way through the Northwest’s grange-hall circuit fanning the flames of early rock ‘n’ roll. Then Elvis Presley really kick-started the whole movement on Saturday 28, 1956, when he made his national TV debut on the Dorsey Brothers’ Stageshow.  It would seem that a zillion budding rockabillies and rockabelles discovered their calling while watching the tube that particular day.

Some of the more notable rockabilly singles released in this region include: Benny Cliff’s “Shake It Up Rock” (Drift 1441), Bobby Wayne's “Sally Ann” (LJV 101), Ray Gentry’s “Willie Was A Bad Boy” (Maverick 164), Val Volk’s “There’ll Be A Rockin’ Party Tonight” (Rocket / Drift 1050), Sherree Scott’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’” (Robbins 101), Leon Mach’s “You Hurt Me So” (Lavender 1554), Wally Lee’s “Oh No Daddy-O” (Now 1010), Peggy Griffith’s “Rockin’ The Blues” (Now 1008), Leon Smith’s “Little Forty Ford” (Epic 9326), and Clayton Watson and the Silhouettes’ 1958 classic, “Everybody Boppin’” (Lavender 2454).

It was Clayton Watson and the Silhouettes from Centralia, Washington, who probably gained the most notoriety of any area rockabillies. Seattle’s KJR radio even billed them for a live appearance as “The First Rock and Roll Band In The State.” But promoting a teen-dance is one thing, and actually pushing the band’s record with airplay is another. Thus, neither Watson nor any other early local rockers ere with much, if any, radio support for their pioneering efforts.

As a live dance and concert act however, there was immediate regional success awaiting Watson. The Silhouettes were soon backing most of the top rockabilly stars on their Northwest tours in the late-‘50s, including:  Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Knox, Jimmy Bowen, and Dorsey Burnette. As things turned out both Watson and his pal, Yakima, Washington’s rockabilly guitar-man, Jerry Lee Merritt, ended up touring in 1959-’60 and then recording with their hero, Gene Vincent, in Los Angeles at Capitol Studios.

Another interesting saga was that of the trio of boppin’ cats called the Maddy Brothers. Hailing from Snohomish, Washington, a small rural community about 20 miles north of Seattle, the brothers’ first love was bluegrass and C&W music. In 1954 Bob (mandolin), Jim (rhythm guitar), and Tom (lead guitar) Maddy made their public debut in a guest spot at the old Bryant Grange near Arlington, Washington.  Over the following couple years the brothers would be further influenced by the hits songs of Elvis and the Everly Brothers. The Maddys were soon hired to play regular weekends at Duffy’s Tavern in the nearby community of Clearview. By this time they had added Bruce “Buddy” Brautsman (bass guitar) to their lineup and occasionally hired one of several drummers to play these gigs.

Before long the Maddy Brothers were signed to a management contract by Art Benson, a Seattle-based businessman who was a freelance talent scout. This led to a recording session at Seattle’s Dimensional Sound studio and, in late-1957, a record on its associated label, Celestial Records – a single that was a unique specimen of rock ‘n’ roll to say the least!  “Rockin’ Party” / “Hey Little Girlie” (Celestial 109) featured some truly gone hillbilly harmonies, those two twangin’ guitars, and one mad mandolin. All of this was served with a big greasy side order of serious slap-back echo. Funny thing is though: the little record rocked like crazy. Especially considering that there are no drums on it!

It’s always been tough, of course, for a lot of us to ignore the allure of any ‘50s song with a title like “Rockin’ Party,” but if you’ve ever heard the overtones of lasciviousness present in the vocals of the flipside, “Hey Little Girlie,” you’ll know why no rational disc jockey in 1958 was gonna air this thing. No way. No how. Well, almost no deejay. There was that one time…

Though the Maddy Brothers’ manager faced an almost impossible task of trying to get Seattle’s deejays to look twice at a local record back in those days, Benson gave it his best effort. He apparently regaled many a local radio station Program Manager or Music Director with pleas to give the 45 a listen. All this without any luck. The Maddys had almost lost all hope. But then, one bright morning they had their radio tuned to one of the region’s early powerhouse stations – a station that featured a popular mid-morning show geared to introduce new sounds to the listening audience. The public was invited to phone in votes to help judge a record’s musical merit. To the Maddys’ utter surprise their “Hey Little Girlie” suddenly was being broadcasted. After accepting plenty of congratulatory backslaps from their workmates they heard the announcer explain that the record had received an outstanding 98% “Potential Hit” rating.  This was great news and the guys no doubt felt that they were now well on their way to Stardom, the Ed Sullivan Show, Hollywood, et cetera. But too soon, reality set in. “Hey Little Girlie” was never aired again. [Well, at least until I played the record on my KCMU radio show 30+ years later!] Later their manager explained the facts of life in the music biz to the brothers: though the song showed promise as a popular hit, there was still a little matter of finances that he just wasn’t able to resolve with the station. In other words: the deejays wanted cash as payola to continue airing the record and he simply didn’t have the scratch to do that. So the disc slipped into near-total obscurity – except among us dedicated record collectors.

But, by the end of the 1950s the first genuine Northwest rock bands – including the Frantics and Wailers – began to emerge and the era of the rockabillies was all but over. The Maddy Brothers, having had their fling in the rock realm, returned to their C&W roots and after two years as regulars on KOMO-TV’s weekly music show, Evergreen Jubilee, they went back to the rural dancehalls where they gigged together until the mid-1970s when they finally retired.

Then suddenly – in the midst of the Punk / New Wave explosion of the late-‘70s and early ‘80s – a full-blown rockabilly revival brought forth a number of fine young Northwest bands (including the Magnetics, the 88s, and the Rockin’ Fools) that released exciting recordings. But that story has got to wait ‘til another time…

[NOTE:  This is a lightly edited version of an essay that was originally published in the “Pacific Northwest Music Explosion” issue of DISCoveries magazine in April 1990]

Text copyright © 1990, 2011, Peter Blecha

BARNEY HILLIARD: SEATTLE's '50's TEENAGE R&B SAX STAR

BARNEY HILLIARD HAS LIVED TWICE THE LIFE that most people ever will. As a pre-teen saxophonist he studied under Seattle’s 1930s jazz giant, Frank Waldron. Then, while a student at Garfield High School, he helped found Seattle’s first teenage ‘50s rockin’-R&B band, the Dave Lewis Combo. They became locally influential stars – Jimi Hendrix was among their biggest fans – and Hilliard was likely the very first kid to honk out what would ultimately become Washington’s “unofficial state rock ‘n’ roll song,” “Louie Louie.”

The Civil Rights Era saw Hilliard and the Combo, as members of the still-racially segregated AFM Local 493 (“negro musicians union”), helping break down barriers by touring the state in 1955 backing rockabilly stars Bill Haley and His Comets, and later being the first African American band to play the north end’s top teen dancehall, Parker’s Ballroom. And, all along the way, Hilliard honored his own father’s example, by working one or more side jobs– including being the first black man hired as a management trainee by a major downtown department store. While raising his own family of five kids, Hilliard went on to graduate from the University of Washington, work for Governor Dan Evans’ administration, earn his law degree, and serve as manager of a couple businesses and several more government agency departments. Playing in weekend nightclub bands all the while, Barney Hilliard finally retired in 2012 – one year prior to being honored by the musicians’ union for fifty years of dedicated service.

Deep Roots

Barney Hilliard was born on December 6, 1937, to Lamar and Argola Hilliard who had moved to Weed, California, from Mississippi the year prior. But then in 1943 – at the midpoint of World War II – the draw of good-paying shipyard work in Seattle brought the family here where they initially settled in West Seattle. Young Hilliard proceeded to attend E. C. Hughes Elementary School (7740 34th Avenue SW) from kindergarten into second grade. The family then moved to a Central District home (721 21st Avenue) while Mr. Hilliard began a long career at Washington Iron Works. He also made ends meet by taking on a second job as a part-time custodian on weekends – and that example was one that would have a direct bearing on his son’s life.

Hilliard began attending Horace Mann School and at around the same time that his cousin, Bob Herring, acquired a trumpet and began learning to play music. His parents agreed but suggested that instead of another trumpet, he should pick a different instrument, and while shopping at a downtown music shop the youngster selected an alto saxophone.

It was a later when he was attending Meany Jr. High that he met a social studies teacher who taught music to students on the side. Hilliard recently recalled that: “I remember that he introduced me to [jazz great] Coleman Hawkins – he pulled out a record player and played a Coleman Hawkins record for me right then and right there at Meany. He said, ‘Now that’s real music. Listen to what he does and how he does it. Isn’t that smooth?’”

Hilliard liked jazz and early R&B tunes, but because they were rarely aired by Seattle’s whitebread radio stations, he and his pals’ access to this music was almost strictly through records. He earned his record-buying money from a Seattle Post-Intelligencer paper route – and among the sax-men he most admired were Louis Jordan, Illinois Jacquet, Big Jay McNeely, Sam Butera, Gene Ammons, and Cannonball Adderly. “In those days,” said Hilliard, “the mass media considered R&B and Soul and all that to be ‘race music’ and it was banned, so we mostly listened to records in the black community. And so we would have to buy records and listen to those at home or at house parties. So that’s how you would hear the music – and that’s how I found out that a lot of those songs had saxophone solos. I said ‘Oh, boy,’ you know [laughter]. So that got me locked in.”

By this point Hilliard was getting reasonably good on his sax and he fell in with a couple fellow students – Dave Lewis (piano) and John Johnston (drums) – and the trio began performing at various school events (as did Lewis’ other group, a doo-wop vocal quintet, the Five Checks, which included George Griffin) before graduating in June 1953.

Garfield Days

In the fall of that same year these kids began attending Garfield High School, an educational institution already renowned for having most multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and cosmopolitan student body in the Seattle School District. Garfield had already produced such talents as Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, Quincy Jones, and Ernestine Anderson. Hilliard joined Garfield’s marching band (under instructor Ray Johnston), while he also took music lessons with Frank Waldron, a legendary Seattle jazz veteran who had already taught Quincy Jones, Jabo Ward, and many others. Soon Hilliard and his piano-playing buddy Dave Lewis, recruited additional players (including George Griffin as drummer) and formed a quintet, the Dave Lewis Combo.

As Seattle’s first teenaged rockin’-R&B band, the Combo played their debut dance at a YMCA but were soon spotted by prominent entertainment booker, Leonard Russell, who brought them into the old Palomar Theatre. Russell then got them additional gigs in Olympia, Tacoma, Yakima, Everett, Bremerton, and even Oregon’s Jantzen Beach Amusement Park.

Travails & Tours

For five decades Seattle had two racially segregated musicians unions – American Federation of Musicians Local 76 (for the white players), and AFM 493 (for everyone else). Local 76 had always been very zealous in protecting their control of the most lucrative gigs in town, which were the large theaters, nightclubs, and hotel ballrooms downtown and towards the north end. Over the years discussions had occurred regarding the possibility of merging the two unions, but that would not occur until January 1958.

But back in 1954 the Combo was beginning to get a few gigs at cabaret dance parties and that’s when an agent from Local 493 caught them and insisted that they join the union – and Hilliard has been a union man ever since. In the summer of 1955 the Combo was hired as opening act for Bill Haley and His Comets who were out touring Washington in support of their radio hits like “Rock Around The Clock.” And then – after graduating from Garfield in June 1956 – their bands repeated the tour again. That same summer Hilliard took a seasonal job at Boeing, and in the fall began studies at the University of Washington.

Though established as Seattle’s top rock band, the Combo had never yet been able to play at the north end’s prime dancehall, Parker’s Ballroom, which had always been considered Local 76’s turf. But the Civil Rights movement was making progress and Parker’s management wanted the Combo enough to force that union to live with their decision. And thus that wall was finally breached and the Combo showed that they could attract white kids too.

The Birdland & “Barney’s Tune”

At mid-decade local African American businessman Wilmer Morgan converted an East Madison Street neighborhood roller skating rink (and former theater and nightclub) into the Birdland Supper Club. It was here that Hilliard and his pals were first exposed to big-time jazz and R&B artists including Dexter Gordon, Big Jay McNeely, Blinky Allen, Pony Poindexter and Cal Tjader.
It was in 1957 when Morgan invited the Combo to work as Birdland’s house-band. Although the band would be giving up their ability to travel, the upside was that they would have a regular weekend gig in their own neighborhood and a ready daytime rehearsal space as well. Although the Combo had begun by copying their favorite records, in time they began to come up with their own original songs, including Lewis’ later regional radio hit, “David’s Mood” – and “Barney’s Tune,” which when recorded by the Combo in 1960 would stand as the only disc Hilliard would ever cut.
  
“Louie Louie”

Hilliard took a day job again at Boeing that summer of ’57, and by winter had also renewed courses at UW where he joined on with the ROTC program. On May 3, 1958, he married Norberta Arviso and later that year they were blessed with their first of five children. Meanwhile, the Birdland gig was an key part of his life. The Combo was considered the hottest thing in town and by now plenty of younger musicians – like young Jimmy (“Jimi”) Hendrix – were dropping in nightly to study the best.

One thing they all took away was “Louie Louie.” The Combo had been the first local band to adopt that 1957 tune by California R&B singer, Richard Berry, and from there it eventually snowballed into a must-play teen-dance favorite. Today it is regarded as Washington State’s “unofficial rock ‘n’ roll song” – and it was Hilliard (and the band’s other Sax-man, J.B. Allen) who got all this honking started.

Changing Times

In time George Griffin left the Combo to join guitarist Wendell Johnson at a steady five-nighter gig downtown at Dave’s Fifth Avenue, and in 1959 Hilliard joined them. Hilliard also returned to Boeing, but those late nights out finally caught up with him, and eventually he left Boeing. Hilliard moved on to the Colony Club, playing five nights a week (and backing the floorshows on the weekends) for a year with Leroy Franklin (keyboards/vocals) and Dennis Trout (drums). It was a grueling schedule and one that caused Hilliard to take stock, and finally committing himself to finding a day job and only playing music on weekends.

In the early-mid ‘60s the Civil Rights movement was making significant gains and Hilliard would be a grateful beneficiary of this social progress. “At that time, organizations like CORE and the Urban League were putting pressure on the downtown merchants to do something about hiring African Americans. As it turned out, each of those downtown department stores moved on that. And I was the first [black] management trainee at J.C. Penney’s.”

From 1962 to 1967 Hilliard worked weekdays at Penney’s and weekends playing music. He also managed, in 1963, to purchase a home for his growing family. Meanwhile – between 1962 and 1967 Hilliard played the military base dance with the Four Sounds.

Hilliard had a growing urge to get involved in the Civil Rights movement, so in 1967 he accepted a job offer to become coordinator of Equal Employment Opportunity activities and the Jobs Now program for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. He worked with corporations to identify private sector job opportunities for the disadvantaged and minority youth. Hilliard coordinated with the Seattle Urban League, the State Employment Security Department and various community agencies to find applicants and referrals for jobs through the program. He also conducted race relations seminars for corporate managers and supervisors. He interacted with big-time players like Boeing and Lockheed. Through this activity Hilliard developed a keen sense of local politics and corporate culture, and when he asked some friendly downtown business leaders what next steps he should take for his career, he was advised to complete his college degree and thus in 1968 Hilliard returned to UW where he graduated in 1971.

Law School & Government Gigs

That same year Hilliard entered the UW law school -- while simultaneously playing music on weekends with the Johnny Lewis Trio at the Trojan Horse, and working as a part-time law clerk at PACCAR during that summer of ’71. In addition, Hilliard volunteered as a board member with the Central Area Mental Health Center for over twenty years, and served as board president for six years. The agency provided mental health services for low-income citizens regardless of their ability to pay. They merged with Therapeutic Health Services in 1990. Along the way his connections at the Chamber led to a consultant gig with Governor Dan Evans administration’s Department of Commerce & Economic Development, where he helped organize a statewide minority business program. The following summer Paccar invited Hilliard to work downtown at their litigation law firm.

Hilliard also volunteered with the UW football coaches’ recruiting program from 1975 to 1990, where he served as liaison with Garfield High School to encourage student athletes to attend the UW and play football for the Huskies. During those years, notable recruits were future City Council member Bruce Harrell, and Anthony Allen, who continued his career in the NFL and later, returned to coach football at Garfield.

Upon earning his law degree in 1974 Hilliard embarked on a two decade-long period of employment in the private sector. At Submarine Base Bangor he was a project manager overseeing 150 employees, and then he became a partner in a telecommunications startup that wound down in 1993. For the next several years Hilliard commuted to the State Capitol, working first for the Department of Corrections, then at the Insurance Commissioners Office, and finally at the Employment Security Contracts Office.

Then, when the opportunity arose in 2002 to work a bit closer to home, he took on the managerial role at the Unemployment Insurance Tax office in Lynnwood. Four years later he moved on to a Program manager role at the City of Seattle’s Office of Executive Administration (today’s Office of Finance and Administration) where he managed the business license and tax office until retiring in 2012.

A Lifetime of Music

Throughout a long career at corporations and government agencies, Barney Hilliard proved his love for playing music and commitment to entertaining fans by always keeping a band on the side. Back in 1978 the Four Sounds fell apart and in ’79 Hilliard and Jack Smith (drums) regrouped as the Carousel Band by adding DuWayne Andrews (organ), and later Ed Tinker (guitar/vocals). For bigger gigs they’d bring along trumpeter Larry Lusier or Ed Lee), and sometimes Steve Nowak (guitar). The Carousel Band market niche was private golf clubs, yacht clubs, the Seattle Tennis Club and numerous weddings, where they thrived for over twenty-five years.

It was around 1993 that the group decided to play less of the private club- and private party- circuit, and instead find a local venue where they could be based, and where family and friends could attend. That new home-base would be Seattle’s rollicking New Orleans Café. The six-piece Carousel Rhythm & Blues band – occasionally augmented with Shauna Rogers (vocals) – would become a popular monthly draw there for about five years. It was also Hilliard’s all-time favorite gig because they had their six-piece group with the rich sound of the Hammond B3 organ. But all good things must end, and finally in 2012 Hilliard set down his beloved saxophone and left the music biz. But then, in 2013 – a decade after being saluted as a Life Member of AFM 76-493 – the musicians’ union awarded Hilliard with their 50 Year membership pin. Today, a still active Hilliard enjoys retirement; playing golf and watching his grandchildren grow up.

THE CHECKERS: YAKIMA'S ROCKERS (1958-1962)

YAKIMA'S LEGENDARY ROCKABILLY KING, guitarist Jerry Lee Merritt, left his local band the Pacers in 1958 to join Gene Vincent for his riotous ‘59 overseas tour and one studio LP, Crazy Times. But that’s a whole ‘nother story . . . 

Meanwhile, the Pacers rock­ed on with new members including Mike Mandel (piano). The band held down a steady gig at the Walk In Club -- Yakima's early teen hangout -- but were eventually ousted by crosstown rivals, the Rumblers.

In was back in 1957 that another combo, the Checkers, started to create some noise in the Lower Yakima Valley. The original Checkers -- Glenn Willis (guitar), Glenn Dahl (vocals), Nick Torres (vocals), Norm Drake (sax), Glenn Lambert (bass), and Dale Yule , (drums) -- performed their initial gigs at community festivals throughout the In­land Empire. In time, the personnel shifted to this lineup: Johnny Hensley (guitar),  Nick Torres (vocals), Bob Torres (bass), Bob Campbell (piano), and Ralph Gibson (drums). By 1959 Lowell Fronek (drums) and Mike Metko (sax) had joined on. ­Metko, who worked at radio sta­tion KENE, arranged for the group to record their first instrumental-rock single, “The Big Cat”/“Buzz” live at the Toppenish Grange Hall.

During this period the Checkers began making trips to the coast to face the Wailers, Frantics, Adventurers and others in Battles of the Bands. Hensley eventually left for Seattle (and ended up touring with Jimmy Bowen), Campbell dropped out, Mandel was added -- and later, ex-Rumbler Doug Robertson (drums) joined on. 

By sheer chance the Checkers soon met a young guitarist, Larry Coryell, at Korton’s Music Store in Richland, and hired him on the spot. Earlier Metko’s radio connections got the group hired for a series of shows with singing sensation, Jimmy Bowen. This break led to a long string of gigs backing artists of the day: Brenda Lee, Buddy Knox, Paul Anka, Jimmy Clanton, the Mills Bros., Johnny Preston, Dorsey Burnette, Dodie Stevens, Gene Vincent and many others.

In 1960 the Torres Bros. dropped out, ex-Rumbler, Dick Ruthardt (bass) was added and the Checkers proceeded to do some recording sessions with engineer, Joe Boles, in West Seattle. Then, somehow, the guys convinced themselves to drive to Phoenix, Arizona to find fame and for­tune. However, Coryell was trapped in spring semester high school classes. Hey, no problem! The Checkers packed their gear into a trailer and simply kidnapped Coryell (locked in the trailer!) to Phoenix. Their only booking upon arrival was at a wrestling match intermission. The band did, however, get invited into a local studio where they provided instyrumental backing fo singles by two singers: Barry Lane and Peggy Lynn.

Months later the Checkers headed to Hollywood with their Boles studio tapes and began knocking on doors. The Arvee Record Co. agreed to release their twin wild honkers, “Skooby Doo Part l”/ “Skooby Doo Part 2” but only weeks later rereleased “Part I” with “Swingin’ Summer” as the flipside. The Checkers had also recorded “Soft Blue” and a remake of Metko's “Big Cat.” Recorded by Boles for local record mogul Jerry Dennon, the record’s release was delayed for two years, much too late to make a positive im­pact for the band.

In the winter of 1960 to ‘61, the Checkers were signed to an extended road tour with Bobby Vee, the Ventures and Little Bill. With Coryell back attending Richland High, ex-Adventurer Joe Johansen stepped in. By the summer's end Metko moved to Phoenix and another ex-Adventurer, Jim Michaelson, replaced him. The Checkers were invited by Jimmy Bowen and Johnny Burnette to record a single, “Blue Saturday”/ “Cascade” at the famed Gold Star Studios in L.A. “Blue Saturday,” a Floyd Cramer-esque pop-instrumental, saw significant chart action in numerous regions. The Checkers toured that autumn with Freddy Cannon, while Coryell moved to Seattle to attend fall classes at the UW, and he was soon recruited by the Dynamics. The Checkers made their final tour in early 1962, backing Johnny Burnette across Canada. They returned to the NW and gigged locally with newest members Brady Anderson (guitar) and Dennis Yaden (sax) before cashing in their chips in mid-‘62.

The Dynamics became a top draw on the Northwest teen-R&B dance scene, and released several regional hit records including, “J.A.J.” in 1962 and “Genevieve” (with guest organist Mandel) in ‘63; but Coryell also began moonlighting at after-hours jam sessions with the areas top jazzers; Overton Berry, Chuck Mahaffey, Jerome Grey, Chuck Metcalf, etc. In 1965 local players convinced Coryell to further his jazz quest in NYC where he first hooked up with an odd avant outfit, the Free Spirits, who recorded an LP of very primal folk-rock-jazz.

Meanwhile, Mike Metko and the Nocturnals formed and they became a fixture on the Phoenix club scene. Metko’s still in the music biz and has been respectfully nicknamed Daddy Rock ‘n’ Roll by the younger crowd down there. Johansen went on to the Dave Lewis Trio and appears on their classic recordings of 1963-‘66. As one of the key musicians of the early Northwest scene, today Johansen gigs with a trio in Tacoma. Mandel fell into the Sea-Tac blues scene for a long spell and in l969 Jack Bruce (ex-Cream) added him, Coryell and drummer Mitch Mitchell (ex-Jimi Hendrix Experience), creating the world’s newest supergroup. Jack Bruce and Friends toured the country with hard-rockers, Mountain, before dissolving.

In 1971 Coryell and Mandel formed Foreplay and released the Offering LP. Their next ensemble work together was as the Eleventh House, which released three LPs of progressive jazz-fusion between 1973-‘76. In 1980 Mandel recorded an LP for Vanguard Records. By the 1980s he was working out of NYC as a successful freelancer, writing ad jingles and background themes for daytime TV (All My Children, Another World), and was involved in other diverse musical activities. Coryell has gained a reputation as a master of many styles, but since ’76 he has focused on his acoustic classical technique and has written an instructional column in Guitar Player magazine since ‘78. Coryell, has performed and/or recorded with innumerable jazz greats, continues his life in music, recording albums and performing an incredible and ongoing schedule of concerts around the globe.


[Note: This is an edited version of an essay that originally appeared in the “Northwest Music Archives” column of Seattle’s The Rocket magazine back in July, 1984.]

Text copyright © 1984, 2014 by Peter Blecha.