Virginia

Members were:

Harold Souders (vocals, lead guitar, electric piano)
Carl Moore (vocals, guitar)
David Jenkins (bass)
Wayne Dale (drums)

Hal Souders and Carl Moore were cousins, and composed both songs on this 45. In December of '65 the band went to Richmond Sound Stages to cut their only recording, "I Cried Once" / "Baby Baby".

"I Cried Once" begins with jarring guitar chords, and continues at an urgent pace through verse and chorus and a beautiful and very brief reverbed guitar solo until the ringing chords at the finish. Hal Souders' syncopated piano overdub is a nice touch.

The tender "Baby, Baby" on the flip begins with nicely articulated notes cutting to a drum and bass break before the verse begins. The singer confesses "all the lies I told to you, not a one was true."

To me this is one of the most successful of all teen 45s of the '60s, sincere original songs flawlessly performed and superbly recorded. The upbeat "I Cried Once" balances the sedate "Baby, Baby". The instruments and harmonies create an atmosphere akin to the Dovers great recordings.

The band released the songs on the Richmond based Shoestring label, which also had 45s by the Fugitives and Panics. Publishing was by Bargem Music.

The record had some play on WGH 1310 AM in Newport News, though it didn't make any charts that I know of. The band broke up by the time Hal Souders started college in the fall of '66.

The Velvet Haze from Alexandria, Virginia formed in 1967 and broke up around 1971. They were known for playing some rough venues and it shows up in the heavy, scuzzy sound of their only 45. The gem is the insane psychedelia of “Last Day on Earth”, an original by Mullins & Martinez. A drill-to-the-skull fuzz riff, garbled vocals, sharp solo and a cool drum break by Tom Futch, who is thrashing away throughout the song. The other side is a straight blues, “Bad Women”, written by Bullock and Martinez.

The Velvet Haze recorded at the home studio of James Wilson in Mount Rainier, MD, just northeast of D.C., though the label gives a Lorton, VA address. The liner notes to Aliens Psychos and Wild Things vol. 3, where I got the info I'm repeating here, say the Haze backed up Wilson on a country 45 as James Wilson & the Lorton Boys.

Velvet Haze - Last Day on Earth
Velvet Haze - Bad Women

My copy has a skip in it, but I tried to 'fix' it with my audio software. A listener with a keen ear, 'Beat' correctly identified it as coming at 1:36 into the song.

The only name I can associate with the group is David Anthony, who wrote both songs here, the thumping put-down "Don't Follow Me" and the sedate "Mr Sandman" on the flip. "Don't Follow Me" lacks a guitar solo during the break, but the drummer provides excellent fills throughout the song.

The Rogues - Don't Follow Me

Our beginnings were pretty humble. First day of High School in 1967, I became reacquainted with Larry Hixson who I knew from the 5th grade. He had moved out of the Manassas area for a while and had asked me to bring my drums over to his house that Friday night to jam. It was there I met Gene Thompson who was from Leesburg, Va. The next thing I knew , Larry’s step Dad and some other older gentlemen joined us and we began playing a lot of old Hank Williams songs. I thought that night was just a one shot deal, but they kept inviting me back.

I was told that on Halloween night, we would play our first gig at a Virginia radio station and then later at a night club. As it turned out, we played in front of this little old AM station on the back of a flat bed truck. It was so cold it cracked the finish on Gene’s Gibson S-G guitar. When we got to the so-called night club, it turned out to be a beer joint which was probably against the law since the 3 of us were way under 18 years old. I think I took home around $8.00 that night but it was good experience and was technically our first paying gig.

That was pretty much the end of our “Country Music” phase, as the 3 of us broke away and just started playing rock on the weekends. For the next year and a half, we would pile up our then meager equipment into Gene’s 57’ Chevy and spend our weekends playing for friends & family and all the girls that Gene and Larry had stashed away all over Virginia and it was probably the most fun time of our young lives. We bought a small PA system and actually got pretty good for just the 3 of us.

It might have ended there but then by a twist of fate, Tommy Griffith who was a well known singer in the Northern Virginia area agreed to join forces with us, and we went on to get a manager and in the summer of 1969, placed second in a Battle of the Bands, played some dances and make a local TV appearance. By this time we had added Dennis Bailey on bass, (Larry’s cousin) and Linda Hixson (Larry’s sister) and Sharon Stacy as dancers and singers. In addition, Gene was quite the electronics whiz and hooked a switch to the bass drum pedal to make colored lights go on and off in time with the music and the whole experience became quite a show. At the end of that summer Tommy informed us he was leaving and by this time we had had a taste of success, so our manager (Mr. Kay) hooked us up with Allan Johnson as our new lead singer.

After Allan joined, we went thru some personnel changes as Clay Johnson became our keyboard player, and Dennis (who also played trombone) suggested we add other horn players as well and it became quite a large group. We worked a lot. You name it: dances, high schools, talent contests, military bases, beauty contests, teen clubs, weddings, car dealerships, private parties, homecomings, proms, Lions clubs, Rotary clubs, Knights of Columbus dances, county fairs, community centers, etc. all over Virginia, Maryland & DC.

Thru another twist of fate, Allan informed us he was getting married and moving to North Carolina and Tommy Griffith rejoined as lead singer & keyboard player. By this time we were making pretty good money and had a van with our name on it and 2 roadies and continued working almost every weekend. We continued to upgrade our equipment and band uniforms which by now were tuxedos.

By spring of 1976, we played our last gig at Fauquier High School. Circumstances were such that we pursued different interests in life, and thru the rest of the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000 & beyond, we kept in touch in various ways.

One of our gigs at the Manassas National Guard Armory was hosted by local Washington D.C. DJ legend Jack Alix(known as J.A the D.J.) The same Jack Alix who emceed the first appearances of The Beatles in Washington at the old D.C. Coliseum & D.C. (now known as RFK) Stadium. (Click here to see article)

Personnel:

Gene Thompson : lead guitar, occasional drums & vocals
Larry Hixson : guitar & vocals
Michael Hadder : drums, occasional guitar & vocals
Tommy Griffith : lead vocals , keyboards & occasional bass
Allan Johnson : lead vocals & guitar, percussion
Linda Hixson : vocals, keyboards, percussion & dancer
Sharon Stacy : vocals, percussion & dancer
Mark Krebs : trumpet
Dennis Bailey : bass, trombone, occaisonal guitar & vocals
Clay Johnson : keyboards & vocals
Bob Newell : trumpet
Tom Tierney : sax, flute & clarinet , guitar, percussion & vocals
Billy Bowden : trumpet & percussion
Larry Goodman : roadie & drum tech
Tommy Dever : roadie & van driver

In November, 2008, Tommy, Gene, Dennis and myself reunited to jam for the first time in 32 years. We vowed to make this an annual event & bring back other members & people we were around at the time as well.

These were special years that produced golden moments. What began as a way to meet girls on the weekends turned into a second full-time job for all of us and became extremely lucrative. For someone like me who never had a music lesson in my life to have the experience of playing drums for so long a time with such a talented group of players & musicians was incredible. When the venues we played at were packed & we fed off of the energy of the crowd, it was absolute magic I will never forget. Normally bands & band members come & go & break up, but I have been so blessed & fortunate to still stay in contact with Gene, Dennis, Larry, Tommy, Allan, Linda, Sharon & Larry Goodman after all these many years.

For more information see Michael Hadder's interview on 60sgaragebands.com.

"I'm Leavin' Here Today" was the slow top-side, written by Tommy Woodcock. More to my taste is the flip, "Break-Down", a cool bluesy rocker with sax, organ and a fine guitar solo. The singer's got the right voice for this kind of song, and the drummer really stands out. This side was written by Deets, Tom Woodcock and Long.

From the sound it could be from the Pacific Northwest, but I saw somewhere they may be from Virginia.

The Chantells - Break-Down
The Chantells - I'm Leavin' Here Today

The original band and the people on the record were Gary Taggart, guitar, me, drums, Gilliam Winn, backup vocals, Eddie Greene, bass, Wayne Goin, rhythm guitar, Neil Owens, organ.

The songs were played on the radio constantly. We were all like 15 except for the guitar player who was maybe 22 at the time. It was a time when bands had long hair and dressed in jeans with holes and that kind of stuff. We wore white tuxedos and that caught a lot of attention at the time.

The name was something we just came up with. It didn’t mean anything we just thought it looked cool. We did some radio shows and people would call in guessing what the name meant. It was funny because they thought of everything from the “M” being for Michael my name to a “W” upside down. We did a few reunions. The last one was probably 10 years ago and we raised over $10,000 in one night for a girl that had a bad accident.

Both songs, "Sweet Love" and "All the Time" both written by Gary Taggart.

Ken Friedman tells me that the Quintet label was a subsidiary of Justice Records of Winston-Salem, which meant the band traveled over 180 miles southwest to Winston-Salem instead of recording in Richmond, an hour's drive away.

The Shados-M - All the Time
The Shados-M - Sweet Love

The other 45s on Quintet that I know of are D. Martindale & the Star Fires "Go Jenny", which is more like amateurish rockabilly than garage, and the Vagabonds "Poison Ivy" (sounds white soul with horns) / "Coming Home" (which I haven't heard yet).

Thank you to Marty for loaning his rare 45, and to Michael Hurley for background on the group.

For more on Michael Hurley's music, check out his site, michaelhurleyband.com