Category Archives: Iowa

The Cle-Shays “Annabelle Zodd” / “Spend All My Money” on Monex

Cle-Shays Monex 45 Annabelle ZoddThe Cle-Shays made this one 7″ featuring the light psychedelia of “Annabelle Zodd” on the A-side, and the fine r&b “Spend All My Money” on the flip. Released as Monex 5232, I believe it is the only record on this label.

Members were:

Terry Larrison
Frank Berka
Wilson Kelso
Rodney Johnson
Paul Brause

The first mention I can find of the Cle-Shays is from the Cedar Rapids Gazette on July 2, 1965, noting the group is from Newton, Iowa, just east of Des Moines, and would be playing the 4th of July celebration at Lake Ponderosa.

In February 26, 1966, they played the Electric Park with the Pawns.

On April 10 they were one of sixteen bands at a big Easter show at the Starline Ballroom in Carroll, IA, with Billy Rat & the Finks, Thunderbolts, Charades, Surfinks, Lord Calvert & the Extras, Senders, Bushmen, Scavengers, Inn Mates, Dark Knights, Tumblers (or Fumblers?), Dale & the Devonaires, Bubblegummers (great band name!), Electrons and the Cavaliers.

The Des Moines Tribune reported the Cle-Shays would play “an Op Art Hop” at the annual Maytag picnic in Newton on August 14, 1966.

The band played the Starline Ballroom again on November 23, 1966 with the Upstairs Playground for a Thanksgiving KIOA Teen Hop.

Cle-Shays, Electric Park, KWWL Joe Arquette, Courier Fri May 26, 1967
May 26, 1967: “Parents Invited Free”!

The Courier ran a few ads in May of 1967 for the Cle-Shays at Electric Park in Waterloo, to the northeast of Newton, with Joe Arquette of KWWL as emcee.

The Times-Republican ran an ad for the group at Corydon Legion Hall on Friday, April 26, 1968.

Cle-Shays Monex 45 Spend All My MoneyThe record seems to have been their last hurrah before breaking up, as I find no further mention of the band after its release. Both songs are originals, and the group registered copyright on August 13, 1968, with Monex Music as publisher.

“Annabelle Zodd” has words and music by the entire group, while “Spend All My Money” has words by Frank Berka and music by the rest of the group. Monarch Record Mfg in Los Angeles made the styrene records, with delta #72972 also dating to approximately August, 1968.

Anyone have a photo of the group?

The Midnight Raiders – from Connecticut or Osceola, Iowa?

Midnight Raiders slide 1

I found four slides of a group with the Midnight Raiders on their drum head. The guitarist is playing a Harmony Rocket with a Gibson amp. Given the map of Connecticut visible in two of the photos, I would bet that’s where they are from. If so, I have no way to trace this band without names.

There was a group called the Midnight Raiders from Osceola, Iowa that released one 45, “Pretty Baby” / “Steppin’ Stone” on Raider Records 7-75477/8 from March, 1967.

Names on the labels were:

Janet Oliver
Ron Hart
John Jones
Butch Black (Orval Black III?)

Perhaps I will be able to get confirmation that the trio in the photos was not the group from Iowa. In any case, I’d like to hear from any members of the “Pretty Baby” / “Steppin’ Stone” band.

Midnight Raiders slide 3

Unfortunately the Epson V600 scanner I use puts vertical lines into the image that are not in the original slides.

Midnight Raiders slide 2

Midnight Raiders slide 4

The Last Chapter “It’s Only When I’m Lonely”

Last Chapter Skip 45 It's Only When I'm LonelyThe Last Chapter came from Sioux City, Iowa, and would evolve into a group called Freight. In late 1969 the Last Chapter cut their only record, released on Skip Records 2758.

“It’s Only When I’m Lonely” has a crunching rhythm, a great bridge and stinging guitar solo. “Words For You” features acoustic and electric guitar and a catchy vocal melody. It was the A-side of the single.

Russ Gill wrote both songs, and the Sears Pub credit indicates they were cut at Sears Recording Studios in Omaha.

Last Chapter Skip 45 Words for YouThe first mention of the Last Chapter that I can find comes from the Sioux City Sunday Journal from August 3, 1969, mentioning the band came in second place at the River-Cade Festival of Bands after being together only two weeks.

Members of the Last Chapter at this point were:

Russell Gill
Bob Werkmeister
Dave Schultz
Dave Wenberg

Russell Gill had been in the Restrictions.

The winner of the festival was the Cellophane Spectacle from LeMars, who had also won the year before. Members of that group were Randy Hoyt, Jack Toth, Jim Weiler, Al Schrank, Timothy Hauff, Tom Ross, Mark Moeller, Fred Juhl and Jim Luense. The Cellophane Spectacle cut one single at Sears Recording in Omaha for release on Spectacular SR61968, “It’s Not Unusual” / “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”. Another is mentioned but I haven’t seen it yet: “Going Back to Miami” / “Exodus”.

The third-place band was the Instant Blues Machine, “led by Richard Samore backed by Alan Vellinga, Charlie Larimor, Norm Reitsma, Harry Kantrovich and John Wimmer”.

Other bands were the Evolution, Wind, and the Purple Haze.

On June 24, 1970, the Last Chapter participated in a concert for 2,000 at Grandview Park, emceed by KSJC DJ Rick Anthony. The Sioux City Journal ran a couple articles on the concert, noting Jim Wentworth was from Laurel, Nebraska, 44 miles west of Sioux City. The first article quoted both Russell Gill and Jim Wentworth, and noted “A contract is pending between The Last Chapter and a Nashville, Tenn., recording company.”

The local bands were Fox, Evolution and the Last Chapter. A review titled “Young, Old Concur: First Rock Festival ‘Beautiful'” gave the names of the groups and their members:

The Last Chapter consisted of Russell Gill, Dave Schultz, Dave Wenberg, and Jim Wentworth replacing Bob Werkmeister.

Members of the Evolution were Chuck Pope, John Young, Ralph Goldheim, Neil Rollison, Dan Weigel and Kim Treiber.

The Fox included Steve Lewis, John Bartle and Russell Bizzett.

Freight – a band with three members of the Last Chapter. Article from August 15, 1971

Gill and Wentworth are mentioned again as organizers of the July 1971 “People’s Music Forum” at the Grandview Park bandshell. That concert included the London Bridge, Big Toe, Bittersweet, Stonewell, Freight, Fat Cat, Sinn, Dr. John Cook, and Prairie (formerly Danny and the Velaires), with folk music by Glen Reitsma and Ted Falk.

Finally in August, 1971 the Journal ran a photo of Gill and Wentworth’s band, now called Freight, with members Jim Wentworth, Mike Yandrich, Russell Gill and Dave Schultz. Other bands included Fat Cat, Sinn, and Bitter Sweet.

Anyone have photos of the Last Chapter?

The Restrictions from Sioux City, IA

Restrictions IGL 45 Down on the Corner
The Restrictions came from Sioux City and cut one single on IGL 147, “Down on the Corner” / “She’s Gone Away” in September, 1967. Russell Gill wrote “Down on the Corner” and co-wrote “She’s Gone Away” with Rob Molden.

The Restrictions members were:

Russell Gill
Rob Molden
Donald Pinney
Dave Mettleton
George Lauresen

The Sioux City Journal ran a notice about the August, 1967 River-Cade Festival of Music band competition, and listed the members of the top three groups.

The winner of the competition was the Shags, who would receive a session at Sears Recording Studio in Omaha. Russell Gill of the Restrictions wrote the song that would be the top side of the Shags’ single, “You’re a Loser”.

The Restrictions would cut their own record, traveling the hundred miles northeast to IGL Recording Studios in Milford, Iowa. I actually haven’t heard “She’s Gone Away” yet.

Russell Gill would go on to form the Last Chapter in 1969.

The other finalist was the Psychedelic Hangmen, with members Jame Polimeni, Phil Polimeni, Dave Stokes, Larry Means, and Stanley Sawienski. I’m not sure if they ever recorded.

Anyone have a photo of any of these bands?

The Shags from Sioux City, IA

The Shags featured in the Sioux City Journal, Nov. 21, 1967

The Shags came from Sioux City, Iowa. In August, 1967 they won a battle-of-the-bands at the River-Cade festival, beating out the Restrictions and the Psychedelic Hangmen. Their prize was a session at Sears Recording Studios in Omaha, Nebraska, 100 miles to the south.

Members of the Shags were:

Larry Schlines – guitar
Mark Renfro – organ
Roger Tryon – saxophone
John Primm – bass
Tom Renfro – drums

The second pressing of the Shags 45, with the title misspelled
At Sears they cut “You’re a Loser” / “Crying” for release on Rocky SR103167 in November, 1967. “Crying” is the Roy Orbison song.

It must have done well locally, as the band repressed the record on Jo-Jo Records 101 in February 1968, though the A-side was mistitled “Your a Loser”, and the publishing switched from Sears Pub. to Lightswitch Music.

Interestingly, Russell Gill of the Restrictions wrote “You’re a Loser”. I’d like to know how the Shags came to cut his song.

The Restrictions cut their own record in September, 1967, traveling a similar distance to Milford to cut it at IGL Recording Studios.

The Wild Prophets from Ames, Iowa

Wild Prophets Kustom 45 Can't Stop Loving YouThe Wild Prophets came from Ames, Iowa, about 35 miles north of Des Moines. They recorded one single on Kustom Records, Ltd ARS-1001, an energetic version of the Last Word’s “Can’t Stop Loving You” backed with “Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It”, a Neil Young original with the Buffalo Springfield.

The lineup at the time of the record was:

Ted Nunemaker – vocals
Keane Bonath – sax
Ken Wood – guitar
Roy Aasen – keyboard
Larry Kelley – bass and vocals
Andy Gielbelstein – drums

Mark Miller signed the label of the record, but he replaced Ken Wood on guitar after the record was made.

Earlier members included Jacque Furman and Ralph Stevens on drums, Ray West on keys.

Later members included Ron Arends on keys and Scott Erickson.

Larry Kelly wrote to me:

I had a few groups in high school. My first band I joined was the Mystics – the first combo at Boone High School. I left that group and started my own band called the Tel-Stars. In ’65 I left that band and got married.

In ’66 I started organizing a new band and we came up with the name The Wild Prophets – Ken Wood, Ray West, Jacque Furman and I. We did things like play guitar/bass behind our heads, lay down on the floor playing, etc. That’s where the ‘wild’ came from in the name. We went thru various other musicians when Ray left. Jacque left and Ralph Stevens played drums. He left in time and Andy took over. When Andy left, Randy Stultz took over on drums.

The recording came about with Ken, Keane Bonath, Ted Nunemaker (both Keane and Ted were ISU students at the time), Andy on drums, and Roy Aaesen played keys. We found the two songs we wanted to do and Ted sang lead on the slow song, me on “Can’t Stop Loving You” which was a Buffalo Springfield flip-side song from their hit, “For What It’s Worth”. But “Can’t Stop” was too slow so we sped it up a bit!

We had a school bus we fixed up to travel in along with the name of the band on each side in big letters. In ’69, we bought over $10,000 worth of new band equipment which today would be more like $80-100k. So many stories, too numerous to tell.

The Wild Prophets recorded at Audiosonic Recording Studio in Ames, and the record saw release in 1969.

Wild Prophets Kustom 45 Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It

According to the informative Boone Rock website, the band played “in Mason City. The Cellar in Ames was a favorite with a good crowd in attendance every time. Other venues they performed at include the Starlite in Carroll, the Pla-Mor in Fort Dodge, the Dance-Mor in Swisher, RJ’s Lounge in Marion.”

The Wild Prophets broke up in 1973. Jacque Furman continued in music, but I have few details other than playing with Cris Williamson and Glen Yarborough.

Ted Nunemaker died on Dec. 14, 2008.

Thank you to Larry Kelley for correcting the spelling of names.

Some information from http://members.iowatelecom.net/thx1136/pages/prophets.html (currently offline).

I can find a few other Audiosonic Recording Studio credits, such as:

Ted Hart – “Down in the Mine” / “I Don’t Need You Anymore” (both by Don Taft and J.T. Schreiner), produced by J.T. Schreiner on Leslie LR 72068 from 1968.

Syndrum of Soul ‎- “Lost and Found” (Gary French, Floyd Brown) / “Do You Care” on SOS 100, produced by M. Harper, from 1970.

Tabernash “Head Collect”

Tabernash Dym-A-Nite 45 Head Collect

The Contents Are continued until around 1972, when they changed their name to Tabernash and moved from Davenport, Iowa to Westminster, Colorado, just northwest of Denver. Prior to their move, they made this one single on Dym-a-Nite, the only release they would have under the Tabernash name.

The members of Tabernash were Craig Hute, Dave Neumann, Paul Staack and Mick Orton.

“Head Collect” is an excellent rocker written by Craig Hute. The song dates back to 1969, when a demo was recorded at Columbia studios in Chicago. The single is 44 seconds shorter, quicker in tempo, with a drier sound than the Columbia studio demo, but both are excellent performances.

“Out of the Cold” is another original by Craig Hute, again dating back a couple years, this time to a demo session at Golden Voice Recording Studio in Pekin, Illinois from 1969 or 1970. The Dym-a-Nite 45 is more sparse and plain in production than the Golden Voice demo, and is also 90 seconds shorter. Songs from that session will be released by Alona’s Dream Records in 2017.

The deadwax contains a “tulip” marking that indicates Wakefield in Arizona pressed the single, with a five digit code dating it to February 1972. Both sides have publishing by Sarfran / Unichappel BMI, and “Produced by Tabernash for Experience Group” and “Dist. by the Clouds, Bellville, Ill”.

When I sent scans and audio of the Dym-a-Nite single to Mick Orton, he didn’t recall it. After speaking to Craig Hute, he reported back that one of their managers, Spence Stein owned the Dym-a-Nite label and worked with someone at Unichappel to release the single. The band didn’t hear it until they had made the move to Westminster, but they disliked the quality of the pressing.

Mick Orton has posted photos and info about Tabernash and the later Contents Are on his extensive website. I highly recommend checking it out.

Thank you to Mike Markesich for the Wakefield pressing info.

Tabernash Dym-A-Nite 45 Out of the Cold

The Fabulous Thunderbolts “My Girl Sue”

Fabulous Thunderbolts Poverty 45 My Girl SueThe Fabulous Thunderbolts started as a quartet at Kuemper Catholic High School in Carroll, Iowa. Carroll is situated about 90 miles drive NE of Omaha, Nebraska, or 90 miles NW of Des Moines.

The Thunderbolts traveled to Sears Recording Studios in Omaha to cut their only single, “My Girl Sue”/”I Want to See You Again” released in August 1965. Ted Kisgen wrote both sides and copyrighted both under his own name in April, 1965.

“My Girl Sue” is a sharp two-minute rocker. The entire band is solid, but one can’t help but notice the blazing lead guitar, the excellent lead vocals, and the sax solo.

Fabulous Thunderbolts Poverty 45 I Wanna See You AgainMembers included:

Jerry Hauser – lead vocals
Rich Danner – lead guitar
Ted Kisgen – drums, lead vocals on “My Girl Sue”
Gene Wycoff – saxophone
Mike Kisgen
Ron Hauser
Harold Powell

They seem to have been a quintet for much of their existence. On their single I hear lead guitar, bass guitar, saxophone, drums and lead vocal. The Iowa Rock n’ Roll Music Association Hall of Fame inducted the group in 2000 and has a tiny photo of the group as a quintet on their inductee page.

Thunderbolts Sears Recording Studios demo 45 Say That You Love MeThe band also recorded a couple of acetate demos at Sears that I haven’t heard, the uptempo “Say That You Love Me” and an instrumental, “The Explorer” that seem to predate the Poverty release.

I had a photo at the top of the page from an ebay auction of this demo, but a comment below correctly pointed out the photo was of a different group, the Thunderbolts from Plattsburgh, NY.

Ted Kisgen joined a later version of the Green Giants, originally from the southern Iowa towns of Shenandoah and Bedford. They had one single on Round & Round Records 4501, “Pity Me” / “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” in November 1966.

Many singles were cut at Sears Recording Studio, including the Last Chapter on Skip, the Shags “You’re a Loser” on Rocky (and Jo Jo), the Cellophane Spectacle on Spectacular, and probably everything released on Dad’s Records out of Omaha, including the Fabulous Impacts, the Sundae Funnies, the Rumbles, and the Great Imposters. I haven’t seen a comprehensive list. The Echos V from Des Moines recorded a five-song demo there that has not been released.

I haven’t seen any other releases on a Poverty Records from Omaha.

Thunderbolts Sears Recording Studios demo 45 The Explorer

The Golden Cabaleers (Golden Cavaliers)

The Golden Cabaleers IGL 45 Come Back To MeThe Golden Cabaleers are one of the more obscure bands on the IGL label. They released their 45 “Come Back to Me” / “All Alone” on IGL 123 in August of 1966. Teen Beat Mayhem lists the band’s location as Holstein, Iowa, 50 miles east of Sioux City, and about an hour and a half drive south of the IGL studio in Milford.

James Goettsch wrote and sang both songs on the single. He attended high school first in nearby Cushing, IA, then graduated from Eastwood Community School in Correctionville, IA in 1967. His first band was the Roadrunners with his brother Gerald Goettsch, T.J. McGuire and Lane Volkert. According to James’ obituary, the band changed their name to The Golden Cavaliers, which makes more sense than Cabaleers. James Goettsch became a physician. He passed away on June 30, 2005.

“All Alone” is very underrated – it received only a 2 in TBM. Check it out below and judge for yourself. It’s a low-key ballad with steady picking and fine vocals. “Come Back to Me” is more upbeat. No indication on the label as to which is the top side. I realize now my copy of the 45 is signed by both brothers on the labels.

The Golden Cabaleers IGL 45 All Alone

The Contents Are

The Contents Are promotional photo
The Contents Are (post-LP lineup) from left: Paul Staack, Mick Orton, Dave Neumann and Craig Hute

Dave Neumann – lead guitar and vocals
Craig Hute – 2nd lead guitar and vocals
Larry Smith – bass and vocals, replaced by Mick Orton – bass, keyboards, vocals
Paul Staack – drums and vocals

The Contents Are came from the Quad Cities area by Davenport, Iowa. High school students Dave Neumann and Craig Hute were in the Blazers when they decided to form a new group to pursue a more original and harmonic direction. Adding Larry Smith and Paul Staack, they started playing live shows in the area, including Cedar Rapids, IA and Rock Island, Illinois.

In April of 1967 they entered the Fredlo studio in Davenport and recorded “I Don’t Know” and “Direction of Mind”. Craig Hute wrote both songs, with arrangements by Dave Neumann. The 45 did well locally, selling as many as 1,000 copies, though it’s pretty scarce nowadays. It’s one of my favorite 45s, I don’t think there’s anything else quite like this band in the ’60s. They have a calm, melancholy sound and their lyrics really stay with me.Once the band was out of high school and mostly attending college, they played shows as far away as Champaign, Illinois and Minneapolis.

Later in 1967 or early ’68 they returned to Fredlo to cut an album of originals by Craig Hute. These are just as good as the single, my favorite being “If You’re Relaxing”. Marianne Dean played piano, oboe and sang on the album.

The band pressed 100 copies and gave them away, and it is now incredibly rare. This record was mostly a rumor until a demo copy surfaced in 2005. Shadoks reissued the album, adding a little color to the line drawing that was the front cover. The original back cover was bland, but the Shadoks release has a photo of the band and and info on who sang or played on each song. There’s also an insert with entertaining notes by Craig, but he doesn’t mention many details of the recording sessions. He does say Mercury bought the Rok 45 for national release which never came about.

The Contents Are had one last single release, “Future Days” / “New Mexico” on Rok Records 6907, which has the same harmony qualities even though the guitars are heavier.

The Contents Are, later promotional photo
The Contents Are, later promotional photo

The group stayed together for four years then split amicably as members went in various directions. Larry Smith and the band’s road manager Christy Peake moved to Portland, Oregon to work on acoustic guitars. Mike Orton (Mick) of the Todd Beat Group replaced Larry Smith, and in the early ’70s the band moved to the Denver and Boulder Colorado area where they changed the band’s name to Tabernash.

Their second bassist Mick Orton sent in the later promotional photos seen here and wrote to me about the group:

The CD liner notes made it sound like the band broke up after Larry left which was not the case at all. But I didn’t play on that album, so I kind of understand leaving me off.

When I joined The Contents Are: we were basically a cover band doing a few original tunes that Craig wrote. We only did a few of the songs they had previously recorded; “Country Roads”, “No Chance to Choose” (which I have live on the tapes I am transferring), “Recurring Changes” (also on the live tape, I think), “I Don’t Know” (one of my favorites), and “New Mexico”. There may have been others, but they don’t come to mind. Anyway, I think Craig wanted to leave the old music behind and focus on the new stuff.

Then we started doing some of mine (“All Around”, “Old Man”, “Grey, Cloudy Skies” and a few others), and finally some of Dave’s.

We put together a bunch of original tunes which we recorded in Appleton, Wisconsin and later we recorded others at Columbia Studios in Chicago. It was amazing what a difference that made in the quality. By then, Dave Neumann was writing, and the A&R man at Columbia really liked all of Dave’s songs. Somewhere there are tapes of us doing Neumann originals like “JTK” and others. “JTK” was about James T. Kirk, as Dave was an avid Star Trek fan.

Tabernash:

By the time we moved to Colorado, we were trying to emulate Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Allman Brothers and Steely Dan. All of the band but me wanted to do “non-commercial” stuff. My feeling was, if it’s non-commercial, who is going to buy it?

When we moved to Westminster, Colorado, our first house, we all lived under one roof: Craig, Marianne, their young son Aaron, Dave, Paul and me. Eventually the girlfriends from Davenport came out; Teresa for Dave and Pam for me. Paul met Dave’s cousin, Donna. Everyone split up to have their own households.

We didn’t play much, so I had to get a job working in factories. Lange Skis was hiring, so I ended up running a bunch of riveting machines and met our eventual road guy, John Zimmer (now deceased). He introduced us to his friend, Clay who also helped out. There also was Colin who did our sound.

We were playing very little when Jon Ludtke called me to join Silver Laughter. I guess my leaving broke up Tabernash. We never recorded any music, I am sorry to say.

“Grey, Cloudy Skies” we revised and recorded on Silver Laughter’s “Handle With Care” album.

Paul Staack would also join Silver Laughter after their first drummer departed. Craig Hute continued writing music and recording on two-track and, more recently, digitally.

The Contents Are have little presence on the internet, other than some reviews of their album and the titles of their songs. The album has one photo of the band, are there others out there?

Information on Silver Laughter from Mick Orton’s website. On that site you can also hear a couple of the demos the band recorded in Chicago, including Craig Hute’s excellent, rocking “Head Collect”, and a live version of Mick’s “All Around”.

Update 2017: info on an obscure 45 single by Tabernash is now at this post on the site.