Oom Cocka Mau-Mau

 

Ace Oom And The Eons

Oom Cocka Mau-Mau
D. Eskenazi, J. Dunham, R. Taylor, T. Cook
recorded Summer 1974 Seattle

This is actually the Lamar Harrington Band. Formed by University of Washington art students and friends in the early 70s for an event at the Henry Art Gallery, they named themselves after the gallery director, a good person named Lamar Harrington. The band continued to play events around the U of W area and gained some noteriety. When the real Lamar was not pleased with some of the antics and events that her name was being subjected to, she said the band had to change its name; from now on  they were the "Formerly Lamar Harrington", also know as "Hedy Lamar Harrington".

They were known for spontaneous and wild performances with 5 to 50 people "in the band".  These drug-crazed hippies were at one time or another : 

 

Danny Eskenazi (bass, horn, vocals), Neville Pearsall (guitar, vocals), Phil Miller (vocals, horns) Rick Tollefson (drums), Ted Cook (vocals, radio) Homer Spence (trumpet, radio), Joby Fairchild (flute, vocals), Paul Dorpat (vocals, percussion), Michael Trullinger (drums), Dorothy aka Jan Wachter (vocals), Louie the Sax aka Jim Healy (sax, vocals), Sammy (vocals, dancing), Auggie the dog (dog), Taster aka Bill Haden (sax, vocals) Bill Burden (vocals, percussion) Peter Barnes (moral support), Ben LaFebvre (vocals, guiar) Johnny McGuire (vocals, percussion), David Owens (vocals, percussion) Justin Gelle (guitar), Steve Speckelmeyer (drums, vocals), Kathy Hope (vocals & percussion), Doug Schauer (piano), Leslie (vocals, percussion), Lucy Dunsmore (vocals, percussion), Jan Gordon (flute), Virgil (percussion), Jeff Jaison (vocals, guitar), Vinny Oreski (friend), Paul Bates (friend), Ken Levine (documentation, friend), Laura Mack (vocals, percussion), Patty Ojendyk (vocals, percussion), Karen Ekval (vocals, friend), Janet (vocals, percusion), Allen Goldman (vocals, percussion) . . . and surely others  . . .

Dan Eskenazi, who has collected oversized footwear for more than 30 years, opened the Giant Shoe Museum in 1997.

Linda Carrol with The Young Men

 Linda Carrol With The Young Men
Camelot J-113  (1964)

Camelot Record Co.
Sound Studio
Lynnwood, Washington

I Wanna Go Home

 
Love Is A Strange Thing

 Both wr. Rainer Rey and produced by Jim Sims
|1964]

On Camelot Records for detailed information see "THE LEGEND of CAMELOT RECORDS" by Peter Blecha


 

Swing Little Carmella

Two curiously similar instrumentals.  Both from the early sixties.

"Swing Little Carol" by The Renegades, a Butte, Montana band produced in Spokane Washington at Sound Recording Company. Lead Guitar – Cliff Champeau.

"Carmella" by the Tommy Scott band with Gaines (Jr.) Blevins on guitar on the Katona label out of Hollywood in the Starday custom series.

The Renegades


Tommy Scott Band

Wild

Recorded for the Mecca label, in West Seattle, by Joe Boles in 1959.  The Vanguards added the Du-ettes as vocalists, and performed together on the Seattle Bandstand TV show.  The Du-ettes (Bonnie Dee Sloan and Annie Laurie Sloan) were the daughters of Sterling (Bud) Sloan, owner of Mecca Records (920 3rd Avenue Seattle, Washington)

 

Wild

 

Shimmy Twist

Ronnie D. Alan
Shimmy Twist

Golden Star Records 21
196?

Penned, arranged and sung by Ronald Daugherty.  This one has a little more muscle than the two singles he released on the Sea-Lock label out of Seattle, Washington.  Reverse is by Paul Avedon singing "Day In Day Out" the old (1939) song penned by Johnny Mercer

Sea-Lock releases :

#265 Ronnie D- Valiants : "Hound Dog Guitar" / "My Little Darlin'" 

no#  Pam Kelley & Ronnie D. : "Waiting For Her" / Ronnie D. : "Cherry Darlin" 

Bye Bye Baby (Good-By)

Danny Holiday
Bye Bye Baby (Good-By)

Sin-A-Way #300
1966

The tiny Sin-A-Way label was started in Everett, Washington.   Later releases had a Seattle address.

Other Sin-A-Way releases includes :

301 The Bumps
302 The Revenuers
305 The Right Angle

Danny Holliday
Little Queenie

Chuck Berry cover on Nolta Records, a subsidiary to Seafair Records. The label was named as an acronym for a business concept the owners had for a talent brokerage firm: Northern Lights Talent Associates. Mid-sixties.

Daniel Prescott Thygesen

(1943-2012)

Danny Holiday was born Daniel Prescott Thygesen in March 23, 1943 in Everett, Washington. Dan began his career sweeping floors at KRKO at 8. Disc jockey at KPUG (Bellingham), KOL (Seattle), KBSG (Seattle) and KZOK (Seattle), where he hosted “The Rock N Roll Time Machine.” and worked for several years doing promotion for Columbia Records.

Baby, Cut It Out

The Floaters

Baby, Cut It Out

Audio Recording AR-122

1965

According to http://pnwbands.com/floaters.html, the Floaters were Bill Arnold, guitar, Bob McDermid, trumpet, Duffy Nightengale, keyboards, Ronnie Pierce, saxophone  and Arthur "Ben" Wise, drums.   There is no mention of a female vocalist heard on "Baby, Cut It Out". Who is she ?

The Floaters also recorded a quite rare album on the same label titled "See Blue At The Vault" with the following tracks :  Camel Caper -  Soul - 2nd Avenue Jerk -  Root Beer Float -  I Love You Girl - Mount Up - Bossa Nova Baby -  What Time Is It // I See Blue - Jerk Right - Mediterranean Go Go - Uptown Walk -  Subterranean Go Go - Luigi's Lasagne - Out Of Sight  (Audio Recording ARLS-1216).  Songs on the album were penned by Bob Deimid (McDermid?) or by Al Sweet, who may have been a Floater for a while.

Ronnie Pierce, a musician since the forties, also owned and operated The Vault, a rocking nightclub replete with go-go dancers, sailors and swingers, from 1962 to 1974.   An interview with Ron Pierce can be found here

Audio Recording was the in-house label of the recording studio owned by Kearney Barton

Tattoo

The Borland Sisters
Dick Schopf And The Townsmen

Tattoo

Blondie & Slide Rule

Knotty 5582
Date:  Oct 1955

From Seattle, Washington.  Composers of Tattoo are the owners of the labels.  Blondie was Hazel Peard Vigars, also known as Blondy.and Blondy Rule.   Slide Rule was Ernie Vigars (Ernest Powell Vigars), also known as V. Knotty. 

That's the latter name he used in 1958 when he was "one of the several platter spinners and music or programming execs" who answered to Billboard in response the following question : Can deejays "educate" listeners musically and still conform to current trends in music and recorded talent?   

Billboard, June 9, 1958 page 9

"All the monkey antics devised can't sell it.  Deejays will be replaced by automation, unless they return to artistry and honesty."
V. Knotty

 

So, at least, we have now a picture of Ernie Vigars...
(but none of the Borland Sisters unfortunately)

Chick Chick

 

Little Bob and his electric uke

Chick Chick

B&L 2

1966

Seattle, Washington

 

This is Robert Hrvatin (1932-1973).  He resided in Burien (Washington State) at the time of his death.

 

His previous record on the same label, "Rock That Uke", is listed at the Rockin' Country Style website here 

 

Roly Poly

Wade Morris

Roly Poly

Virgelle 733

"Goldenrod Series"

Producer Ron Biberthaler

1965

Virgelle Records, a Seafair-Bolo subsidiary,  was located in Seattle, Washington

Wade Morris (1932-2013)

Woodie Wade Morris played music all his life. He played the bass guitar, steel guitar, lead guitar and flat top guitar.  He has written many songs and recorded them as well.

Wade Morris obituary

Let Him Go, Go, Go

Lorry Lee and Della

Let Him Go, Go, Go

 

Lorrayne Testerman

Bonnie Dee Mus. Pub. Co.

Mecca Records

1959

Label active at least since the early fifties and owned by Bud Sloan. 

I Gotta Know

Lonnie Nye

I Gotta Know

Lonnie D.Knie
Sage Brush Music Bmi

Lo-Lon LO-45-101
P.O. Box 972 Yakima, Wash.

1959

Elvisy effort.  The next releases on Lonnie Nye's own label gives location as Arcadia, Calif. (#102) and Caldwell, Idaho (#103).

Is he the happy winner of a scratch game found here ?  Probably.

Lurchin'

Dave S. Trio

Lurchin'

Dave Schumock & Gene Lawrence

Pub. Sixteen-Ten Music (BMI)

Birthstone Records

Tacoma, Washington

1963

Odd rocking instrumental with accordion, sounding in some parts almost as a Cajun band !

This Mount Tahoma High School band was led by David Lloyd Schumock (1947-2008) and included Gene Lawrence.   A  (later?)  line-up is listed in the Pacific Northwest Bands discography HERE  Page has a picture of  the band.

The quite obscure Birthstone label was perhaps owned by Attilio ("Art") Mineo, a jazz pianist, who, thanks to his connections in the East Coast introduced the Wailers and other Northwest acts to Golden Crest.   Chance Eden, a Birthstone recording artist, was later signed by Roulette Records.

“Here was a man who knew Jacqueline Kennedy, Al Capone, Frank Sinatra, Babe Ruth, not to mention all the musical greats of the 20th century,” said Barry Johnson, a local opera singer and good friend of Mineo.

Mineo also wrote operas about the Mafia, though he made clear he wasn’t part of the official organization.

Chime Bells

Sheri Lee Douglas: Chime Bells
(Maverick Records)

Unusual, exactly like wrote the reviewer (Billboard July 25, 1960).


Sound file is borrowed from Kogar the Swinging Ape. Kogar says : "Lux and Ivy swear this is KAY MARTIN singing, and I have to agree with them. It sounds exactly like her."

Label pic from Gerd Miller/Rockin' Country Style.



.

Hey, Hey, Baby

Marlene
The Nite Shades

Hey, Hey, Baby
(Marlene Thumm, Knotty Music BMI)

Seattle, Washington

1959

Billboard ad curiously credits the artist as
Marlene and her tomahawk (?)

The label is best known for its 1961 release by Ray Gentry and the Rovin' Gamblers (Willie Was a Bad Boy / Do The Fly) and also perhaps for the unusual yodelling "Chime Bells" by Sheri Lee Douglas and the Gondoliers. Both records are listed in the Rockin' Country Style website.

Maverick Records was not, as wrote Billy and Jeff Miller in their liner notes of "Everybody's Boppin'" Northwest compilation on Norton Records. a short-lived label.

Maverick Records was a subsidiary of Knotty Music Inc, established in Seattle in the mid-fifties by Ernest Powell (Ernie) Vigars.

Vigars was already active in the music business in the forties (he wrote in 1947 a 17 pages booklet titled "Deal Yourself A Tune").

In 1952, there was an advertisement for The Northwest Songwriters, Inc. for eight new songs. Persons interested were invited to write to Hazel (Blondy) Vigars, corresponding secretary. (wife of Ernie Vigars?)

The online BMI database contains 23 songs written by Blondie (or Blondy) Rule and Slide Rule, all published by Knotty Music. I assume that Blondie Rule is Blongy Vigars? But who is Slide Rule?

Three labels came out of the Vigars diskery : Knotty, Embassy and Maverick. The result of my research regarding these labels can be found below. The discography is probably incomplete. Any comments or corrections would be appreciated.



KNOTTY RECORDS
12065 Beacon Ave.
Seattle 88, Wash.

5581
The Borland Sisters -Billboard Oct. 15 1955
I'll Be With You When The Roses Bloom / Tomorrow's Too Late

5582
The Borland Sisters - Billboard Oct. 15 1955
Chapel In My Heart / Tattoo

5641
Bobby May & The Knotty Four - Billboard June 16,1956
Put On Your Hat / Have Yourself A Ball

5642
The Sunliners And The Knotty Four - Billboard June 30, 1956 C&W
Ain't Goin' Nowhere / Uh-Huh

Knotty Records, in Billboard ( July 15, 1957) placed a "Coming Soon" ad : Shirley Strand, The Three J's, Henry Day, John Engebretson, Michele Morgan With Jerry Anderson were the artists listed. But except the Three J's (see below), no releases by these artists can be found.



EMBASSY RECORDS (1957)

571
Shirley Hovey & Jerry Anderson - 1957
Gee, But I’m Lonesome / Meannest

572
The Three J’s & Lilyce & Jerry Anderson (Dec 57)
How About Me / Spin A Web



MAVERICK RECORDS
12065 Beacon Ave.
Seattle 88, Wash.

591
Marlene / The Nite Shades / Jack - John - Bill - Billboard ad, Dec. 21, 1959
Hey, Hey, Baby / I Love You Baby
NOTE: The Billboard ad mentions "Hey, Hey Baby" credited to Marlene and her tomahawk (?)

592
Bobby May - Billboard Oct. 12, 1959
Why Do You Treat Me This Way / I Kissed You

601
Sheri Lee Douglas / The Gondoliers - Billboard July 25, 1960
Chime Bells / Gray Skies

606
Duane / The Gondoliers - Billboard May 1, 1961
Wilderness / Lonesome Light

614
Ray Gentry / The Rovin' Gamblers Willie Was A Bad Boy —
The Rovin' Gamblers / Vocal - Ray Gentry Do The Fly

618
Don Thompson / The Yellow Jackets - 1961
Don't Let Me Go / Kathy



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