New Bill and Thirst N’ Howl Return To Cody’s
Posted on 20 Feb 2008 at 02:50 pm Under: Gigs, Music
It’s a sunny afternoon in the Ozarks, temp. in the mid 40’s.
I had to make a run to the bank earlier and, as I was driving, I was listening to some of the mixes for this new Bill Dees record. It’s going to be really good. I got to hand it to Bill, he’s singing great, so much power and he still has those high notes and, still writing good songs. I say “still” because, Bill started singing on the radio, in Amarillo, in the 1940’s. His first record, with The Five Bops (”Jitterbuggin’”) was released in ‘57 or thereabouts. By the way, if you ever get a chance to hear that record, notice that the solo section has the same guitar lick as the huge hit “Tequila”, that came out a few years later. Both songs were produced by the legendary Norman Petty.
Anyway, as I was driving/listening it occurred to me, once again, how much I love the whole record making process. I like it every step of the way. Right now, I am excited to hear how this thing is going to sound after Randy Kling does the mastering.
Thirst N’ Howl will be doing the party rock at Cody’s South this Friday and Saturday.
1440 Republic Road
Springfield, Missouri417-883-0253
We didn’t have a gig last weekend and it’s been too long-I miss those cats. Come see us, it’s a rockin’ good time.
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You are really passionate for the whole process, it really feels from your post here. It is indeed, a beautiful thing, recording and all the things implied. Unfortunately, I didn’t release any album, after recording the demo version and signing a 1 year contract with a manager, everything stopped since the manager had problems, didn’t go further but the contract was there… After that we somehow lost along the way, so I miss a part of it.
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com’s last blog post..The 3 years old Beatle!!!
Thanks Ovidiu, When I was young, I always read the liner notes and I was fascinated by the idea of recording, documenting music as well as playing of course. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to do some record making and work with good people.
I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with management. It always saddens me when something non-musical gets in the way of the music.
Ah good ole Norman Petty. With the theatre comapny I work at producing Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story for almost 5 years Ive heard more about that guy than I thot possible for a non musician like me.
(My beloved has played the Big Bopper in every one of those productions and anotehr at a different comapny so I know more about JP than I ever thought I would)
I know Petty produced great music for a lot of years, and the show doesnt paint him as a cheming villain (Buddys widow Maria Elena will try and be gracious about Norman when you meet her since she and Normans widow Vi kindve buried the hatchet years ago but last I heard she was still suing his estate along with a couple different record companies) but it seemed like he was prone to squeezing muscians for all he could like a lot of studio guys of the period.
Being a liner note aficianado as well as having worked on both sides of the mike do you have an opinion? (Not that the Pribeks I know ever dont have one ;)
Well Cindy, first off I didn’t mean to imply that Petty did anything unsavory as far as the two songs go. I would guess that the guitar player on “Jitterbuggin” was possibly the same guy that played on “Tequila” and the riff was just probably something he had in his pocket. By the way, I often hear people say that Glenn Cambpell payed on “Tequila”. The story I heard was that Glenn toured with the Champs but didn’t play on the record.
I think Norman Petty was a genius. I had a musician friend call me recently, who had been listening to the Holly stuff, and he asked; “Why does that stuff still sound so good recording quality wise?”. Petty was a great engineer, had a sense for the song and an eye/ear for talent.
Bill has told me a few stories and he seemed to be of the opinion that Petty may have appeared stand-offish but it was because he was so immersed in the recording process.
I think that if you take a look a lot of Petty’s peers like say, Sam Phillips, you’re going to hear some unfavorable things. A lot of them have to do with how business was conducted in the era. But all those guys, Petty, Phillips, Fred Foster, Tom Dowd, Leanord Chess-above and beyond having the ear, the tech. skills; they all had the ability to create a atmosphere that made it possible for all of that “magic” stuff to happen. That is the special skill and the evidence shows that Petty had a box car load of it.