The beginning of our journey......

I would like to welcome you to "El Paso's Musicians (Past and Present)" My intent with this site is to bring information about musicians I have known in El Paso from the 60's to present day. Many of the musicians that you will be reading about were either in groups that I played in while living in El Paso, as well as, the ones that I befriended all throughout high school and college. I graduated from UTEP in 1972 and in 1973 my wife and I left El Paso with a vocal show group called The Sounds Royale. The group started out with Sam Stephenson (guitar-vocals), Gayle Hageman (bass-vocals), Tedd McKeever (keyboards-vocals), Debbie Wilson (flute-vocals) and myself, Rick Kern (drums-vocals) The group was based out of Newport Beach, CA. We performed at mainly Orange County venues such as The Disneyland Hotel, Charley Browns in Huntington Beach, The Newporter Inn, Del Webb's Townhouse and the San Francisco Hyatt Regency. For many years all the members of our group were scattered all over the place. Sam, has retired as the Dir. of Safety for Union Pacific Railroad and moved back to his hometown of El Paso, Tx. Gayle, Tedd and Wayne have all passed away. Sam and I are still trying to find Debbie. I am sure she is warming many hearts out there somewhere with her fabulous voice. In 1978 my wife and I moved back to El Paso to be with our respective families and to start our own family. Both of our kids, Ricky and Nicole are musicians both living in Austin. Nicole use to play electric cello with an Austin band called Alex Dupree and the TrapDoor Band. She also played and toured with a popular Austin band called "Balmorhea". Both of our kids went to UT Austin. Ricky graduated in May, 2007 and Nicole graduated in May, 2008. They both love photography and film. The YouTube videos on this site were produced by my son to show our capability to show videos of performers on this site. Unfortunately when the Blogger site enabled encryption it deleted my videos. Hopefully we'll be able to retrieve them again in the future. He also did my colorful splash page that you see when you first log on to the site. There were two other groups that I played with while on the road. When the Sounds Royale disbanded I advertised my profile at the Local Musicians Union that I belonged to in Los Angeles. Two guys were looking for a drummer/vocalist and that was the beginning of "Tapestry". The members were Curt Hespe (keyboard-bass-horn-vocals) Dan Evans (guitar-bass horn-vocals) and myself (drums-horn-vocals) This was the group that travelled the most. We played many show rooms from one corner of the U.S. to the other, including two tours of Canada. Our very first job, after only being rehearsed for two weeks, was the Sahara in Lake Tahoe. During that time we appeared on the same billboard with Elvis, Diana Ross, Isaac Hayes, The Fifth Dimension and the Jackson 5. We were suppose to be there for one week and they held us over for 5. The only bad part of that booking was when we all came down with the flu at the same time. Remember the saying "the show must go on" well, it did with the grace of God and alot of liquids. This group continued travelling all over the country. We even took a three day break to cut an album in Cincinatti, Ohio at Queen City Studios. We sold the album mainly to people that saw our shows. This group lasted about three years. My last group on the road was also called "Tapestry" It consisted of Dan Evans from the first Tapestry, Jerry Johnson (bass-guitar-steel guitar-vocals), Danny Miller (guitar-vocals) and myself on drums and vocals. This group came together as a result of my old friendship with Jerry Johnson. He was a Chaplains Assistant at Ft. Bliss in El Paso in 1969. We played in a group called the Basic Sound at the Knights Club. That club was in the old Rodeway Inn at Bassett Center. Jerry was living in Long Beach, CA. when I asked him if he would like to form a new group. Out of my three groups on the road, this one was the group that was more destined for a recording contract and opportunity to break out of the club scene. We will never forget the night that we were playing at the Reubens in West Covina, CA. when our agent came in and told us that we were going to be on the Captain and Tennile TV Special with Neil Diamond. Dick Clark was the producer of the show. We signed the contract and had our original songs ready to showcase. There was only one small problem - none of the networks picked up the contract. How do you say "that's show biz" It was not too long after that I left the group and came back to my home town of El Paso where I still live. This is the rest of the story....

Monday, November 5, 2007

The Henchmen with Sonny and Cher (1967)

(Click Image to View)
Left to Right: Mike Ballard-Bass, David Dyer-Drums,
Paul Dillon-Lead Guitar, Vocals, Sonny Bono, Cher,
Mike Ekdall-Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
This picture was shot at the Airport Hilton, around
1967, according to Paul Dillon. Sonny and Cher were
here at the premier showing of a movie that they had
produced. The movie was shown at the theater at the
Northgate Mall.
Submitted by David Dyer
Posted by at
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7 comments:

Julie Ballard Soto said...

Hello,
This is Mike Ballards oldest daughter Julie.... I was so touched to see this picture of my dad and The Henchmen with Sonny and Cher, he shared so many stories with us and this helps it come to life.
I would love to see any other pictures you all have out there of my Dad. It will be 10 years next month since we lost him, and every new picture helps keep him alive.

November 6, 2009 at 10:01 AM
anon said...

Julie,

Is your mom Peggy Jenkins? An old friend of mine from our young days in El Paso. We used to ride horses together in Canutillo and took a pretty irresponsible trip to California in 1967.

May 31, 2010 at 1:17 PM
EXPO67 said...

This is such a great and rare picture.

August 6, 2010 at 1:01 AM
Unknown said...

Dear Anon, My apologies for taking so long to respond I didn't realize there were comments back to my post. Yes my mother is Margaret (Peggy) Jenkins. It is amazing to me to see all this great photos resurfacing and really wish more pictures and stories of my Dad were being shared.

May 28, 2012 at 3:13 PM
Julie Ballard Soto said...

Dear Anon,
My apologies for taking so long post a response I haven't been on this site for quite some time. I was reading about the Border Legends Show for this October and happened to click on here.

Yes my mom is Peggy Jenkins. I will let her know that one of her childhood friends was asking about her.

May 29, 2012 at 4:09 PM
Anonymous said...

The photo says 1965, however according to IMDB Good Times was released in 1967

July 17, 2012 at 1:01 AM
anon said...

Dear Julie,

So sorry for not checking back on this site earlier. Please tell your mom that Mickey Matteson (Schiesser) says hello. I may have met you once when you were a toddler and you were living out in the desert. Your family had just completed an addition with stone fireplace. I live in Virginia now and have a daughter named Julia and a son, Will. They are all grown up. Your mom and I had some wonderful times together. I remember going to dances where your dad played with the Henchmen. They were a great band.

December 13, 2012 at 12:42 PM

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