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 12, 2007

Wheat - 1973 at The Red Flame


(Click Image to View)
Left to Right: Charlie Thomas, Mike Fones,
Jim Kmetzsch and Gary Bentley
Wheat was formed in December 1972/January 1973
to play at the newly opened Red Flame on Dyer. We were to
compete with the Jeff Lynn Group which was playing at the
Jet Set Club at the Rodeway Inn on Dyer just down the
street. I had been playing guitar with Jeff Lynn and
Jim Kmetzsch (bass player previously with Scarlet Ice).
Prior to that, I played with Dick Starnes at the Knights Club
and with the groups Leather and Act One before that. The
original Wheat wascomprised of myself and Jim Kmetzsch (bass)
along with Mike Fones (drums) and Gary (Dalton) Bentley on
guitar. Gary had been playing with Bill Welch in Dog Canyon in
1971 and then with Blackmoor in 1972 with Rick Armstrong,
Sherry Carnes, Ron Duncan and Mike Fones. Mike brought Gary
and I together at an apartment with our Martin guitars and
there was an immediate synergy which resulted in Gary joining
the new band. Gary played briefly with the original Wheat then
left early after the formation due to pressure by Red Flame owner
Skip to take the band in a different direction. (In March 1973,
Gary joined Gorilla (Doug Neal, Mike Ferguson, David Rutledge)
after Randy Russ left Gorilla.) Gary's spot in Wheat was filled early
1973 by John Anderson and we added a guy by the name of
Dave McDowell who played sax, flute and harmonica. Shortly
after that Wheat moved to the Black Garter with that line
up, playing there for several months. After we moved to the
Lariat Club (in the Loretto Center on Montana), John left and
Gary came back on guitar and John Allen joined us on keyboards.
The group disbanded in the early part of 1974, leaving packed
high energy crowds behind at the Lariat, more or less burnt out
under the intensity of the music. I moved to Eagle Nest, N.M.
for a short time, returning to El Paso to form Coyote (one of the
first country rock bands if not the first in El Paso), playing at the
Gold Rush with Gary, Mike Fones (who was eventually replaced
by Loren Chavez on drums) and Jim Kmetzsch and a peddle
steel player named Mark Tate. We left the Gold Rush (and Mark
left the band) returning to Rock & Roll andplayed other venues
including the Mineshaft and the Lariat and then to the Black
Garter where we were poised (tight) to head out on the road in 1975.
However, Gary was injured in a motorcycle accident and had
to leave the band. Gary was replaced by Jack Woodbury after it
became clear that Gary wasn't coming back. I guess that's enough
local musical history to put Wheat in perspective, but I would like to
say that Gary (Dalton) and I recently recaptured the collaborative
energy that had really sparked the original and subsequent
Wheat/Coyote bands and are recording covers of music we've
either played or wanted to play for years and are planning to begin
writing once we have studio resources in place.
Submitted by Charlie Thomas

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wheat at the Red Flame...
Charlie Thomas, Mike Fones, Jim Kmetzsch and Gary Bentley

Wheat was formed in December 1972/January 1973 to play at the newly opened Red Flame on Dyer. We were to compete with the Jeff Lynne Group which was playing at the Jet Set Club at the Rodeway Inn on Dyer just down the street. I had been playing guitar with Jeff Lynne and Jim Kmetzsch (bass player previously with Scarlet Ice). Prior to that, I played with Dick Starnes at the Knights Club and with the groups Leather and Act One before that.
The original Wheat was comprised of myself and Jim Kmetzsch (bass) along with Mike Fones (drums) and Gary (Dalton) Bentley on guitar. Gary had been playing with Bill Welch in Dog Canyon in 1971 and then with Blackmoor in 1972 with Rick Armstrong, Sherry Carnes, Ron Duncan, and Mike Fones. Mike brought Gary and I together at an apartment with our Martin guitars and there was an immediate synergy which resulted in Gary joining the new band.
Gary played briefly with the original Wheat then left early after the formation due to pressure by Red Flame owner Skip to take the band in a different direction. [In March 1973, Gary joined Gorilla (Doug Neil, Mike Ferguson, David Rutledge) after Randy Russ left Gorilla.] Gary’s spot in Wheat was filled early 1973 by John Anderson and we added a guy by the name of Dave McDowell who played sax, flute and harmonica. Shortly after that Wheat moved to the Black Garter with that line-up, playing there for several months.
After we moved to the Lariat Club (In the Loretto Center on Montana), John left and Gary came back on guitar and John Allen joined us on keyboards. The group disbanded in the early part of 1974, leaving packed high energy crowds behind at the Lariat, more or less burnt out under the intensity of the music.
I moved to Eagle Nest, N.M. for a short time, returning to El Paso to form Coyote (one of the first country rock bands if not the first in El Paso), playing at the Gold Rush with Gary, Mike Fones (who was eventually replaced by Loren Chavez on drums) and Jim Kmetzsch and a peddle steel player named Mark Tate.
We left the Gold Rush (and Mark left the band) returning to Rock & Roll and played other venues including the Mineshaft and the Lariat and then to the Black Garter where we were poised (tight) to head out on the road in 1975. However, Gary was injured in a motorcycle accident and had to leave the band.
Gary was replaced by Jack Woodbury after it became clear that Gary wasn’t coming back. I guess that’s enough local musical history to put Wheat in perspective, but I would to like to say that Gary (Dalton) and I recently recaptured the collaborative energy that had really sparked the original and subsequent Wheat/Coyote bands and are recording covers of music we’ve either played or wanted to play for years and are planning to begin writing once we have studio resources in place.