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....

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Sebastian Felix - 2008

Sebastian Felix
I was visiting my good buddy Danny McDaniel
at his store a couple of weeks ago and he wanted
to introduce me to Pete Felix (the father of the
young man you see in the picture) Danny proceeded
to tell me about Sebastian and how he was only 14
years old, attends Eastwood High School and plays
all of the instruments on the recordings he has just
completed at the Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, TX.
He not only plays all of the instruments but writes all
of his own music and does all of the vocal work. This
young man has nothing but a bright future ahead of him!
You are welcome to listen to the first cut on his new cd.
The song is called Predicted. I think you are going to
be amazed. I know I was. Scroll to the bottom of the
site and click on the Box - Sebastian Felix.
Submitted by Rick Kern - 2/1/08
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rick!
Sebastian "BASH" Felix has recruited some bandmates from Eastwood and Riverside and are playing his songs. They have been asked to play at some local bars and grills. Bash will be featured this sunday on Jam Session on cable channel 7. The Q will play his song "Soldiere, soldier" this Sunday evening and one time everyday through out the week. Not bad for a high school kid. you can catch him at myspace.com/bashandsebastian
Proud Dad.

August 2, 2008 at 9:10 AM
Anonymous said...

Rick,
Just to give you an update on Sebastian"Bash"Felix. he is now 17 and a Senior at Eastwood High School. He is currently at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Texas working on his 4th Album! Bash has played every venue in El Paso including Club 101, Take II, The El Paso Coliseum, The Plaza Film Classic, Cohen Stadium, Ft Bliss, WSMR, UTEP, EPCC plus several bars. Bash has played in Hollywood at The Whiskey and Cat Club a couple of times and at Club Red in Phoenix , Arizona several times. He is working with several producers from Texas, Arizona, California and Canada. Sebastian has won 2 gold medals at the UIL State competition in Austin, Texas in the Guitar Ensemble for Eastwood in '09,'10. We will have to make a big decision at the end of this school year. His albums are selling well on iTunes.
Check him out at:

www.bashtheband.com and www.myspace/bashandsebastian

Bash's present music will hopefully be a part of El Paso's future and hopefully add to El Paso's rich music past!

August 19, 2010 at 2:20 PM

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