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, October 10, 2009

BORDER LEGENDS CONCERT - Oct. 16, 2009

Master of Ceremonies (Grammy-nominated)
Karen Taylor-Good
http://www.karentaylorgood.com/
It will be two years this coming October that
I started this site about the great music
history of El Paso - Past & Present. It has
been an inspiration and dream to bring
together, once again, some of the actual
groups that many of us remember from the
60's and 70's. On October 16, 2009, El Paso
will have the opportunity to see this musical
reunion. The Lancers East will be the site
where ten of El Paso's most popular rock
and folk/rock groups will perform. There
will be 600 tickets available. Advance reser-
vations can be made by calling 915-584-4421.
Tickets are $20.00 and include food and show.
The show will feature:
AppleJack
Rod Crosby & The Intruders
Moon Pie Daince Band
Bobby & The Premiers
Mourning
PT & The Cruisers
The Sherwoods
Karen Taylor Good
The Sojourners
Swift Rain
The Wild Ones
This will be a show that will have El Paso
fans talking for a long time - you don't
want to miss this one! Submitted by Rick Kern

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5 comments:

Donna Pence said...

What a great line-up!! Hope I can make it to this.

Donna Pence

July 24, 2009 at 11:44 AM
wes said...

Donna - what a FOX! I am Edna G's younger brother who adored you then and adores you now. You've done so much and so well and I love your music. Hope you can make it in Oct. so I can worship you live! Please come! For your fans!

July 29, 2009 at 1:09 AM
Aly said...

Wow - brings back some memories. I bet this was a blast! Hi Rick - you left a message for me about the Bobby Fuller article. I replied at Associated Content. I love your blog about El Paso musicians. What a tribute to a great group of guys. Aly Adair

April 16, 2010 at 4:57 AM
Emmit Brooks said...

What a great chance to see old friends, many of whom I recorded at Goldust Recording Studio in Las Cruces. Many fond memories!! See ya there!!

Emmit Brooks
GoldustOne@aol.com

October 3, 2010 at 2:13 AM
jthawk101 said...

Borderlegends arn't legends without The Night Dreamers. Remember them, the ones who backed up James Brown at the Crosno show everytime he came to El Paso.

October 1, 2012 at 11:13 PM

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