The Argyles/The Mind's Eye

Another San Antonio story, The Argyles were a group formed in early 1965. The band rose to fame from one regional hit and would eventually relocate to California and rebrand as The Children.
All five members hailing from different sections of the Alamo city: Alamo Heights, Keystone, Macarthur, Jefferson and Cole graduates, jumped into music at a young age.
The Argyles regularly played Sam Kinsey's Teen Canteen and Ft. Sam Houston.

The Members were: Steve Perron on guitar and vocals, Louis Cabaza on the keys, Ben Treiber on bass, Steve Anderson on drums, Chris Holzhaus on guitar and vocals.

 "Farmer John"

Some time in 1966 The Argyles meet up with the Cajun producer Huey Meaux. Meaux recorded and produced the bands first single: Farmer John/White Lightnin’ on his Pic-One label. Both sides were recorded at Meaux’s recording facility, Pasadena Sounds in Pasadena, TX, which at the time of this recording would have only been up and running for a little less than a year. Farmer John was a cover written by Dewey Terry and Don Harris who were a part of a group called the Squires in the mid and late 50s. Their song became a hit by the California based group The Premiers in 1964 after being covered by The Searchers a year prior with no success.

Both the Searcher’s and Premier’s versions follow the original lyrics “Farmer John, I’m in love with your daughter.” The Argyles veered from the original giving the song a real Texas Raunchy feel with “Farmer John, I’m in love with your Mother.” I’m not sure who had the idea to change the lyrics of the chorus whether it was Meaux or The Argyles, however I love it and feel it is the best of the three versions. The Argyles also deviated by excluding the guitar break on the Premiers version and shoving in a real nice slice of organ. The Premiers started a trend with their cut of Farmer John by creating a live feel on the recording. The track was supposedly recorded live in the Rhythm Room in Fullerton, California, however they laid down the track in a studio in Hollywood. The Argyles also went after a live feel for their version of Farmer John with laughter and party noises in the background through out the track.

Note the nifty dark red vinyl on this promo copy!

"Turn On Your Love Light"

Later in 1966, The Argyles recorded a second single at Abe Epstein's recording studio and released it on his Jox records label. This one featured two cover songs: "Turn On Your Love Light" (made famous by Houston legend Bobby Bland) b/w "Still In Love With You Baby" (originally written by Ron Elliott of the Beau Brummels).
A rift between Chris Holzhaus and the rest of the band led to his departure. Chris would soon be replaced by Bill Ash from the legendary band The Stoics. Ash then introduced new drummer Andy Szuch to the group.

The new line up changed their name to The Mind's Eye and recorded another single with Abe Epstein, once again releasing it on his Jox imprint. As the new name would suggest, the band ventured into a more psychedelic style at this point with the classic "Help, Im Lost". The flip side would see the group reusing "Still In Love With You Baby".

"Help, I'm Lost"

The band also opened their own eponymously named music venue at this point.
From what I can tell, The Minds Eye was a real hip joint with smoke machines and strobe lights creating one of the first hippie hangouts in San Antonio.
The Mind's Eye club only remained open a few months after pressure mounted from the city to close the place down after allegations of frequent drug use on the premises.

Ben Treiber died in 1969 in a boating accident only three years before Steve Perron passed on, far too young for both of these talented men.
The group went on to form The Children and move to California. The Children released one LP originally released on the local Houston based Cinema label, but was then picked up by national Atco records.

Story originally assembled by Michael Selman and posted at ImShakin.com. Additional editing, research, and writing by Jason Chronis in 2017.
Michael's information source was from a now defunct website: www.saboomie.com. 
Thanks to Sam Kinsey for the Argyles band photo.

Richard B & The Hickory

I recently heard from band leader Richard Batchelor about his late 60's, early 70's band that recorded two 45's at L&F Recording studio in Port Arthur, TX. I only have one of the records, so you will only be able to listen to one of them in this write up. Below is the email that he sent me about the band:

I had written several songs over a period of time .. while playing in groups like 

"The Realms of Darkness" .. and "The Upjohn Spigot".  But by the time we finally

got into the studio to record them .. the "band years" were actually over.  There

were no more dance gigs .. no more "battle of the bands".. no more talent shows,

and no more being on the road to "somewhere" all of the time.  Even so, a few of 

us got back together long enough to record two 45 rpm records (On "Top Ten" label).  

"Soft Summer Dreams"

"Wind At My Back"

I had done a "demo" recording of "I'm Home" in the production room of radio 

station KLVI .. and took that to the record company to see what they thought

about getting it onto wax.  ( The 45 record ).  Things fell in place .. and we

came up with a rather hurriedly picked name for the group. ( Richard B and

the Hickory )  We got the recordings done ... and then had a publicity photo 

made.  The recording process was more complex .. and considerably more 

time-consuming than any of us had expected.  I was the lead singer for those 

recordings .. and played bass.  

The publicity photo was taken on a railroad track, very late in the day.  Things

got rather .. shall we say .. "interesting" during that shoot .. because what you

don't see in the picture .. is the fact that the photographer was using the light 

from an on-coming train, to help illuminate us .. and make up for the fading light 

of day.  He snapped the final shot, and we got off the tracks just in time.  Whew.  

The guys in that photo were .. ( left to right )

Toby Hayes .. ( Drummer )

Jerry Bell .. ( Keyboard )

E. George Strong .. ( guitar )

W. Richard Batchelor .. ( Singer and Bass ) .. with the shotgun

The "push" side for the first record was "I'm Home" and "Soft Summer Dreams"

was the "push" for the second one.  ( Flip sides were "Making a Main Road" and 

"Wind at My Back". )

Many specifics and details are lost in the mist of time, with muddled memories

and uncertainties as to exactly what or when or how ..etc.  I've often said that 

memories are basically quick snapshots that we piece together in our minds, in

order to create the larger overall memory of a certain event or time period.  But

the basic story here is pretty simple.

The experience of being in a professional recording studio and actually cutting 

a couple of records .. was quite special indeed.  The records were played 

locally for a while .. ( In the Beaumont, Texas / Golden Triangle area ) .. and 

although none of us heard it ourselves .. we were told at the time that one of 

the Houston stations picked up "I'm Home" .. and played it now and then.  I 

have no way of knowing that for sure though.  Getting good distribution

proved to be difficult .. but overall, it was a positive and exciting time.

Thanks to Richard for taking time to write the story and for sending me a copy of the 45!

The Ones

The Ones have been a long time mystery band who recorded and released one very rare 45 single on Emil J Henke's Satin Records label in the May of 1967.

With the help of Sam Kinsey, I was able to finally locate an original member of the band: Michael Godowns.

From Left to Right: Jay Miller, Ronnie Weid, Mike Godowns, Tommy Lovelace, Jack Walker

The band line up was:

Ronnie Weid - Guitar, Vocals
Tommy Lovelace - Guitar
Michael Godowns - Saxophone
Coyle Stoffel - Bass Guitar
Jackie Walker - Drums
Jay Miller - Keys (not on the 45 record)

Mike had been playing saxophone in the Alamo Heights High School band when he got the rock and roll bug. He recalls one of his friends doing the twist dance at a class party while "Twist & Shout" played over the loudspeakers. This energetic new music made him decide it was time to join a rock band! The chance soon came in 1964 when a brand new band formed by his classmates asked Mike if he would join them on sax.

For the first year the band played with no bass player, eventually adding a musician named Alan Newman who was the son of an officer stationed at Ft Sam Houston. Alan was only in the band a short while.
By the time they were adding their second bassist (a musician named Coyle Stoffel) in 1966, the band had gotten serious and were doing a lot of regional appearances.

The band would perform at venues in Corpus Christi, Victoria, Uvalde, frat parties at Texas State University in San Marcos, Eastwood Country Club (a mostly soul/R&B club on the east side of San Antonio where the Ones once played with Bobby Bland!), The Cave (In SA), and of course, San Antonio's most well known club for high school bands: the Teen Canteen.
One of their most regular venues was the Mule Stall on Alamo Heights HS campus. It was a teen rec center that would frequently put on after school events.
The band was making decent money at their gigs, and Mike recalls paying for half his tuition with earnings from the Ones nightly appearances.

Guitarist Tommy Lovelace was a huge Yardbirds fan and had built his own fuzz pedal for his guitar in order to replicate the British bands guitar sound. One night after a Yardbirds performance at the Municipal Auditorium, The members of the group stopped in to The Cave while The Ones were playing! The young group was stunned to see their idols walk in, but as soon as they entered the room, they walked right out!

Band member Ronnie Weid's dad George was a business associate of some kind of Emil Henke's and helped organize getting the Ones to do a recording session (possibly recorded at Alamo Audio studio) in the late spring/early summer of 1967. The group spent 12 hours in the studio recording material for their soon to be released single. They chose two original songs written by Ronnie: the excellent jangle pop of "Sure Gonna Miss You" (all copies that have surfaced of this single seem to have the word "You" crossed out and "Me" written in its place), and a fine ballad with "What's It Like To Be In Love".
It seems there was some sort of dispute over the particulars of the recording contract that was to be signed upon release of the record, because paper documents left over from these sessions indicate a delay in paying for and signing the contracts for release of this single. It seems Ronnie or his father were not happy with some element in the agreement and were refusing to move forward. In the end, Emil ended up agreeing to give them 50 copies of the single upon payment for the session or pressing.
Unfortunately Ronnie passed away at a young age in the 1970's, so we may never know what exactly happened there.

"Sure Gonna Miss Me"

"What's It Like"

Tensions must not have lasted too long between the parties, because EJ Henke eventually asked the group if they would change their sound to country and become a touring act promoting some of Henke's more western material (possibly to back up Bailey Anderson or one of his other country acts). They declined.

The bands record did a get a bit of airplay and actually charted and made the top 100 on KONO radio.

A few months later, the band drove up to Dallas to record at Sumet Sound studio. They recorded two songs: "Bells Of Rhymney" (which had recently been covered by The Byrds) and an unknown cover of a Strawberry Alarm Clock song. These sessions went unreleased because the band split up a short while after making these recordings.

Their last performance was at an extremely wild frat party at Trinity University on New Year's Eve in 1967. The trouble that stemmed from that night was the last straw. The Ones broke up the next day, on January 1st, 1968.

Many thanks to Michael Godowns and to Sam Kinsey for their help!